Drea Knufken
The Internet is ablaze with blogs. We sifted through the web’s innumerable offerings to give you this year’s list of the 75 best business blogs.
Our topics range from accounting to work-life balance. We selected them based on timely, useful content; regularity of updates and quality of information. We categorized them by topic to help you find those most relevant to your field. We can vouch for every single one of the blogs on this list, and encourage you to read them to hone your expertise in your field.
Good work, bloggers!
ACCOUNTING
This is the resource on taxes for small businesses. Partners-in-CPA Donna and Chad Bordeaux give small business owners detailed, easy-to-understand guidance on how to take advantage of tax laws. They also help businesses plan taxes—and consult on the side.
Re: The Auditors is targeted at those interested in–or working for–the Big 4 accounting firms, with a focus on regulation, auditing, strategy, and other topics relevant to corporate accounting. Quality writing and an independent angle make this blog a winning read.
ADVERTISING
Advertising Age’s prolific blog covers ad industry news, campaigns, and commentary. Digest it daily to stay up on the ad world.
Another magazine-sponsored blog, this time from AdWeek. The bloggers present ad images and clips on each post, followed by a background and commentary. They have a penchant for finding really interesting content, about ads, companies, and people in the industry.
AGRICULTURE
Former journalist, marketer, and farm educator Stu Ellis writes about the trends in agriculture, and what they mean for those in the industry. A quality blog by a true agriculture expert.
BLOGGING
Longtime blogger and blogging expert Darren Rowse makes a living by blogging—and is the ultimate resource on helping you grow, nurture and monetize your blogs, too.
BLOGS BY CORPORATIONS
AccuQuote
Life insurance provider AccuQuote hosts this handy blog, which provides tips on saving money, safety, and insurance. It’s not the most glamorous of fields, but the tips are useful and sound.
ComScore
15 authors focus on e-commerce and the digital marketplace for the digital marketing intelligence company comScore. It’s a nice place to get your fix on digital marketing tips and trends, as well as an overview of the current digital landscape.
BUSINESS LAW
Five law professors weigh in on law, business, education, and a variety of other topics. Their expert analysis on business law is not only helpful for understanding events from a legal perspective, but also very readable.
BUSINESS COMMENTARY
DealBreaker: A Wall Street Tabloid
Snark, wit and Wall Street gossip define this self-proclaimed business tabloid, which doesn’t let any banker off the hook, no matter the bonus size. Editor Bess Levin is relentless in the best sense of the word.
CAREER
Simply Hired
SimplyHired.com’s blog offers practical, thorough advice that every job hunter can use, from explaining years of temping to an employer to jobs that are growing by industry.
COACHING AND CONSULTING
Coaching Commons
This interactive forum and quality ezine covers everything from coaching trends to practical tips to the history of coaching. Podcasts, videos, and all-around great reporting round out the offerings.
Maximize Possibility
This blog tenaciously provides quality links and resources that coaches, consultants, and anyone else in the business of learning business can use.
CONSUMER ISSUES
Consumerist is the definitive source on customer service, how-tos, shopping, investigations, and any other consumer-rights issues.
CONTENT
The go-to resource for copywriting, content marketing, and successfully building an online presence. Follow Copyblogger regularly to increase your skill set in these areas.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Sharp business analysis, case studies, and an in-depth look at the things currently affecting CR define this thorough and well-written blog.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
This blog ties trends, communication, customer loyalty, and everything else you want to know about customer service into a neat, concise, story-rich package.
E-COMMERCE
Practical E-Commerce’s blog covers more than 12 topics and is written by a host of bloggers, making it one of the most complete e-commerce blogs on the web.
ECONOMICS
University of Oregon economics prof Mark Thoma provides relevant information for more than juct hic econ students in this helpful and timely blog. From more econ-ese topics like nominal GDP growth targeting to more mainstream analysis like how a smarter bailout could have shorted the recession, Thoma makes sure that Joe Q. Public can understand it all.
Konzal busts mythical media stories, unsound statistics, misbegotten assumptions and poorly thought out arguments to give you a keen look into the economy’s true situation. The man knows how to think a financial issue through; him sharing his insights through his blog is truly a must-read for anyone interested in real financial problem-solving.
Harvard economics professor Greg Mankiw’s blog is geared at students, but is useful for anyone with an interest in economics. Subjects cover trends in economics, explain components of the field in a new and interesting way (“The Economics of Seinfeld” is one such post), and occasionally veer into other diverse topics.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
Full of tips, discussion, videos, and other resources for new entrepreneurs. TPE sets the standard for informing and supporting its venture-hungry readers.
The ever-enthusiastic and engaging David Siteman Garland hosts this multimedia venture, which includes a regular blog, online show, events, and resources for entrepreneurs. Bonus: As advertised, it isn’t boring—at all.
GREEN BUSINESS
Triple Pundit
Triple Pundit covers news, commentary, and analysis about the triple bottom line, which has to do with sustainable business and the environment. Consistently insightful and interesting.
FINANCE
This blog is written anonymously by a New York finance lawyer who used to work in politics. Finance, economic policy, and analysis of finance laws make up the general themes of this excellent blog. His insider perspective and unique experience make for a thorough read.
While almost everyone else is busy booing and moaning the sordid fall of the US economy, the folks at The Baseline Scenario are looking for solutions. Authors Peter Boone, Simon Johnson and James Kwak have oodles of economics, policy, consulting, management, and entrepreneurial experience between them, making for some formidably good reading.
Felix Salmon
Financial commentary king Felix Salmon deconstructs and gives valuable insights on mainstream media finance news.
Links: Abnormal Returns
This blog offers some of the best, most complete, daily financial links on the web, period.
FRANCHISING
The Franchise King
This blog shares news, contests, commentary, and tips for franchisers. His posts are consistently short, interesting, and relevant.
FREELANCING
Freelance Switch
Chock full of useful tips for freelancers, this blog speaks to workers who do it themselves. Bonus: Comics, contests, and anecdotes.
GENERATIONAL
Building Money and Career (Gen-Y)
Ramit Sethi, who cofounded startup PBwiki, gives tips on entrepreneurship, personal finance, and, well, getting rich, mainly targeted at young adults. His advice is useful and to-the-point.
Building Career and Family (Gen-X)
Guy Kawasaki
Alltop creator and tech guru Guy Kawasaki isn’t Gen X-specific, but his content is useful to any small business owner interested in tech and raising kids (which we would assume are mostly Gen Xers). He’s chock full of useful tips and practical ideas, making his blog worth a regular check-in.
Retirement (Boomer)
RetirementRevised.com is more of a sort of blog-ezine hybrid and all-around good resource for anyone thinking about retirement. As an age group, boomers have done many things differently; this blog focuses on a new definition of retirement and life after 50.
HUMAN RESOURCES
HR Bartender
HR expert Sharlyn Lauby likens herself to the neighborhood bartender who you trust with your problems and count on for good advice. If you read her regularly, you’ll see that she indeed lives up to that. Her expertise in social media in the workplace makes her content especially timely and useful.
INNOVATION
Innovation Tools’ Innovation Weblog
Chuck Frey curates this complete innovation blog, which covers news, trends, tech, commentary, research, best practices, management, strategies and more. Did we mention it was complete? That’s not to mention well-written and very much worth the RSS feed.
INTERNATIONAL
International Business—General
Two dozen contributors cover both international and country-specific business/economic issues. Their unique reports cover everything from Tehran’s first hypermarket to the fine art industry as a global economic indicator. An excellent place to catch up on general business happenings across the globe.
Africa
Emeka Okafor’s incredible range of business experiences include starting companies, co-running a food/beverage company, managing a PE fund, and directing the 2007 TED global conference in Tanzania. In Timbuktu Chronicles, he covers entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability, technology, and more. His inclusion of individual people’s stories and entrepreneurial ventures lets you know the African business world through individual stories.
EU
Commentary on economic, business, and current news in the EU. 15 authors cover both individual countries and EU-wide news, as well as commentary on more remote countries, like the US.
Middle East
This Middle East-focused news site offers excellent business and economics updates for the entire region.
China
CBN is perhaps the ultimate network for anyone in the West who wants to get better at doing business in or with China. A handful of channels contain valuable articles that will help you make the right moves on your way East.
Latin America
Nine contributors cover business, politics, and culture in Latin America. Coverage is consistently good, as are the links to current news. An ideal place to load up on Latin America, in English.
India
Popular India business news, top-10 lists, trends, and startups are the focus of this prolific and entertaining blog.
Australia/NZ
Tips, analysis, trends and more are covered in this well-written, Australia-specific business resource.
INTERNET MARKETING
MarketingVOX
MarketingVOX covers industry news, trends, tools, and other marketing information that, according to them, “can have material impact on their work, as opposed to the hype of the day.” They’re right, because it’s a darn good resource.
INVESTING
The Aleph Blog
David Merkel, CFA, FSA has professional experience in equity management, investment analysis, investment commentator, and as a chief economist—but that’s not the only reason you should read his blog. You should read his blog because he knows how to read the economy and its markets, and he does it well.
Pragmatic Capitalism
If you want to pick up the crucial information that the mainstream media leaves out, look no further than Pragmatic Capitalism, which has one objective: “helping investors decipher information in a way that helps them create an investment plan that produces superior market returns.” Carefully researched and filtered information makes it easier for you to make smart investment choices.
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP
HBR’s Tom Davenport
Author, research guru and management expert Tom Davenport has written nine books for the Harvard Business Press. He shares his insights and ideas with you on this quality blog. He’s currently focused on blogging about judgment in business; the topics he blogs about include exploring your leadership narrative, cultivating organizational judgment, and why some companies make better decisions than others.
Management consultant Lisa Haneberg focuses on making businesses more effective and aligned. Her 30+ years of experience feed well into her topics, which include everything from business tools to book reviews to business poetry.
MANUFACTURING AND OPERATIONS
Written by people who work for the enterprise software company Apriso, this blog advises and informs through posts that will, upon regular reading, keep you up-to-date and wise to the workings of the manufacturing world.
Matching Supply With Demand
The two authors behind this blog cover news, trends, and analysis for the operations management field. It’s geared at instructors who teach operations management, but the in-depth, instructive articles, which use real-life examples, benefit everyone in the field.
MARKETING
Geared at the small business crowd, this essential marketing resource offers news, tools, tips, and commentary relevant to SMB. The site also has an excellent podcast, books, and other resources.
Seth’s Blog
Seth Godin is a guru of sorts. His frequent, to-the-point insights make you both ponder your own outlook, then improve. Utterly essential.
Neuromarketing
Veteran marketer and consultant Roger Dooley explores the burgeoning field of neuromarketing with research news, company examples, trends, and more. A well-rounded and informative read.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
The New York Times’ DealBook consistently has superior details, background, and reports on the M&A space. Not that this should be your only resource, but it’s definitely one of the best.
MICROFINANCE
David Roodman’s Microfinance Open Book Blog
If you want to learn more about microfinance, look no further than this so-called open book blog by Center for Global Development Senior Fellow David Roodman. In his blog, Roodman shares chapters and drafts of his upcoming book on microfinance, as well as Q&As, guest posts and more. He asks the hard questions about how and for whom microfinance works, making for an engaging ongoing discussion.
MOTIVATION
Get Motivation’s Motivation Blog
Regular articles by self-improvement gurus Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Joe Tye, Jim Stovall, Robert Pagliarini, and others make this blog a complete resource for your motivational needs.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Five Cent Nickel
“Nickel,” the writer of this blog, raised a family and finished school without debt, and paid off his mortgage in less than ten years. So when he writes an article entitled “How to Get Out of Debt,” it’s worth reading. He covers other personal finance topics, from dry stuff like structuring your estate plan to the ever-interesting topic of how to become a millionaire, with a twist of philosophical insight that makes you want to read more.
As its name suggests, the Simple Dollar offers simple ways to manage your personal finances. Blogger Trent Hamm, after having his own financial meltdown, created this useful resource to explain and explore how to simplify your personal finances.
PHARMA/HEALTH
Written by longtime pharma journalist Ed Silverman, Pharmalot covers pharma news, trends, and issues. It’s really well-written, and could be considered a niche newspaper. A quality resource.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Brian Solis
PR agency principal Brian Solis writes about PR and social media news, trends, and events. His posts are short, and he updates frequently, making this a good blog to read in tasty bites.
PR Guru Stuar Bruce is the founder and CEO of the global PR company Wolfstar. Combine that kind of street cred with the topic selection and insights of a true insider, and you have one worthy blog.
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Useful tips, stories, all-around PM wisdom, and even humor abound in this essential resource for product managers. Self-proclaimed career product manager Saeed Khan, competitive intelligence pro Alan Armstrong, product management consultant Prabhakar Gopalan, and software industry vet Ethan Henry share their abundance of knowledge in detailed and relevant posts.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Pawel Brodzinski on Software Project Management
Down-to-earth software industry vet Pawel Brodzinski offers a real-world perspective on all aspects of software project management in this blog. It might also be called “Refreshingly BS-Free Software Project Management,” but that’s probably not what Pawel was going for.
REAL ESTATE
Bigger Pockets
Covers real estate news, investment, marketing, sales, technology, and landlord issues. Useful articles both for seasoned pros and beginners. The blog also has a good networking component, via forums, groups, bulletins, and a resource directory.
SALES
Heavy Hitter Sales
Longtime salesman and author Steve W. Martin shares stories, tips, insights, research, and just about everything else you need to feed your know-how as a salesperson. Though he only posts monthly, his posts are basically all good magazine articles, the kind you’d want to clip.
This journalist-led SEO news and info site offers professional, compelling industry coverage.
SMALL BUSINESS
Lawyer-turned-small business owner Anita Campbell runs this blog, which covers the gamut of information useful to small business owners, from easy marketing plans to startup failure rates to—you guessed it—small business trends. It’s a great one-stop shop for any small business owner.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Mashable
Perhaps the ultimate social media resource, Mashable covers the gamut of social media news, tips, lists, and how-tos. It’s an extensive social media resource that you should bookmark and check at least weekly.
Social media expert and bestselling author Chris Brogan has been doing social media for 11 years. Yes, that’s probably three times as long as most of you. This is why he’s worth listening to, as well as the fact that he writes interesting, engaging, and relevant blog posts.
SPORTS BUSINESS
Sports Biz
Writer Darren Rovell reports on sports news from a business perspective. He covers the gamut of sports business, from endorsements to promising young players. An excellent daily read.
TECHNOLOGY/IT
ReadWriteWeb
Insightful news and analysis on web, Internet industry, and other tech news make this blog a daily staple for anyone in the world of tech.
News from the hardware/software/IT space, including new products, IPOs and funding, companies, campaigns, research, people, industry news, and more. Consistently good and on top of the tech game.
VENTURE CAPITAL
Longtime New York City VC Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) covers company moves, public policy, investor behavior, media, tech, and a whole lot more. His brings insight and a human touch to all of his topics.
WOMEN IN BUSINESS
This blog does an admirable job of addressing career issues for high-performing, thinking women. Cleverly curated categories include interviews, advice columns, office politics, money, and much more.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Zen Habits
Leo Baubata is a master of simplification, and everything in his blog—the lack of ads and photos, the reasonable, direct advice—reflects that. Take in his literary cup of tea for balance and health.
Which news blog do you enjoy the most?
