Blog Carnival Tips

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 is no exception.  I have great hosts.  I’m not the most organized person in the world, and they keep me in line and make sure the carnival’s covered if I fall behind a little bit.  It’s a great position to be in to have that kind of support from your hosts.

I hope that part of this support stems from me basically letting them do what they want.  I try very hard not to micromanage and to empower them to put together their carnivals however they see fit.  Some of the hosts are pretty liberal with the topics of posts accepted into the carnivals, and others really want the posts to be closely tied to the carnival’s theme, which is on debt reduction resources and stories.  Most things are fine with me.  Why?

• It’s my carnival, but it’s their blogs.  Bloggers absolutely have to have control on what goes up on their blogs.  If I demand which posts should be included, then I take that freedom away from them.
• It removes any barriers that I might impose.  If hosts have to seek approval from me, it slows them down, and things don’t go as smoothly.
• They have different opinions than I do on the topic.  It’s this diversity of viewpoints that keeps the carnival fresh.
• I don’t like remembering a lot of rules.  This is a personality trait of mine, but a lot of rules give me hives.

Empowering your hosts means trusting them to put together a good carnival and to ask when there’s a question.  The carnivals are wins for everyone, and most hosts already know this, so it’s easy for me to just let them do what they want, and let everyone reap the benefits.

Filed under: Managing