Duties and Benefits of Hosts

As a host of the Best of Money Carnival, you'll need to do the following:

• Contact FMF and volunteer to host. We can then mutually agree on a date that works for you.

• One week before you're set to host, email FMF for access to the nest week's submissions.

• At 6 pm on Saturday before your post, submissions for your carnival will cease (any extras coming in after that time will be considered for the next carnival.)

• You should then review all of the submissions (you may have pre-screened some during the week) and decide which are the ten best in your opinion. Criteria for the "best" include originality, ease of application, breadth of appeal, and ability to help grow net worth as well as any other criteria you think are important.

• There should be no undue favoritism in deciding your top 10. Your judgment should be based on which is the best in your opinion and no other factors.

• You write the review and post it on your site.

• You email the post URL to the authors whose posts are included in your top 10. You also email the post URL and the URL of the post listed as the best to FMF.

• You can also do any marketing for the post you like (tweeting it, submitting it to Tip'd, etc.)

As a host of the Best of Money Carnival, you'll get the following benefits:

• Traffic - Each of the ten posts included in the carnival are required to link to the carnival (as long as you send them the URL as noted above) which will drive traffic to your site. In addition, FMF will make an announcement of the carnival on Free Money Finance as well as include the post in his weekly carnival roundup each Friday.

• Links - As noted above, as well as any other sites that link to the carnival for one reason or another. You'll also receive a link on the carnival's hosts page, in the host blogroll on this site, in an FMF announcement post when the carnival goes live and in the FMF roundup for that week. Besides the traffic, links themselves are valuable for many different reasons. Update (4-2-12): No longer adding to the hosts blogroll. And your link on FMF will either be in an announcement post OR in the roundup.

• Time - A minimum amount of effort required to be a carnival host. No need to worry about posting 80 different pieces on your site.

• $1,000 Charitable Contribution - At the end of the year, FMF will select one carnival host from among the weekly hosts that he feels went above and beyond hosting the carnival. This blogger will then be able to have FMF contribute $1,000 to the blogger's charity. The charity must be acceptable to FMF (I don't want to give to any charities that contradict my personal beliefs and I don't want to be added to any extra mailing lists if it can be avoided.) If the initial one isn't acceptable, another can be suggested and so on until one that both parties can agree on is selected. That said, FMF supports many mainstream charities like the American Cancer Society, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and Make-a-Wish Foundation, so finding an acceptable option shouldn't be difficult. (FYI, here's a larger list of the charities FMF has supported in the past.) Update: For 2011 and beyond, winners will be able to select from several pre-determined (by FMF) charities for their winning donation to be given to. Update #2 (12-20-11): No one seems that excited about the charity aspect of this carnival, so I'm dropping it. For 2012 and beyond, there will be no winner named and no contribution made.

• Blogroll Link - Hosts will receive a link on the carnival's "past host" blogroll.

I reserve the right to add, change or subtract from these at any time, but for now, these are the responsibilities and benefits of hosting the carnival.