5 Minute How To: Get Started With Blog Carnivals

I’ve submitted a few posts on this blog to blog carnivals and I’ve gotten good responses. It’s good for networking and meeting other bloggers and it’s also good for getting links and traffic. I waited for a while before beginning to submit posts to blog carnivals because I just didn’t know how or where to do it and didn’t take the time to find out. Once, I did I realized how simple it really is and kicked myself for not participating sooner.

You may be asking right now, just what they heck is a blog carnival? Good question. Blog carnivals are group writing efforts that take place when a blogger requests other bloggers to write posts centered around a certain theme. A date is given by which time all posts have to be submitted. The blogger will then review the submitted posts to make sure they fit with the theme. After the deadline has passed, the blogger writes a post linking back to some or all of the submitted articles, usually with a brief commentary on each one. Pretty cool, huh?

The first thing you have to do in order to get involved with blog carnivals is go to blogcarnival.com. The site exists only to facilitate bloggers hosting and submitting to blog carnivals. It can be slightly confusing at first, but it’s really easy to get started once you find your way around.

The front page lists a bunch of recent carnivals. You may find something here that is relevant to what you post on your blog. If not, use the search function and use keywords that describe your own articles. Once you’ve found a few blog carnivals that you might be interested in, click on them to find out if they are still active. Follow the links back to the original sites to see if the blog is still hosting the carnival.

Here’s an example of a blog carnival post from The Skilled Investor’s Carnival of Financial Planning:

The actual submission process is very easy. If you click on more blog carnivals at the bottom of the list of recent blog carnivals on the front page, you’ll come to this page:

Note that there is a drop down box at the top where you can narrow the list to categories relevant to your blog topic. There are dates in the right hand columns that tell you when the last edition of this carnival was posted and also when to expect the next edition. Sometimes these dates are not correct, so you’ll have to do a little bit of checking to make sure.

When you click on the link for a carnival that sounds interesting, you’ll be taken to a page with a brief description and any requirements there may be to participate. Often, the hosting blogger simply requests a link back to his or her blog. Make sure you read these requirements to find out exactly what the host is looking for, so you don’t waste anyone’s time, including your own.

To begin submitting your post, click on the orange Submit link at the top right of the screen. The next screen will allow you to input some information about your post, including the title, the url, your name and email, and also any commentary you wish to provide. Careful, sometimes this commentary is just posted to the blog carnival without being read too closely. Try to contact the host directly by email if you have a question instead of using the Remarks box.

After filling out the form and clicking submit, you just wait for the carnival to be posted. Sometimes the host will contact you by email or by leaving a comment on your post. Other times, you won’t hear back from them at all, even if they do include your post. Keep in mind that whether your post is included is entirely up to the host and some posts will not be accepted for one reason or another. Don’t worry about this, though, because there are many more blog carnivals listed.

You’ll also want to remember that not all of the blogs you find will be ones that you want to associate with. Some may have adult or other content that you may not be comfortable with. Be sure to check out the actual blog where the carnival is being hosted before submitting your post.

If you’ve been curious about blog carnivals, but haven’t submitted a post yet to any of them, don’t wait any longer. As of today, there are 1942 blog carnivals listed on the site. Go check them out and submit your posts today.

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