Carnival of Real Estate

Next Monday, Zillow Blog will play host to the inaugural edition of the Carnival of Real Estate. We’re excited about this event; if you are into real estate and you blog, please consider this your invitation to join in the fun.

There aren’t many good collections of blogs and posts about real estate yet, but there are some excellent bloggers commenting on the real estate industry. A few of us at Zillow decided to address this need by starting the Carnival of Real Estate.

Blog carnivals are nothing new; the Blog Carnival Index lists 380 carnivals ranging from the carnival of comedy to the carnival of the capitalists. A blog carnival is a weekly summary of the best posts submitted on an agreed topic. Each blogger takes turns at hosting the carnival on their blog. The host blogger receives carnival submissions during the week and then publishes a summary (the carnival), linking to the full posts submitted by the other bloggers who will typically link to the carnival post from their blogs.

To participate in the carnival, you need to submit a post you have written (that is relevant to the RE industry) by Sunday — using this submission form (or this one or this one). It’s easy.

This process is repeated each week until it’s your turn to host the carnival — then you will receive the submissions, compile them and post the carnival. There’s a bit of administration involved in keeping track of who is hosting the carnival, but the Zillow Blog team has signed up for that. The list of carnival hosts and the guidelines for submissions and hosting is published on the carnival’s "home blog". Any questions I haven’t answered are probably answered there. The home blog also keeps track of past hosts, with links to their carnivals. Check it out.

Lastly, a quick word on Zillow’s involvement in the Carnival of Real Estate — to my knowledge, this is the first blog carnival founded by a corporate blog. Zillow.com has agreed to sponsor the costs of the home blog but has no ownership or say over the constituents or the content of the Carnival of Real Estate. We just think it will benefit the industry — Zillow Blog is proud to be the founding member of the Carnival of Real Estate — but this is a carnival for EVERYONE in the real estate industry — we just went ahead and set it up. Enjoy.