If you have a blog and are struggling to drive traffic to it, you may want to consider participating in a blog carnival. Many internet marketers have not heard of blog carnivals and are subsequently missing out a free method to get targeted visitors to their blogs. Carnivals can be a good way to attract traffic and generate some much needed publicity for your blog. Carnivals and the people that help run them, collect and distribute information surrounding a certain topic. It is similar to an online magazine article.

During a blog carnival, a group of individuals will work together to create an informative article around a certain topic or niche. They will include links to related blogs. Individuals that contribute are able to submit their blog to the carnival. Blog carnivals are published on a regular basis. This might be weekly or monthly.

Individuals that would like to participate simply need to find a carnival that is on topic with their blog and then submit a short article and their blog's links. There are different roles that must be filled in order to make sure that a carnival is a success. They include an organizer, a host, bloggers and readers.

The organizer will decide what the carnival topic will be. They will establish criteria for submissions and will relate to blog contributors how links and information will appear. They will essentially coordinate the entire carnival.

The host will publish the carnival on their blog. The will get to decide the date of the carnival and will receive all of the submissions from the participants. They will then organize the information into an article that will include the links to the various blogs and also add their own comments.

Bloggers that want to participate simply need to fill out a blog carnival submission form. All submissions will be sent to the host. The host will then create a comprehensive article with links from all of the submissions.

Blog carnivals are most successful when everyone works together to drive traffic to them. Individuals can do this by paying for advertising (pay-per-click, ezine ads, etc.), writing articles, leaving comments on other people's blogs, being active on forums, placing ads on free classified ads or participating in Yahoo or Google Groups. There are a few of the very best ways and most inexpensive ways for participants to advertise. In order for blog carnivals to be a success, everyone needs to help generate traffic. The Blog Carnival community will also be another source of traffic.

Blog carnivals can a great opportunity to begin working with other people in your niche or a complimentary one. This allows you to not only get your blog in front of people that are interested in it, but to also potentially start working together with other marketing professionals in your niche and to create some joint ventures and make additional monies.