Blog Carnivals
Participating in and hosting Blog Carnivals can be a great way of building both traffic and links for your blog.
What Is A Blog Carnival?
Basically, a blog carnival is a collection of posts that have some kind of common link. The carnival host provides a list of all the posts submitted (or those accepted as acceptance isn’t guaranteed) including a link to your post and sometimes a comment from either you or the carnival host.
If you’d like to see an example of what a Blog Carnival looks like, I hosted the Mom’s Blogging Carnival here on Lightening’s Blogworld recently.
What Are The Benefits of Blog Carnivals?
1. You can find other blogs with similar interests to your own.
2. It exposes your blog to a different set of eyes (through the readers of your host for that issue).
3. You get a link back to your site (and so improve your technorati ranking).
4. They’re lots of fun to be involved in.
5. You can enter a post that has been published any time (not a set day etc).
How Do I Enter a Post in a Blog Carnival?
The Blog Carnival website contains a searchable list of Blog Carnivals as well as information on the Carnival Home (this is usually the person who started the carnival and oversees who is hosting each issue and so on), the current and upcoming hosts and provides a form for you to enter your post.
Once you’ve chosen the carnival you would like to enter a particular post, you’ll need to go to the carnival page for that specific carnival and click on the orange box in the top right hand corner that says “submit your blog article to this carnival”.
Here is a screenshot of the Index Page for Mom’s Blogging Carnival. You can see the orange button in the top corner there.
Clicking the orange button will take you to a form that looks something like the one in the screenshot below:
You will need to enter the URL for your post, not the homepage of your site.
A link to this site’s homepage looks like this: http://www.lighteningsblogworld.com/
A link to a direct post on the site looks something like this: http://www.lighteningsblogworld.com/2008/03/30/moms-blogging-carnival/
There is an auto-retrieve type function so that once you’ve copied and pasted your URL and clicked the cursor to the next box, the page will refresh and some information will have been retrieved from your site. I only mention this so it doesn’t give you a heart attack the first time it happens.
It’s up to you whether or not you want to make a comment about your post. Some hosts include these remarks and some don’t but it’s a way for you to give readers a little more information regarding what the post is about.
When you’re ready, hit submit and you’re all done. You should get an email confirming your submission and some hosts will also send you an email to say that your article has been included in the carnival. I don’t think I’ve ever had one rejected so far so I can’t comment on what happens in those instances.
Carnivals I Have Participated In
Carnival of the Recipes (this is a new one I’ve just found)
I don’t participate in each and every edition of these carnivals. Just when the mood strikes me or I have a post that I think might “fit”.
If you want to have a browse, there is quite a long list of Blog Carnivals available. Some are held weekly, some fortnightly, some monthly and so on. If you can’t find a carnival there to suit you, you’re not looking hard enough. 
Hosting a Carnival
I’m still very new at hosting Blog Carnivals. My suggestion would be that you participate in a few before considering hosting. It gives you a chance to see how Blog Carnivals work before jumping in the deep end.
If and when you decide you’d like to try hosting one, you can usually find contact information for the person who oversees each carnival on it’s page on blogcarnival.com. You simply express your interest and provide your blog URL and they will get back to you as to whether they have a date available for you to host.
Starting Your Own Carnival
You’ll have to talk to someone way more experienced than me. 
Over To You
If you’re someone who has participated in carnivals before, do you find them worthwhile?
Do you know of carnivals I’ve not mentioned that others might be interested in submitting to?
Do you tend to read other posts that have been submitted to carnivals you’re involved in or that are hosted on blogs you read?
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This is a very comprehensive article on Blog carnivals I have left my thoughts over at http://www.lighteningonline.com/2008/04/09/carnival-of-australia/