Blog Carnival - How will it effect your branding?

[Kel]

Hi - I'm new here and I've made some friends already..thanks for adding me.

I have a quick question relating to "Blog Carnivals" (which I only really found out about yesterday when I joined this community.)

They look exciting on the surface. I have checked out a couple and they seem to really take over your blog....will this hurt your branding? Is it a good thing to host one of these babies...I can see the value of the trackbacks and potential traffic I'm just wondering if your readers will "Get It" if a blog carnival appears out of the blue one day on your blog.

I'm just interested is all....I'd love to start one....I'm in Health and fitness by the way.

Cheers,

kel

[Jack Humphrey]

I think if you watch the pros do it they try to make it interesting and it has to be a fit with their readership's interests. A lot of sploggers will just do any kind of carnival. Wrong way to do it.

If you create one, create it totally on the main topic(s) of your blog so your readers can get something out of the links. Make it high quality and they'll adore you for it. Use it just to quickly start something of no use to your readers to get some quick links, and your readers will have the same impression you've gotten from the ones you've seen.

[Kel]

Great Points Jack - I think the ones I have seen have all focused on getting back links and not worrying about the most important thing - Content!
Cheers,
Kel

P.S. When Chuck Norris holds up his index finger he's not giving you the bird, he's telling you how many minutes you have left to live.

[Scott Frangos]

Hi Kel -

I'm new to the Blog Carnival thing too, but a long time publisher, and Managing Editor for WebHelperMagazine.com.

I plan to host a Blog Carnival there soon, but I will write it up more like an article with reference links and screenshots to specific blog posts. In thinking about my approach to it, and also the question you are asking, I think readers will "get it" if the Carnival post at your website stays on topic, and is organized in a way that is informative and educates about the subject at hand, rather than being presented in a random way.

Another way to say what I am thinking is that it is about content that benefits your readers, and backlinks are secondary benefits of you the blog publishers. Readers don't care about backlinks, they want articles that help them solve something or learn something new. Seems that is what Jack is saying too.

I see you joined our publishers group here, where you will find more postings of Blog Carnivals and some ways to extend your reach with articles you publish ("Magnify your Posts"). Good to see you there.

Welcome -
Scott

WebFadds.com - Dynamic Blog & CMS Website Solutions

[Kel]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the Reply.

I think you're right when you say we really need to think about how we will host the "Blog Carnival" before we just jump in head first....which I guess can happen when your eye is set on link building..

I like the ideas you have about hosting your Blog Carnival....staying on topic is the most important thing....and I guess we can achieve this by sorting through the submissions and putting on our editors cap...rather than our SEO hat.

Anyway - Looking forward to getting over to the Publishers group and doing some more reading.

Cheers,
Kel

[Charly Leetham]

Hi Kel,
I only heard about Blog Carnivals a few days ago as well. I've looked at a few and from what I see, most of them are well done, listing blogs like articles etc.

This is great for the participants, as they get the links to their sites.

I'm participating in a couple.

I think you should do really well with a blog carnival in your niche.

For a different look at a different type of blog carnival, see Bloghology at http://searchforblogging.com

Charly.

[Kel]

Hi Charly,

Great example - Thanks

[Suzie Cheel]

I have mixed views about blog carnivals, have been running one since July last year

Abundant Thinking which I have just changed it Last Month to Abundance Carnival

I think a carnival is valuable if people see it as more than just what I feel a lot of them are becoming, just a link farm

Last month i focussed on Abundant Health and this month it will be wealth.

I would like to see more people who host carnival take some effort rather than just dropping the carnival into their blog as it is giving to you from Blog catnival.

Recently I have been getting entries that don't even touch on abundance and have been told by the submitter sorry- paying someone to put entries in, will have to get them to read what the carnival is about.

Carole who I now co host the carnival Check ot the carnivalsCwith has been monitoring the traffic that comes from entering carnivals and finds it doesn't usually bring new readers.

I have found in the early days of the carnival I met a lot of new and worthwhile blogs, now We are scraping to get 5 top posts about the subject.
Check out the carnivals and ask if you were to start one what would make mine stand out?

hope that helps
Suzie

[Charly Leetham]

Suzie, Thanks for sharing. Some of the Carnivals I looked at where just that. Links and links and links. There was no inherent value in them and, as you say, some of the links weren't even related to the topic!

If I look at anything, it has to provide value.