A Potluck Feast of Blogs & Websites
It’s that time of year when the holidays spark a certain reminiscence about the year that has past and excitement for the year that is ahead of us. As a community that truly believes in the value of social media, we also know that it’s not just passion for marketing, communications, PR and social media that brings together…it’s also our other interests that truly makes for strong relationships.
So without further ado, I invite you all to join me for a potluck feast. Potlucks are wonderful because you never know what someone will bring and often times it gives you a chance to try something you may have never known about or ever tried.
For this potluck feast, I ask you to share a favorite blog or website (or more if you’d like!) that you enjoy and that you think others might want to feast on, it’s that simple. (And no, it doesn’t need to be marketing related–that’s the beauty of a potluck!)
Here’s what I am bringing to the table:
- Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions
(a great site for anyone interested in understanding more about different cultures & international business) - The Anti 9-to-5 Guide
(a great site for women who might be considering going solo in 2009)
Happy holidays to you all!
Even More Goodness! Related Posts:
Tags: community, Social Media
18 Responses to “A Potluck Feast of Blogs & Websites”
The Harte of Marketing by Beth Harte is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.theharteofmarketing.com. [If you have a question about what you can use from this blog, click on the above Creative Commons link to learn more.]
Beth – I’d like to share 2 sites, (disclaimer: both started and run by friends) that I think are useful to many people. I’m not in the target audience for these sites but believe some of your readers are, which is why I am sharing.
Gals Guide – http://www.galsguide.com/ is a fantastic resource for women just starting out in the professional world. It offers tips, news, and help for everything from finding deals out shopping to life in new big city. For women just starting out, it has a helpful/loyal community. @blahgeetsa is founder
Savvy Auntie – http://savvyauntie.com is a community organized around aunts who love being, well AUNTS! It offers ideas and tips on how to be the best aunt going, and connects the community with discounts and deals for gifts, in addition to a bunch more. @savvyauntie is founder
Ken Burbary’s last blog post..You are a Celebrity
What a great idea! Here are a few blogs I really enjoy:
http://elainev.com/ – An artistic photo blog from France. She sends out one photo every few days. I love her work.
http://tarawhitney.com/justbeblogged/ – The best family photographer I know. Her blog is a great combination mom blog/ photo blog.
http://veryofficialblog.com/ – I just started reading Shannon Paul’s blog and I love what she says about social media there.
http://www.successful-blog.com/ – Liz Strauss knows how to build relationships better than anyone I know.
Todd Smith’s last blog post..Tasty Photos of “Lafayette French Pastry” bakery in NYC
Hi Beth. Thanks for inviting us to your potluck. I’m bringing a friend from Columbus who just got started blogging and is full of relevant opinions. I think you’ll like him: http://www.nickseguin.com/
Brian Link’s last blog post..Above the Funnel > ROI
Fun potluck, Beth! Here’s a couple of my non-marketing related sites I like:
http://www.dumblittleman.com – Provides tips on various aspects of your life. I love their writing style and always some great content to check out.
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/related_tag_browser/app – a cool Flickr tag browser done up in a fancy flash webapp. Fun to play with
http://www.actionmethod.com – a unique approach to project management. Offline and online versions that I’ve found very helpful and have at the least gotten Amber hooked on the products
Look forward to seeing everyone’s submissions!
Sonny Gill’s last blog post..how to kick the recession in the butt
What a great idea, Beth!!! I’m going to submit three: one for fun and two that are business-related:
- http://www.corporatehallucinations.com/ – Steve Crescenzo takes us inside corp comms and gives us a reality check.
- http://writingboots.typepad.com/writing_boots/ – David Murray shares “A tramp’s journal on freelance journalism, business communication and other ways to earn a happy living on cheap talk.”
- http://www.jennsylvania.com/jennsylvania/ – A published author who reminds me life shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Susan’s last blog post..Guest Towels
Beth,
I think it’s a great idea to expand people’s universe of interesting sites to visit. After all, you never know where the big idea is going to come from! And I am always seeking nuggets of info, recipes, deals and some good, old-fashioned humor as a welcome respite from a hectic day.
Plus, if we peruse nothing but marketing-related sites, we’re doomed to burn out!
So, here are some sites I like to visit, and services I use on a variety of topics (in no particular order):
http://www.tastespotting.com/ – This is a beautiful visual collection of recipes that always sparks creative ideas — and not just in the kitchen. Some of my most successful marketing campaigns were born from visions of a creamy five-cheese penne or a crumbly peach cobbler.
http://www.yapta.com – It stands for “Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant” and delivers on its name. After you purchase your ticket, YAPTA will keep checking to see if there is a drop in the airfare. If there is, they’ll send you a check for the difference. It’s free, easy, convenient and there is no work involved — other than cashing your refund check!
http://www.someoneoncetoldme.com/ – This is such a cool concept, and I try to visit as often as I can to see the photos, which are updated daily around the premise of “Someone once told me..” Participants (which can be anyone) share a picture of them holding up a sheet of paper with their someone-once-told-me-ism written on it. It’s always fun and relatable and reminds you of the little things that impact your life.
http://www.geekbrief.tv/ – I’m a big fan of Cali Lewis’ Geek Brief. It’s fun, informative and boils down the complex elements into understandable sound bites, which is perfect for a geek enthusiast like me who is not as versed in the highly technical aspects of geekery.
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/default.asp – This is a compilation of newspaper front pages from all over the world, including 61 other countries. Very interesting for getting a snapshot (literally) of what’s happening around the world.
There are other staples I visit regularly such as Marc Andreessen’s blog (http://blog.pmarca.com/), who has such a unique way of cutting through to the heart of an issue with decisive wit, and The Onion (www.theonion.com) for my daily dose of hilarity. I also check out Deal Catcher (www.dealcatcher.com) for coupon codes before buying anything on the web, and recently stumbled upon Dave Johnston’s blog, One Man Lab (www.onemanlab.com), which I am loving for its gritty and sarcastic bluntness.
That’s a little sneak peak into my online activity apart from the excessive amount of hours I spend on Twitter, and the thousands of other links and sites to which it leads me on an hourly basis. It’s all part of my cyber diet!
Great idea. I love the Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions link. And I’m also checking out the action method from Sonny. Delicious!
I’ll bring the Idea Sandbox Prioritizer (http://prioritizer.idea-sandbox.com/): it’s like to do list magic.
I, too, look forward to seeing what else is on the menu.
Kelli Matthews’s last blog post..My "Social" Resolutions
Hi,
Some cool news sites with visualization themes.
Newser: http://www.newser.com/
All the headlines in a square photo with links to the original stories.
Also on Twitter at @Newswer
10 by 10: http://tenbyten.org/10×10.html
A Ten by 10 matrix of the latest news photographs linked to the stories to see what the world is watching hour by hour.
The News Map: http://marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/
Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator.
Regards,
Shaun Dakin
Twitter:
@EndTheRoboCalls (business)
@IsCool (personal)
Love your potluck idea! I’m going to take it a step further (hope that’s okay) and suggest a few iPhone apps I really like.
1. Marketing Profs. Great for catching up on quality content at odd snippets of time. (And it’s free!)
2. LoseIt! A free weight loss/fitness tracking app that helps you track goals, daily foods, exercise.
3. More Cowbell. Yep, now you can play cowbell along with your favorite songs, as well as hear that famous line by Christopher Walken from the SNL sketch.
Happy New Year!
Connie Reece’s last blog post..We have an Age of Conversation 2 winner!
Wow, this is quite the feast, thanks everyone!!
There are a bunch of sites/blogs that I haven’t heard about…I can’t wait to check them out. Yum!
Idea Sandbox Prioritizer, YAPTA and Action Method will come in handy for 2009! And given that I am cooking more than normal these days, I need to swing by Taste Spotting.
@ToddSmith, you might like my friend Jocelyn Canfield’s site too The Daily Shot (http://photoresults.wordpress.com/).
@ConnieReece, thanks for the iPhone apps! Except now my BlackBerry will be envious…
Love this potluck idea
http://www.freebies4mom.com great place for freebies and frugal living ideas
http://www.momadvice.com great mom site
http://www.shankman.com and http://www.helpareporter.com best sites to get writers for your blog
Trisha Novotny’s last blog post..Luvs Diaper giveaway
You know I wish I could think of such great blog topics like you Beth..So I would def. add your blog to my list, but here are a couple that I like>
Post Secret-http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ is one of those sites where it just shows the raw elements of the human condition anonymously..it’s a real cool site.
The Museum of Modern Art has a store with some of the coolest and eccentric and hippest gifts and items under the sun check it out: http://tinyurl.com/93pnoc
and here’s 3 quick ones for the uninitiated, though you seriously would have to be living in a cave to not know these:
Pandora.com for music and Hulu.com for video and kayak.com for travel
Marc’s last blog post..Did social media teach you anything in 2008?
Beth, what a fantastic idea! I grazed on my way in the door and am already full from the tasty morsels shared. Some of my favorite dishes have been shared in the comments or in the blogroll but to add a few more tasty morsels:
http://middlezonemusings.com Robert Hruzek is an excellent storyteller and his uplifting posts make you think and laugh.
Wonder Branding: Notes to Marketing on Women http://michelemiller.blogs.com/marketing_to_women/
Karen Swim’s last blog post..Simply the Best?
A few of my faves:
* http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/
* http://social-media-university-global.org
* http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/
* http://zenhabits.net/
* http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/
* http://veryofficialblog.com/
Arik Hanson’s last blog post..How are you cultivating your leadership skills?
Great idea for a post.
Here’s a couple I enjoy:
Ex Blank Page http://ex-blank-page.blogspot.com/ – a melange of thought and photography and music and video from Anca Radu, a Romanian internet friend. Because she is in Tranyslvania, her world view has inputs few Americans get to see (and yes, the blog is in English)
Crooked Timber – http://crookedtimber.org/ – an eclectic thought blog with a UK slant that my friend Noah Brier turned me on to (and if you don’t read Noah – http://www.noahbrier.com – you should)
YouBeMom http://www.youbemom.com – where the original UrbanBaby.com crowd wound up (UrbanBaby = UB = YouBe) – snarky moms with great tips and a great window into what this demographic is thinking
Tore Claesson http://toreclaesson.blogspot.com/ – very cool photography blog by a friend of mine
Alan Wolk’s last blog post..The Great Unleveling
What a clever idea! A smorgasbord of tasty morsels! Thanks for the chance to give and take.
A few of my favorites include these 5:
Viget Labs (http://www.viget.com/blog)
Viget is a dynamic professional service company offering Web strategy, development, marketing, and design. I’ve never done work with them, but they won my interest when I realized they have 4 cleverly written blogs (for each of the focus areas above) that are tied into their corporate site. I like the breadth of their content, and for the areas I’m familiar, I can tell they know their stuff.
I like Luke W’s (The Fusion of Function and Form) site (http://www.lukew.com/) because he’s such a prolific producer of insightful instructional material. An interaction designer by trade, Luke is like the Armano of truly usable, intuitive interfaces, specifically Web. His work is clean, easily understood, beautiful, and smart.
I dig PopLabs (http://www.poplabs.com/) which I first learned about after catching a YouTube video created by one of their pros, nicknamed The Poetic Prophet. They offer SEO, SEM, SMM all with an authentic, “here” and “now” irreverent flair. The video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0qMe7Z3EYg) is a hoot–it’s a rap about solid search engine optimization practices, and it’s dead on.
I wouldn’t be much of a social media steward if I didn’t encourage you to check out Fierce Inc. (http://www.fierceinc.com/). The book “Fierce Conversations” is a great read that can be broken down and read in digestible parts. I’m a direct person, and passive-aggressiveness in others burns me alive. The book (and the company) can help anyone face difficult situations with grace and confidence, and even inspire others to reexamine their choices. It’s not about being angry or bitchy, but rather about being authentic and strong.
And I always learn something from Tom Peters–who doesn’t? http://www.tompeters.com/
Heather Rast’s last blog post..When It’s Viral: Marketing’s In The Hands Of The People
Hey check out my website->
http://www.randombenonethree.blogspot.com
Everyone, thanks so much for the sites and blogs…I don’t know about you, but I have been feasting on them all. Great stuff!