The Lay Scientist: Meta-Blogging

When you start blogging, it can be hard to see how to draw attention to you writing. One of the best ways to get an audience is through blog carnivals.

If you’re not sure what a blog carnival is, Wikipedia provides a good article on them: “A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks links to other blog articles on the particular topic.” Usually, a number of sites host the carnival over a period of time, with the host changing each week - a good way to build a sense of community between blogs.

So if you have any posts that you’re particular proud of, a good idea is to find a suitable carnival, and e-mail a link to the upcoming host. Alternatively, you could apply to host the carnival yourself one week - a brilliant way of bringing attention to your blog. This can be a lot of work though, and you should probably only host if you’re serious about your blogging.

So what suitable blog carnivals are out there for rational-minded people? Three particularly good ones that The Lay Scientist will be hosting over the next few months are:

• The Skeptics’ Circle - Skeptic/debunking posts.
• The Carnival of the Godless - Atheism related posts.
• The Carnival of the Liberals - Posts with a liberal slant.

Don’t just e-mail and send in an article. Go to the sites, and have a proper look around. Read through the archived posts, and get a feel for what kind of articles they link to. Think about your submission, and how you can perhaps alter it or improve it for wider consumption - remember that this is your chance to showcase your writing to a large audience. Above all, don’t be upset if your link isn’t accepted - there often isn’t space for everyone, and even big blogs get overlooked.

So good luck. As it happens, I’ll be hosting the Skeptics’ Circle at The Lay Scientist on July 31st, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for good RationalBlogs articles to link to…

Welcome to The Lay Scientist’s outpost on RationalBlogs. Unlike the main blog, which concentrates on peer-reviewed science, skepticism, atheism and more than a little politics, TLS:MB is designed to be a blog about the perils and rewards of rational blogging.

I’ve been blogging for several months at The Lay Scientist, and in that time gradually built up a decent blog with an regular audience of several hundred people. Some things I did well, others I did not so well. My aim here is to support the fledgling RationalBlogs domain by creating a blog that focuses on the activity of rational blogging itself - a sort of Meta Blog. Hopefully we use this place to share information and wisdom as we all take our blogs further.

I’ll be updating about once a week or so, but any questions you have drop me a comment.

Cheers,

Martin (LayScience.net).