At Profoundry I’m constantly scouring the Internet taking inspiration from all I can such an ever changing environment. I thought I would share just some of those online resources where my digital socks are blown clean off on a regular basis.
Whether you are a marketing manager or head of digital at an agency there should be something here to take enlighten your role. For the competitive amongst you, these are all listed in no particular order. Feel free to use the quick links to get to a category of interest:
General Digital
1. Inbound.org – @Inboundorg
A site that lets users submit a vast range of inbound marketing articles from around the globe which are then Up/Down voted in a constantly moving chart.
2. State of Digital – @StateofDigital
Formerly ‘State of Search’, this site shares knowledge on the past, current & future state of digital marketing from some of it’s top minds including Bas van den Beld, Sam Noble and Barry Adams to name but a few.
3. Fast Company – @FastCompany
Fast Company is a regular haunt of mine for all things innovative happening in the world. I cheated as not all of their articles are digital related but are well worth reading. The site is split into areas making it easier to find and follow those that interest you:
- Fast Company – Covering new business practices, and the teams and individuals who are inventing the future and reinventing business.
- Fastco Design – Covering the intersection of business and design, from architecture to electronics, consumer products to fashion.
- Fastco Exist – Covering the latest world changing ideas and innovations in transportation, energy, education, food, and health.
- Fastco Create – Covering creativity in the converging worlds of advertising, entertainment, and technology.
- Fastco Labs – Covering creative technologists who are pushing industries into the future and their methods, philosophies and concepts.
4. Smart Insights – @SmartInsights
This is where Dr Dave Chaffey and his team of expert commentators share daily advice and updates on the most important developments in digital marketing strategy. Thoroughly recommend it.
Inane fact for you: I had a phone interview with Dr Dave Chaffey for my 2009 University dissertation study on search engine’s influence on buying behaviour.
5. The Moz Blog – @Moz
One of the longest established commentators on the digital marketing industry, Moz (formerly SEO Moz) is ‘the’ daily Mecca for many digital marketeers. It is also home to one of the big names in the industry and personal friend of Google’s, Rand Fishkin.
6. Mashable – @Mashable
With Mashable’s 34 million monthly unique visitors and 14 million social media followers, Mashable appears to be one of the most popular sources for digital news, information & resources.
Little (sometimes unknown) fact for you: Mashable was started in 2005 by Pete Cashmore from his home in Aberdeen when he was 19.
7. KISS Metrics Blog – @KISSMetrics
KISS Metrics claim their blog inst just “another me-too online marketing blog” and I must say they are right. Here you will find the latest guides and insight into Google Analytics, online marketing & web testing.
Search Engine Marketing
8. Search Engine Land – @SELand
Search Engine Land is the must read source of news and information for anyone interested in search engine marketing, optimization and how search engines such work for searchers.
9. Search Engine Journal – @SEJournal
Search Engine Journal focuses on a more community lead approach and delivers readers a range of search engine marketing knowledge, tactics & news.
10. Search Engine Roundtable – @SERoundtable
This is the blog of Google memorabilia fan Barry Schwartz who reports on the most interesting threads taking place in the search engine marketing forums.
11. Point Blank SEO – @PointBlankSEO
The blog of baby faced SEO boffin Jon Cooper who shares the top link building strategies from across the Web.
User Xperience
12. UX Booth – @UXBooth
Here you will find a range of articles on usability, user experience, and interaction design written by real UX designers.
13. 52 Weeks of UX – @52WeeksofUX
Written by two authors confusingly both named Joshua (Joshua Porter, Director of UX at Hubspot & Joshua Brewer, Principal Designer at Twitter) this blog shares their 52 weeks of insights into UX best practice.
14. Online Behaviour – @OnBehaviour
As the name suggests, this website shares articles, cartoons, videos and e-books on how users behave online including techniques and strategies to help optimize websites for UX.
15. Crazy Egg Blog – @CrazyEgg
Crazy Egg are a well known provider of cursor tracking software and have a blog featuring some great conversion optimization & UX design articles utilising their teams learnings.
16. Nielsen Norman Group Blog – @NNGroup
This is home to a range of regular articles by authors including Dr. Jakob Nielsen (AKA ”the guru of Web page usability”)
Content Marketing
17. Convince & Convert – @JayBaer
Home to hype-free digital marketing strategist & speaker Jay Baer, Convince & Convert publish award winning content from a range of authors.
18. Quick Sprout – @NeilPatel
Here you will find the imparted knowledge of serial entrepreneur Neil Patel. You may also recognise Neil’s friendly face from the KISS Metrics and Crazy Egg posts but I can assure you he has not paid me to include these resources.
19.Content Marketing Institute – @CMIContent
Here you wont find a physical educational institution, but instead a great and established resource for all things content marketing including research, webinars and podcasts.
www.ContentMarketInginstitute.com
20. Ann Handley – @MarketingProfs
Ann is Content Officer at MarketingProfs and a long standing name in content marketing sphere. She has a great way of connecting with her readers through stories. Recommend a read/follow.