Some of the first blog carnivals had a broad subject matter. Since “carnival real estate” was wide open, general-interest carnivals could stake their claim without displacing anyone. When one looks at the money and finance carnivals at BlogCarnival.com there are a couple of screenfuls of money and finance carnivals. The first of these (as far as I know) was the Carnival of Personal Finance, with the premier edition hosted at its creator’s website, Consumerism Commentary.
This carnival enjoyed a few months by itself before a troublemaker (I won’t mention any names!) cut his own slice of the blog carnival pie by creating the Carnival of Debt Reduction, which was aimed at highlighting personal debt reduction stories. The initial posting of the guidelines and schedule for the Carnival of Debt Reduction acknowledged the existence of the Carnival of Personal Finance with the hope that things wouldn’t get too crowded:
Why start up one [carnival] on Debt Reduction when there’s already one [carnival] on Personal Finance, you might ask? Debt reduction is part of personal finance — no doubt about that. It’s a very important part of personal finance, though — important enough to have its own carnival. Successful debt reduction stories and good debt reduction advice needs more exposure, and people need to see that debt is not forever. Many inspiring debt reduction stories make their way into blogs, and it is encouraging to everyone involved — bloggers, carnival hosts, and readers — to have their successes and insights highlighted on a regular basis. It is my feeling that there’s enough room in the blogosphere for both a Debt Reduction carnival and a Personal Finance carnival. We’ll see!
In short, I felt there was enough room for a blog carnival that was a sub-topic of an existing carnival. A year and a half later, the carnival still has regular contributors and people still are interested in hosting. Also, the Carnival of Personal Finance still thrives, and if anything, gets more posts than it did before!
Following this carnival there was the Carnival of Investing and the Festival of Frugality, which arguably are also sub-topics within personal finance. And more division of personal finance, like the Carnival of Taxes. Then, there was even more specialization of investing, like the Festival of Stocks and the Carnival of Real Estate Investing. Today, there are four other real-estate-related blog carnivals listed, and four other blog carnivals specializing in credit and debt.
Once one gets a foot in the door, lots of others can get in. But the more that come in, the more specialized they have to be.
While the new specialized carnivals have to struggle to find enough posts to piece together a decent edition, the older, more general carnivals run into the problem that there are too many posts for each carnival. The specialized carnivals have to define themselves, whereas the older carnivals may have to re-define themselves to avoid becoming unwieldy.
Blog carnivals are a great way for newer blogs to gain some exposure, and having a highly specialized blog carnival that is directly related to the content of the post may be just as effective in gaining exposure than if it were submitted to a bigger, but less specialized carnival. This is because the readers of the specialized carnival are more targeted than the readers of the broader carnival.
I think if one is going to participate in blog carnivals, submitting to the more general ones and more specific ones is a good idea. And if an appropriate specific one hasn’t been started up, maybe it’s time! As the blog carnival scene evolves, odds are someone will take it upon themselves to fill in the vacuum.
Adding content to a carnival when you host There are many good ways to get your carnival to stand out if you're the host. Typically the inventiveness is evident in the presentation of the posts. But what about adding a well-thought-out introduction to the carnival?Most of the carnivals I've hosted just say something to the extent of:"Welcome to......
Powerful backlink tool, or spammer in a box? One of the sidebar ads within BlogCarnival.com showed a blog carnival submission tool called Xingla Pro 3. Honestly, I thought submitting articles to different blog carnivals was pretty easy, but this tool appears to make it ridiculously easy. Maybe almost too easy. I asked a question of a guy who......
Communicate with your hosts If you're managing a carnival then you know how important your hosts are. They can make managing the carnival a piece of cake. And if they volunteer to host, they likely know what it entails and will put together a good carnival for you, the carnival readers, and for the......
Empower your hosts Managing a blog carnival can be really easy if you have great hosts. Great hosts write inventive posts for the carnivals and help to promote the carnival. It's their edition of the carnival, so a good reflection on them is a good reflection on you. My Carnival of Debt Reduction......
Riskiest Real Estate Markets In The US A lot of people are wondering where to invest in order to catch the next real estate boom. I don't have a ready answer for that, but Forbes magazine was nice enough to tell us where the riskiest markets are. 1. Miami, Fla. Due in part to escalating insurance costs,......
Announcing the Money Blog Network Free Money Finance, Five Cent Nickel, All Things Financial, Consumerism Commentary, and Blueprint for Financial Prosperity have teamed up for what looks like to be a juggernaut of a personal finance blog: The Money Blog Network: Improving Your Bottom Line These five gentlemen are among the very best in the......
Is It A Good Time To Invest In Real Estate? Even though I've experienced phenomenal returns in real estate, I think its getting exceedingly difficult to invest in that asset class. If you're flipping houses and you have a good buying and selling system in place, then the story is different, but thats probably your full-time job. If you a......
Carnival evolution: Broadcasting to Nichecasting
Commentary March 23rd, 2007
Some of the first blog carnivals had a broad subject matter. Since “carnival real estate” was wide open, general-interest carnivals could stake their claim without displacing anyone. When one looks at the money and finance carnivals at BlogCarnival.com there are a couple of screenfuls of money and finance carnivals. The first of these (as far as I know) was the Carnival of Personal Finance, with the premier edition hosted at its creator’s website, Consumerism Commentary.
This carnival enjoyed a few months by itself before a troublemaker (I won’t mention any names!) cut his own slice of the blog carnival pie by creating the Carnival of Debt Reduction, which was aimed at highlighting personal debt reduction stories. The initial posting of the guidelines and schedule for the Carnival of Debt Reduction acknowledged the existence of the Carnival of Personal Finance with the hope that things wouldn’t get too crowded:
In short, I felt there was enough room for a blog carnival that was a sub-topic of an existing carnival. A year and a half later, the carnival still has regular contributors and people still are interested in hosting. Also, the Carnival of Personal Finance still thrives, and if anything, gets more posts than it did before!
Following this carnival there was the Carnival of Investing and the Festival of Frugality, which arguably are also sub-topics within personal finance. And more division of personal finance, like the Carnival of Taxes. Then, there was even more specialization of investing, like the Festival of Stocks and the Carnival of Real Estate Investing. Today, there are four other real-estate-related blog carnivals listed, and four other blog carnivals specializing in credit and debt.
Once one gets a foot in the door, lots of others can get in. But the more that come in, the more specialized they have to be.
While the new specialized carnivals have to struggle to find enough posts to piece together a decent edition, the older, more general carnivals run into the problem that there are too many posts for each carnival. The specialized carnivals have to define themselves, whereas the older carnivals may have to re-define themselves to avoid becoming unwieldy.
Blog carnivals are a great way for newer blogs to gain some exposure, and having a highly specialized blog carnival that is directly related to the content of the post may be just as effective in gaining exposure than if it were submitted to a bigger, but less specialized carnival. This is because the readers of the specialized carnival are more targeted than the readers of the broader carnival.
I think if one is going to participate in blog carnivals, submitting to the more general ones and more specific ones is a good idea. And if an appropriate specific one hasn’t been started up, maybe it’s time! As the blog carnival scene evolves, odds are someone will take it upon themselves to fill in the vacuum.