A few lessons learned from hosting the Carnival of Education

We've been the organizers for the Carnival of Homeschooling for six months. During that time we've hosted it several times. In the last month we've hosted two other carnivals, the Carnival of Kid Comedy and the Carnival of Education. In hosting the Carnival of Education this last week I noticed several good things.

The first was I was exposed to a number of new blogs I had not ever seen before. We had about forty submissions. Many of them came from bloggers who were brand new to me. I have a tendency to check out the same bloggers day after day. But by checking out new bloggers I get exposed to new ideas and information.

Another good thing was we got some additional traffic from readers who probably never heard of us. Just in the comments for the carnival, there nine bloggers who I don't remember ever leaving comments before, and I belive may never have checked out our blog before. (With over forty million blogs, you just can't keep up.) My hope is a few of the hundreds of readers who came to read the Carnival of Education will come back now and then to read our blog.

The most suprising thing to me in hosting the Carnival of Education was being exposed to a number of new ideas, issues, and problems. We've mainly focused on homeschooling issues for the last eight months. I have not researched what kinds of issues public school teachers face. Here were a few of the posts that give me some new ideas to think about: 1) a teacher who had quit, 2) a student newspaper being hassled by a senator, and 3) what a teacher thinks about year round school.

If you are interested in attracting more readers to your blog, it is good to participate in carnivals. It takes more work, but it is even better to host a carnival. Most organizers are willing to let others help with their carnival. It is nice to share the load, and a new host gives a carnival greater exposure. If you are looking for ideas you can go here for recent carnivals, or here for a list of carnivals. It does take effort, but hosting a carnival is working the effort.


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