In addition to the benefits of reading blog carnivals, there are exciting reasons to also play your part in the carnival too. Bloggers participating in blog carnivals can see real advantages for their blogs as well as the benefits of meeting fellow bloggers and the sense of building blogging communities.

Why participate in blog carnivals?

One of the biggest advantages of participating in blog carnivals for new bloggers is exposure. It takes time for readers and search engines to find you and participating in blog carnivals spreads your word, showcases your work and increases the number of backlinks to your blog. All these are valuable strategies in building up the readership of your blog.

Readers of blog carnivals in your niche are also more likely to be regular readers (and active commenters) on your blog when compared with readers from social bookmarking sites.

Where do I find a blog carnival?

The Blog Carnival site has a comprehensive listing of blog carnivals and is a good place to start. It’s easy to search for blogs in your niche and the site even has an easy submission form to submit your articles to the blog carnival’s host. There are links to previous editions and a featured Blog Carnival each day.

The list of Blog Carnivals (from the main site) is also listed at The Truth Laid Bear site on their Übercarnival page.

Which post should I submit to the blog carnival?

Carnival posts tend to have a higher standard of writing with quality content relevant to the topic. Bloggers may write the post specifically for the carnival or highlight a quality post they have written before. Pillar articles which stand the test of time are often the most useful for submission if your objective is to advertise yourself and your blog. Pillar articles tend to be longer articles that highlight your expertise in your area.

Not every post from your blog will be ‘blog carnival worthy’. Only submit posts that you are particularly proud of the writing, it’s unique content or the specific point of view. And remember, the blog carnival host has the final say in whether your article is accepted for the next edition or a future edition. Check previous editions of a blog carnival for the type of article selected and the language used to get an idea before submitting your article.

The blog carnival host will appreciate articles submitted in plenty of time before the edition deadline and including a description or supporting comment about your submission will be an added bonus for them.

Finally, a link to the published blog carnival from your blog is always appreciated. Contributing to a blog carnival helps drive traffic to your blog and this can be reciprocated by linking to the blog carnival.

According to Technorati, as at February 2008:

Technorati are currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.

The World Live Web is incredibly active, and according to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs (that’s just blogs) every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.

How can you find what you are looking for in the vast blogosphere?  This is where Blog Carnivals step in. Blog Carnivals allow readers to find other blogs relating to a specific topic from a wide variety of authors. Carnival posts tend to have a higher standard of writing than usual and quality content relevant to the topic, with bloggers writing specifically for the carnival or to highlight a great post they have already written. So, blog carnivals are great to be able to find out what bloggers are writing about in your area of interest or to find out which bloggers that you would like to read more from.

Most blog carnivals can be found on the Blog Carnivals site – a great place to start on your journey into Blog Carnivals.