40 Excellent Resources for Online Publishers - Part 2
In the first part of this mini article series, which highlights excellent resources for online publishers, we looked at forums and social media sites. In this second part, we take it one step further and recommend some of the most useful blogs and websites out there which will educate you with information which is relevant for publishers.
Also included here are five excellent places for finding jobs online, and five tools which will help you analyze the performance of your website with the intention of improving it in order to take one more step towards success!
Blogs / Websites
What is a blog these days? Well that is really just a matter of personal definition, but in this article we are listing ten frequently updated websites which all excel in their fields. These blogs and websites should be in every publisher’s feed reader, simply because they provide you with excellent information that will help you gain attention, earn a reputation, respect and of course money, and the best part is that they do it for free!
21: Daily Blog Tips
If you identify yourself as a blogger, then this blog is most likely in your feedreader already. Daily Blog Tips is an excellent resource for everything blogging, and the straight-to-the-point articles provided generally serve as great suggestions on how you can improve your blog and ultimately become more successful in publishing your content.
22: Copyblogger
For everyone involved with any type of writing, this one truly is a must read. Filled with glowing examples on how to be a better writer, following this blog and picking up on the advice given should pay dividents in the long run.
23: A List Apart
They brand themselves as a magazine for people who make websites, and that is exactly what they are. All the most important aspects, such as design, coding and writing are covered in excellent manner.
Everyone involved in online publishing is, or at least should be aware of the benefits of search engine marketing. Search Engine Journal keeps a sharp eye on things surrounding this topic.
25: Dosh Dosh
Overlooking the funny japanese cartoon figures, this is one of the top five blogs on making money online hands down. If you are not already reading it, you need to start doing it as soon as possible!
26: Performancing
Group blog written and maintained by several professional bloggers and publishers. You will find many useful tips on how to better your chances of being successful online here.
27: Quick Sprout
I was not quite sure about which one of Neil Patel’s blogs I should include on this list, Pronet Advertising or Quick Sprout. I ended up with the latter however, as it with help you with something most online publishers struggle with, namely strengthening your own personal brand. Although Neil does not post too often here, it is certainly worth reading when he does!
28: 43 Folders
My favourite blog for everything “life hacking”, and that is certainly something all of us involved in online work need a certain dose of every now and then, am I right?
29: Web Worker Daily
This website covers most all of the topics that concern those of us who spend some, or all of our time working online. Well worth a good read!
30: ProBlogger
What list would be complete without the oh-so-famous ProBlogger? Fact is though, this site is so much more than just blogging. Just breeze through some of the most popular articles, and you will find that there is a lot to be learned about all the various aspects of online publishing from pro blogger Darren Rowse!
Jobs
While the dream for all of us who are working online is to create our own successful business, sometimes it is smart to supplement your earnings with a little something on the side. Here you will find five places to where you can start your hunt for jobs.
31: Freelance Switch Job Boards
These job boards are special in the way that instead of charging advertisers for placing jobs, they charge those looking for jobs for the details needed to apply for a job. Regardless of this, they are a good place to find jobs in the field of blogging and writing.
Good place to find jobs related to the various forms of web development.
The jobs here seem to revolve mainly around engineering and various management and development positions.
If you are looking for jobs as a blogger, this is without a doubt one of the best places to start.
Not a job board like the other four, but still worth keeping tabs on. Several times a week Deborah does a great job in aggregating available freelancing writing jobs from a multitude of sources and posting them up for all of us to consider at her blog!
Tools
Utilizing some tools of the trade will help make your life easier as an online publisher. These tools aim to help you analyze your own websites in order to spot your strengths and weaknesses.
This little gem of a tool will help you see what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong by seeing which of your articles rank well in search engines and which don’t.
37: SEOmoz Page Strength Analyzer
Another SEO tool, this one will give your site a grade based on several different metrics. Although the metrics used are often criticized for being inaccurate and easy to manipulate, all of them combined will give you a fair indication of how your website is currently doing in terms of traffic and visibility.
Although less scientific and mostly for novelty, this tool will assign a value to your website by calculating various factors such as Alexa ranking, PageRank and inbound links. Lars-Christian.com is worth a little over $1,000 - any takers? Just kidding, as I said though, this is mostly for novelty.
39: Google Analytics Stats Tracker
This on the other hand, is as scientific as they come. The tracker of choice for many publishers out there, mostly because it provides an amazing amount of detail around your visitors and their behaviour when they access your website.
40: Overture Keyword Selector Tool
Perhaps the most useful of all the tools, this one will let you discover what people are actually searching for, and which keywords you should highlight in your articles in order to try and gain good search engine rankings for things people are actually searching for. Keyword research is really an art on its own, but it is something every online publisher should be familiar with, and it will be covered in-depth in the future here at this very blog.
And that concludes this little series highlighting some of the most useful resources for online publishers out there. If you are missing anything, feel free to leave a comment with your own suggestions. I have already gotten some feedback about resources not included in the list, and if I get a few more I might even do a third bonus part!