How to Get Started with Carnivals | Help Desk | Yakezie Forums

Post edited 2:58 pm – January 10, 2012 by newlywedsbudget

Here's a great post on helping you get started with carnivals:

http://brokeprofessionals.com/…..-when-how/

I found it when I first started thinking of submitting carnivals. I think it's great for getting links to your blog (which helps with SEO and ranking) but I find it is very time consuming. So that is one part of my blog that I outsource. I use Corey at 20's Finances and I am VERY happy with his services and extremely reasonable rates.

Each carnival is unique in what their requirements are regarding the age of the post, the subject and whether it can be submitted to other carnivals.   You should read these requirements before submitting.

I try to link back to all carnival submissions once a week, comment a thanks to the blog for hosting, and submit tweets/likes to social media.  Those carnivals who make sure I know they have accepted my posts are more likely to get the link love as trackbacks don't always seem to happen.

I try to submit to several each week.

Here's how I do it and I find it's not all that time consuming.

1. I only submit articles from the last week.

2. I'll make a list of those articles and compare it to my blog carnival bookmark folder and match them up accordingly.

3. I submit one by one, marking it on a sheet of paper.  I'll also throw the confirmation e-mails I get into a 'Submitted' folder.

4. If I get any e-mails or pingbacks I'll match them up with the 'Submitted' e-mails I get, and enter the link in a draft post for my next roundup.

5. Any remaining ones I will look up manually to see if they included me and didn't send out notification.  If they did, I'll go back to step 4 and add them to my roundup.  If not, I'll bitch and moan about it to myself for a couple minutes then move on.

6. By that point, I'm into the next week and ready to start over.

Sounds like a lot but it actually takes maybe 15 minutes a week for 3-4 submissions on average.

The Yakezie carnival is a good place to start.

Eric – NarrowBridge.net said:

I use Remember The Milk for carnival submission reminders. It is good for reminders for everything blog related.

I love RTM. I use it to run my life- literally.

Usually most carnivals prefer recent posts, but they do have their own individual rules. I have only just started submitted to blog carnivals, but have already got a few backlinks, so this should help me if I keep going. I have heard that you benefit even more from hosting, as people often link back to a carnival they are featured in, plus you can end up with a really good authority post with loads of great resources. Like you, I'm probably going to submit to a few for a while, then host my own. When I do, I'll let everyone know how it goes.

As with John, I'm also new here, and have not participated in carnivals before. I would sure like to get involved and get my feet wet but have no idea what to do. Sorry for newbie questions

1. For Yakezie, I see that Carnivals are held once a week, and Yakezie challangers and members can join in. Is that right?

2. Who handles the Yakezie Carnival topics and organizes them ?

OK, thanks for answering Newbie questions…

Cheers