I wrote last week about the launch of the new Carnival of Marketing, a traveling weekly roundup of some of the best marketing-related blog posts. Well this week, I'm hosting it, so here are my top seven picks for the week:

• Steve Rubel offers ten blogging hacks to help increase exposure for your blog, simplify your blogging and add some cool new features to your blog. There were even a couple of new things to me in here.
   
• Larry Bodine illustrates the importance of calling things what they are, in terms that the customer can understand.
   
• Customer referrals and networking typically bring in about 2/3 of an entrepreneur's business. John Jantsch asks, "Is it unprofessional to ask for referrals?" I'll spoil it for you - his answer is "no", but take a read for some excellent tips on how to tactfully and effectively ask for referrals.
   
• Noah Brier explains how unbundled media presents new opportunities for innovative advertisers. What happens when content is no longer packaged in 30-minute blocks consisting of 23.5 minutes of programming and 6.5 minutes of 30-second commercials? Advertising paradigms will have to adapt. Very thought-provoking.
   
• Copywriting guru Joe Vitale explains his writing process. This guy has about 30 books published and more articles than you can count, so take heed.
   
• Toby Bloomberg says that blogs are not reality TV, but while blogs may not make people into celebrities on a par with reality TV stars, in many ways they are actually far more compelling.
   
• Dave Taylor shares Liz Ryan's ten etiquette tips for LinkedIn and other online networking sites. LinkedIn is the most popular business networking site on the web and helps people connect with friends, former colleagues and other business associates.

There were a number of excellent (and a few not-so-excellent) posts submitted. Per the Carnival of Marketing submission guidelines, I've only selected and commented on my top seven picks. If yours wasn't included, I'm sorry - I could have easily picked about twelve, but am sticking to the format. I do have some suggestions for you if you want to be selected in the future:

1. Don't submit an old post. The post needs to be from at least the past couple of weeks, and preference will be given to posts from the past week.
    
2. Submit posts that are actionable. Tips that people can actually apply will almost always win out over abstract stuff. "How" beats "Why".
    
3. Submit posts that are complete. As a corellary to the above, posts that refer out to articles or other sites for more information, or that have anything to the effect of "Watch this space for more information" are going to be among the first to be cut.
    
4. Don't submit posts that are nothing more than a pitch. It's possible to sell subtlely within a good, actionable post (see the Joe Vitale example above). But a couple of the submissions were basically an ad for the company's product. An occasional post like that may work in the context of your blog, but if you think it's a good idea to submit that for a carnival, you've definitely got a thing or two to learn about marketing via blogs.

If you're not writing posts that meet these criteria, you should be! If you'd like to submit posts for consideration in future Carnival of Marketing editions or would like to host one on your blog, contact Noah Kagan.