In The News... Thanks To The Success Coach!

I feel fortunate to have had For Your Success sponsor The Gonzo Blog Carnival Series over the past 14 months. Together we have put on about 20 blog carnivals. It would have been impossible to make those events as successful without the help and support of The Success Coach.

Hopefully, sooner than later, Roy will get back to blogging on a regular basis.

Recently, during a meeting of A Strategic Alliance we were talking about the Soup To Nuts progressive dinner blog carnival. Roy hatched the idea of writing an article about the event.

I, naturally, don't normally say when I've been the ghostwriter of an article. In this case, saying that we collaborated seems more than reasonable. Together, I think we came up with something good.

This is the article, as it appeared at For Your Success...


Kilroy_60's Soup to Nuts progressive dinner blog carnival, that debuted on January 30th, was a huge success. There were 215 posts appearing in the first edition; spread over six host blogs.

Soup to Nuts is the only blog carnival constructed in a progressive dinner format, with multiple hosts. Originally created as a five-course dinner, the introductory edition was so successful a sixth "course" was added; it was called the Drinks After Dinner Reception.

Some bloggers appeared in a single portion, others had posts appearing in all six.

The idea behind Soup to Nuts was two-fold, according to the originator.

"My intention was to maximize the opportunity to gain exposure for individual blogs and to increase the chance of meeting other bloggers," said Kilroy_60.

"As with any website, individual blogs attract their own organic traffic. Appearing in a carnival with a number of hosts allows your site to be seen by a wider variety of people than a carnival with a single host," he said, explaining the use of a progressive dinner concept.

Kilroy_60 said, "Formally connecting the carnivals as a single event provides incentive to visit all the host blogs. It's different than holding multiple carnivals in the same day with each one having a different theme."

Isabella Mori hosted one portion of the carnival at Change Therapy.

"I thought it was a great idea! I'm a huge fan of carnivals - many of my blog connections came about through carnivals," Mori said. "I like mixing things up: trying out something that happens face-to-face in an online environment, and vice versa. All of this came together beautifully in this carnival."

Another host, WriterWoman from fallen words, saw the carnival as an opportunity for good publicity.

She said, "I thought it was an idea that had the ability to create a buzz. The Progressive Dinner Blog Carnival idea is one that sparked of originality and a real sense of fun."

JM, who hosted the dessert course at Fiction Scribe, said, "I thought it was a bit of a big undertaking, but a very creative idea that could hold big things."

She was happy with the results.

"I think it worked out splendidly," said JM. "I had a fun time looking at the other courses, and I also had a lot of lovely comments on my course."

WriterWoman was impressed by the entrants and how the event was received.

She said, "All in all, I would call the Soup to Nuts Progressive Dinner a rousing success! The variety of posts submitted was amazing. Bloggers from all over the world, with a myraid of different backgrounds and interests, all had their work on display together. All walks of life were represented. It was a truly inclusive event."

Asked if he was satisfied with the event, Kilroy_60 said, "I thought for the first time it was very successful. Some people don't know what a progressive dinner is; having them understand how a carnival works in such a structure can be challenging."

Mori agreed. She said, "I honestly think it was a great success. "

Authors of some established, well known blogs were represented. Some bloggers who participated are relatively new.

The blogs appearing in the carnival were praised by Mori. She said, "I was quite surprised at the quality of the posts and am excited to stay in touch with some of the bloggers I've met through this."

I was pleased to take part in the first edition of Soup To Nuts. The second progressive dinner carnival is being organized now to be published on April 30th. For Your Success will again take part; I encourage you to do so as well. (Enter)

While this is not a complete list, you can see a wide variety of bloggers participated in the first progressive diner including:

...Tip Diva
...Soham Das
...Tim Gary
...Jacob Share
...Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper
...The Urban Monk
...Pat
...Ed Rivis
...Jon Swift
...James D. Brausch
...John
...Matt
...Alex Blackwell
...Lin
...Chris Davis
...Success Diva
...David Mills
...Tsai Jie
...John Crenshaw
...Brian Holland
...Jeremy Wilcox
...Silicon Valley Blogger
...Hueina Su
...Praveen Puri
... Nancy Zimmerman
...aBoVe sUsPiCion
...C. B. Whittemore
...Vivien
...Janet Grace Riehl
...Anthony McCune
...Laura Collins
...Ali Gator
...Mistress Regina
...STP
...Dr. Martin Russell
...Kuanyin
...Terri
...GP
...RacerX
...Deepali
...Susan
...Blue Skelton
...John Phillips
...Dana
...Helene Zemel
...VeryBadCat
...Susan Helene Gottfried

My intent in providing this list was to extend the opportunity to connect with other bloggers afforded by Soup to Nuts.

All platforms do not provide an easily accessible profile as blogger does. Even some blogspot sites do not include such a page. Those considerations prohibited linking to some bloggers while some pages linked to are less than optimum.