COLIBRI, here, reporting again from France and hoping she can put together a sentence or two despite her jet lag. It is warm and beautiful here in the Loire Valley, and she can’t think of anything she’d rather be doing than writing about blogs and bloggers. The show, however, must go on, even if it’s from a sidewalk café. (Ah, the sad and sorry life of a blogger.)

Speaking of blogs and bloggers, sometimes we get a bad rap. Some people think bloggers spend all their time writing about personal experiences (like sitting in cafés in the Loire Valley or where they ate their last hamburger). While there are plenty of blogs on the web that can answer to that description, even personal blogs can be truly great if the blogger has found his or her audience and is a good writer.

This post, however, focuses on blogs by and for professionals and entrepreneurs.

Value-Based Marketing

In case COLIBRI hasn’t made it clear, an important part of every values-based marketing program is maintaining a blog. As she’s pointed out, blogging allows you to:

  • create a reputation for expertise in your field
  • provide service to your audience through truly useful and/or entertaining content
  • improve your ranking with search engines and
  • express your values and make a difference

Your blog content is owned by you and can be repurposed many ways. For instance, you can use your blog content in tweets, or you can combine several posts into an ebook. The possibilities, really, are endless. The point is, blog content can, done well, become an asset for your business and career.

Great Blogs To Keep An Eye On

When COLIBRI started blogging, the blogosphere, she has to admit, was a bit intimidating. She wasn’t sure where to turn for high-quality information of any sort. Now that COLIBRI has a better handle on blogging and bloggers, she is amazed by and appreciative of the vast quantity of high-quality information, tutorials, infographics, white papers, videos, podcasts and more that arrive in her inbox each day.

Et voilà (and now) 9 Great Blogs for Beginning Bloggers to keep you busy while COLIBRI enjoys her escargot.

Blogs

  • Content Marketing Institute Content Marketing Institute is a bit of a one-stop shop. The site and the blog have a ton of resources and up-to-date posts related to content marketing.
  • Copyblogger Copyblogger focuses on writing as well as providing lots of high quality information and products related to content marketing.
  • Duct Tape Marketing Duct Tape Marketing offers a high volume flow of the latest productivity tools, content curation from content marketing sites, updates on webinars, white paper downloads and more.
  • KISSmetrics With customers like Amazon and Zappo’s, KISSmetric’s blog takes a deep look at analytics. While it’s not exactly a beginner’s site, COLIBRI reads it to make sure she knows where she’s headed. This site looks at the science behind blogging.
  • Lars Lofgren’s Blog focuses on helping people grow their businesses with an accent on SEO and analysis and offers articles well-suited to beginners.
  • Seth’s Blog Seth Godin is a pundit in the world of blogging. His posts are short and somewhat philosophical and usually offer pointed insights.
  • Social Media Sun Social Media Sun’s daily posts cover all of the major social media/content marketing topics and provides perspective on breaking news like the Facebook IPO.
  • Social Media Today Social Media Today is a membership site with posts by social media professionals who congregate on the site from all over the web.
  • Spin Sucks This blog focuses on public relations and how to elevate that profession. Each week Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich (a Chicago-based PR firm) and a major online influencer, has a friendly, personal voice that includes weekly video posts, guest posts and a weekly roundup of quirky videos she has found around the web.

Key Takeaways

Here’s the guarantee: if you can’t find content among these blogs that make you a better blogger, COLIBRI will eat her feathered beret.

On the other hand, here’s the challenge: has COLIBRI left any blogs out that she should be reading? Let us know in the comments so everyone can benefit from more high-quality content.

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