Updated 19/2/08
Blog Carnivals are a wonderful blogging resource for those who enter them or for those who merely read the submitted posts.
What is a Blog Carnival
A blog carnival is a kind of group writing project, usually based on set topics. Occasionally a carnival is a one off event but they are normally ongoing and held on a regular basis. Individual bloggers publish a post and submit its URL to the organizer of their chosen carnival by a set date, usually via the Blog Carnivals site. Each edition of a carnival takes the the form of a blog post that contains links to these submitted posts, often with a short description of each.. Carnivals are usually hosted on different blogs each time, the sites of those who participate in the carnival, but occasionally on the site of the carnival organizers themselves..
Reasons for taking part in Carnivals:
- to become part of communities sharing common interests and discussions
- to find blogging contacts
- to develop friendships
- to have your posts read by a larger audience
- to bring visitors to your site who are interested in your niche or topic areas, making them more likely to comment and to become regular readers
- to add links to your blog to help you in search engine rankings, often from sites that have good rankings themselves.
Reasons to Read Carnival Posts:
- to research for content for your own blog
- to find other blogs that relate to your own
- to provide interesting and well written reading material on a large variety of topics
- to give you topics to blog about if you are stuck for ideas
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 good post they have already written. Some Observations:
- Participation can be particularly useful for new bloggers or blogs.
- 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 are those that tend to be longer than usual, contain original or unique material and show your expertise in a particular area.
- If you are not looking for great blogging fame, although just a few new readers would be rather nice; just submit your best or favorite posts, be yourself and have fun.
- Carnivals publish only your article title, linked to your blog, so content duplication is not a problem.
Where to find Carnivals
The Blog Carnivals site is the best place to start, if you have not stumbled upon or been referred to any. This is the place that most carnival organizers use for their information and submission pages . If you wish to read already published carnivals, The Truth Laid Bear lists the most recent. Wading through the lists at the Blog Carnival site can be daunting, as there are so many carnivals. I have gone through the lists, choosing carnivals that are well established, regular, ongoing and seem to have a good participation rate. The first link in each item is to its Blog Carnival page. They are in no particular order..
Blogging Related
- Resource for Bloggers – Homepage
- Best of Web 2.0 – Techloaf.com
- Bloggers Mardi Gras
- Blog basics for everyone – The Next 45 Years
- Carnival of bumbling newbies – Homepage: SuccessPart2.com
Books/Writing/Literature
- Bookworms Carnival - Bookworms Carnival
- Books Carnival – Homepage: Books Den
- Carnival of children’s literature – Homepage: Here in Bonny Glen
- Carnival of Quotes – Homepage: Thoughts on Quotes
- Carnival of Short Stories – Homepage: Musings of a Medical Student
- Creative Carnival – Homepage: Write Stuff
Entertainment
- Carnival of Rock ‘n’ Roll – Homepage: The Soul of Rock ‘n’ Roll
- Carnival of Funny Videos – Homepage
- Carnival of video game bloggers – Homepage – The Collected Writings of James Newton
- A carnival for film junkies – Homepage: The Production Blog
General
- Carnival of Australia (not restricted to Australians) Homepage: Imaginif child protection became serious business
- All Women Blogging Carnival – Homepage: All for Women
- Best of me Symphony – Homepage: Dodgeblogium
- Carnival of Satire Homepage: The Skwib
Health
- E3 carnival of health and wellness and others Homepage: E3Success Systems
- Carnival of Healing – Homepage: About.com
- Carnival of Eating Disorders – Homepage: Change Therapy
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- Carnival of depression, bipolar disorder – Homepage: Jane’s Mental Health Source Page
Lifestyle, Personal Development
- Abundance Thinking – Homepage: Abundance Highway
- Carnival of creative growth – Homepage: Energies of Creation
- Carnival of Positive Thinking – Widows Quest
- Carnival of the Vanities – Homepage: Silflay Hraka
- Carnival of the Insanities – Homepage: Dr Sanity
- Living by design Blog Carnival - Homepage: Living By Design
- Carnival of inspiration and motivation – Homepage: Positive and Successful Lifestyle Tips
- Happiness Carnival – Homepage – Think Happy Thoughts
- Personal Development & Happiness Carnival Homepage: the next 45 years
- Carnival of running an organized home Homepage: A Pot of Gold
- Mothers and daughters blog carnival – Homepage: Real Life
- Carnival of family life – Homepage: Colloquium
- Carnival of Life – Homepage: The Tall Poppy
Specific Topics
- Carnival against Child Abuse – Homepage: Survivors Can Thrive
- Carnival against Sexual Violence – Homepage: abyss2hope
- Carnival of Education
- Carnival of Entrepreneurs - Homepage: Venture Files
- Brain Blogging – Homepage: GNIF Brain Blogger
- History Carnival Homepage – History Carnival
- Men’s Guide to Women – Homepage: Men’s Guide to Women
- Carnival of Geneology – Homepage: Creative Gene
- Carnival of the Cats – Homepage: Carnival of the Cats
- Bad Kitty Chaos Festival – Homepage: Bad Kittykats.com
- Make it from scratch – Homepage: stop the ride
- Carnival of Cities – Homepage: Hometurf Media
- Carnival of Observations on Life – Homepage: anja merret
- The fabulous! festival – Homepage – All About Appearances
- Carnival of eBay Sellers – Homepage: PGA Auctions
- Mothers in Business Carnival – Homepage: My Day Off
This is just a selection – there are many more. I have not included new carnivals as I wanted this to act as a relatively long term record – new carnivals tend to come and go. I will add more as time goes on. If you know of a good carnival that is not listed here, or are trying to get a new one off the ground, please let me know and I will check it out for inclusion here. And if you would rather experience a non-blogging carnival I believe the Rio, New Orleans, Nice, Venice, Australian, Carnival month in Japan are all well worth a visit.
Wow! Thanks for listing The Fabulous! Festival. I really appreciate it, and it’s such a honor.
We’re just hours away from a new edition at All About Appearances. I hope you’ll come visit
: )
Meg from The Bargain Queens & All About Appearances’s last blog post..Quotes from my husband: Regarding our recent blender purchase
Great – I will come and take a look at the entries, Meg
Sue thanks for including the Carnival of Australia in your round up here – I guess you know that you are our next host for the 16th of January. I’ll be sending out submission reminders over the weekend.
And…GREAT post you wrote over at Snokred’s.
Megan from Imaginif’s last blog post..Feng Shei in the child safety office
Hi Megan, I had noticed and even remembered that I was to be the host – with a PC calendar alarm reminder set just in case – looking forward to it.
Thanks for this post
I tripped over one carnival but I had no idea where to start to find others.
Jayne’s last blog post..News Bites
Sue, haven’t had a chance to get to my feedreader today but this came up when I checked in on stumbleupon so I just had to stop by here first. Great resource. Thank’s for compiling it.
Lani Giesen’s last blog post..Blogging Personal Arriving Soon!
thanks for mentioning the carnival of eating disorders! it kinda swelled my breast, seeing that it was one of five health carnivals you selected.
isabella mori’s last blog post..two types of guilt
Your carnival is an example of the compassion within the blogosphere that I recently wrote about. It is providing a wonderful service.
Wow – what an awesome list. Thanks for posting this. There really is something for everyone. I want to try and participate in a few different carnivals this year so this is very timely for me.
Lightening’s last blog post..The Internet NEVER Sleeps!!!!
Fabulous! Thanks!
Gunna use my new found Stumbling moves so I don’t forget this post and others can join in!
Kelley’s last blog post..Weepy.
Thanks Kelly, much appreciated
Great article Sue, I’m sure a lot of people wondered just what a Blog Carnival was.. now they know.
Unfortunately you did not include the Carnival of eBay Seller… but perhaps you will in a future update.
You can have a look at it here:
http://www.pga-auctions.com/wordpress/?p=295
Thanks
Tom
Tom Murphy’s last blog post..All About Blog Carnivals
You are added – your carnival certainly meets my criteria
Wow Sue, thanks.
jon
successpart2
You are very welcome jon
Great post! And wow! My carnival is the first on the list. Thanks a lot for this. I gave you a thumb up.
Diana13′s last blog post..Improve your RSS feed
Thanks so much for mentioning our carnival!
Me too… i like the posted topic, it well informative specially who had passion on blogging… keep it up…cheers
What a fabulous resource list this is! I’ve become a huge fan of Blog Carnivals. It’s certainly nice to receive attention to various posts we bloggers have written, but it’s been fun for me to discover other blogs through Blog Carnivals that I hadn’t yet found. What an amazing tool participating in blog carnivals really is.
Lin’s last blog post..Relationship Deal Breakers – Non Negotiable Boundaries
Thanks for including me, a great list and useful resource
Suzie Cheel’s last blog post..Motivational Sayings on a Monday
What a great list! thanks for including Make It From Scratch!
50 Best Blog Carnivals | Blogging Sueblimely…
This is a result of research on blogging carnivals.I found that many were no longer running, operating infrequent or having little following. I looked into every carnival I could find to make sure they were still operating on a frequent basis and had p…
Wow, great list. Although I would have liked to see the top carnivals on some other topics, like for example web design. (Are you going to expand?) Anyway, this list will probably probe useful in the future.
Sutocu’s last blog post..Let Your Feed Do the Marketing
Sutocu, I do intend to expand this and maintain it so that it is up to date but I do want to make it relevant to the topics my regular readers blog about – or the list would get out of hand. Web design is one that would be of interest in regards to developing blog themes and templates – any suggestions?
Sue,
Wonderful post. Thanks for the resources. I have an award for you here:
Writing in Faith
SandyCarlson’s last blog post..Customer Service and Good Friends: the New Owner’s Manual
Hi Sue, this is a great list, and we are humbled and honored to have you include the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos! I certainly will be checking out some of the others, thanks to your work here! Excellent. Thank you! Purrs from the Kitty Cats and Thanks again! ~
Thank you for mentioning the Mothers in Business carnival. I appreciate it.
Anne Maybus’s last blog post..Purple Jade
Thanks very much indeed for including the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers in your Top 50 – there’s some tremendous Carnivals here, I’m honoured to be in such company!
James Newton’s last blog post..Top 5 Gaming Moments Whilst I Was 23
Thanks for all your kind comments – I really appreciate them.
Thanks for the informative post.. and thanks for adding our comment to the blog. I am subscribing to your feed so I don?t miss the next post!
At first, I wasn’t sure if this blog would live up to its name. I wondered if I was just wasting time on something that would fall short of my expectations. It’s a good thing I was wrong! Nice article, I really like this!