If you want to run a successful local business, you have to stay up-to-date on emerging technologies and new marketing techniques. The easiest way to do this is to start reading blogs every day.
But how do you know which blogs are good and which blogs are a waste of time? In this video, I reveal the 7 best business blogs that every local business owner should be reading.
Here are links to the blogs mentioned: Duct Tape Marketing, Escape From Cubicle Nation, Big Brand System, The Sales Lion, Outspoken Media, Tiny Business, Mighty Profits, Kikolani
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Transcript
Hi, I’m Carmen Sognonvi.
If you want to run a successful local business, you have to stay up-to-date on emerging technologies and new marketing techniques.
The easiest way to do this is to start reading blogs every day.
But how do you know which ones are good and which ones are a waste of time?
Keep watching and you’ll find out.
By the way, for more useful tips on running a local business, be sure to check out my blog at CarmenSognonvi.com.
There are so many great blogs out there, but to make your life easier I’ve picked out the 7 best business blogs that I think every local business owner should be reading.
1. Duct Tape Marketing
Duct Tape Marketing is a blog about small business marketing written by John Jantsch.
If you read Duct Tape Marketing on a regular basis, you’re going to learn how to become a better marketer.
What I really like about John is the fact that he always brings it back to how small business owners can grow their businesses.
He doesn’t get caught up in shiny new object syndrome.
He’ll cover new technologies, but he’ll always give you practical advice on how you can use those tools to grow your business.
2. Escape From Cubicle Nation
Escape From Cubicle Nation is a blog about entrepreneurship and marketing, written by Pamela Slim.
If you read Pam’s blog on a regular basis, you’re going to learn how to become a better entrepreneur from the inside out.
Yes, you’ll get solid marketing advice.
But even more importantly, you’ll begin to understand why the emotional and spiritual aspects of running a business are just as critical to your success.
3. Big Brand System
Big Brand System is a blog written by Pamela Wilson about graphic design, branding, and marketing for small businesses.
If you read Big Brand System on a regular basis, you’re going to develop a better sense of aesthetics and be able to tell good design from bad design.
And being that we live in an increasingly design-driven world, that’s becoming a critical skill for business owners.
4. The Sales Lion
The Sales Lion is a blog about online marketing, written by Marcus Sheridan.
If you read The Sales Lion on a regular basis, you’re going to learn how to become better at inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing refers to all the efforts you put into search engine optimization, blogs, and social media.
All the things you do so you can be found by customers who are looking for your type of product or service.
Marcus used inbound marketing to take his pool company from one that was almost failing to one that ranked in the top 5% in the country.
In other words, he’s a fellow business owner who’s been there and done it, and he really knows his stuff.
5. Outspoken Media
Outspoken Media is a blog about internet marketing, but with a heavy focus on search engine optimization.
If you read the Outspoken Media blog on a regular basis, you’re going to better understand search engine optimization and how to make it work for your business.
Lisa Barone, one of Outspoken’s co-founders, writes most of the posts and she is always funny, irreverent and not afraid to tell it like it is.
And that’s what I love about the Outspoken Media blog.
It packs in a lot of practical information, but keeps you entertained as well.
6. Tiny Business, Mighty Profits
Tiny Business, Mighty Profits is a blog about marketing and sales, written by Russ Henneberry.
If you read Russ’s blog on a regular basis, you’re going to learn how to use the small size of your business to put yourself at a huge advantage over your bigger competitors.
What I love about Russ’s blog is that it’s specifically tailored to the tiny business – the type that has zero to five employees.
As a tiny business owner myself, I find his tips and insights to be really useful.
7. Kikolani
Kikolani is a blog about social media and blogging, written by Kristi Hines.
If you read Kikolani on a regular basis, you’re going to learn how to get the most out of your blogging and social media efforts.
My favorite part of Kikolani is the weekly round-up posts she does called Fetching Friday.
Every Friday, Kristi collects the best blog posts she found that week on blogging, business, freelancing, personal development, SEO, and more.
If you do nothing else but read that one post every single week, you’re going to be way ahead of the game.
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And there you have it – the 7 best business blogs every local business owner should be reading.
I’ll include links to all seven of these blogs below.
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Thanks for watching.
What’s your favorite business blog?
I’d love to hear your picks, so leave a comment below!
Get free local marketing tips from Carmen
If you found this video useful, enter your email address below and click “Yes, Send Me Tips!” to get free tips from me on how to run a successful local, bricks-and-mortar business:
Music Credit:
Hey Carmen – thanks for the kind words about my blog and for introducing me to some new blogs too!
Hey John, thanks for stopping by! Glad you discovered a couple new blogs from the video too. 🙂
Carmen, thank you for sneaking me in with such illustrious company! It’s an honor.
I’m going to include this post in my Weekend Digest newsletter so my readers can learn from your suggestions.
Awesome! I’m an email subscriber so I’ll be getting that weekend digest too! 🙂 And of course, it was my absolute pleasure. I do really believe that successful business owners need to develop a good eye for design – and your blog is such a great way to do it.
Thanks for including me in this great list Carmen! 🙂
You’re very welcome! I just listened to the interview you did with Srini on BlogcastFM. Was fun to hear your story! Who would’ve thunk Kikolani started as a poetry blog? 🙂
Thank you for sharing this useful information. I need to learn alot.
You’re so welcome, Michael!
Great video, Carmen! I really appreciate that you included the whole gambit. SEO, Design, Marketing, Social Media, etc. Great resources to check out here, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Hey Jason, yes it was hard to narrow down the choices but I wanted to share blogs that I thought could help bolster a broad set of skills. Glad you enjoyed it!
Great list Carmen! I read a couple of these, but you shared a few golden nuggets with this post. Thanks for sharing!
On a side note, great job in front of the camera!
Thanks Chris! Talking to a camera never feels natural, but you definitely get used to it the more you do it. 🙂
Awesome Carmen — I love The Sales Lion, Big Brand, Kikolani and more, but I’m super glad to be introduced to some new ones.
I would like to add, that reading is powerful. Engaging with these amazing people is powerful, but there is such a thing as “more input than necessary” — enjoy all the inspiration and wisdom, but make sure you’re shipping 🙂
Hey Jason, I totally agree! Too much learning without actually applying your knowledge is just another form of procrastination, so absolutely you still need to “ship.” Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Carmen… Great video. Nicely done. 🙂
And wow, thanks for the links to 7 killer blogs. Hate trying to search through hundreds of blogs trying to find the ones having the best content. Your list helps, ’cause you’ve already figured it out. Thanks for doing all the hard work for me!
Warm Regards…. Eric
Hey Eric, you’re so welcome! With all the blogs that I subscribe to, it was hard to narrow it down to a manageable list. But I felt like these 7 were the best in terms of signal to noise ratio – you don’t have to wade through a bunch of mediocre posts to find the one golden nugget. These blogs are pretty much all nuggets, all the time. 🙂
Here are some my favorite business/marketing blogs:
– Mark Schaefer’s Business {grow}: http://www.businessesgrow.com/blog/
– Derek Halpern’s Social Triggers on the psychology of getting people to buy: http://socialtriggers.com/
– For generating traffic, Ana Hoffman’s Traffic Generation Cafe: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com
– James Altucher’s blog: http://www.jamesaltucher.com/ (not strictly business, but he tells great stories like “How I Screwed Yasser Arafat out of $2mm (and lost $100mm in the process)”
Great info. I follow Duct Tape Marketing, great resource. I’m going to check out the others.
I think you have to include copyblogger.com in the list though. They are truly one of my favorite sources for online marketing information.
Hey Alan, you’re right that Copyblogger is an amazing blog. If I had done a “top 8 blogs” it would’ve definitely made the list. 🙂
Carmen,
Great video and I love your presentation style too!
Thanks for introducing these blogs to us. Some of them were new to me while others were old acquaintances 🙂
Cheers,
Timo
You’re so welcome, Timo! Glad you enjoyed the vid and thanks for watching!
Because of so much info available out there, I totally agree with you that it is not easy to find out the best stuff. Thank you for sharing great list of quality blogs, I am a big fan of Kristi Hines and she is a blogging queen to me.
Wow! Thanks for including me in this great list! I love the professional look and feel of your video and your site. Awesome Carmen!
My pleasure, Russ! Thanks for always writing such great stuff. 🙂
Hi Carmen! Awesome looking blog! I know the Sales Lion! He’s an awesome guy and I have definitely learned tons from Marcus. It looks like I am also going to become a fan for TinyandMighty.com. There is never enough sales education and I definitely appreciate different perspectives! What kind of small business do you operate Carmen?
Hey Hector, yeah isn’t Marcus’s stuff awesome? I love his blog. As for your other question, my husband and I own a karate and kickboxing school called Urban Martial Arts in Brooklyn, NY. Next month marks our fourth anniversary! 🙂
Carmen,
Awesome video. You have a great presence and your production is really great. Your suggestions are very helpful and to the point. I read about half of those blogs on a regular basis and love them. I’ll have to check out the other 3 1/2! It’s inspiring to see business owners helping others out. Thanks for the great video and suggestions!
Hey Tom, I’m so glad you were able to find a few new blogs through this video. And thanks for your kind words about my presence and production! There are still a lot of improvements I’d like to make production-wise, and I will, but I think it’s important to get things going instead of waiting till everything is perfect. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Tom.
Those are all fantastic blogs… I have to Double Recommend John Jantsch. I have been reading his blog for a few years now and there are very few people that combine real world marketing with the digital technology.
Great resource here thanks!
Good stuff Carmen! A few of those suggested blogs were new to me and I enjoyed perusing them. I like to be able to acquire blogging tips for my clients (and myself)! Great idea on the video allowing the reading of transcript – sounds like a great SEO tip for high-video content sites as well.
Best of luck – Monty Simao
Well, I already read Duct Tape Marketing and Big Brand System. Looks like I’ll have to add the others to the list.
Thanks!
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