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.

• Getting your readers to think about the posts Blunt Money's take on the Carnival of Personal Finance this week featured a crossword puzzle with words that related to the posts in the carnival.  Very inventive!With a carnival as popular as the Carnival of Personal Finance it helps to have an extra something to get readers involved in reading......
• 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......
• Carnivalize yourself once in a while Blog carnivals are meant to be a collection of posts from other blogs on a specific topic, but what about a Carnival of You?  What about putting together a bunch of your favorite links from your own blog, and slapping a Carnival moniker on it? Why not? Clever Dude has......
• 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......

• Our Philosophy Regarding Debt No Credit Needed, a personal finance blog, has made an interesting post about debt profiles of personal finance bloggers.  Bloggers were asked to answer a short questionnaire regarding their use of debt, and the results were compiled in the following 4 categories:  1.  Rate conscious borrowers. 2.  The practical borrowers.......
• Benjamin Franklin, the original personal finance blogger I just finished reading "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" which is actually just a collection of letters and papers from Franklin. The edition I read was out of print but you can find a similar version at amazon (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Second Edition) or free online at......
• Interesting Reads from Fellow Personal Finance Bloggers #2 PF Bloggers Here are some great articles by some of my fellow PF Bloggers from this past month: Seb at Pinching Copper gives us Five things you should buy used Jonathan at Master Your Card offers a guide on How to Pick the Right Credit Card JB at Get Rich......
• carnivals roundup I had articles included at three different carnivals over the last week, and as always I really appreciate the opportunity! My post Achieving Greatness was included at The October Carnival of Career and Job Advice at the Career Counselor. Another great post there was Erin Pavlina's Making a Living......