Friday, December 14, 2007

WHAT HAVE I GOT A GREAT BIG LACK OF?

So what did I do wrong?

A traditional Blog Carnival is a post that provides a series of individual postings from other blogs on a specific topic, category or theme. The postings are submitted to the “host” by individual bloggers, and, for the most part, the host includes all submitted posts in the Carnival, unless there is no obvious connection to the topic, category or theme.

There is only one Tax Carnival, hosted by Kay Bell of DON'T MESS WITH TAXES, but there are many Blog Carnivals on Personal Finance issues.

With a Blog Carnival everyone wins. The individual blogger gets his blog exposed to many new readers, as does the host of the Carnival, which is generally mentioned in each of the blogs whose postings are included. And the reader of the blog is exposed to many new blogs, and a wealth of possible helpful information and advice.

I wanted to take the concept of the Blog Carnival one step further and created the Cabaret of Common Sense Advice. Rather than just printing submitted posts, I wanted to focus on specific posts that I have personally selected. I did not solicit postings for the Cabaret ahead of time. I chose postings that I found during my “wanderings” in the web.

I had used this concept originally when I was the “guest-host” of TAX CARNIVAL #10 in January of this year. I chose a specific tax topic, getting ready to prepare your 2006 federal tax return, for my installment of the Carnival. While I reviewed all the postings submitted, I did not automatically include them. In some instances I used different postings then the ones submitted by the individual bloggers. For example, Blogger A submitted post B, but I used his post C instead.

Whenever one of my posts from THE WANDERING TAX PRO or ANYTHING BUT TAXES has been included in a Blog Carnival I am sent an email from the host to notify me and to request that I publicize the Carnival on my blog. After reviewing the Carnival I immediately publish a posting identifying and linking to the particular Carnival.

After publishing my first Cabaret of Common Sense Advice I sent an email to the authors of the postings that I chose to include telling them about the Cabaret, announcing the fact that one of their posts is included, and closing with “I would appreciate any coverage you can provide the 1st ‘Cabaret of Common Sense Advice’, my blog ANYTHING BUT TAXES, and/or my other blog THE WANDERING TAX PRO in your blog.”

I did not receive any replies to my email. As of this writing, none of the authors whose posts I included have made any mention of either the Cabaret or ANYTING BUT TAXES in their individual blog. MY TWO DOLLARS and WORK AT HOME MOMMA did post comments here, but there was no mention of the Cabaret on their blogs.

So I ask you once again – what did I do wrong?

TTYL

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