Carnival of the Capitalists

Have I Mentioned Lately…

To come back later? There’s no way it shouldn’t be up today. Everything is read and more or less selected out of the submissions. I almost stopped yesterday long enough to write a post on how to be summarily excluded. On the other hand, that won’t be quite as relevant going forward?

Why?

If I wrote business-related posts regularly, say one or more a week, I would expect no more than a few per year to make it into CotC. There’s nothing special about most of what I write.

Except… I’d know that and would try to determine which few per year to send in, so a significant portion of what I entered would be included. While I’d like to think I’d be able to tell what’s likely to be that good, if you really can’t tell, so you enter something every week, you have to assume that most of them will be ignored.

It’s time to get over any presumption you might still have that if you enter, you will be included, and that it’s insulting if you aren’t. This is not going to be your blogfather’s CotC anymore.

Here are some easy guidelines, beyond just assuming you should only enter the best of the best:

Don’t have a popup ad or subscription box.
Don’t be marked red by SiteAdvisor.
Don’t be boring. First paragraph or so ought to make me want to keep going.
Don’t cite too much outside text in proportion to yours.
Don’t be a run of the mill how to post.
Especially on a blog that’s obviously there as an obligatory ad revenue generator.
Especially if it’s part of an exclusively interlinked set of such blogs.
Which is not to say nobody should have ads or have groups of blogs.
But it’s usually surprisingly easy to know the ones I mean when you see them.
Don’t get caught plagiarizing.
Don’t be off-topic.
Personal advice is off-topic.
Even if it’s financial in nature.
Unless we’re feeling like making an exception.
Exceptions may be made for excellent posts, or they might be linked outside the CotC proper.
Don’t be old.
Be an actual blog post, though this may change.
Don’t be unable to write.
Don’t be mundane.
Don’t be in a language other than English, sorry.
Don’t give the appearance of being scam or spam connected.
Don’t be disproportionately linky.
Obviously meaning pure link posts are inappropriate.

Probably something I’ve forgotten, but if you’re clear on the rest you’re likely to have a chance of being included.

Okay, back to work.

Update:

I forgot a couple things. One is that video and audio posts may be excluded out of hand, even if exceptions are made sometimes.

Another is the old multiple entries rule. If you are self-submitting, you should have a grasp of what post in the last couple weeks has been outstanding compared to others. Entering five of them from the same blog? You’re just adding work for us and asking for none of them even to be considered.

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