What is a blog carnival?

Anyone who has been following me or my group GeneaBloggers here on Genealogy Wise will know that I post several events each month including blog carnivals.

I often need to be reminded that - just because I've been blogging about my genealogy research and family history for almost three years now - not everyone is familiar with the concept of a blog carnival. So here is my attempt at an explanation:

- A blog carnival is usually hosted by a blog owner and runs on a regularly scheduled basis such as every month or the 1st and 15th day of the month. The host will create a post stating the theme of the carnival, the posting topic and the deadline date for submissions.

- Other blog authors interested in participating must create a post on their own blog and then either e-mail the carnival host with the link to their post or use a carnival submission form created by the carnival host.

- Once the deadline has passed, the carnival host will gather all the submitted posts and create a rollup post which gives a brief description of each post, the post author's name and the link to the post.

Benefits of a Blog Carnival

Why are blog carnivals so poplar especially with the genealogy blogging set? There are many benefits not only to the carnival host but to the blog owner as well. The main benefit of a blog carnival is to produce a sense of community among like-minded bloggers and to bring bloggers together to discuss a topic of area of interest.

Benefits of Hosting a Carnival

- Increased traffic to your blog since all links to participating blog posts will appear in the post on your blog.

- Increased exposure since other bloggers tend to post about upcoming carnivals and will even post the day the rollup post appears.

Benefits of Participating in a Carnival

- Increased traffic to your blog since readers of the rollup post will often visit each blog that has participated in the carnival.

- Increased exposure since a new visitor to your blog may become a follower, may make comments on your other blog posts, and may add your blog to their blog reader to track future posts.

Genealogy and Family History Carnivals

Here is a list of current carnivals in which you as a blogger can participate and which deal with genealogy and family history topics:

Canadian Genealogy Carnival

Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy

Carnival of Genealogy

Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture

Smile for the Camera

The Graveyard Rabbits Carnival

For specific technical details of how to participate in a blog carnival see How To Submit a Post to a Blog Carnival over at Bootcamp for GeneaBloggers.

© 2009 Thomas MacEntee