Bloggers who want to be taken seriously need to know where to find reliable information online. Linking to these sources is, after all, how your writing will be checked and trusted by your readers. Bloggers also need to know how and where they will share and crowdsource information online both in the creation of a blog and after it’s completion. Other needs include SEO resources that can help with improving your online reputation, as well as social media and CMS troubleshooting sites. Here are the five specific types of web sources you absolutely have to have bookmark folders for:
Social news sites – A blogger could scarcely survive without social news sites. Reddit, AllTop, StumbleUpon, Fark, Digg, Mashable, HuffPost, Mixx and others aggregate content in every imaginable field of knowledge so that you can not only learn about new topics and topical news but see what stories are being prized the most by readers. Mining for ideas should be a daily blogging practice.
Wiki’s – The most popular being Wikipedia, Wiki’s allow for the democratization of encyclopedic knowledge in a social media rich online environment. Bloggers can create wiki’s on topics they’re blogging about or use them for additional research. It’s a great way to collaborate on online projects.
Social Media – A blogger should use a wide variety of social media resources in order to share posts and break into niche online communities. Don’t rely on just Facebook. Bloggers should also bookmark Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google +, Sky Rock and dozens of others. Scout out new ones everyday.
SEO resources – Any blogger worth his/her salt will be constantly looking for ways to optimize their blog in order to increase readership and Page Rank. Most know of the importance of keywords, headers, frequent posting, and the difference between on and off-page SEO. But always be on the look out for new SEO tips. One of your bookmarked folders should contain SEO resources blogs like Search Engine Land, SEOmoz, SEOBook, Blogstorm, and others.
CMS troubleshooting sites – Assuming you’re using a CMS such as WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, one of your folders should contain troubleshooting resources. WP has its own extensive forum for technical issues and so do the others, but you may also want to reference other resources like Creative Cow and online CMS tutorials.
Most bloggers have a wide variety of bookmarked folders to assist them in browsing the Internet and gathering information efficiently. These five are essential and should be refreshed on a weekly basis.
By Guest Author – Samantha Peters, an avid blogger who helps give tips about protecting your reputation online for professional bloggers.
