Blog Carnivals are a great way of increasing traffic, getting links and building your audience.
I started a Blog Carnival of Entrepreneurs at Startup Spark which is still going strong today.
Although I don’t always remember to submit my posts to blog carnivals (a simple reminder in my calendar would do the trick!) I’ve gone through a few recently, and wanted to mention them:
When Copyblogger steps up and says, “Hey! Participate in this project. I am, and it’s worth it…” people listen. Including me.
Blog Action Day is set for October 15, 2007. On that day, the organizers hope everyone talks about one issue: the environment.
“Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.”
The initiative is the brainchild of Leo, Collis and Cyan Ta’eed.
Currently, there are over 2,200 blogs participating. You can too.
I’ve already got my thinking cap on in terms of how the environment fits into this blog. There are any number of directions to go, and it will prove very interesting to see how people extend their own niches into the subject matter as well.
Most social bookmarking, social media and social networking sites allow you to include a thumbnail image (or avatar) to go with your profile. For example, when you submit a story on digg, your image appears with it.
The best example is MyBlogLog. It grew to huge success, in part because it showed people’s faces. For the first time you could see who was visiting your blog.
Most people take a thumbnail image of their face and use that as their avatar. You can see mine to the right.
But as Cheezhead points out, those images are essentially small banner advertisements for you. He provides an example on his site, where The Employment Guide uses a small logo instead of a face. 
It’s a great example of trying to differentiate oneself from the crowd.
In the past, MyBlogLog allowed animated avatars, but a few months ago those were removed. They became too distracting and annoying.
But lots of people are getting creative with their avatars. And we’re seeing more people talk about standing out with unique ones.
Secretly, we all want to be on top. Luckily, there’s a secret to staying on top that works every time.
We’re all media outlets. We’re all media channels.
That’s the siren call of many in the blogosphere; the people focused on democratizing media, taking down walled gardens, and building community.
But Mat Balez is sounding alarm bells over the idea that each of us can be media:
I know, on the surface, bringing the freedom and power of the press to every voice imaginable seems very democratic, empowering and ideal. But we cannot simply champion the ushering in of this new media landscape without pause and consideration of what it means more broadly for our culture, the future of journalism and, to cast the net as wide as possible, our ability to make sense of the world around us.
People are thinking about how the new media landscape affects everything around us. There’s plenty of interesting discussion and debate over citizen journalism and sites like NowPublic and NewAssignment. We’re not diving into the new media landscape completely blind.
I'm Benjamin Yoskovitz, CEO & Co-Founder of Standout Jobs. I've been an entrepreneur in the Web for 10+ years, with a particular focus on blogging and social media for the last two. This blog covers my topics of interest, including startups, entrepreneurship, business, blogging and social media. You'll also find content on personal development, productivity and marketing.
