Last month I encouraged everyone to make blog reading part of their day. While it’s easy to ignore your daily reading list or think it’s not a productive use of your time, the truth is staying up to date on blogs is a great way to stay in tune with what’s happening in your industry, educate yourself on new trends, and even to keep your own creative juices flowing for material. As mentioned yesterday, by becoming part of your local ecosystem, it also makes you a more attractive link/traffic target.
I thought today I would share a short list of blogs I think every small business owner would benefit from reading, regardless of your industry. Below are some of my personal recommendations.
Business Leadership/Entrepreneur Blogs
QuickSprout is a blog penned by serial entrepreneur Neil Patel and covers a wide variety of tips from leadership, to social media, to search engine optimization, and everything in between. While it would arguably fit in any of the categories on this list, Neil’s posts on business best practices are some of his most valuable. But as an SMB, you’d be wise to listen to anything Neil talks about.
The Harvard Business Review is a great place to head for general business advice, leadership tips, crisis management information, and a host of other topics. Articles are written by expert authors and I always leave with a few new takeaways and things I want to start implementing in my own work.
As the name would suggest, you can find some ‘killer’ information here on everything you need to know to run a successful company. There’s information on the best tools, apps, how to build a great team, product reviews, etc. This blog has been in my feed reader for a long time, and with good reason.
I really enjoy checking out Mixergy to hear from other entrepreneurs who have created successful businesses, how they did it, and to get a sense of their personal stories. I think that’s something Mixery does really well – it lets you hear directly from the people holding the sweat equity. Right now there are more than 750 interviews on the site to benefit from.
Search Engine Optimization Advice
Mike is a familiar face here at SmallBizTrends.com, as we often reference some of the great finds he comes across. If you’re a small business owner trying to understand all the changes associated with Google Places, local search, and what bugs are getting fixed when, Mike’s blog is among the best in the industry to follow and a huge resource. I think he may have a secret line to Google because he seems to know things before anyone else.
Known to many for his annual Local Search Rankings Survey, David Mihm is a constant source of expert local search information. He’s also known for his GetListed.org events, which bring noted local search experts to various towns across the country to help small business owners learn more about SEO, social media, and how to increase their Web presence.
Search Engine Land’s Local Search Category
Search Engine Land is a huge SEO resource for marketers of all levels. However, small business owners will want to pay special attention to the Local Search section which is designed with them specifically in mind. There’s great tips and best practices on how to craft an effective listing, how to use social media, and other small business issues. If you’re interested in further social media reading or other topics, you’ll also be able to find that information in other SEL categories.
Content Marketing
The folks at Blueglass cover a lot of great topics on their blog, but their content marketing topics may be of most interest to small business owners. Here you’ll find tips, tools, and personal experiences that anyone can learn from and implement in their own business. One of the most strategic, forward-thinking outlets on content marketing topics.
Andy Sernovitz’s blog where he shares great examples of word of mouth marketing, oftentimes centered around the content we’re using or how we’re talking to customers. There are great case studies, as well as examples from big and small brands.
The goal of Copyblogger is to help you get traffic, attract links, increase subscribers and grow revenue through content. The site offers strategic advice on how to become better with content and is a must read for anyone looking to build a business on the Web.
Jay Baer’s blog is a great resource for marketers looking to use social media and content to better connect with customers. What I love about Jay’s blog is it’s chock full of data that marketers can use to make informed decisions. It’s less theory and more hard-hitting evidence of success.
And of Course….
Google has an official blog for small business owners to keep them up to date on new releases, using Google tools, and other news. Some of it can be a little overly-promotional at times, but it’s worth following. This is a Google world, after all.
Above are some of my favorite blogs to help me in my daily business life. What blogs do you currently rely on?
Bonus Pick
Be sure to read Small Business Trends daily!
Blog Photo via Shutterstock
About Lisa Barone
Lisa Barone is Vice President of Strategy at Overit, an Albany Web design and development firm where she serves on the senior staff overseeing the company’s marketing consulting, social media, and content divisions. 
Great choices, Lisa.
I’ve become a huge fan of Quicksprout, and Neil.
I met Mike Blumenthal at an event with Anita 2 years ago.
Smart local search guy, and a great small business blog.
The Franchise King®
Joel,
And my all-time favourite blog for franchising is, of course, thefranchiseking.com!
Anybody in business, from the janitor to the CEO, should be reading Seth Godin’s blog, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/. He’s as close to “the voice of one crying out in the desert” as any businessperson is going to find.
I’m in the PPC world, so the official Google AdWords blog is a big one. I also keep close tabs on PPCHero.com and the aimClear blog has great stuff as well.
Robert,
It’s interesting how each of us has a set of blogs that we read in our own niches.
But, there are a few that all of us read…no matter what niche we’re in.
The Franchise King®
Thanks for the list, Lisa. 11 of 12 were not in my Google Reader yet. Adding them right now. Thanks again
If you are interested in subjects like entrepreneurship, motivation and human behaviour, Jeff Robinson’s blog is a must read. He is a very talented author and a straight forward thinker whose blog Contrarian’s Mind provides many great advice for entrepreneurs and a unique insight into his thoughts on both personal and professional relationships. I highly recommend following his blog for motivation for personal and professional success.
I like Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Blog, http://smartpassiveincome.com.
Charleen,
Pat’s also one of my favourite blogs because passive income and hands-off business model always interest me.
Cheers!
Ooh, thanks. Nice to know what I’m missing. Adding these to my Reader!
Just wrote about how many local small businesses need to put in the time to learn, to read. Even if they are DIY – as many are – they need invest the time in learning, if just to spot the deals from steals when they do go to hire help. FWIW.
Thanks for the information. I will definitely read these daily.
Great information ~ parts of this are applicable to any and all businesses. Thanks!
There are some new ones in the list here that I will am looking forward to reading. Shout out to my team’s Network Solutions Small Blog at http://GrowSmartBusiness.com – check it out when you have a chance.
Great information ~ parts of this are applicable to any and all businesses. Thanks!
Excellent choices! I’ve recently subscribed to Quicksprout and even paid for the traffic building course. It’s the best thing evert..Also a big fan of Andrew Warner from Mixergy
Thanks for the links.
I thought I had the best list of blogs ever and I must say I was wrong. Very nice choices. Useful in any field of business.
Thanks for the great resources. There’s so many bloggers to potentially sift through lists like these definitely help people find high quality information. For international business types I recommend the Economist: Economist.com
Already reading Quciksprout and Copyblogger, thanks for this article because now I would be more frequent at web when it comes to switching to new blog for further reading.
[...] breve lista de los blogs que los propietarios de pequeñas empresas pueden beneficiarse de [...]
[...] is some advice from Small Business Trends. Of course, I will read these blogs and pass along what I think is useful [...]
thanks for sharing these helpful blogs, I only knew and read Copyblogger
[...] Not enough small business owners make the time to read material that can keep them informed and up to date with their industry, keep themselves abreast of business trends that will in one way or another eventually impact on their businesses, and feed their own creativity. A big part of the reluctance to make time to read, is the challenge of knowing what to read, and perhaps more importantly what is not worth reading. This good article, suggests that business owners should make blog reading a part of their day, and it suggests 12 specific blogs that offer much to small business owners. [...]
[...] Not enough small business owners make the time to read material that can keep them informed and up to date with their industry, keep themselves abreast of business trends that will in one way or another eventually impact on their businesses, and feed their own creativity. A big part of the reluctance to make time to read, is the challenge of knowing what to read, and perhaps more importantly what is not worth reading. This good article, suggests that business owners should make blog reading a part of their day, and it suggests 12 specific blogs that offer much to small business owners. [...]
Hi Lisa,
This is a great list of blogs here. I particularly enjoy read Copyblogger.com. They aways have some awesome info in their RSS feed. Thanks for this awesome blog list with the community. I think I’ve found some new goodies to add to my Google RSS reader.
Ti
Lisa,
Great choices. As a long time Copyblogger reader I can vouch for the value and prespective they bring. I also like busines2community.com, since they have a wide variety of high quality business and marketing related posts from different bloggers. It’s also worth checking out Ad Age’s Power 150 blog list for a quick overview of influential marketing blogs. It’s constantlyu updated, based upon bloggers’ social media influence.
It’s always interesting to see what other small business owners are reading. I know a lot of small business owners probably don’t think they have time to follow blogs, but just loading up Google Reader with your daily subscriptions and reading them on the go is really easy and not at all time consuming–basically just as fast as checking your Facebook newsfeed, only this way you might learn something that will better your business!
hi lisa,
great choice! i quickly jumped from blog to blog and i´m always looking for some i do not have on my list. problem with all the blogs is though that you hardly get any work done if you do that every day. so i really need to just dedicate a small portion of my day towards reading
Awesome list Lisa.. Great work, I love mixergy.
Thanks for sharing Lisa. Killer Startups is a non ending source of inspiration.
[...] Not enough small business owners make the time to read material that can keep them informed and up to date with their industry, keep themselves abreast of business trends that will in one way or another eventually impact on their businesses, and feed their own creativity. A big part of the reluctance to make time to read, is the challenge of knowing what to read, and perhaps more importantly what is not worth reading. This good article, suggests that business owners should make blog reading a part of their day, and it suggests 12 specific blogs that offer much to small business owners. [...]
Would love to be added to the list! We interview small business owners and research helpful how-to and marketing tip articles specifically for brick and mortar small businesses 3-5 times per week.
http://blog.swipely.com
Also, I love Mixergy!