The Future of Carnivals: Too Many Carnies, Not Enough Attractions?
Author: Nick
Category: Money
Topics: blogging, carnivals
I should be finishing (read “starting”) this essay for my application to the leadership development program at work, but I’d much rather refresh my feed reader every 10 seconds.
The latest item to pop up in my reader: this week’s edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by My Money Blog. Jonathan poses some interesting questions in his introduction to the fine selection of posts from the personal finance blogosphere:
How is one supposed to choose? I don’t know, but do our readers really want to sift through that many posts? Do hosts really want to spent all their time writing HTML? What about when we reach 100 posts? or 200? Or maybe I’m wrong, and everyone really does just want a huge link dump to choose from.
It is a difficult situation facing Jonathan and the other hosts of blogging carnivals, especially one as popular as the Carnival of Personal Finance. How does one say yes to including some posts in a carnival while saying no to others? How does one draw the line between “good” posts and not-so-good ones?
I’m scheduled to host a carnival in a couple of weeks, and I’m on the list of future hosts for the Carnival of Personal Finance, so these are questions I’ll need to find answers to soon. For now, here’s the little bit of advice I can offer to future hosts on what I would like to see in carnivals.
- Interesting format. Who is going to read a carnival that is presented in a plain, boring format? Not me, and likely not many people will read the entire carnival. An appealing layout that presents the selected entries in an eye-catching format is vital to a successful carnival. While you can host a carnival on any piece of empty land, the ones that people remember are the ones that make the best use of that piece of land.
- Personal touch. Many carnival submission forms send e-mails to their hosts with ready-made HTML that can be dropped right into the article. It always saddens me to see a host who does just that and nothing more. While becoming a host to a carnival can be relatively simple, it should still be treated as an honor. It’s also going to be the first post a lot of people see in your blog, and you’re going to want to show why your blog is worth a return visit. So show the world why your blog is so awesome and give your carnival a personal touch that makes it stand out from the ordinary.
- Carnivals are a big time investment. Don’t think you’re going to put together a good carnival in an hour or even a few hours. Work on your format well in advance so that you don’t have to spend a lot of time designing HTML when the entries start rolling in. Block off a good 6-10 hours (or more for bigger carnivals) where you’ll be able to work on reading (yes, you have to read all of the submissions in full or you’re cheating yourself, your readers, and your submitters), selecting, preparing, and editorializing.
- Don’t be afraid to play favorites. If you like a particular post a whole lot, do something special to highlight it. You’ll make the blogger feel extra special, and you’ll help your readers find a new blog they might really enjoy.
- Reward original and entertaining posts. It may benefit you the most to include links to big-time blogs, but you wouldn’t want carnival hosts to ignore you if you were a smaller blog. While I’m a fan of “the more, the merrier” in carnivals, if you feel you must limit your selection, be sure that it really includes the best, most enjoyable posts from a variety of bloggers.
- Please, above all, have fun! Carnival hosts are too darn serious. There’s a reason they’re called “carnivals”–they should be entertaining to read and to put together. If you don’t think that reading other bloggers’ work and presenting it to your audience will be fun, you shouldn’t volunteer to host a carnival. Sure it’s hard work putting together a carnival, but it should also be a rewarding experience all around.
If you’re working on a carnival and you’re stuck for ideas on making it a memorable one, feel free to get in touch with me or your carnival’s creator for some ideas.
Loading ...
17 Responses »
1.
persona finance advice
April 9th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
To tell the truth, I have given up on hosting carnivals – took my hand out of the bag. To do anything original does take a vast amount of time. Wishing you the best when it comes to you.
2.
Jonathan
April 10th, 2006 at 1:01 am
“Block off a good 6-10 hours (or more for bigger carnivals) where you’ll be able to work on reading (yes, you have to read all of the submissions in full or you’re cheating yourself, your readers, and your submitters), selecting, preparing, and editorializing.”
6-10 hours?!? You are a better man than I, let me know how you feel after hosting. Actually, let me know *before* you host so I know to submit, since it sounds like it will be a good carnival!
I think asking that much of a time commitment for a host is a bit much. I read every single submission, but putting up a thoughtful summary and/or funny snippet for 50 posts just ain’t gonna happen
3.
Nick
April 10th, 2006 at 9:27 am
Jonathan, I totally understand what you’re saying, and I think your approach to the carnival was one of the better ones. You didn’t hesitate to pare down the selection to what you thought were the best posts, and you highlighted your particular favorites. I meant no disrespect when suggesting carnival hosts invest 6-10 hours in putting things together. It can take some people (*cough*me*cough*) that long just to read the submissions and select the best ones, though other hosts can probably do so in half the time or less! Whether it takes an hour or a hundred hours to put a carnival together, I just hope that every host takes away something from the experience other than aching wrists from typing too much. Thanks for the comments!
Personal Finance Advice, thanks for the well-wishes. I hope you’ll reconsider hosting future carnivals as your approach is definitely one of my favorites.
4.
claire
April 11th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Thanks for this post. I think the best Carnivals are the ones that have a very engaged host/editor. The word “host” is so passive. What they really need is a good editor.
I’m hosting my first Festival of Frugality in a few weeks. I want to see how I do with that before I sign up for a biggie like the Carnival of PF.
I’ve got some ideas for starting a new Carnival, but I can’t decide if we need more small, focussed carnivals, or if we really just need to improve the carnivals we’ve already got. Thoughts about this, anyone?
5.
Nick
April 11th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Claire, that’s a very good question. I’ve seen the creator of the Carnival of the Vanities (the very first blog carnival) say that blog carnivals have “jumped the shark” and really serve no useful purpose anymore. I definitely beg to differ, but it does pose the problem of whether or not more carnivals are the answer.
I guess that sort of depends. Should, for example, the Carnival of Personal Finance be divided into multiple carnivals? Or should there be no official “division” but just an extra carnival that covers a certain sub-category of personal finance? Can another finance-related carnival even make it now?
I have my own idea for a carnival, but I hesitate to execute it because 1) it might bomb big time, and 2) who am I to be starting a carnival? For now, I’m just going to wait and see what the next few weeks of finance carnivals bring and if there really is a need for any reformation.
6.
michigan attractions
June 30th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I think I should admit that the title mislead me a bit, I saw the carnival part and got excited. Good post with some good advice though.
7.
afrodisiacos naturales
December 20th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Great article. Thanks for posting it.comprar maxidus
8.
صور انمي
December 20th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Thank you so much to all of the information filed distinctive
9.
برامج
December 20th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I would like to thank you a lot on outstanding effort
10.
zara
March 25th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
http://www.vibramfivefingershoes2011.com/
11.
Property Marbella
August 11th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
I’m scheduled to host a carnival in a couple of weeks, and I’m on the list of future hosts for the Carnival of Personal Finance, so these are questions I’ll need to find answers to soon. Property Marbella
12.
دردشة
September 15th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
mcryh reshamcryh reshamcryh resha
13.
دردشة عراق الرومانسية
December 24th, 2011 at 8:54 am
thank you a lot’s bro sa
14.
red christian louboutin
January 12th, 2012 at 9:46 am
really, i didnt know that, i learned somethign today for sure…
15.
replica jewelry
January 26th, 2012 at 1:29 am
Great Site, your plugins are very useful and save me a tonne of time.kgu
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>Trackbacks & Pingbacks
[...] Be sure to check out the Festival when it rolls into Punny Money Country next week. I’ll post plenty of reminders as the week rolls along, so be sure to put on your frugal thinking caps (purchased from the Dollar Store, of course). I promise an extra-special Festival for ya next week. [...]
Pingback by Punny Money — April 11, 2006 @ 8:02 am
[...] Good morning, Earth! Is everyone having a lovely week so far? I know I am! I bet you would be too if you were hosting the magnificent travelling internet spectacle known as the Festival of Frugality. If you’re a regular reader, then you know that I promised one heck of a show once a carnival rolled into Punny Country. So get on your feet and prepare… for the ultimate… carnival… experience… [...]
Pingback by Punny Money — April 18, 2006 @ 6:05 am