I started my first professional blog about a month and a half ago and have found through reading ProBlogger, among many other blogs, that incoming links are crucial to developing a presence in the search engines. Darren preaches that linking out to other Bloggers often is a great way to develop a sense of community with other bloggers and as a result it will often be rewarded by links in return.

In my blog I have done this as best as I can so far but I have also looked for other ways to get inbound links. Carnivals seem to be an excellent method. I’ve participated in a number of them now (maybe 10 or so) and have always made it a point to link back to the blog host as well as 1-2 of the other authors represented in the given carnival. The people I link to are usually my favorite posts from the carnival and I make sure they are given more exposure to their blogs due to the carnival.

I think the problem with many carnivals is the fact that many people submit to them but do not read or respect the other authors. Those that do promote the work of others tend to make carnivals worthwhile.

In the end I don’t expect a lot of traffic from carnivals but I do expect some targeted traffic from bloggers who tend to link to others and tend to form relationships with others. These links and relationships are what make carnivaling worthwhile in my opinion. The reward is not the small rush of new visitors or the few new subscribers it is the long-term benefits of inbound links, relationships with fellow like-minded bloggers, and the opportunity to showcase the work of others.

My blog is nearly seven weeks old and each week has received more traffic than the last. I firmly believe that if I were not participating in carnivals (as I have been to this point) my traffic numbers would be significantly lower and I would feel more alone in my work.

Thanks to everyone else for the opinions on this topic; I was searching for opinions on Carnivals when I stumbled on this post.

-Brian @ http://www.howtolivealongerlife.com

I’ve done a couple in the past and gotten a few clicks here and there. I don’t know if it’s really great for direct traffic. I think it’s probably more for networking and links.

Of course, the key is to post stuff that other people will be interested in reading, and this is basically another way to spread the word.

I’ve done a couple in the past and gotten a few clicks here and there. I don’t know if it’s really great for direct traffic. I think it’s probably more for networking and links.

The Blog Carnival submission form makes it easy to administer. I end up screening out about 25% of them, but still end up with 40-50 decent submissions.

I figured I already was spending a lot of time going through too many mediocre or worse submissions that were not particularly on topic. And that my time might be better spent on other projects for my blog. His new service looked like a nightmare to me as a carnival host.

That said, I did gain traffic from carnivals and made worthwhile relationships with other bloggers by hosting my own. Unfortunately the overall quality of carnivals has gone downhill and I see them as far less useful now.

It is a twice a month activity, where the host decides the topic.

I think I had a small traffic, but I don’t care. I met fellow Filipino parents and eventually became my virtual friends. I will still join them if my time permits me.

Thanks!

All these events bring various amounts of traffic. Most come for the food pics and some stay for the recipes and content. I have not hosted a roundup but plan to do so next year.

What’s good about these roundups is you get to see what other people are doing and meet bloggers you’ve never heard of before.

It’s description page is at
http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_5533.html

I’m getting much more traffic for my time by being active on Twitter, facebook, and participating on other people’s blogs.

That’s not to say that they aren’t useful for some, but my experience has been pretty blah.

Macheesmo