The Blogiversary Bash Is Back! Celebrating 4 Years of The Gonzo Papers

Photograph by Kilroy_60

WELCOME...old friends, new friends and those of you who are just passing through. It's good to have you along as we travel the highways, byways, side streets and backroads of life. I suspect we shall come upon paths that are yet to be discovered. Enjoy the journey.

And so it began, 29 October, 2005.


Approaching my four-year blogiversary I understand all too well the sentiment that internet years are more akin to dog years than those that pass on the Gregorian calendar.

With that in mind, I kicked off a month-long celebration yesterday which will culminate on 29 October with a blog carnival. {Rescheduled for 7 November}

*--------------The Blogiversary Bash!--------------*

• It's going to be a FREE FOR ALL! You are free to select a post on any subject.
• I'll accept one post from each of your blogs, however many you have.
• Only English language posts will be accepted.
• It's going to be family friendly, so no posts with titles that include profanity or pictures of a sexual nature.
• No posts that are advertisements.

If you have any questions about the posts that qualify or the rules write a comment and you'll get a response there. That way anyone else who has the same question will also get the answer.

Submit your entry to kilroy60@gmail.com - Entries are being accepted now.

Include...

---(-)-> Your name as you would want it to appear in the post
---(-)-> The name of your blog
---(-)-> Your blog URL
---(-)-> The title of your post
---(-)-> The post URL

The deadline for entries is Sunday, 11:59 p.m., 25 October, 2009. {Changed to 11:59 p.m., 2 November}


A Blog Carnival Primer...

A blog carnival, for those who are not acquainted with the term, is an "event" where a host blog accepts links to posts from other bloggers. The host then crafts the submissions into a single post and publishes it on their blog on a predetermined date.

A blog carnival provides a number of blogs with the opportunity to gain exposure at one time. Visitors will go to the host blog to view the carnival and be able to click through to links provided by each blogger participating in the carnival.

Why participate?

Some of the benefits an individual blogger can gain from participating in a blog carnival are...

• Meeting other bloggers, those who submit entries as well as ones who write comments
  
• Having more traffic coming to their blog on the day of the carnival
• Regularly getting more visits as a result of participating in the carnival
  
• Receiving an increased number of comments
• Receiving offers for link swaps
• Seeing your Page Rank increase
  

I say these things based on my experience of participating in hundreds of carnivals, hosting my own carnival series and hosting carnivals for other people.

There is no promotional effort better than participating in a well run carnival to boost the long-term performance of your blog.

The key to make the carnival pay off is participation. That means...

1. Contributing a post to the carnival.
2. Visiting the carnival and writing a comment.
3. Visiting the other entries in the carnival and writing meaningful comments.

I'd appreciate your help in promoting this carnival.

Writing a post in your blog, with a link back to this post, please, will do more than anything else to make the carnival successful for all involved.

Social media shout-outs, with a link to this post, are helpful, of course, and much appreciated.