On Hosting The Tarheel Tavern
In the blogging world, I'm a newbie. I haven't even hit my one year anniversary yet, but a few months ago, thanks to Billy, I discovered this phenomena that is so unique to blogging - the blog carnival. Now I'll be honest, it was just shortly before that, that I had even discovered blog aggregators, I mean I was fresh! And though I was intrigued by the concept of the blog carnival, I really had no idea what it was all about, or how it all worked, so first, I lurked a while, joined in as a contributor, just to get a feel for it. What I learned is that he who hosts reaps the traffic!
Now we all know how important traffic is, it's like the brass ring for a blogger, because only via traffic does one get comments, which are pure gold. So after a few weeks of contributing, I volunteered to host. I was breathless, weak in the knees under the stress of it, and completely intimidated by the concept, because I thought that surely this was going to be hard work.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's much simpler than it seems at first. I announced a theme, a deadline, (generally the evening before or morning of the day that the post is expected to be made) and let people know where to send the link for their entry. Then, once my inbox filled up with entries, I visited the various blogs to get a feel for the blog and blogger in question. All that was left then was to edit a bit, write a little something to pull it all together and give it some cohesion, and check my links.
On the day of the carnival, I made my post, announced that it was up, and watched the magic happen! There was traffic! There was networking, track-backing, there was link trading, camaraderie and friendship! And . . . there were comments!
By the time the weekend was over, blog rolls had swollen, my counter reached record levels and best of all, I had the chance to meet and greet a group of people I might not have gotten to know otherwise. I found interesting reads and people who think like I do and I'd begun a new relationship with people in my area who care about the things I care about.
This my friends, is the blogosphere - jump in and enjoy the carnival! It really is a heck of a fun ride, and not only is it free, YOU reap the biggest benefits!
Thinking about hosting the Tarheel Tavern sometime soon? Read these posts from folks who've hosted a carnival!
On Hosting a Blog Carnival I
On Hosting a Blog Carnival II
How I Hosted the Tangled Bank ..
and coming soon:
The Host with the Most
Now we all know how important traffic is, it's like the brass ring for a blogger, because only via traffic does one get comments, which are pure gold. So after a few weeks of contributing, I volunteered to host. I was breathless, weak in the knees under the stress of it, and completely intimidated by the concept, because I thought that surely this was going to be hard work.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's much simpler than it seems at first. I announced a theme, a deadline, (generally the evening before or morning of the day that the post is expected to be made) and let people know where to send the link for their entry. Then, once my inbox filled up with entries, I visited the various blogs to get a feel for the blog and blogger in question. All that was left then was to edit a bit, write a little something to pull it all together and give it some cohesion, and check my links.
On the day of the carnival, I made my post, announced that it was up, and watched the magic happen! There was traffic! There was networking, track-backing, there was link trading, camaraderie and friendship! And . . . there were comments!
By the time the weekend was over, blog rolls had swollen, my counter reached record levels and best of all, I had the chance to meet and greet a group of people I might not have gotten to know otherwise. I found interesting reads and people who think like I do and I'd begun a new relationship with people in my area who care about the things I care about.
This my friends, is the blogosphere - jump in and enjoy the carnival! It really is a heck of a fun ride, and not only is it free, YOU reap the biggest benefits!
Thinking about hosting the Tarheel Tavern sometime soon? Read these posts from folks who've hosted a carnival!
On Hosting a Blog Carnival I
On Hosting a Blog Carnival II
How I Hosted the Tangled Bank ..
and coming soon:
The Host with the Most
posted by Erin at 11:01 PM
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