Monday, December 15, 2008

Get Traffic by Taking Part in Blog Carnivals (Part 2)

By Jared Conley

In the earlier article in this series, I discussed what blog carnivals are and why all aspiring bloggers should be participating in them. In the event that you missed that post, let me review briefly the benefits of participating in blog carnivals:

* They improve your authority

* You immediately gain regular, profitable readers of your partner blogs

* You get an immediate boost of traffic to blog posts

* You get a long term improvement in search engine rankings

What I'd like to review in this article is how you can derive the most benefit out of your carnival efforts. Let's be real, carnivals take time and effort, so you should get the most benefit and good will from them as possible. Here's how you can do just that:

1) Submit your articles early. There will be a call for entries deadline, but it's likely that the host already has some idea on how the post will be structured before the deadline, so you want your article available during this early stage.

2) Make the host's job easy: Learn how to create blog post titles that are clever, and brainstorm two or three powerful, compelling headings that can be used for the anchor text in links. Good headings are hard to create, so create them on your own. You'll save the host the effort and get more traffic from a better headline.

3) Follow the entry guidelines.

4) Get organized: Organize the information you submit. Include your e-mail address, name, blog name, post title, article summary, several sample headings, trackback URL, and permalink. Place this information in an e-mail above the full post itself, unless otherwise directed.

5) Advertise: Once submitted, be sure to advertise the carnival. What goes around comes around, and your collaborative efforts to attract traffic will payoff for all of you in the long run. That's the concept behind these carnivals: all participants are sharing readers, giving each the opportunity to attract the others' regular subscribers.

6) Make sure your blog can handle your traffic: Prepare your blog for any traffic surges that might occur, and optimize the page that the carnival readers will be viewing. You'll want to target the offers or ads to your audience, provide a very conspicuous subscribe link, and follow-up with at least one week's worth of strong articles to capitalize on any lingering traffic you might have.

Blog carnivals are a superb way to attract profitable, relevant, qualified, long-term readers. Use them properly and you'll reap the rewards. But you must be ready to put your best foot forward. Pick up a good blogs how to if you have any doubts on how you can prepare your blog for this kind of traffic. - 16890

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