Carnival of the Mobilists

the best blog posts of the week about mobile

FAQ for Hosts & Contributors

How To Host Carnival Of The Mobilists

Here are a few notes to get you started.

  1. We want the Carnival to adopt the character of the host site every week, so we try to avoid being too prescriptive.
  2. All we ask is that you read and summarize at least 10 submissions from the blog posts you receive and pick one outstanding post you consider to be your Pick of the Month (and the reasons for your choice).
  3. Don’t be shy about stepping up. Hosts get great exposure and extra traffic for the week that they host — and many new readers will stick around if they like what they find.

To volunteer as a host email Peggy Anne Salz at peggy@mobilegroove.com

Checklist for your Carnival:

  • To make sure you can access the week’s contributions Peggy will email you the user name and password for the  Carnival’s gmail account (www.gmail.com). If it doesn’t arrive, or you would like it sooner, then let Peggy know what you require.
  • Entries can arrive late due to time differences or when the last day of the month falls in the calendar. It would be good if you accommodate them and consider them for inclusion.
  • The COM generally showcases the top 10 posts chosen from the posts that were submitted throughout the week. We appreciate a mention (title, author and link) of the posts that didn’t make it into the roundup, but we also appreciate that your time is limited and you may be restricted as to how much more work you can do.
  • Add a label to the emails in gmail to note the posts you have reviewed and used. That helps keep us organized.

Writing the Carnival post:

  • One post in your Carnival should be your Best Post of the Week. Please don’t post a roundup without providing us your pick of the month and your reasons why it sets the bar.
  • If possible, try to choose and highlight a newcomer to the Carnival.
  • Remember that your job as host is to encourage the reader to visit the post on the contributors’ site and generate traffic for the individual blogger. Therefore, don’t tell the whole story — the purpose of your post is to recap the best of mobile blogging and make the reader want to click through your summary and read the whole post.
  • Please finish your post by telling readers where the next Carnival will be held. See the “Host Schedule 2012” tab for this information.
  • Once the Carnival is live on your site, send an email to the contributors (and Peggy) with the link. The community will amplify your post, link to your post and — ultimately — send you lots of their traffic. :) Peggy will notify the other Mobilists to link to you and tweet it via Twitter.

Promotion tips

EVERYONE is encouraged to spread the word about the COM.

You can announce the Carnival is at your site by writing a post that simply states:

Carnival #XY is Live.

or

Check out the latest Carnival of the Mobilists, which is at [name of host site] this week. Please pay a visit to read this week’s best writing about mobile on the web. A particularly worthwhile post to watch out for is [write a sentence about a story that will pull people in].

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If you’ve just hosted a Carnival and can think of anything that you’d like to see here that would help future hosts, please let us know.

Good luck. May your traffic counters begin to spin!