Best of Money Carnival

Reminder

Your post submission MUST have a few sentences (three at most is fine) that describes what the post is about. If it does not have this, the post will automatically be disqualified from consideration for the carnival.

Welcome!

Welcome to all those coming today from the announcement on Free Money Finance. Here's a quick guide to finding out what you need to know about the Best of Money Carnival:

• Carnival Guidelines

• How it works

• A sample carnival

• Dates and hosts for carnivals (send me a note if you'd like to host.)

• Duties and benefits of hosts

• Duties and benefits of participants

• Submit a post for the carnival (hosted next week at Free Money Finance.)

Thanks!!!!!

53 posts submitted so far for next week's Best of Money Carnival. Thankfully, I only have to pick and post the top 10. :-)

Now that I've looked at them, many are disqualified because they don't include a summary of the post submitted. Guess those that submitted correctly will reap the benefits!

That's About It

The site may have a few more tweaks going forward, but for now most of it is set. Looking forward to the announcement of the carnival coming up in a few days.

Duties and Benefits of Participants

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

• Submit a post. Obvious, I know, but I had to mention it.

• When you submit the post, be sure to include a short but impactful description of your post in the space provided. In many cases, the carnival host will use this information in the post and a good description can be the difference between getting into the carnival and not getting in. Furthermore, a great description will encourage readers to visit your post. So sell it as best you can!!!!

• You can only submit one post each week for consideration. If you submit more than that, all your posts will be automatically disqualified.

• If you are selected as a top 10 post, the carnival host will email you a link to the carnival. You are then required to link to the post within the next week. If you do not want to do this, do not submit a post for consideration. If you do not do it after agreeing to do so, your participation in future carnivals may be limited. In addition, the host will be encouraged to re-work the carnival with your post deleted.

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

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

• Traffic - If you're included in the carnival, you'll receive traffic from people visiting it and taking an interest in your post. If you're the winner, it's likely others will highlight your winning post, driving even more traffic your way.

• Links - You’ll receive a link from the carnival host for sure if you're in the top 10. If you're the winner, you'll also receive two links from Free Money Finance (in an announcement post as well as in his weekly roundup) as well as be listed on the carnival's page of winners. And if you're the winner, it's likely you'll receive other links from sites as they announce you're the best post of the week.

• March Madness Automatic Entry - The ten best winners for the year (as judged by FMF) will receive automatic bids into FMF's March Madness event the next year. These entries will NOT count as a blog's official entry (consider them automatic bids) and if a blogger wants to submit an additional post for March Madness he can without penalty and with the same consideration (usually first come, first served) that other entrants receive.

• $1,000 Charitable Contribution - At the end of the year, FMF will select one post from among the weekly winners that he feels is the best of the best. 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.)

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

Submit a Post

To submit a post for consideration in a carnival, visit our submission page at Blog Carnival.

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.

• 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.)

• 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.

Carnival Guidelines

Here are some of the general rules that will gudie the Best of Money Carnival. They will change over time, and I reserve the right to modify them in any way at any time, so check back regularly to keep informed. Here goes:

• Any blog is allowed to submit a post as long as it's been posted within the past two weeks and is related to personal finance.

• Once a post wins (is named the top post in a carnival), it can't be submitted to future carnivals.

• The carnival host is the sole judge of the top 10.

• No spam, affiliate links, or self promotion will be allowed.

Contact Info

If you have a question, comment, suggestion, would like to host or whatever, drop me (FMF) an email and I'll get back to you shortly.

Sample Carnival

The following serves as an example of what a Best of Money Carnival could look like. The contestants were taken from the 2009 Free Money Finance March Madness competition.

Welcome to the Best of Money Carnival, a weekly listing of the top 10 personal finance posts. This week we had 64 articles submitted, and here are the ones I selected as the top 10, with a brief description of each, in countdown order:

10. What the Volatile Market Tells Us About Ourselves - This post provides a realistic assessment of the economic situation at the time and it helps readers get their feet on the ground and realize that their emotions are the greatest financial obstacle they face.

9. Tips for College Graduate - So many college graduates are unaware of how important it is to begin a financial life with the right foundation. This piece offers ten key, finance tips for the recent college grad.

8. 29 Steps I Took to Leave the Workforce at Age 29 - Here's the financial road map that made it possible for the author to quit her job without scaling back on spending.

7. 100 Money Saving Tips for the Holiday Gifting Bonanza Post - Don't let the title fool you, these money saving tips are applicable at any time of the year, they just seemed especially useful so that you could save money to buy your friends and family more gifts! They are categorized by what aspect of your life they apply to (from eating & drinking to your home) and come with pretty pictures to boot! You are guaranteed to find at least one or two (or twenty) tips that you didn't know before or you will get your money back!

6. Why you can't trust real estate agents when buying a house - A post that may help you rethink your relationship with your real estate agent.

5. A Story About Banks; They Are Not In The Real Estate Business - This is the story of two men who had their dreams: one wanted to make money from his own farm and the other wanted to make money from the others through lending. By reading this story, you will understand how banks got into so much troubles.

4. The Pursuit of Financial "Happyness" - It doesn't matter if you're a financial ninja: personal finance just isn't about the money. If you don't know why you're trying to amass money in the first place, then every dollar you save is just another dollar you waste.

3. The College Student Debt Machine:  A National Disgrace - This post exposes the shameful and often ignored failure of colleges and universities to control their own budgets.  Concurrently, these same colleges freely encourage their students to use student loans to finance the ever increasing costs to attend.  With no one held accountable, young adults graduate with crushing debt that takes years to repay.

2. Do you appreciate what you have? - Read about how a simple volunteer event one evening turned out to have an impact on a whole family.  A one hour volunteer effort provided a completely different perspective on how fortunate the family is.  Do you appreciate the things you have?  Don't ever forgot, some people have little to nothing.

1. 10 Things I Have Learned About Money - Some basic and life changing learnings about money.

That's it for this week's Best of Money Carnival. If you'd like to be considered for next week's carnival at Free Money Finance, simply submit your post to through blog carnival. If you'd like to host a future carnival, send FMF an email asking for a slot.

Welcome to the Best of Money Carnival

While there are a wide variety of great personal finance carnivals these days, the Best of Money Carnival is unique in that it features only the ten best (in the opinion of the carnival host) money-related posts of the week -- giving readers the best of the best in personal finance. Here's how it works:

• The carnival will be open for submissions beginning at the ending submission date/time for the preceeding carnival (i.e. 6 pm on Saturday Eastern time.)

• The carnival host will review all of the posts submitted and select the ten best (in his or her opinion) based on originality, ease of application, breadth of appeal, and ability to help grow net worth. Other criteria can be used by the host to determine the "best", but these should certainly be considered.

• The carnival host will post the top ten posts of the week, listing them with the order in which they finished. Note, this can be in a 1 to 10 format or a countdown format from 10 to 1, but each post must be ranked against the others. This post will be live by midnight Western time each Sunday.

• The carnival host will email those bloggers who made it in the top 10, telling them that they made it into the top 10 and giving them the URL of the post. These bloggers are then required to link back to the carnival within the next week. Faliure to do so could exclude them from future carnivals.

• If there aren't ten entries, all entires that are submitted will be ranked.

• The carnival host should email Free Money Finance both the link to the carnival as well as link to the top post for the week. Both will then be announced on that site as well.

• From there, the process repeats itself over and over again.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.