First of all, I would say there are more than hundreds of great blogs about internet marketing including Search Engine Optimisation(SEO), Search Engine Marketing(SEM), Social Network, Affiliate Marketing, E-commerce and so on. But lets be realistic, nobody has time to read all of them, and even if someone has the time to read them all, he should spend time on doing practical work rather than be a bookworm (maybe should call it blogworm?).
I’ve been reading many blogs since I started touching internet marketing, I was mainly focused on SEO blogs, but soon found out internet marketing is not only about SEO, it’s just HUGE. So I expanded my reading list to SEM, social network, affiliate marketing, e-commerce and designing, and chose the best ones amoung them.
Here I break blogs down to 5 categories, SEO/SEM (top 3), Social Network (top 3), Affiliate Marketing (top 3), Designing (top 1) and ecommerce (top 1).
Top 3 Blogs About Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing (SEO/SEM)
1. SEOmoz | Rand Fishkin
My favorite SEO blog without a doubt, published thousands of priceless articles such as SEO ranking factors 2009. It provides many in-depths internet marketing guides for different level of readers. Apart from blogging, they also have a strong team focus on researching and SEO tools developing. The founder and CEO, Rand Fishkin, has been invited countless times for speaking in the conferences around the world. (Btw, my seomoz profile can be found here)
2. SEO book | Aaron Wall
Aaron Wall is most famous at his book about SEO, he is one of the most insightful SEO guru in the industry. SEObook forum is a premium community which has a limit of 1000 members, it is considered as the top level community in the SEO world. His blog is a must read, providing top articles such as Blogger’s guide to SEO.
3. Search Engine Land | Danny Sullivan
Search Engine Land is a news and information site about search engine industry, it is led by famous journalist Danny Sullivan. It is really informative and offering search engine industry news, featured articles, how-to guides and it even has columns. Since Search Engine Land is not a “one-post-per-day” blog, it is recommended to check updates in time. An example of great article, which url shortening service should you choose.
Top 3 Blogs About Social Network
1. chrisbrogan.com | Chris Brogan
Chrisbrogan.com offer great contents to business and individual about how to use social media to deliver value. Chris Brogan has started blogging since 1999, he is currently the president of a new media marketing agency and holding an internet marketing event. Chris Brogan is often invited to speak on the conferences because of his expertise on social media marketing. Example post – 20 Free eBooks about Social Network
2. Web Strategy | Jeremiah Owyang
Jeremiah Owyang really provides in-depths informative article about business and social media tools to the public. He also review social media related technology product in this blog. There is a tiny problem for me to read his blog, font size is very small. Jeremiah Owyang worked in different roles from user interface designer to strategy consultant, he has gained wide knowledge and experience from his past career. An example of his great posts – The Future of Social Network
3. PR 2.0 | Brian Solis
PR 2.0 is a blog about public relationship and social media, from my point of view, it’s about PR in the social media. This blog is on the top list of technorati and ad age power 150 (some blogs I mentioned above are among these lists too, but I forgot to check one by one). Brian Solis is the principal of a PR and new media agency based in Silicon Valley, he has also written a book about PR and published by Financial Times. Take an example of his valuable posts – Introducing Conversation Prism
Top 3 Blogs About Affiliated Marketing (more likely to be making money online)
1. Problogger | Darren Rowse
Some people will probably be surprised that I place problogger.net in this category, affiliated marketing. Yes, I know it mainly teaches you how to write better blogs and how to improve your income from blogging, but it definitely offered many great tips about affiliate marketing. Darren Rowse started his own blog since 2002, turned blogging from a hobby to a full-time job with millions of dollars by affiliate marketing. He also owns a famous forum and blogging network. Here is a great example of his article – make money blogging
2. John Chow dot com | John Chow
You know him right? At least you should’ve heard the story between him and Google. Many people say he is scammer and always posting rubbish. But he earns more than $40000 a month by affiliating, I can always learn some tips from what he blogged. You don’t have to buy any product he recommended, just keep an eye on how he implements his affiliate skills into the blog. John Chow immigrated from to Canada when he was young, he started blogging since 2000, and started monetizing his blog since 2005. This post about affiliate networks is a bit of out-of-date, but indicated how much effort he spent on affiliate marketing.
3. Shoemoney | Jeremy Schoemaker
Shoemoney is most famous at a photo of Jeremy’s $130,000 cheque from Google Adsense, this photo has been used illegally so many times by some “google money scammers”. His post is usually insightful, and he can always sum up marketing conclusion from tiny little things in his daily life. Jeremy Schoemaker was over-weighted, no girlfriend, no nothing but $50K debt, but now, he makes millions dollars by affiliate marketing and other web income. From this post for beginner who wants to make money online, you can takeaway a huge amount of his experience and tips from his Free 12-weeks course
Top Designing Blog
1. Smashing Magazine | Smashing Media GmbH
You may mant to ask why would I read this blog, it’s not about SEO, it’s not about Pay Per Click, it’s not about social media, it is about DESIGN. Yes, it is not about internet marketing, but you can always find fabulous posts here to enhance your knowledge to better optimise your website. You must want to know common design mistakes of e-commerce site that can let potential customers go away, and you desperately wish to know what are the best designs for your call-to-action buttons that can significantly improve click through rate, right? So I am reading this blog every single day, to find out what design will result better marketing performance. I don’t know too much about Smashing Media GmbH tbh, all I know is their primary business is magazine. Here is an example of their brilliant posts, 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines.
Top E-Commerce Blog
1. Get Elastic | Linda Bustos
Get Elastic is the only E-commerce blog I read, not only because this blog is on the list of “15 Entrepreneur Blogs worth reading” published by WSJ, but also their deep knowledge and experience from Elastic Path, who provides e-commerce solutions to over 200 leading brands in the world. Linda Bustos is Elastic Path’s Emerging Media Analyst and eCommerce consultant, she was named one of Vancouver’s Tech Women to Watch. One example of their killer article to me, Stop Google Analytics From Stealing Your Valuable Adwords Keyword Data.
There are so many blogs worth reading, but the blogs I wrote above are my top choices. Please share your thought on my selection, also, if you have any top internet marketing blogs would like to recommend, please don’t hesitate.
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Blogs can be fun, educational, and rewarding if you can make money off blogs.
Great post with all the information about successful blogs doing well.
Wow, I didn’t know about that up to the present. Thanks!
very intresting, I think I will research more to find more but thank you.
heres 1 you left out
http://www.top-dog.org/tricks-of-the-trade.html
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