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.

• 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......
• How effective is this carnival for anyone? I was catching up with the blogs in my reader and ran across this Carnival of Future Millionaires in my reader.  It was posted this week, and honestly I had forgotten that I had.  (I did not receive an e-mail from the host asking me to link back to the......
• Easy themes your blog carnival Adding a theme to your carnival doesn't have to be difficult.  It can be as easy as looking around you and searching Wikipedia. Interspersing a few interesting facts about a timely topic, regardless of whether that topic is closely tied to the particular blog carnival, dresses it up substantially.  It's......
• An unfortunate reality of hosting a blog carnival The larger benefit goes to the people who submit to the carnivals rather than to the people who put forth all of the effort to host them. A number of bloggers I respect have figured this out already, and they're fairly reluctant to host a carnival anymore. They understand the......

• Review: Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them By Gary Belsky and Tom Gilovich This fascinating book by a popular financial journalist and a college professor may not be the newest book on the shelf, and it may not have the most hype, but by far, it is one of the most interesting personal finance books we have ever read. This book goes where......
• My Five Favorite Personal Finance Bloggers I realize that I've been blogging for some time and with the exception of a few quick mentions, I never mention who I read everyday and why. Today, I'm going to fix that. Here are my 5 favorite personal finance bloggers in no particular order: Boston Gal's Open Wallet -......
• Uh Oh. We've Got Wasps: Links And Post Roundup This weekend was an extremely beautiful one here in the Twin Cities area.  We had temps in the 80s, blue skies and a slight breeze. Perfect weather in my opinion! I was able to get out and take some photos with my new Canon EOS Rebel T1i down at one......
• 3125 cell cingular phone - review She says: I have had Cingular service for my cellphone for a long time but am not using a Cingular phone. I am currently looking for a new cell phone and found the 3125 Cingular phone. So here are some of the details of the 3125 that I've found so......