My mom was here visiting over the weekend. We were chatting about blogging and she asked me a great question. “How do you find blogs?” She’s an avid reader and knowledge seeker and she’d like to find blogs about the things she’s interested in, but isn’t sure where to begin.
Typically I stumble across a new-to-me blog by following a link from a link, often from Twitter but sometimes from somewhere else. When I first land I read the post I came for, maybe pin it or share it, and then scan one or two more posts. After that I usually click away, but every so often I read something so compelling and different from what’s already been said that I stick around and dig further. I’ll read through the archives and start to get really excited. I’ll add the blog to my RSS reader. I’ll become a regular reader and devoted fan.
Finding a good blog is like finding a gem. There’s mining and digging and sifting involved until you find a voice that really speaks to you. Today I thought I’d share three blogs that fall into that gem-like category. These three are new-to-me gems, although some of them aren’t actually new. They’re written by experts who are honest and unafraid to share real information. They’re excellent.
Once you check them out, will you share a favorite blog with me? Who should I be reading?
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1. the Food Blogger Pro blog – Food Blogger Pro is an online community run by Bjork and Lindsay Ostrum, the couple behind Pinch of Yum. It’s intended for food bloggers who’d like to grow their blog into a business. I’m not a food blogger and I don’t have membership to Food Blogger Pro, but I find this blog to be tremendously valuable. This piece from earlier this week about how viral posts are like hit songs is brilliant. Email with Purpose: How Your Inbox Can Help You Grow Your Blog is also excellent. I’m a big fan of Bjork’s monthly income reports on Pinch of Yum. On this blog you get much more of his wisdom and understanding about how to grow an audience on the web. If you read a post each day for the next month you’d learn a ton about blogging well (that’s my plan!).
2. HelloSociety’s blog: I love Pinterest and for a long time I just saw it as a fun place to collect and organize great images. Reading the HelloSociety blog has opened my eyes to how a business can really leverage Pinterest to grow an audience and increase sales. They do incredible case studies examining how major brands are using Pinterest, and they aren’t afraid to point out weaknesses and areas that could use improvement. This case study of Anthropologie’s Pinterest presence is a great example. This blog is fascinating.
3. Aeolidia’s blog: Aeolidia is a design team with an impressive list of clients. They do branding, logo, and web design that’s beautiful and modern and classy. Clients include Robert Mahar, Renegade, Little Hip Squeaks, Rare Device, and so many more. On the Aeolidia blog Arianne, the company’s founder, explains the “why” behind the websites they build and the logos they design. This piece on the site redesign they did for Cloud9 Fabrics is a great example. I also loved this interview with Alicia Paulson while they were helping her to redesign Posie Gets Cozy.
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Okay, you’re turn! I’d especially like to hear about blogs that maybe not everyone already knows about. Thanks for your recommendations!
Thanks for mentioning my blog, Abby! For creative small business info, I like the Create & Thrive blog, Oh My! Hnadmade, the Shopify blog, and the Helpscout blog.
http://www.createandthrive.com/
http://ohmyhandmade.com/
http://shopify.com/blog/
http://helpscout.net/blog/
I have also found a lot of fascinating reading on Peter Shallard’s blog (business psychology advice for entrepreneurs):
http://www.petershallard.com/blog/
Helpscout and Peter Shallard are new to me. Thank you!
I ‘second’ all 3!
and, I’d add off the top of my head, the Pricenomics blog. They consistently make me interested in reading about things I never would’ve given two seconds of thought to! http://priceonomics.com/
Awesome. That one is new to me!
Lately I’ve been reading Jennypurr, particularly her posts on blogging which contain simple nuggets of wisdom about how to keep up with blogging tasks. She started as a beauty blogger but now also writes about freelancing, blogging, photography and other aspects of staying present online. http://www.jennypurr.co.uk/blogging/
I’m also a fan of https://blog.kissmetrics.com/ – lots of great blogging tips there! Not everything applies to my blog but much of it is super helpful.