Jen's Writing Journey

Blog carnivals can be a great way to introduce yourself to a new group of readers.

You can submit your articles to various blog carnivals hosted around the web. Find carnivals at blogcarnival.com. Browse all carnivals, then select a category that matches your blog. Visit the carnivals you find, noting their submission deadlines, posting dates, key headings, and requirements. Find a great recent post of yours and submit it. When the carnival is posted, post a short note on your blog that you were included in the carnival and link to it. Not everyone does this, but it is a nice way to drive your own traffic back to the blog carnival host.

You’ll see a quick influx of new traffic from blog carnivals. Your job is to make those new visitors stick by providing great content, not just in the submitted article, but also in the recent posts included on your front page.

Another way to participate in blog carnivals is to host your own. Search through the carnivals offered and think of what your blog can do that these other carnivals aren’t doing. Then create your carnival on the Blog Carnival site, picking a schedule that will work for you and laying out all of the other details the site asks for.

The site will send you reminders and it will publicize your carnival to those who come looking for carnivals to submit to, but you are responsible for drumming up readers. And you will likely need to hunt for some articles to include as your carnival gets off the ground. Think of your readers. Who are they, and where do they hang out? Visit those blogs, commenting about the new carnival you are starting. Ask them to submit articles and to visit when the carnival has posted. Once your issue has posted, visit those sites again, thanking them for their articles and including a link to the full carnival. Post a link on Twitter or Facebook, if you are so inclined.

I have played around in blog carnivals from both sides, submitting to writing, book review, and pop culture carnivals (from my Pop Culture Curmudgeon blog) as well as hosting a Supernatural blog carnival on Pop Culture Curmudgeon.

• How Are You Furthering Your Writing Career? [digg=http://digg.com/educational/How_Are_You_Furthering_Your_Writing_Career]Tiffany Colter, the Writing Career Coach, had a great post last week: Do You Own It? It offered a no-nonsense kick in the pants to all of us who play-act at being writers. I have purchased her Writing Career Coach courses on Creating a Writer's Life and Building a Platform,......
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