(Inspired by a question from blogdaughter FirstBrokenAngel of AAFFLLAACCKK)

Sure, you want more traffic, but entering Carnivals is weird and scary.

What if I miss the deadline?
What if I submit to the wrong e-mail address?
What if I enter a post that's off-topic?
What if my post just plain sucks?
If I screw this up, will I be kicked out of the blogosphere, tarred, feathered, and exiled to a Siberian gulag?

Yes, you will.

That's why Ferdy of Conservative Cat (and his pet human, Bruce) have developed the handy, all-purpose, Carnival Submit Form.

But it's STILL weird and scary! Which Carnival should I pick? What are all those boxes for? Typing cats frighten me!

Well, I can't help you with your Ailurophobia, but I *can* walk you through the form, using one of my posts for an example:

Choose Your Carnival - click on a Carnival name, and a description of it will appear in the box in the lower right corner of the green section. If you can't decide which one to pick, I'd suggest Carnival of the Vanities, which accepts your best post and has no content or topic restrictions. Otherwise, you can just look through the various Carnivals and see which one fits your needs.

Example: Carnival of the Vanities: due Tuesday, 6pm ET

And yes, you can submit the same post to more than one Carnival, but you have to fill out the form again after every submission.

Article URL - This is the permalink to the post on your blog that you want to submit.

Example: http://badexample.mu.nu/archives/096419.php

Trackback - This is the trackback link for the post you're submitting.

Example: http://blog.mu.nu/cgi/mt-tb.cgi/93846

This box is optional. If your blog doesn't have trackbacks, you can leave it blank.

Your Name - This is the name you want the Carnival's host to refer to you by, and does NOT have to be your real name. Most people use the name that appears on their blog. If you blog under a pseudonym, you can use that.

Example: Harvey

Article Title - The title of your post. The easiest way to fill this out is to copy & paste it directly from your blog entry (helps prevent typos)

Example: BATTLE OF THE LINK-WHORES: INSTAPUNDIT VS. THE ALLIANCE (A Filthy Lie)

Your E-mail - Use an e-mail you check regularly in case the Carnival host has a question about your submission. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, it usually comes up within a few hours of the Carnival being posted and needs to be dealt with in a timely manner.

Example: harvolson@gmail.com

Note: your e-mail will NOT be posted in the Carnival, so there's no need to spamproof the address.

Blog Name - Your blog name as you want it to appear in the Carnival.

Example: Bad Example

Blog URL - The link to your blog's front page.

Example: http://badexample.mu.nu/

Comments - Use this box to write a short description of your post. Try to make it provoke curiosity in the reader so that he'll want to click the link.

Example: A parody of the Charlie Daniels Band song "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", used to describe a contest between two bloggers to see who can give out the most gratuitous linkage.

This box is optional. If you can't think of a good summary, you can leave it blank and leave it up to the host to decide how to describe your post.

Note: The Carnival host may use your description verbatim, or he may make up his own. However, since most Carnivals have upwards of 20 entries, anything you can do to make the host's job easier will earn you some goodwill.

Category - Click the circle next to the word that best describes the theme or subject of your entry. If it doesn't seem to fit any of them well, choose "Other" or just leave it blank. This part is mostly an aid for hosts who choose to organize their Carnival by category instead of just listing all the entries with short descriptions.

Example: Humor

All that's left is to click the "SUBMIT YOUR POST" button, and you're done.

Mostly.

As a courtesy to the Carnival's host, you should link the Carnival after it's posted. If you're not sure where it will be, you can monitor the "Carnival News" section of the Carnival Submit Form page (bottom right of the page).

Final Tip - Most hosts list the entries in the order they were received. Since most Carnivals tend to be huge, it's better to be listed near the top. The best time to submit a Carnival post is the day after the last edition was posted so that you'll be near the top of the next week's edition.

However, any link is better than no link at all, and even being dead last will get you SOME traffic, so feel free to submit at any time.

NOTE: [If you've found this post useful enough to blog about, send a trackback or e-mail the permalink to me at harvolson-at-gmail.com and I'll add you to my Bad Example Groupies blogroll. See this post for details]

Posted by: Harvey at 09:19 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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