Having hosted a number of carnivals and administrating this carnival for 3 months now, I am sometimes disappointed to find that a some participants fail to link back to the edition as required by carnival terms and as agreed when submitting their posts.

Why do you have to link back?

Firstly, it’s the rules. If you want to play at anything, play by the rules or not at all.

Secondly, a blog carnival is about community. The carnival travels from one blog to another within the same niche and all involved take turns benefiting from each other. When everyone links back to an edition, everyone benefits.

Thirdly, hosting a blog carnival is a lot of work. Carnival hosts spend hours (sometimes several days depending on the size of the carnival) sifting through, reading and organizing submissions, not to mention putting together a theme to make the carnival interesting.

How should you link back?

The best way is to link to the carnival in an announcement post on your blog. Here is an example:

Our post on ____ has been featured in the ____ edition of the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights at  (blog name) . Check it out for some great reads!

The second best way is as part of a roundup of links which most bloggers do on a regular basis (once every one or two weeks).

The third is adding a link to the post included.

How not to link back?

• Approving the trackback link in your comments section does not count as a true link as it is usually “nofollow” and not very visible.
• Neither does linking to it in the form of a comment count for the same reason.

What happens if I don’t link back?

Repeated failure to link back will result in your blog being blacklisted and all future submissions will be automatically disqualified.