When reading numerous blogs, I came across the term blog Carnival again and again. But what is a blog Carnival? Let me explain in detail.
A blog Carnival is an event by bloggers for bloggers. The organizer of the blog Carnival chooses a theme, which he generally covers in depth.
Everyone who currently takes part in the blog Carnival posts a contribution on the issue on their blog by expressing their perspective on it.
Blog Carnivals have been around for as long as blogs have existed. Participating is one thing, but staging your blog Carnival is another issue.
In this article, I will explain the experiences that I was permitted to have with my blog Carnival, Secret Facts About It.
See also: How to create an editorial calendar for your blog.
What Is A Blog Carnival? – What Is A Blog Parade?
Blog Carnival and Blog Parade are different names for the same meaning.
The first such blog Carnival goes back to September 20, 2002. It was called Blog Carnival then and has since become widespread.
A blog Carnival includes one organizer and multiple participants. The organizer gives a theme and a time range, and the participants produce blog entries.
What seems unspectacular may be a big boost for your site – and the participant’s gain, particularly from new visitors.
How Does A Blog Carnival Work?
It’s easy – conceive of a subject for which you want to organize a blog Carnival, define a time range, publish a blog post that calls for the blog Carnival, and establish the criteria.
Then make this known in your network and beyond. Then other bloggers write on your subject.
Depending on how beautiful and wide the issue is that you ask for with the blog Carnival, a variable number of bloggers feel compelled to join
What Are The Benefits Of Organizing A Blog Carnival?
If you operate a blog that has yet to be particularly well known and wants to extend your site’s reach, then holding a blog Carnival is a well-worked strategy to enhance the exposure of your blog.
You can also approach blogs you don’t know that are taking part in the blog Carnival. You can get to know new “colleagues” and build connections, increasing your blogging network.
Another advantage of organizing a blog Carnival is the multiple backlinks that lead to your site. Aunt Google enjoys having more backlinks, and it may assist your site in climbing the ranks. (Source)
Or you don’t care about your blog and want to hear other people’s perspectives on the issue you laid forth.
What Do I Get By Participating In A Blog Carnival?
In concept, it is the same as organizing your blog Carnival.
But fresh article ideas might also arise from this. In addition, you get to meet many new blogs, and they, in turn, find your site.
What Are The Guidelines For A Blog Carnival?
Set the rules for your blog Carnival in your article as accurately as possible:
Who may participate?
For example, you may encourage women to write, or only food bloggers, or not make the blog Carnival “public” but write to particular individuals individually and urge them to join.
Which formats may be represented?
Are only “real” blog pieces permitted, or is it also possible to contribute, for example, with a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a Facebook post, or a LinkedIn comment?
It’s your blog Carnival, and you decide.
I initially just proposed blog posts, podcast episodes, and YouTube videos—but I didn’t have the heart to reject individuals who don’t have a blog and passionately contributed with a Facebook post or message.
As long as they responded and linked to their post and, in turn, connected to my original article in their position on Facebook, I was OK. So anticipate shocks and decide how to respond to “rule violations.”
By when does the blog Carnival contribution have to be submitted?
Most blog Carnivals last for four to six weeks. Any longer, and the blog Carnival may be forgotten.
My blog Carnival went on for six weeks, from mid-November to early January. That turned out to be a really handy era for me.
Since there will always be “latecomers,” I offer you the following tip:
Give a deadline two or three days before you can or want to take care of the summary piece yourself.
Experience has proven that there are always individuals who only find out about your blog Carnival soon before the gates shut and then “absolutely” still want to be there.
I stretched by two days, and the final post came in just eight minutes before the conclusion. Two days later, I was requested to make an exception and kindly include the post. With a sad heart, I decided against it.
How do the participants have to tell you about their contribution?
Normally, a participant only “officially” participates in your blog Carnival if he has also commented beneath your article with a link to his contribution.
You can also request that your article be linked to. If you have engaged the pingback option in your blog, you will get a notice in your comments (the “ping”) immediately at the time of publishing.
Decide whether you want to release the ping as a remark or take note of it.
I maintained that only articles that posted a comment with a link and connected to my post by the deadline were also “officially” included and included in the summary piece.
Another alternative would be that by participating, you consent to have the contribution written during the blog Carnival included in an e-book of the blog Carnival organizer.
So you may be creative here – but don’t overdo it, or nobody will want to participate in your procession.
How Can I Create A Blog Carnival?
Creating a blog Carnival isn’t rocket science. However, it requires some labour.
First, you select a theme on which you want to launch a Carnival. Of course, you post your project on your blog, providing an overview:
- • What subject is it, including a few sentences, and what experiences do you have on the provided issue?
- • When the blog Carnival begins and when it concludes.
- • Requirements for participating in the blog Carnival
- • Introduce a reward, contest, sweepstakes, or other concept to motivate participants. (If you would want)
- • Shortly after your blog Carnival concludes, you summarize the gathered contributions in a final piece and connect the participant blogs. Or make an eBook using the finest pieces on your blog Carnival.
As you can see, conducting a blog Carnival is relatively easy.
Now let’s move on to the next topic.
How To Publicize Your Blog Carnival
So you have picked a fascinating theme for your blog Carnival, written a post about it, and established its rules and time period. How do you get participation now?
Advertise your blog Carnival at least as much as you do for your “normal” blog post. So:
- • Write about it in your newsletter.
- • Post a teaser post on the social networks you’re on (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest…).
- • Use the opportunity to promote your blog piece in groups on Facebook, LinkedIn.
- • In your email signature, provide a link to your blog article.
- • If you have a podcast or a YouTube channel, post about it there.
- • Talk to your contacts in “real life” about your blog Carnival and invite them to participate.
- • Address individuals in your network personally and invite them to participate or share your article with the blog Carnival in their networks.
In the enormous heap…
Blog Carnivals are a great method to spread the word about your blog – but you already need a certain degree of awareness (or a really popular subject).
Otherwise, a handful of individuals might take part in your blog Carnival. Or nobody (if you have also selected a technical issue and imposed extremely strict regulations).
What Makes A Blog Carnival Successful
Let me use my last blog Carnival as an example. The Carnival was a success.
The subject was created to be primarily about marketing (more accurately, personal branding), but truly everyone could write anything about it.
Everyone was allowed to select how far their comfort zone was pushed or even left with the “secrets.”
The subject for the blog Carnival was familiar – but no one before me had presented a comparable blog Carnival.
The time was also positive; while many blog Carnivals take place at the turn of the year, they typically contain the issue of looking back or looking ahead.
Finally, during this conversation, I had been acquainted with Marketing Magic for about three years.
In addition, I have been highly networked for decades, so my appeal has been extensively circulated and reached individuals who had never heard of me before.
This gets me to the next point:
What Do I Get From Creating A Blog Carnival?
Just like I explained earlier, with this method, you can boost your active audience and do something for your search engine optimization. Because even if the backlinks are so-called “no-follow links,” – they are still part of a healthy link profile for Google.
They wait to ensure a better position, but they bring you more readers.
Now to the potential for you as the organizer of a Blog Carnival :
You earn new readers and backlinks.
That was the initial objective of a blog Carnival. Due to the structure that each participant links to your original post with the call for the blog Carnival in his post, you first get backlinks that are good for your ranking.
Secondly, you always get new readers because many readers of the participating blogs should be curious and at least sometimes drop in on you if your blog is relevant to them.
You can gain new regular readers or subscribers to your newsletter.
You earn social buzz.
In the instance of my blog Carnival, there was a lot of “talking” about my blog Carnival on Facebook and elsewhere.
One participant said I had begun a domino wave with my blog Carnival. Since every member assiduously marketed their contribution, generally referred to me, tagged me personally or marketing magic, and linked to it.
You increase your network overall.
There is a fair probability that individuals who are already further advanced and more successful with their blog than you will become aware of your blog Carnival – and, therefore, of you and what you have to offer.
Even though I can’t claim today that I earned new clients directly via the blog Carnival: I can say that I got on the radar of some colleagues who hadn’t had me on their radar before.
Blog Carnival can be an opportunity – but there is also a risk:
Disadvantages Of A Blog Carnival
The classic: Where there is light, there is also shade – and I don’t want to conceal that here.
Your blog Carnival might be a non-starter.
There are numerous conceivable reasons why your blog Carnival might become a non-starter and simply won’t take off. The reasons may be:
- • a fundamentally poorly selected moment,
- • You’re unfortunate that a very well-known and famous blogger is calling a blog Carnival on a similar theme,
- • Your subject is not understood or does not entice anybody to write about it,
- • Your subject is too narrow or too wide
- • You have overestimated your available resources and are not managing to advertise your blog Carnival enough,
- • Your network is still too limited, and few people read or follow your blog on social media.
The blog Carnival might be too successful for your resources
That nearly happened to me!
With 80 entries, all of which I’ve read but unfortunately not all commented on (a couple snuck by – please forgive me if that happened to me with your post!), I was truly strained to the limit.
Take an average of 10 minutes to read and remark; that’s 800 minutes. That’s a good 14 hours I was working with it. Plus, the time for the assessment and drafting the summary.
Plus, the period leading up to the advertising of the blog Carnival. Roughly approximated, an entire working week of effort went into this blog Carnival. I didn’t anticipate it, and it wasn’t designed that way.
7 Common Mistakes That Organizers Of Blog Carnival Should Avoid
Mistake #1: Host a blog Carnival and then do NOTHING, believing others will take action.
Blog carnival requires labor. Investments in your network must have been made earlier. Anyone who wants people to support their activity should have previously supported others earlier.
Mistake #2: Organize a blog Carnival and randomly write to as many (influential) bloggers as possible.
- Contact them.
- Message them on social networks.
See prior point: If you wish to leverage relationships, you need first build them up. Approaching someone directly with an issue you haven’t had intimate contact with only works once you discover a decent means of addressing it.
Mistake #3: Do something.
The subject and theme should be thoroughly studied. Of all, nobody can guarantee that an issue will genuinely take fire. But if you deal with the affinity groups, your community, and their needs and the interests of their readers/recipients.
You undoubtedly have stronger cards.
Mistake #4: Only plan from your viewpoint.
“We do this to generate more links…”; We aim to accomplish that …”; “The blog Carnival brings our firm …” – A concept that only contains such sentence beginnings is almost certainly not one for a successful blog Carnival.
Mistake #5: Tab subject selection.
The content of a blog Carnival needs to ignite, it has to be packaged, and it has to attract the proper individuals. If the bright idea is still absent, the time for the blog Carnival has yet to arrive.
Mistake #6: Not giving enough of your resources.
A blog Carnival produces work; it demands time and upkeep. For seeding in social networks, for displaying the contributions and links, for an e-book to be developed, its correction phase, for inquiries and communications with the participants.
Mistake #7: Expect appreciation.
It’s good when people compliment you for your labour and effort. You can’t expect that. After all, the others also commit time and effort to engage in the campaign.
The shared advantage in a network comes from the dedication of everyone, and everyone has a “turn” to put in a bit more effort. It comes back to you in numerous ways!
Conclusion: It Is Worth Holding A Blog Carnival!
So consider carefully ahead if you can cope with the spirits you may call.
If you reply yes, I say with all my heart: build your blog Carnival! You will have a lot of fun with it and appreciate the wonderful consequences I have discussed in this essay!
Did you like this article? Would you want to offer anything or explain your experiences with Blog Carnival is? Then feel free to remark!
