What does everyone else think?

Monica

http://www.MonicaOnMoney.com

Instead of removing a blogger included article in a carnival if they don't follow procedure with linking, would it be better to make the article a "no follow" on that submission in a given carnival?

Just thinking out loud...

Eric - NarrowBridge.net said:

I know it is a bit of a delay from what some carnivals prefer, but I do a monthly round-up post and include all of the links in there.

I'd really prefer this method..at the very least every other week...im just wondering how many hosts check to see if you have linked back in a new post and whether or not they remove your link before you have a chance...perhaps not many.

 

Ive signed up to host a couple carnivals in December, and I would be perfectly fine with linking back to me at any point in the future...to be quite honest, Im still not that comfortable with immediate reciprocation, to me it can still be viewed as link exchange rather than a gathering of thoughtful posts.

Blog Carnivals have been around for quite a while, and typically the blog carnival owners request that the link be place on the included submitter blog site within two weeks.  I'm not sure why 2 weeks, but that's the typical rule of thumb.  Guessing I think it's because the host doesn't want to keep liking for the reciprocal link for too long.  As Money Beagle states, that would be hours of work. 

I am a little concern about the size of some of the carnivals.  I don't like them being over 100 included sites.  When I host I whittle it down below 80 inclusions usually (at least lately).

I'm sure Corey, Melissa and Dan will provide emails to their clients that provide the html to insert into their client's future posts.

Please excuse me if I'm jumping in here and responding to your forum posts too much, it's just that I'm involved with this process heavily and I feel like I should answer by default.

I just include them in a round up post as I don't think they fit in any of my other posts, nor do I want a post with just the carnival mentions.

 

As for linking back to them, I use Corey at 20s Finances. Every week he sends me an email with the HTML so all I do is copy/paste.

Corey is a stand up guy.  He really takes into consideration what is best for everybody.  I consider him a friend and happy to read that he is doing well

I'm honestly pretty bad, at least in how long it can often take, but I do include a link back for carnivals which include me.

Couple of points:

1) If you're a host and you're finding that people are linking back, are you providing notification to those that were included?  Very rarely anymore do I actually get an e-mail saying 'Hey, you were included.'  What I normally do is a Google search for the carnival, and use the Search Tools - anytime in the last week, to find the latest edition of the carnival.  Then I have to search for my name and see if I was included.  If so, I copy the link into a tracking spreadsheet and include it.  I don't complain about this process, as I'm grateful to be included, but I suspect that not everybody goes through it, so I'd say that if you're a carnival host who is not seeing links back, but you didn't provide e-mail notification, I wouldn't complain too loudly.

2) When I've hosted carnivals, I've never gone back and checked to see if every participant linked back.  That seems like it would take hours.

It's possible for me to provide reports to the carnival hosts and owners (I've thought about coding this in bloggercarnivals.com), but to be honest nobody has ask for that feature (but it is possible to do).  Many of the carnival hosts are just doing it to help the community, but in the same token getting benefit from doing so.  Any participation in a carnival is a win-win.  I've also notice that many of the carnival hosts are submitters too.

I've personally hosted a lot of carnivals (in addition to coding the bloggercarnivals.com website).  It's a much easier process now than compared to when the Yakezie Carnival first started.

Couple of points:

1) If you're a host and you're finding that people are linking back, are you providing notification to those that were included?  Very rarely anymore do I actually get an e-mail saying 'Hey, you were included.'  What I normally do is a Google search for the carnival, and use the Search Tools - anytime in the last week, to find the latest edition of the carnival.  Then I have to search for my name and see if I was included.  If so, I copy the link into a tracking spreadsheet and include it.  I don't complain about this process, as I'm grateful to be included, but I suspect that not everybody goes through it, so I'd say that if you're a carnival host who is not seeing links back, but you didn't provide e-mail notification, I wouldn't complain too loudly.

2) When I've hosted carnivals, I've never gone back and checked to see if every participant linked back.  That seems like it would take hours.

I know it is a bit of a delay from what some carnivals prefer, but I do a monthly round-up post and include all of the links in there.

I'd really prefer this method..at the very least every other week...im just wondering how many hosts check to see if you have linked back in a new post and whether or not they remove your link before you have a chance...perhaps not many.

Ive signed up to host a couple carnivals in December, and I would be perfectly fine with linking back to me at any point in the future...to be quite honest, Im still not that comfortable with immediate reciprocation, to me it can still be viewed as link exchange rather than a gathering of thoughtful posts.

Money Reasons said:

I personally use both ways (round and via wordpress), depending on how healthy I feel (literally).  I personally think the roundup in a future post is the best way though.

 

A lot of the carnival submission services (like Corey and Melissa) prepare the link roundup and send them as part of their service.

When you say via wordpress…are you referring to the linkback that wordpress automatically gives when you accept the "comment"?

Yes, it's not as good as direct entries in your posts as provided by carnival submitters, but at least it's something. 

Oh, I see you are hosting a carnival session in the future (Carnival of Financial Planning)…, good deal.  To make carnivals work, hosts are definitely needed.

I'm actually thinking about starting my own carnival submission service, where I would provide additional services to the carnival submitters and owners.  Actually I have lots of ideas for such processes and for the BloggerCarnivals.com site.

I see you included some links in your latest blog post (nicely done).  I know that Crystal includes her links in her repeating weekly post about what happened during her week.  It's a nice look too.  I think if a post is all links, that wouldn't be as good as a normal blog post with the recognition listed at the bottom middle or wherever.  But that said, it's really a personal matter in how you include the links.

Welcome to the Carnival party!

Don

I personally use both ways (round and via wordpress), depending on how healthy I feel (literally).  I personally think the roundup in a future post is the best way though.

 

A lot of the carnival submission services (like Corey and Melissa) prepare the link roundup and send them as part of their service.

When you say via wordpress...are you referring to the linkback that wordpress automatically gives when you accept the "comment"?

A lot of the carnival submission services (like Corey and Melissa) prepare the link roundup and send them as part of their service.

As for linking back to them, I use Corey at 20s Finances. Every week he sends me an email with the HTML so all I do is copy/paste.

Is there a plugin that does this for you automatically?  Does it HAVE to be done in a round up or post?  I want to know the easiest way, the preferred way, and your way!!! 

Thanks guys!

Justin