101 Great Blogs You Must Subscribe To (and How to Use Them)

Posted by DigitalAlex
May 21, 2008

Welcome to Digital Alex, where you'll get Actionable Advice for Better Internet Marketing. If you're new, explore my archives and subscribe to my RSS feed.

Pop quiz: You’re pressed for time and need an answer to your internet marketing problem fast. Where do you turn? Search engines can be imprecise, consultants can be pricey and if your coworkers knew how to do it, you wouldn’t need an answer.

I’m faced with that situation every week. And that leads me to my confession:

I subscribe to a lot of blogs, but I don’t actually read them regularly.

Instead I use them as my own personal search engine. I’ve amassed over a hundred trusted sources in my Google RSS Reader. I’ve tagged them all to categorize them. Then, when I’m faced with a question, all I have to do is search all the blogs or an applicable subset, like this:

rss search

I’m much more likely to get relevant and actionable results that way. To get you started, I pasted links to all of the blogs from my reader below. They fall into the following 16 categories:

Am I missing any? Please leave a comment.

Web Analytics

Copywriting

Blogging and Social Media

Competitive Intelligence

Conversion Rate

Comparison Shopping Engines

Data Mining

Excel Tips

Industry News

Information Presentation

General Marketing, PR & Strategy

Paid Search

Public Speaking

Search Engine Optimization

Testing - A/B, Multivariate, Taguchi, etc.

Data Visualization

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Comments
Comment by Jeremiah Owyang on May 21, 2008 @ 10:55 pm

Thanks for including me!

Comment by DigitalAlex on May 21, 2008 @ 11:01 pm

Thanks for writing Jeremiah, it’s really useful!

Comment by Eve Dmochowska on May 22, 2008 @ 4:26 am

What a superb list! Thank you.

I too find that my colleagues and I are inundated with feeds to read.

I have thus set up a blog http://www.twojumpsahead.com where I list what I think are the best posts on social media, for the past 24 hrs.

Only social media/marketing is covered, but if you are pressed for time and want the news “quickly”, it might be a good option.

Btw, it is all done “manually” by me, ie I read and evaluate all the posts.

Comment by Scott Brinker on May 22, 2008 @ 5:01 am

Hi, Alex. Great example of how to put personalized search to good use! Thanks also for including our post-click marketing blog in your list.

Comment by S.Hamel on May 22, 2008 @ 7:40 am

Great list! If you want you can pick a couple of other web analytics feeds from Web Analytics Conversations and check out the free free resources for the WAA I have put together.

I will make sure to include those sites in the search engine, and thanks for including me in your list! (I also sent you an invite to help maintain the WAA Search Engine)

Cheers,
Stéphane

Comment by Robert Gorell on May 22, 2008 @ 11:31 am

Thanks for sharing this fantastic list, Alex!

What an excellent Google Reader tip, too. That makes perfect sense but I never thought of using it that way.

Comment by Kevin Hillstrom on May 22, 2008 @ 11:33 am

It was very nice of you to include my blog, I appreciate it!

Comment by Robert Gorell on May 22, 2008 @ 11:34 am

Also, you’ll find almost all of these blogs included on our new meme-style marketing news feed at News.GrokDotCom.com

Comment by Billy Shih on May 22, 2008 @ 12:20 pm

That’s a great idea, it’s also a good idea to contact the writers of those blogs for help ;)

It’s tough to keep up with all the great content out there, but this is a great use of it. I’ve definitely used a similar tactic to help me find answers or to lead others to the right place.

Thanks for including my blog, you’ve got a lot of my favorites in your list too. I’ll check out some of the others.

Note: Your 3rd link has some character issues, you might want to fix. “Conversion Rate Marketing Blog –>GrokDotCom…”

Comment by Judah on May 22, 2008 @ 1:20 pm

Hi Alex,

Thanks for including me in the list!

Best,
Judah

Comment by Josh on May 22, 2008 @ 2:10 pm

Perhaps a career-oriented blog for the internet marketing community would be a helpful addition to the list…..

Regards,

Joshua O. Woody, CPC
Program Director
Phone: 317.363.2522 / Fax: 317.363.2364
“Continuous improvement is a fine thing. Breakthrough thinking is a whole other ballgame” - Jim Sterne

——————————————————————————–
Blog: http://www.WebMarketingRecruiter.com
Job Board: http://www.eMarketingSilo.com - Post for only $89!
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/WebMarketingRecruiter

Comment by DigitalAlex on May 22, 2008 @ 2:50 pm

Scott - You’re definitely welcome!

Robert - My pleasure. Thanks for all of the great content.

Kevin - Keep up the good work. I wish I could write as much as you do.

Billy - Thanks for the catch. I owe you a beer for the MVT tip :-)

Judah - Consider it a small repayment for contributing so much to the WA community.

Comment by DigitalAlex on May 22, 2008 @ 2:59 pm

Eve - Your site is killer. I’m adding it to my reader now.

Stephane - My hat is permanently tipped in your direction.

I forgot to mention Jacques!
http://www.waomarketing.com/blog/

Comment by Chris Goward on May 22, 2008 @ 6:15 pm

Great list, thanks Alex. And thanks for including WiderFunnel!

Comment by John on May 27, 2008 @ 3:29 pm

Alex,

I think you forgot PPC Hero! ; )

Great, great list. I’m always looking to expand my Analytics reading list, and I think I just struck gold!

Comment by Lisa on May 27, 2008 @ 10:57 pm

Yay, thanks Alex, this was really useful.

Comment by rich page on June 6, 2008 @ 6:05 pm

I have a growing web analytics blog that I would love you to add to this list… its called Rich Page Ramblings. I offer web analytics advice and website reviews.

http://www.rich-page.com

Great blog… keep up the good posts!

Rich

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