The latest Carnival of Taxes is up at Don't Mess With Taxes. My post titled "Dear Tax Client" is the lead item. Woo-hoo! Many thanks to Kay Bell for being the hostess with the mostest.
What is a Carnival of Taxes? It is one of many blog carnivals going on all over the Internet every hour of every day. Wikipedia defines a blog carnival as:
A blog article that contains links to other articles covering a specific topic. Most blog carnivals are hosted by a rotating list of frequent contributors to the carnival, and serve to both generate new posts by contributors and highlight new bloggers posting matter in that subject area.
See Blogcarnival.com's FAQ page for more info.
FOR WRITERS
If you are a writer, here is how the carnival process works:
- Find a blog carnival in which you are interested in participating.
- Write a blog post on that subject and post it to your own blog.
- Send a link to your post to the carnival host, either using the Blog Carnival submission form or via email.
- Wait in quivering anticipation for the carnival post.
The most confusing part for me as a writer was finding the carnival in the first place. It took me a while to grasp the concept that once the carnival post goes up on the host's site, it is too late to submit your post for consideration. The carnival post is where the host blogs about who submitted entries and links to each one. Carnivals are recurring so the strategy is to find a carnival you like and watch the host's blog for the carnival announcement and request for submissions. Or you can always email the host and ask for info. Hosting often rotates, but the former host will be happy to point you to the new host.
The fun thing about blog carnivals is you get to see who else is writing in your area of interest and, in turn, they get to see you. It's that whole blogging-is-social-media thing.
FOR READERS
As a reader, a blog carnival provides you with one place to go to read many posts from many different writers in your particular area of interest. I have discovered several writers I enjoy returning to again and again through blog carnivals that I don't think I would ever have stumbled across on my own.
Blog carnivals. Go. Expand your horizons.
