If there are no rules for what can be submitted to your blog carnival, then just about anything will be submitted!  The overall quality of posts submitted to the Carnival of Debt Reduction had been going downhill a touch.  Lots of automatic carnival submission was happening through BlogCarnival.com, and I decided to cut the cord over there.  That reduced the volume quite a bit, and the folks that were submitting on-topic articles already knew about the blog carnival submission form on my site.

I decided to take things a step further and make it very clear what was to be expected of people submitting to the carnival.  I drafted a set of blog carnival rules and added a check box on the submission form that indicated that they accepted the rules.  The rules could be used as screens by the hosts.  Don’t follow the rules, and it’s an easy rejection.  It makes the host’s job much easier, which is a good thing for a carnival manager.

What I regret it that I didn’t do this a long time ago.  My aunt, who was a health teacher, always said that it’s far easier to be strict at the beginning than it is to get stricter later.  The Best of Money Carnival started things off on the right foot with very clear rules.  Hosting that carnival was a breeze, and I hope that hosts of my carnival find it just as easy.

• 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......
• Does it pay to be clever as a host? Putting together a carnival can take anywhere from about five minutes to many, many hours.The five minute version takes advantage of the "InstaCarnival" feature on BlogCarnival.com. The InstaCarnival is a post that has a number of lines with the format:Blogger presents blog post, posted at blog, saying "comment"for each post......
• Try scheduling hosts in advance 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......
• 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......

• How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck Right now, more than 80% of households in the United States live on a paycheck to paycheck basis. This means that a lost job could result in financial disaster for a large chunk of the population. Once you get into the trap of relying so heavily on one paycheck, it......
• Two carnivals are up! Frugal Underground hosts this week's Carnival of Debt Reduction, and My Money Blog has this week's Carnival of Personal Finance! The Carnival of Debt Reduction was a little lean this week; nonetheless bookchiq did a great job putting the carnival together! Thanks! Frugal for Life hosts the Carnival of Debt......
• Find Helpful Info about easy ways to make money Anyone who wants to start making money online is interested in ways to do it without any investments required. Of course, it might be possible to make money online without investing money in it but, unfortunately, the chances to start your own business online and be successful in it is......
• Money Hacks Carnival #12 at Can I Get Rich On A Salary The Money Hacks Carnival #12 was hosted at Can I Get Rich On A Salary. This week carnival theme is "The Twelve Labours of Heracles" -- cool! Here are this week editor's picks: The Easy Way to Budget for Irregular Expenses Using A Separate Checking Account at Think Your Way......