I’ve been reminded a few times lately that participating in blog carnivals is a good way to build awareness of and traffic to your blog.

And I’ve had an example close to home – well, at home really – of how enthusiastic some bloggers can be about participating in these carnivals. My partner Suzie, who has recently been putting more time than previously into her Abundance Highway blog, hosted a blog carnival two weeks ago on the topic “abundance thinking”. She was warned that it would be hard work and it would be a challenge getting people to participate. Neither prediction proved true. According to Suzie, the work was not too difficult and she had thirty four entries. And she enjoyed the process so much she announced a second carnival.

I was inspired by all this, plus a dash of patriotism, to submit today a post for the Blog Carnival of Australia which is scheduled for August 1 and is being hosted by Megan Bayliss at the Imaginif blog, self-described as “the largest child protection conversation in the world”. The process of submitting a post could not be simpler. All you need to do is select a post you have written, or write and publish a new one, on the topic of the carnival, go to the Submit page and supply some basic details: article permalink, your name and email address, select the carnival you are submitting for and an appropriate category and you’re done. Easy peasy.

I chose to submit my slightly tongue-in-cheek post from last week on Second Life, titled First Life, Anyone?. I thought the picture of an Aussie beach, at the world-renowned (among surfers) Snapper Rocks, compared to a picture of a virtual beach in Second Life, was reasonable qualification. We’ll see.

It’s not too late to submit for the Blog Carnival of Australia. Closes today, Monday July 30, at 5 pm (that’s Australian time, natch).