Content Marketing Blogs: The Ultimate List

The amount of information available to marketers is vast, diverse and sometimes overwhelming. Because it can be difficult to find high quality content, I have put together a list of some of the top content marketing blogs out there. This list is intended to help content marketers find the information, education and value they’re seeking to improve their strategies and business as a whole.

Before we dive into the topics, let me first define a blog on how it’s interpreted in this post. A blog is an online publication that seeks to inform its readers with high quality, ethical and valuable insights that are published on a consistent basis by authors qualified to communicate them.

The topics covered in the list below include content marketing tactics, advice from experts, content marketing tools, content statistics and content curation – among others.

This list is by no means finished. With millions of blogs being published each day and the overwhelming amount of quality information on the Internet surrounding content marketing, I am sure to have missed more than a few first-class blogs. (If you don’t believe me, check out Worldometer’s blog counter.) If your favorite blog is not listed, or if you know of any other great source of content marketing information, leave me a comment below.

Here’s a list of content marketing blogs that I love; sorted by their focus. Thanks to Curata.com !

Social Media

Social Media Examiner – Their blog provides daily original content for readers on how to navigate the social media “jungle” through social networking, blogs and podcast best practices.

Social Media Today - This online community provides daily insight to PR, marketing and other professionals in disciplines that require information on social media.

Social Fresh – The goal of their blog is to inspire businesses to improve their marketing strategies through social media education.

Jeff Bullas’s Blog – Jeff Bullas is an author, blogger and strategist whose aim is to provide insight on aspects of social media marketing, content marketing and digital marketing.

Razor Social – This blog offers their independent advice on the latest in social media tools and social media technology.

Social Media Explorer – Their blog is a leading publisher of insights and opinions on social media marketing written internally and by a roster of marketing thought leaders.

Social Media Impact – The mission of this blog is to provide diversity of social media information to any and all who want to leverage social networking; for personal or business use.

Socialnomics – This online journal presents social media stories, trends, studies and statistics. The double interpretation of Socialnomics means that as the success of the site grows, the more social good they hope to give back.

SEO

Quick Sprout – Neil Patel, co-founder of Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics and Hello Bar writes on how businesses can improve their search engine optimization and content marketing strategy.

Search Engine Watch – This site’s content revolves around tips and information on search, analysis of the search industry and support for site owners who want to improve their SEO.

Search Engine Land – This is a news and information blog on global trends and insights into search engine marketing, and the search engine industry as a whole.

Search Engine Journal – With a unique community-based approach to search marketing content, this blog obtains virtually all its content from real experts (in-house and independent Internet marketers).

SEO Copywriting – This blog aims to educate online marketers on optimizing their content for SEO with tips, training and writing advice.

Content Marketing & Strategy

Duct Tape Marketing – This blog provides advice for small businesses on how they can improve their marketing strategy through content marketing tactics.

Marketing Pilgrim – Covering all the latest news, insights and information related to online marketing, this blog helps readers implement content marketing processes.

Copyblogger – Copyblogger’s goal is to educate readers on how to “create killer online content” by providing information on all aspects of content marketing; from copywriting to SEO to social media.

Occam’s Razor – Author and digital marketing expert Avinash Kaushik writes on an array of digital marketing topics, giving readers actionable insights for their content strategies. He also provides great insight into marketing metrics.

Problogger – Professional blogger, Darren Rowse, writes on blogging tips and advice that marketers can implement into their content strategy.

Sparksheet – Sparksheet explores how various brands are using tools and platforms to distribute relevant content to the right audience.

Boost Blog Traffic – Started by Jon Morrow, Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Boost Blog Traffic aims to teach readers how to expand their audiences, build email lists and become thought leaders through content.

ClickZ – As the largest resource of interactive marketing news & information from search to social to technology, ClickZ offers advice to help content marketers do their jobs better.

Spin Sucks – This blog supports professional development of PR and marketing professionals through their daily publishing of content advice.

Seth Godin’s Blog – Seth Godin, best-selling author and marketing expert, writes on marketing, leadership, change and spreading new ideas.

Heidi Cohen’s Actionable Marketing Guide – Marketing expert, educator and writer, Heidi Cohen, provides actionable tips and advice for digital marketers on her blog.

Enchanting Marketing – This blog teaches readers how to gain followers, utilize SEO and create engaging content for target audiences.

B2B Marketing Insider – Michael Brenner, VP of Global Marketing at SAP, writes about marketing ideas and strategies that help marketers drive leads and engagement.

CMS Wire – This online publication provides content marketers with information on digital marketing, social business and enterprise information management, daily.

CMO.com – This blog publishes information on executive level strategies and marketing information for Chief Marketing Officers.

The Content Wrangler – The Content Wrangler offers insights and advice for content marketers on strategy, content management and best practices.

Web Ink Now – This blog, managed by author David Meerman Scott, provides content marketing strategy advice, as well as general leadership insights.

eContent – eContent features articles on digital marketing, publishing and media for businesses; targeting executive-level decision makers with strategic information.

Orbit Media Studios – The Orbit Media blog provides marketers with digestible information on management, content marketing, web design and various digital marketing tips.

Velocity –  The Velocity blog focuses on B2B content marketing and is a great information resource for marketers looking for a fresh take on content.

Marketing Technology

The Marketing Technology Blog – The Marketing Technology Blog provides daily updates from marketing professionals on the latest in marketing technology.

Chief Marketing Technologist Blog – Marketing technologist Scott Brinker, co-founder and CTO at ion interactive, writes on marketing technology trends and insights.

Branding

Branding Strategy Insider – This blog’s goal is to provide insight for content marketers on how to build trust through strong branding and great content.

The Story of Telling – Author Bernadette Jiwa aims to help content marketers better sell their ideas to readers through great, engaging content.

Analysts & Research

Brian Solis’s Blog – Brian Solis, a principal analyst at Altimeter, anthropologist and futurist, writes about social business and how readers can use it to shape their organizations.

Jake Sorofman’s Blog – Jake Sorofman, Research Director at Gartner, writes about digital marketing strategy, trends and best practices for mobile, social and content marketing.

Ryan Skinner’s Blog – Ryan Skinner, Senior Analyst at Forrest, provides insight for marketing leadership professionals on content and experiences that drive customer engagement.

Rebecca Lieb’s Blog – As an analyst covering digital media and advertising at Altimeter, Rebecca Lieb offers expert insights on digital and content strategy for marketers.

Marketing Experiments Blog – This blog was the first Internet research lab to conduct and publish on experiments to optimize marketing and sales strategies.

Michael Fauscette’s Blog – Michael Fauscette, leader of IDC’s Software Business Solutions Group, offers advice and analysis on emerging software strategies for businesses.

eMarketer – This blog covers ecommerce, digital marketing and online media to offer insights and advice on the digital environment for marketers.

Econsultancy – This source of independent advice and insight offers content marketers a one-stop location to answer their digital marketing questions and improve their strategies.

Vendors/Consultants & News Sites

HubSpot – The HubSpot blog offers insights and advice for marketers on the topics of inbound marketing, sales and social media, as well as opinion articles.

Marketo – Marketo’s blog offers information in various key marketing areas including: marketing automation, social media, content marketing and email marketing.

ExactTarget – The blog at ExactTarget provides content marketers with daily insights on mobile, email, marketing automation and cross-channel strategy.

KISSmetrics – KISSmetrics offers content marketers information on SEO, online marketing and analytics to better shape their marketing processes.

Eloqua – Marketing technology, content marketing, email and social media are all touched upon in Eloqua’s blog to help educate marketers.

Buffer – Buffer’s blog focuses on UX, productivity, customer happiness, writing and life hacks to provide marketers with an all-encompassing view of business.

Curata – The Curata blog focuses on content marketing strategy insights, content curation best practices and everything marketers need to develop a successful content strategy, increase buyer engagement and improve their quality and quantity of leads.

Mashable – This news site has sections on social media, technology and business that contain insightful, fresh ideas for content marketers.

MarketingProfs – MarketingProfs provides consistent insights into the marketing world through a variety of topics: content, non-profit, customer behavior, ROI, PR, sales and more.

TopRank Online Marketing – The TopRank blog offers expert insights on new topics including content marketing, content tools, writing, SEO and social.

Inbound Marketing Agents – The expert writers at IMA focus on inbound marketing topics and provide a fresh take on these subjects for content marketers.

Content Marketing Institute – CMI writes daily engaging content for a wide audience on the topics of content, curation, ROI, social and many more topics with actionable value.

Convince and Convert - The Convince and Convert Blog aims to educate content marketers on their online strategies to improve their customer engagement and lead quality.

Moz – The Moz blog is a great asset for marketers and provides fresh ideas on content, SEO and providing value to buyers.

Unbounce – Online marketing insights, SEO, analytics and content are just some of the valuable insights the Unbounce blog covers for their audience.

Contentology – This blog focuses on everything content; from how to create a visual storytelling strategy, to social content to content marketing tools.

Bonus

Andy Crestodina's Orbit Media Blog. Andy simplifies content concepts so that they're easy to digest.

 
Moz's Blog. This site contains a wealth of search information that extends to content. Rand Fishkin has been a trailblazing SEO thought leader from the early days.

Why and How You Should Defy the Internet and Keep Original Content Alive

Samantha Shelley from Advanced Webranking

With Buzzfeed Inc. predicted to earn up to $120 million in revenue this year, it’s easy to understand why everyone and their pet guinea pigs are eager to jump on the blogging bandwagon. But with the bandwagon already jam-packed with similarly-minded content creators, how can we make sure our blogs are original and actually worth something to the people of the internet?

I’ve become increasingly frustrated at how “rehashed” content seems to be now, and a lot of so-called marketing blogs are some of the worst culprits. This is why I decided to write a plea of sorts, for writers everywhere to please keep original content alive! It’s not a call for you to toss SEO out of the window, but it is a case for well-written content that isn’t designed purely with SEO in mind.

“If you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.” – Matt Cutts, Google Webspam team

SEO is the bane of my existence sometimes – I can’t tell you how frustrating it can be having to write 35 city-specific landing pages for the same company, all of them 400 words long and all of them written differently!

We hear people self-righteously declaring the importance of “not writing for SEO” all the time, but how many of us have actually been taking that advice seriously? And how can we not consider such a huge player in the traffic generation game when writing?

But here’s the thing – if everyone just keeps on churning out utter crap in the name of SEO/link building/a deep need to prove themselves to their parents by making their herbal remedies blog wildly popular, then we’re all just losing. We’re saturating the internet with terrible to mediocre content, and wasting time that could be better spent writing genuinely good content that is naturally share-worthy because it’s actually valuable.

You might have to sacrifice quantity in the name of quality in order to improve your content, but you’re much more likely to cultivate a loyal following of engaged readers  blog, which will no doubt improve your ROI dramatically.

You would think this would be obvious, but apparently not. If you do research into a topic before forming your own ideas and original ways to explain something new to people, then fine. But don’t simply rephrase seven other articles you’ve read on the exact same topic.

I feel so cheated when I click on a link (complete with Buzzfeed-worthy catchy headline, of course) only to discover that the writer behind the post knows even less than me about the topic they’re claiming to be somehow superior in their knowledge of. It’s annoying! Have some integrity and write what you know. And if you don’t know it yet, then learn it and then write about it in a way that brings something new to the table. Readers will respect you a lot more, and their desire to read your next post will be around 34967% higher (ballpark statistics according to me).

Jargon isn’t ideal for any piece of writing, but neither is excessive summarizing. It’s important to make your posts appealing to the worse-than-a-goldfish attention span of the average 2014 human being, but you shouldn’t bullet point the crap (and substance) out of everything you write just to pander to people.

If you went to a conference by Mark Zuckerberg about using social media effectively, you wouldn’t demand that he speak for no longer than five minutes, would you? For people to respect writing more, we, as writers, should command respect! The problem with all these “5 Quick Ways to Find the Meaning of Life NOW” style articles is that they often fail to provide sufficient detail. (Um, hello – everyone knows it takes the 15-minute drive to Olive Garden and however long Waiter Jeff takes to provide you with bread-sticks to find the meaning of life.)

Everyone on the planet has different thoughts, feelings, and ways they express themselves. Therefore, there’s no reason your writing can’t be original. By cultivating your own personal style, and maintaining it in all your writing (while obviously being adaptable where necessary), you should be able to make everything you write distinctive, and at original in at least some ways.

Sometimes, everyone ever seems to have the same opinion, but you just don’t agree with it. Instead of shying away from arguing against seemingly well-informed gurus, voice your own thoughts! Maybe they’re wrong, but expressing them should at least open up some hearty discussion and enlighten all who get involved. Don’t be afraid of those who shout the loudest – if you have good reason to think your beliefs are valid, then share them.

You’ve probably heard people say that “there are no original ideas”. Whether or not that’s true, your content can certainly be original. You don’t have to be presenting some ground-breaking new discovery that no one knows about in order to ooze originality – you just have to give people a reason to want to read your writing, either because you presented an existing idea in a way that was better or different, or because you expounded on an idea in a way that no one had really thought about previously.

Most writing benefits when you’re able to write something, go away for a while and do something else, and return to it with a fresher perspective and the ability to make it better. The fast-paced world of blogging can certainly put the pressure on writers to bust out content faster than it takes to say “nobody will want to read it”, but you should try to avoid diminishing the value of what you write by taking sufficient time to refine it. Forget what the latest infographic is telling you about how posting 7 times a day increases ROI by however many percent – focus on quality.

One of my biggest pet peeves with marketing-related articles is the tendency for people to overstate their skills in a certain area. Sometimes it’s ok to not be an expert in something – no one really knows perfectly how to improve Page Rank, for example.

The goal of writing a post is to help people, so don’t make generalized, sweeping claims that you can’t really back up. We’re all guilty of it, because we want to seem confident in our writing. But opening up a topic for discussion may be better than simply acting like the expert in it. And don’t discount the value of quoting those who really do know about your topic – even if your post is just a solid compilation of the useful advice of others, people will still want to read it.

We’ve all heard that great storytelling equals great writing, but how often do we actively try to include stories in our posts? Science shows that the effect storytelling has on our brains makes writing more engaging, as we become more emotionally involved in what we’re reading.

While you may not be able to come up with 100% original ideas, you can certainly come up with 100% original stories, whether they’re from your own experiences or fictional. This will give your posts a fresh edge, while encouraging people to keep reading.

One thing that will always help your content stay original is keeping your creative juices flowing. There are numerous ways you can do this, and it’s really down to you how you choose to stay energized creatively, but just make sure you do. Don’t stay in a rut.

I hope this encouraged you to not sell out by rehashing existing online content. Above all, keep writing – it’s what will keep you good, and you’re much more likely to come up with original ideas when you’re constantly using your skills. Don’t let the tsunami of online content drown you – choose to surf the wave rather than swim with it! (Solid metaphor right there… minus the danger aspect.)

Fraud Alert: Online Video Ads Scrutinized

Fraud Alert: Online Video Ads Scrutinized

As online video ads become increasingly important components of today’s advertising ecosystem, scam artists seek to steal through ad networks and exchanges — using automation, deception and fraud to carry out their crimes.

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SEO free tools

SEO tools are to your day-to-day optimization efforts. Keyword suggestion tools,inbound link analysis software and SERP checkers are vital to keyword research, keyword expansion, link building and monitoring your site's positional changes in the search results. Many of the SEO tools are available free in the web.

Free SEO tools, there are many out there used for different purposes such as checking backlinks, pageranks, keyword research, analytics etc. It becomes difficult to decide the relative importance and usability of each tool. Hence, in this article I have compiled a list of free SEO tools I use which have made my work easier.

Nowadays you can find a wide range of totally free SEO tools available on the web. And this overview of the most popular free SEO tools is going to help you pick up the ones that can make your website popularity soar.

Most search marketers need not pay for these tools because there are a number of very effective free SEO tools on the Web to choose from. Here's my list of the five free SEO tools that I use every day. Hopefully, you'll find some tools on the list to add to your tool arsenal.
SEO for Firefox - This free tool is a plug-in for Firefox from SEO Book. It integrates seamlessly with the Google SERPs for tremendous insight into search engine optimization metrics like toolbar PageRank, Twitter mentions and how many domain and deep page links my site has acquired. SEO for Firefox also shows which links are "nofollow" on a web page (highlighted in red), which is a real time saver for link building and link analysis. Other cool features include number of social bookmarks, Alexa rank, cache date and Wikipedia citations.

Majestic SEO - If you're building links, this is an invaluable search engine optimization tool for measuring link acquisition. A great feature is the "daily update," which gives you a daily journal of all your new inbound links. Other cool of Majestic SEO are some slick tools for charting the growth of your site's link profile with a host of different cool visuals.

Rank Checker - If you're like me and you're obsessed with site rankings, then Rank Checker is a must have search tool. SEO Book's Rank Checker gives you daily rank updates from Google, Yahoo and Bing simultaneously. You can export data into Excel and incorporate it into a keyword ranking report for your search engine marketing clients. Rank Checker also lets you add multiple keywords at once and save those keyword lists as individual presets, so you don't have to enter the same keywords repeatedly.

Google Webmaster Tools - You can gain some valuable insights on vital performance metrics and your website's search results visibility with Google's Webmaster Tools. Features such as organic click-through-rates of your top 100 keywords and the ability to take inventory of all your internal links, really helps you fine-tune your organic search marketing efforts.

Google AdWords Keyword tool
The first step in any SEO campaign is identifying the keywords/key phrases you want to use - popularly known as keyword research. Google AdWords Keyword tool is the most widely used and acclaimed free tool for keyword research. It will let you know which keywords to target, the competition for those keywords, and will also offer suggestions on popular phases you might not have even thought of. There are other paid keyword research tools like keyword discovery and wordtracker which are good as well, but this tool is valuable and efficient when it comes to a free SEO tool.

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a top analytics tool available to everybody for free. This analytics gives you details about traffic behavior, funnel information, conversions, landing pages and much, much more.


Compete

This is a great tool for analyzing your competition. You can see traffic and engagement metrics for any website; identify sites for affiliate and SEO link building. Also you can analyze competitor keywords and search strategies for free. Other features include; analyzing subdomains, tagging, comparisons, portfolios and CSV download of information. Compete.com also has a subscription based paid service which you can use to attain additional features.



BONUS

Even More Awesome Suggestions:

Google Banned Checker (iwebtool.com/google_banned) - check whether a site is banned by Google or not

Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker (seochat.com/seo-tools/redirect-check/) - checks the exact HTTP headers that a web server is sending with an HTTP response.

Search Engine Bot Simulator (xml-sitemaps.com/se-bot-simulator.html) - SEO Tool to simulate search engine parsing of webpages and display discovered links.

Indexed pages (seochat.com/seo-tools/indexed-pages/) - check the no. of indexed pages for your blog

Search Listings Preview (iwebtool.com/search_listings_preview) - Preview your website on Google, MSN and Yahoo! Search

Spider Simulator (seochat.com/seo-tools/spider-simulator/) - simulates a search engine by displaying the contents of a web page

Search Engine Position (iwebtool.com/search_engine_position) - Locate your search listings on Google and Yahoo!


More Google tools with Webmaster Guidelines