Blogging carnivals can be a very effective way to promote your website and build links. They’re free, requiring only your time to find and submit URLs to appropriate carnivals, and writing good content to submit.

I’ve been running several carnivals for clients and it gets tedious at times to keep track of submissions. Because many blog carnival hosts prefer only one submission per person per week, it’s simple etiquette to track the URLs you’ve sent, when you did, etc.

If you are running a link building campaign, it’s also good to track which carnivals accepted your entries so that you can link back. (It’s also carnival etiquette, though unfortunately too many bloggers don’t bother linking back.)

Keeping track of at least your carnival submissions simply takes a bit of organization.

Basic strategy:

1. Create two spreadsheets for weekly use:
   1. Track the articles you’ve submitted and where.
      • Column 1: URL of the article submitted.
      • Col 2: Date of submission.
      • Col 3: Carnival name
      • Col 4: Status (accepted or not)
      • Col 5: If accepted, then the URL of the carnival edition.

      Update this spreadsheet whenever you (1) have a new quality article to promote, (2) have submitted an article to a carnival, or (3) have been accepted to a carnival.

   2. Track most recent submission to any carnival. There is obviously a bit of overlap, but this sheet also serves to be an easy reference to any carnivals you’ve previously submitted to.
      • Col 1: Carnival name.
      • Col 2: Carnival submission page URL.
      • Col 3: Homepage of carnival [optional].
      • Col 4: Next edition [optional]
      • Col 5: Last URL submitted.
      • Col 6: When submitted.

      What I do is after a submitted article has been published to a carnival, I clear out the info in Cols 5-6.

   Summary:

   • From spreadsheet 1, I can see which articles haven’t been promoted enough, whether due to lack of enough submissions, or because they were not accepted.
   • From spreadsheet 2, I remind myself to check if a carnival submitted to has published the article in question.
   • I use Google Spreadsheets because they’re easy to use and can be shared teammates and/or clients.
2. Each week, choose 2-3 articles to submit to 3-5 carnivals each. Keep in mind that your blogging niche may or may not have enough weekly carnivals. Do your best. Get creative in the next step.
3. For each article you intend to submit, make a short list of 3-5 keywords/ tags/ categories.
4. Using the first item in the keyword list for an article, search for appropriate carnivals at BlogCarnival.
5. Read over the carnival description, and if you’re article suits, submit it.
6. Repeat this with any of the keywords until you’ve submitted the same article to 3-5 different carnivals.
7. Repeat the process with each article you’re promoting that week. Remember to keep track in your spreadsheets.

Additional strategy:
Here are a few extra tips that I use.

1. If you’re having a hard time finding appropriate carnivals:
1. Make a mindmap of the article titles to be promoted.
2. Brainstorm keywords for each title..
3. Now search for new carnivals for each keyword.
2. Were you accepted to any carnivals? Track accepted submissions in Technorati. Simply type in your blog’s full homepage URL in the Technorati search field to see what blogs have linked to you. (If a website links, Technorati will not pick it up.)
3. Automate the tracking process using the Technorati API and custom code. I use the API features in a custom Yahoo! Pipes pipe to first search for any “Cosmos” links to my blog, then filter the list further by only looking at entries with the word “Carnival”. Unfortunately, due to some glitch, this Pipe only works in debug mode. I’ll release it here when it functions properly.

It boils down to this: there are so many weblogs out there that if you start a new one, it might take you a long time to build any traffic. Under normal circumstances, that’s your likely path. But if you start acquiring methods to build your blog’s profile, you can change your fate away from anonymity.

If you have the budget for full-blown SEO services, great. If you don’t, you have the option of doing nothing, or using Kaizen - a philosophy of constant improvement by slow degrees.

There are many things you can do, by degrees, to improve your website’s authority, popularity and ranking - much of which I hope to discuss on this blog over time. It’s not enough to just have an ambitious editorial calendar or to simply write great linkbait. You also have to promote your website.

One of the best ways to do this is through SMM - Social Media Marketing. There are several types of social media sites, but the ones we’re focusing on in this post allow you to setup a member profile, submit articles, and vote and possibly comment on submissions.

The drawback for wallflowers is that most social media sites frown on people submitting their own articles. You need to make “friends” who have similar article tastes and niche interests, add them to your “follow” list, and hope that they add you at some point. When they do, they’ll watch for what you submit or vote on, and may add their own vote. If you establish real friendships, you can ask them if they’ll submit your articles.

To help yourself towards that goal, it’s good to find articles elsewhere that you feel are high quality, then submit those, hoping people will vote. The better/ more useful/ more targeted the article, the more likely it’ll garner votes and show up on the home page, thus increase your success rate. So it does take a fair bit of effort to use social media, and if you don’t have the time to build a profile, you might have to hire an SMM. But if you choose the most appropriate sites for your niche, SMM is very effective.

Here are a list of the social media sites I use regularly, whether to promote articles of friends, vote on items of mine that others have submitted, or simply to check out what’s new:

1. DailyHub.
   Targets mostly the business and entrepreneuring niches. This site is still in beta, as far as I know. So it does not yet send a lot of traffic. I use it already to build my profile.

2. Del.icio.us.
   General bookmarking site with “save” feature, which amounts to voting.

3. Digg.
   Choose categories wisely when submitting articles, else face the wrath of Diggers. More tech-oriented, but with other categories.

4. Reddit.
   General. Use it regularly or your account will disappear. Heavy on politics and pictures.

5. Smoochr.
   Various categories, including business, entertainment, travel and more. The site is still in alpha, with bugs to be worked out. But build your profile “karma” now, for later promotional rewards. [Disclaimer: I'm part owner.]

6. Sphinn.
   Geared towards SEO/ SEM/ SMM. You can submit your own, but fresh approaches are what the more experienced members want to read about.

7. Stumbleupon.
   This differs from all of the above because you need to install a browser plugin. You “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” a site, “stumble” it by submitting a site, or “stumble” to browse the current entries. Stumbleupon was originally oriented towards promoting sites with visual content and appeal, but now has a considerable number of categories. Neil Patel provides a bit more depth about getting Stumbled.

As I noted above, these are the sites I use. Not all of them may be suitable for the niches you want to promote. If you’re looking for a more comphrensive list with niche sites, check out Andy Hagan’s list of social media sites that actually send traffic. He’s constantly updating the list.

You have a plan for building your website’s authority and have decided that you need linkbait. You’re either going to write it yourself or hire someone. But one piece of linkbait is not always as successful as another. Why? Well that’s what this article is about. Here are some common mistakes that you might commit in either writing or buying linkbait, which will reduce it’s value and effectiveness.

1. Not researching your niche.
   If you are planning a long-term linkbaiting campaign, you should know as much as you can about your niche. That allows you to think outside the box and write completely unexpected but successful linkbaits.

2. Using poor titles.
   If you follow Copyblogger at all, you know that the title of your articles can make or break their popularity. If you’re not good at titles, Lyndon at Cornwall SEO offers 200 killer headlines for your niche for a price that’s worth every cent. If you spend several hundred or thousands on the article, make sure there’s a good title to go with it. If you do it yourself, spend sufficient time doing so.

3. Not giving credit.
   If you “borrow” ideas that were clearly introduced on a given blog, you need to give credit by linking back. Don’t let poor research techniques hinder you.

4. Poor research process.
   If you plan to write linkbait long-term, use an efficient research and bookmarking process for storing URLs you plan to link to. Try whatever works for you, and don’t be afraid to change:
   1. Browser bookmarks.
   2. Social bookmarks.
   3. Text file.
   4. Mindmap.

   I use a combination of these, as my mood or requirements dictates.

5. Not deep-linking.
   Bloggers with no scruples or no understanding of copyright will republish your linkbait verbatim. So deep-link into your existing archived articles from within every linkbait. That way, you’ll at least get some backlinks.

6. Not linking back.
   Just writing a linkbait article is not sufficient. Link back to it from future articles on your blog. Vary the anchor text. Sometimes use the title of the bait; other times use relevant keywords/ keyphrases. This helps both your linkbait and your site gain some authority in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

7. Forgetting entertainment value.
   Provided your linkbait isn’t about a serious topic, you should consider writing to entertain readers. Injecting references to the pop culture of your region can be all that you need to achieve this.

8. Not using storytelling hooks.
   I learned a lot about writing and compelling readers when I spent three months writing nothing but short fiction and novellas. My best linkbaits (read highest Diggs and backlinks) were the ones where I applied storytelling hooks to compel readers through a massive list of items.

9. Ignoring content hooks.
   There are also different types of content hooks you can use, to make your linkbait more cohesive.

10. Forgetting your choices.
    Problogger lists twenty different types of linkbaiting techniques. You don’t always have to write lists.

11. Talking down to the reader.
    Never write as if you think people reading your articles (linkbait or otherwise) are stupid, or at least not as smart as you. Write for peers, always, in terms of tone and approach.

12. Rushing it.
    Trying to write a linkbait in a single sitting will drain you and you’ll grow to hate the work. Plan as many weeks ahead as you can. I was fortunate enough to have one client that assigned me three months of weekly work all at once. So I had lots of time to plan and accumulate references on a daily basis.

13. Poor formatting.
    Not all “linkbait” articles have to be lists, but all of them should be well-formatted for easy scanning. Use one or more of the following typography or visual elements to generate whitespace and break up text density:
    1. Sub-headings.
    2. Numbered lists. Use several, with sub headings, for longer lists.
    3. Bold text.
    4. Italicized text.
    5. Blockquotes.
    6. Images.
    7. Diagrams.
    8. Maps.
    9. Slideshows.
    10. Videos.
14. Link spamming.
    If you have a linkbait list of, say, 50 items, it’s probably fine to link out to 15-35 web pages elsewhere, plus 2-5 of your own archive pages, if appropriate. But if you start inserting lots of links to irrelevant sites that you (or your client) own, you’re asking for nasty Digg comments. Check out Smashing Magazine for other golden rules of linkbaiting.

15. Not doing SMM.
    Social media marketing, i.e., posting to a social news, voting or bookmarking site, is a necessary part of promoting linkbait. Some sites don’t like for you to submit your own articles, so respect that.

16. Not delivering the goods.
    Are you offering quality content? Are you getting angry comments that your linkbait sucks? Maybe it does. This could be due to several reasons:
    1. Promoted in the wrong category of a social media site.
    2. Having a really catchy linkbait title but not delivering what’s promised in the rest of the article.
    3. Having a really catchy title and description on a social media site but doing a poor job in the article.
    4. Poor or no references.
    5. Erroneous “facts”.
    6. Not spell-checking.
    7. Using poor grammar.
17. Not being first to submit.
    It’s a good idea to get someone you trust to submit the article to a social media site. That way, you can control the quality of the title and description. If someone you don’t know does it, they might do a poor job.

18. Not being first to comment.
    This isn’t absolutely necessary, unless you have a very controversial article. In that case, being the first to comment can set the tone for comments to follow. This is a tough issue to describe. You’ll have to judge for yourself.

19. Not hiring an SMM.
    If you plan to do a long-term linkbaiting campaign, you need someone with a lot of friends in their social media profile to do promote your linkbait. That increases the chances of success, if you have a good article. This goes back to #15 above, not doing SMM. Your hired SMM, even if only part-time, should be your primary story submitter. You should, however, change the submitter from time to time.

20. Not enough content balance.
    A blog full of only linkbait might get overwhelming for readers. Use a mix of regular articles and linkbait.

21. Publishing haphazardly.
    Linkbait articles are most effective when you’re publishing them at least once a week.

22. Forgetting to upgrade hosting.
    If you have a budgeting hosting, you’re just asking for trouble. Upgrade before you start publishing linkbait content, especially if you’ve gotten the hang of SMM traffic triggers.

23. Having thin skin.
    The more linkbait you publish and promote, the more likely you’ll get nasty, energy-draining comments, especially on Digg, and sometimes just from stray visitors who feel like making everyone else miserable. I’m not going to expound on the why of it, but if you have thick skin, you’ll get through to the value of social media traffic.

Blasphemy, I hear some of you saying. Linkbait, if promoted properly on social media sites, brings lots of traffic and, if you’re lucky, lots of links from other bloggers.

But it’s a hit and miss situation that sometimes ends up with overloaded web servers, cancelled hosting accounts, and even lots of nasty comments on Digg, if the article sucks, is poorly categorized, or both. This can be emotionally and/or financially draining, if you’re doing this long-term. A site consisting only of linkbait might eventually turn readers away.

Now, I’m not saying don’t linkbait. As a hired linkbaiter myself, I’ve seen the value of quality linkbait. (And really good ones are not easy to write, despite the sudden explosion of linkbaiters out there.)

But Pandia presents a comprehensive alternate link building plan [via Sphinn] based on a few simple principles. There’s also a really clever set of terms to describe certain types of content and services, and their temporal behaviors.

Consider this premise that Pandia puts forth: Quality content, such as a tutorial, that pulls X visitors per day over a year might actually pull more traffic than an average linkbait promoted on Digg. That is, a page pulling even 10-20 visitors per day, every day, might be far more effective on a holistic level than a linkbait.

Why? Because those 3,000+ visitors over a year might actually be more targeted than a sudden influx of social media visitors. Do you think you can write lots of good content that steadily pulls in 10-20 visitors per day? I’ve had a few CSS tutorials pull in regular traffic, comments, and links for a good year now. A gallery of simple fractal images on one website pulls steady traffic, thanks to Google Image Search and a few links from high PR websites.

On the other hand, good linkbait promoted well can and does pull in massive amounts of primary and secondary backlinks that supplement traffic for a long-time. And the links come early on, which has an effect of pulling future traffic and backlinks in a manner very similar to compound interest. My own feeling is that you want to build a website that has a balance of textual and visual content types.

There are many ways to build links and traffic. Some are organic methods, others are borderline or completely unacceptable as far as search engines (SEs) are concerned. Here’s a sampling of some common methods. Most were acceptable as earlier as last year, though some SEs may be penalizing them, if detectable.

1. Article directories.
   While article directories such as Ezinearticles and GoArticles can help build links and traffic, make sure that you do not submit the exact content as on your site. Rewrite articles you’ve already published at least a few weeks in the past, and rewrite them. Submit those to a select few good article directories. Do article syndication right, and it’ll benefit you.

2. Directories.
   Pick a few good authority directories such as Yahoo! Directory, Dmoz, EatonWeb, Aviva Directory and JoeAnt.

3. Guest blogging.
   Guest blogging can gain you links, traffic, and new subscribers. There are many sites and blogs looking for guest writers. Even Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Cilnton is looking for a guest post. If you don’t support her, maybe your favorite candidate is doing the same.

4. Good grammar.
   Some bloggers simply will not link to a site where the writer comes off as illiterate. It’s worth your time to spell check your articles before posting them, for numerous reasons.

5. Comments.
   Comments on other sites, if they allow you to include your site URL, will at least bring some traffic. Some sites even use “do follow”, so search engines will follow through and index your pages.

6. Forums.
   At most forums, you can add your URL to your member profile, which will appear whenever you participate in discussions. Some forums do expect you to post a certain number of times before your URL will show in your signature. Of course, the more helpful your forum postings, the more likely you are to draw traffic. If those visitors are bloggers, you might even pick up a few links to your site, eventually.

7. Linking out.
   Be a link leaker. In your articles, link out as often or more than you link in. If you are linking to relevant articles elsewhere, your readers will appreciate this, as will the other bloggers - either of whom may eventually link to you.

8. Set trackbacks.
   If you’re not tech-savvy, trackbacks may take some time to understand. They work like this. Blog A writes an article and links to Blog B. Blog B has trackbacks turned on. When Blog A publishes the article, it sends a “trackback” notice to Blog B. Now, a little snippet of text from Blog A’s article appears in Blog B’s article’s trackbacks/ comments section. Now, just by allowing trackbacks, you might actually induce more people to link to you. (Unfortunately, there’s also lots of trackback spam these days.)

9. Link exchanges.
   Link exchanges, like several of the techniques in this list, must be done carefully if you decide to use them. Some search engines such as Google are possibly discounting reciprocal link exchanges.

10. Purchased links.
    There are several types of purchased links:
    1. Sitewide in navigation bars.
    2. End-of-post.
    3. In-post.

    Google in particular is cracking down on paid links (both buyer and seller) by penalizing the authority of any page carrying paid links or pointed to by them. The problem for them is that some types are more subtle than others, and they are asking people to snitch to them. Some experts feel that Google is doing this because they don’t want to lose AdWords revenue. Others assume it’s simply because paid links skew PageRank.

    Regardless, if you are careful, paid links can work for you. Here are some considerations:

    1. In general, in-post (editorial) links are always better than sidebar/ blogroll links, most especially if they are relevant.
    2. You can buy links that are displayed at the end of a post, though these are more detectable.
    3. Sitewide nav bar links may have less value in the future, depending on the search engine.

    A couple of the more popular link brokers are Text Link Ads and Text Link Brokers.

11. Purchased ads.
    If you’re concerned about buying links, the next best think is a purchased ad - which is really a link anyway. Still, Google is trying to force their hand on everyone and recommends that anyone selling ads (or links) should use the NoFollow attribute in paid links. That’s so that Google does not follow and index a linked page. Obviously, not everyone agrees with Google on this and ignore this suggestion for their ads.

12. Purchased reviews.
    Purchased reviews are viewed by some as a way to get some blogger to say something nice about you if you pay them. Others feel there is nothing wrong with this. There’s enough of a market that there are at least seven well-known pay per review sites. A few are PayPerPost, ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews, and LoudLaunch.

13. Review exchanges.
    If you don’t feel like paying for a review, some bloggers offer review exchanges, which might be viewed the same way as reciprocal linking by some search engines.

14. Press releases.
    If you have something worthwhile to announce about your site/ business, using a web press release might be useful. Some sites even allow you to include a live link (as opposed to the just the text of your URL).

15. Video with watermarked URL.
    If you post any original content at a video sharing site such as YouTube, Revver, or dozens of others, make sure that your site’s URL appears at the beginning and end of the video. It may not be linkable, but if it’s easier to remember, it could pull a lot of traffic. Alternately, if you use SplashCast, you can actually link to your site from within their media player.

16. Linkable content.
    You’ve read it all over the place: content is king. It’s true because good content is inherently linkable. Create lots of it. Here are a few types to consider.
    1. Good and/or entertaining content.
    2. List-style linkbaits.
    3. Resource linkbaits.
    4. Tutorials.
    5. Free themes.
    6. Free plugins.
    7. Profiles of bloggers or other people important in their niche or industry.
17. Social media marketing.
    SMM, or Social Media Marketing, coupled with linkable content can be immensely valuable for traffic and link building. Keep in mind that there are several types of social media sites, each with different rules. Here are a few.
    1. Member-voted news sites [Digg, Sphinn].
    2. Social profile sites such as [Myspace].
    3. Social bookmarking sites [del.icio.us].
    4. Professional networking site profiles [LinkedIn].
    5. Wikis [Wikipedia].
    6. Hybrids [Stumbleupon].

    All of these sites either allow you to set up a profile with your link and/or allow articles to be posted. Some do not like if you submit your own article. Respect the culture at each, and ask a friend to submit articles if necessary. Using good titles and descriptions, as well as the right category, makes an enormous difference.

18. Blog Carnivals.
    Blog carnivals are an ideal way for new blogs to get some link love and traffic, and to network with other bloggers. And it’s usually from topically related sites so search engines love it. [Check out our Carnival of Small Business and Startups.]

19. Feed subscription buttons.
    Placing these prominently on your site “above the fold” tends to help increase subscribers. If they can’t find it, they won’t subscribe. Subscribers are sometimes bloggers, some of whom may someday link to you.

20. Blog and ping.
    Blog and ping amounts to having your blog platform signal various blog directories or blog search engines whenever you post a new article. Those sites in turn publish a list of “recently updated blogs”. Some come and index your page, making it freshly searchable. Targeting certain times of day can be more beneficial if you post several articles per day, rather than posting them within a few minutes of each other. Also, if you are targeting a specific geographic region, try to post before the beginning of the work day in their time zone (typically before 8 am in a zone).

21. Affiliate programs.
    If you have a product or service that you sell on your site, consider starting an affiliate program. Not only does this expose you to more potential customers and bring traffic, you shares your profits with others, which builds good will. It’s often but not always a win-win situation.