You may or may not have heard of a blog carnival. Blogging colleague Toby Bloomberg first introduced me to the concept and I must say, as a link building afficionado, my eyes lit up at the potential these traveling columns have for building links.

A blog carnival is, in effect, a column on a particular topic that is passed on from blog to blog, with each blogger adding their own thoughts or findings to that topic.

If you have expertise, for example, in nonprofit marketing, you can join the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants. There you will find other members of the nonprofit blog carnival adding posts on this specialty topic.

Think of the potential. By participating as a host (dare I say, carny?), all the other host members of the blog carnival will link to you.

Each issue/edition will link to a handful of blogs and sites as well, so if you have something useful and intelligent to say on the topic, you should submit your link for consideration by the host(s). And even if you don’t actively participate, it’s good to get on the radar of those contributing to it. You never know, they may see one of your articles or blog posts and discuss it within the carnival. Just by reaching out you may see your site mentioned as a useful resource. Now that’s potential.