One easy way to increase your traffic and build readership is to participate in blog carnivals, or memes. Memes are hosted by another blogger and are usually based on a weekly or monthly theme.  For example, Frugal Friday is hosted every Friday over at Life as Mom.  FishMama includes Mr. Linky and invites other bloggers to link up a frugal ideas or tips post they have written.

Not only does meme participation increase traffic to your site, but it also helps you to focus your writing. On the days when you’re suffering from writer’s block, a meme topic might just get those wheels a turnin’.  If you join in regularly with a certain meme, you will quickly become part of that blogging community, building readership and relationships.

Meme etiquette is fairly universal, and it’s polite to follow the rules.

• Link to your specific post permalink, not your blog’s main page.
• Always include a link in your post back to the meme.
• Stick with the host’s intended theme.  Don’t link up a random post just for traffic purposes.
• It’s also nice to visit other participants’ linked posts.  While not necessary to click on every single one, do pick a few to visit and leave a thoughtful comment.
• When entering your information into Mr. Linky, be sure to keep it brief and leave spaces.  Long words cause formatting problems for the host.

Visit our Memes page for a comprehensive list of blog carnivals.

Photo by AllPosters.com