This is a rule that I don’t follow all the time, and it adds a lot of stress having to find a host from week to week.

The Carnival of Personal Finance has come to ask for hosts quarterly. He asks for hosts about a month in advance, then decides over the next couple of weeks who to have. The schedule is then ready to go for three months, and it’s pretty much smooth sailing from there.

My Carnival of Debt Reduction isn’t quite so big yet but here’s what I did the last time:

• I asked for hosts in a forum that is read by a lot of the bloggers in my niche. I received a number of requiests to host just from one post in the Money Blog Network Forums.
• After I assembled a bunch of interested hosts, I sent an e-mail (bcc to all of them) with a tentative schedule that took all of their requests into account.
• As people respond back to me, the hosting schedule takes form.

If your blog carnival has been around for a while then it makes sense to streamline how you set up your hosting schedule.

• Carnival evolution: Broadcasting to Nichecasting 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......
• 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......
• Consider choosing quality over quantity Free Money Finance has started up a new blog carnival that turns its back on quantity.  The Best of Money Carnival, by definition, is limited to only ten posts each week.  FMF even throws in some perqs:  $1,000 donated to charity for the best post of the year and for......
• Dealing with spammy submissions As a blog carnival gets more popular, the number of submissions goes up, and the traffic the carnival gets goes up as well.  This is good.  Unfortunately, this popularity also attracts posts that are of marginal quality or are highly commercial.  Or, people will submit several posts to a single......

• Three Months Till Christmas: Round Up Edition Are You Making Preparations for a Debt Free Christmas? Don’t do it.  I’m serious. Don’t use your credit cards to pay for your Christmas gifts (unless you have the cash to pay off your bill at the end of the month).  Since Christmas is only three months away you need......
• To Know Thyself is the Only Way to Overcome You!   [/caption] I believe that the only way to better one's self is to be true to thyself.  No matter what the subject, if you are self aware you can compensate short comings or emphasize strengths.  If we are talking sports, if you are aware of your weaknesses you can......
• Tough Money Love Tours the Personal Finance Carnivals Mr. ToughMoneyLove was excited to learn that two of his posts were selected this week for inclusion in personal finance blog carnivals.  I've not been to a carnival in many years, and never using the magic of virtual participation.  What a fuel-saving concept! First, in this week's edition 166 of the Carnival of Personal Finance......
• Welcome to this week's Carnival Here are this week's debt reduction posts for your reading pleasure (personal debt reduction story at the top!): Personal Finance Journey cut the cable and applied the savings to Operation Destroy Debt. Debt-Tips.com discusses the pros and cons of debt settlement. Free Money Finance calls the mortgage interest tax deduction......