Comments on: Blog Carnivals Are Great, Hosting Them is Better

By: Grave

Grave — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:53:34 +0000

People still do blog carnivals? I haven’t seen one in forever… well, years at least :)

By: Stephanie's Mommy Brain

Stephanie's Mommy Brain — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:14:06 +0000

I’ve never hosted a carnival but I participate in several each week. Mommy Bloggers LOVE carnivals.

Almost all of them are held via a Mr. Linky. You just leave your name and url of the post you want to link to – similar to leaving a comment without the comment. The host doesn’t have to read each post unless she wants to.

I can see how approving each post would be a lot of work. I’m not sure I’m up for that yet.

By: SEO Tips

SEO Tips — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:30:02 +0000

Nice article, funny I was going to get back in to Blog carnivals next week when I had the time. I love adding my posts to other peoples carnivals and I frequently create lists of articles for my readers however I add the articles myself.

By: Joie de vivre

Joie de vivre — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:53:35 +0000

I’ve never heard of the word “carnival” in terms of a blog round-up, but it creates a more festive feel than what you’re describing! I’ve never considered hosting one because they do seem like an extraordinary amount of work, but I suppose the pay-out can be worth it. Thanks for the food for thought!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:34:28 +0000

It’s certainly a small world when the author of one of the few feeds I follow (The Writer’s Coin) guest posts on a seemingly unrelated one that I also follow (problogger.net). The Writer’s Coin is certainly worth checking out, not only for the quality personal finance advice, but also for the way the author uses creative writing to make his blog a more enjoyable reading experience. I suspect many blogs would benefit from following a similar approach.

By: Make Money Online

Make Money Online — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:50:06 +0000

I never thought about a blogging carnival. Now that i know i still cant think anything much about it. Its something which wont work with ease and you need a very successful blog to spread the word about the carnival.

By: Tyrone

Tyrone — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:34:44 +0000

Yeah blog carnivals are a great work, but hosting them is a very tiring task as you have to go through all the posts. But these tips sound good.

By: ZK@Internet Marketing Blog

ZK@Internet Marketing Blog — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:05:01 +0000

Honestly speaking I never read so much detailed article. This is the only place from where we will be able to get such quality articles.

I am just waiting to see more and more people came to my blog than I would love to start this kind of carnival with some twist which will announce my name all over .. :)

By: Mohammad Afaq

Mohammad Afaq — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:43:49 +0000

I wish to hold a blog carnival but as you said it is a lot hard work. I got my lesson (for the first time) before doing the thing and I will do carnivals on my blogs but not now. First of all I need some stable traffic and then I need by carnival to be the greatest of all so that’s what holding me. I will first try to become a better writer and know more about carnivals and then I will post carnivals on my blog.
—————————————————————-
Mohammad Afaq
Free Website Traffic

By: Oliver (ReThink)

Oliver (ReThink) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:54:33 +0000

I agree, hosting blog carnivals is a lot of work, and there’s a lot of junk out there. You don’t want any junk on your blog, but then again, you don’t want to offend too many people in your niche by rejecting their posts. It does get you some permanent links, but I reckon writing/updating quality posts will be the safer bet in the long run than hosting blog carnivals.

Though I guess it won’t hurt to submit a few posts to some blog carnivals. When I was still hosting them, I had some bloggers submit to the carnival regularly.
Thanks for the nice post, Darren.

Cheers,

Oliver

By: Christie

Christie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:43:07 +0000

This post has started a frenzy of activity in my brain, but the pictures of the clowns have me terrified – ha! I have never hosted a carnival, but am bookmarking this page for when I do, to avoid any headaches. Thanks!

By: Carla

Carla — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:41:45 +0000

I have tried to host one a few times, but I kept getting submissions that has no relevance to the subject at hand. I think I will try again!

By: Writer's Coin

Writer's Coin — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:05:27 +0000

Totally agree: it’s a lot of work and the payoff isn’t glorious. But I disagree about not providing readers with something useful/entertaining. Most carnivals have turned into long lists of posts. Basically just people looking for links and others giving them those links.

But that makes it easier for those of us actually trying to run useful carnivals—it’s easier to stand out.

As for the creepy pics, make sure to check out the photographers’ sites, they’re the ones doing all the work.

By: FFB

FFB — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:56:32 +0000

I’ve hosted a few, included the Carnival of Personal Finance which is huuuge! It’s a lot of work and dedication. I usually don’t expect to get much sleep the night I’m putting it together.

But you get a lot of links back to you! If you are hosting the right carnival. And a lot of those links back will link to not only link to the carnival article you wrote but also to your home page. And a % of the participants will most likely subscribe to your RSS as well (potential to have your article linked to in the future).

It’s a great way to get exposure to sites who wouldn’t otherwise know you existed.

By: valencio

valencio — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:28:42 +0000

I haven’t heard much positive from carnivals.. other than the fact that they build links to your blog.. Maybe that helps..

By: Simona Rich @ Personal Development Coach

Simona Rich @ Personal Development Coach — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:21:41 +0000

I used blog carnivals a few times but they did not bring in many visitors. I have noticed that mostly visitors stick when they are sent from the search engines.

By: Jensen | CS-Weekly

Jensen | CS-Weekly — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:49:04 +0000

I’ve participate several carnivals and didnot get much traffic. It seems to me that this field is not as active as before and most participaters are new bloggers who are as eager as you on growing their own traffic …

well, it does build some permanent inlinks for you.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:49:45 +0000

I agree with ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy’ those photos are pretty scary.

Good post though, an interesting idea but I can imagine that things could get out of hand pretty quickly if the carnival wasn’t carefully monitored.

Kind of worrying the kind of stuff that could get posted if the lease wasn’t tight enough

By: Steven-Sanders

Steven-Sanders — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:08:18 +0000

I’ve seen a lot of positive things with giveaway carnivals.

You set up an automated tool (mr. linky) that user can submit their link and a 3 word title telling what they’re giving away.

I participated in one of these last year and there were literally thousands of people who submitted a link. And as one of the giveaway blogs listed, I got upwards of 800-900 visitors in the first day.

By: Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy

Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:06:44 +0000

I’ve never gotten into the blog carnival thing. I tried submitting to a couple and was published a few times, but I seem to get much better results if I write guest posts and just keep working on my own blog. I think a lot really depends on your niche.

A+ on creepiness with those photos…those images will be stuck with me for a while! ;-)