@Money Beagle - I know it is inevitable that I will one day switch to Wordpress.  Don't quite want to leave my comfort zone in Blogger yet, as I know it will take a lot of time to learn new things, play with layouts, and get everything transferred over.

 

@Harri - I've been using Blog Carnival HQ!  You're right, it is an excellent site for submitting.  But, I can't find who is hosting each carnival anywhere in the submission form or the receipt e-mail they send.  I've not yet received e-mails from any of the hosts letting me know that I have been included, and I know I've been included in at least a few.  I even checked my spam folder.

 

@Kevin & Miss T - Eventually I will outsource things like carnival submissions, but for now I want to do everything on my own just so I have a complete understanding.  One question about outsourcing to somebody like Corey or Melissa: how do you know which Carnival's they've submitted to for you?  Do they send you some sort of receipt e-mail? 

 

I feel like I've taken over this thread as the main questioner.  I didn't even start this one!!

Yes. They send you a log every week of what they submitted to.

@Harri - I've been using Blog Carnival HQ!  You're right, it is an excellent site for submitting.  But, I can't find who is hosting each carnival anywhere in the submission form or the receipt e-mail they send.  I've not yet received e-mails from any of the hosts letting me know that I have been included, and I know I've been included in at least a few.  I even checked my spam folder.

@Kevin & Miss T - Eventually I will outsource things like carnival submissions, but for now I want to do everything on my own just so I have a complete understanding.  One question about outsourcing to somebody like Corey or Melissa: how do you know which Carnival's they've submitted to for you?  Do they send you some sort of receipt e-mail? 

I feel like I've taken over this thread as the main questioner.  I didn't even start this one!!

If you can spare a few bucks, outsource Carnivals to someone like Corey. It's not worth your headache.

Ditto. The service is awesome and saves a ton of work.

Incidentally a cheeky plug for the new Blog Carnival HQ courtesy of Tom (Canadian Personal Finance) http://blogcarnivalhq.com/. Makes submitting articles a lot more user friendly, in my opinion!

Not trying to sell you anything...but Melissa @ Mom's Plans does carnival submissions for a very fair price if you didnt feel like handling it yourself.  It's definitely one of those things I have tried to do over and over myself, but im tired of reading guidelines and typing out descriptions and submitting...now I know Im getting 5 quality links everytime Melissa submits for me each week.  Might want to email and check her services out.

Thanks, Justin!  I appreciate the compliment.  :) 

Like Pam, I am fairly new to the concept of carnivals.  I have a follow-up carnival question:  Once you are featured and linked within a carnival, they usually require you to link back to that carnival from your blog.  How do you know that you've been featured in a Carnival?  Say I submit to several carnivals, but don't know who is hosting them or when they are being run.  So far, I've not received any e-mails telling me that I have been featured.  How then do you find out without physically searching for and reading through each and every carnival?

Hi, Matt.  Most will send you an e-mail letting you know you have been featured.  If you don't get that, the other alternative is to look for a comment (trackback) on your site or just go to blogcarnival.com and look for the link to the most recent edition.  Then you will have to manually check for your post.