Looking for some new online marketing blogs to read this year? We’ve got a big ol’ list to help you out!
It’s broken up into a few rough categories to keep it somewhat organized:
Blogging, copywriting, social media, graphics and UI and web design, analytics, SEO, WordPress, branding, affiliate marketing and eCommerce, email marketing, hiring and staff, videos and photography, and sales.
When you read these blogs you’ll get ideas and inspiration, and sometimes just a little bit of research on a new blog can change your whole career for the better. That’s our hope with this collection.
Please consider giving it a share if you enjoy it!
The Best Online Marketing Blogs to Follow
Putting together one of these lists of the best blogs is both time-consuming and confusing because you need to first find the blogs and then have a reason or a system for why you include them.
With that in mind, the blogs mentioned below are hopefully a good mix of authority and freshness in no particular order. I didn’t want you to just see a list of popular sites that you already know – but some will definitely be in there.
If you know of any newer blogs that are doing great things please drop a note in the comment and I’ll consider adding it to the post. I’m always on the lookout for something great!
Blogging
Blogs that help you get the most out of your own blogging.
- Matthew Barby
Matthew has worked in marketing for a long time and shares content about growth strategies, SEO and content marketing. - Detailed.com
Incredible content from Glen Allsopp that gives detailed case studies in to content marketing and SEO success stories. - Blog Herald
The Blog Herald blog cover blogging related news, interviews, and publishes content that is related to all parts of blogging. - The Branded Solopreneur
This blog is run by Dre, who shares her tips related to branding and visual content. She also writes about WordPress and content creation in her own unique style. - Michelle Shaeffer
Michelle’s content is more inclined towards individuals who wish to start a blogging career or turn it into a business. - A Branch of Holly
Holly teaches about blogging, but she has her own style of expression through stories and helping other bloggers who are struggling. - Unamo
Social media, SEO and conversions are the three main subjects the Unamo blog covers in a detailed way. Its content considers various business cases, and suggests solutions for them. - Digital Uncovered
The Digital Uncovered team consistently publishes terrific content, and discusses different topics in thoughtful ways. - Authority Hacker
The long-form articles on the Authority Hacker blog are phenomenal, and capable of solving your doubts all at once. Their content is based on what their experience has been working on the internet for years. - Audience Bloom
Jayson DeMers provides marketing related services, and has some good knowledge about what works and what doesn’t. He shares his advice on his blog occasionally. - Be a Better Blogger
Kevin Duncan’s blog has a lot of valuable content related to blogging. You can spend a lot of time just clicking through his archives. - ShoutMeLoud
The ShoutMeLoud blog by Harsh Agrawal is a great place to find how-tos and tutorials related to various blogging tools and platforms. - How to Make My Blog
Marko Saric shares a lot of worthy content that provides answers to many questions all bloggers have. It’s all well-structured and easy to digest. - Upwork
Upwork is a platform to hire freelancers or remote workers. The Upwork blog covers several subjects such as hiring, business, productivity and almost every topic that bloggers need to get content about. - Oktopost
The Oktopost blog is for businesses, and shares tips for teams to make the best use of blogging, content marketing, and blogging to achieve their goals.
Content writing and copywriting
If you do any writing online you’ll need some good copywriting lessons.
- Enchanting Marketing
A blog run by Henneke, who is an expert at copywriting. She shares writing advice for small businesses, without any fluff or pretension. - The Writer’s Academy
This blog is run by Penguin Random House, and is specifically focused on polishing the skills of writers, and simplifying the overall process for them. - Lauren Sapala
Lauren doesn’t just write, but shares stories that touch you. She inspires you to have the courage to go on as a writer, and creates posts that most writers can relate themselves to. - Copywrite Matters
An incredibly well written blog that gives you regular tips about how to be a better online writer. - Goins, Writer
A good friend of this blog, Jeff is a master writer and his blog gives you practical insights for making writing financially viable as well as fulfilling. - Kate Toon
An Australian-based copywriter that helps you write persuasive copy to ensure that your clients stay engaged and interested
Social media
Blogs to help you make the most of your hours on social networking sites.
- Robert Katai
Robert has a stunning website with a focus on social media, content marketing and visual marketing. With beautiful, long-form articles, this is definitely a blogger to watch. - Dustin W. Stout
Dustin shares some specific, practical advice that you can actually carry out. The content on his blog is insightful, and can help you regardless of which stage you’re stuck at. - SBZ
Sue helps businesses with their social media strategies and has a particularly good focus on Instagram. - Peg Fitzpatrick
Peg shares some extraordinary, yet easy social media advice. She stresses on using visual content the right way to achieve success with social media. - Jon Loomer
Jon’s focus is clear. He only talks about Facebook and nothing else. So if Facebook is where your target audience usually hangs out, follow Jon to discover what else you can do. - Sprout Social
The Sprout Social effectively combines the use of social media and SEO, and presents content that is up-to-date and useful for most businesses. - digimind
The digimind blog is mostly about social media and analytics. They not only talk about creating content or sharing it, but also about measuring and getting the right outcomes. - Social Media Explorer
While it’s not a new blog, The Social Media Explorer blog is updated regularly with new posts that explain everything from a broader perspective, and shares advice that works for different platforms.
Graphics, UI and website design
Sites to help your blog be more beautiful and easy to use.
- fifteen
The fifteen team constantly comes up with new design content, and talks about interesting subjects. They have a nice way of explaining everything, in a casual, friendly tone. - Canva Design School
The Canva blog is a beautiful resource. It has a stack of well-crafted and relevant content that can help anyone become great at design skills, and also covers topics most audience can relate to. - Creative Bloq
This blog contains content from all aspects of design, such as typography and illustration, and is a nice place to explore more about design elements. - TDB
Also called as The Design Blog, it isn’t a typical blog featuring tutorials or design tips. Rather, it posts design examples from places to inspire creativity in others. - Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine’s blog is much like a school because they cover everything design-related through their in-depth articles. It’s a nice place to learn new skills. - Format magazine
Format magazine is some fun and lightweight content that inspires designer to explore fresh topics and see what others are doing. - 99designs
Creative design for entrepreneurs is their tagline, and their content reflects the same. 99designs posts are about the budding artists, and designers with an entrepreneurial spirit. - Wed Designer Depot
As the name suggests, it’s primarily about web design, but not limited to it. The articles posted on the Web Designer Depot blog are for anyone involved in working on the internet, with websites. - How Design
This blog covers a bunch of topics ranging from design news, design career, along with some business related stuff. Add them to your reading list if you wish to know about how the design industry works. - 99u
The 99u blog by Adobe Systems is about encouraging creativity in work. The bold and provoking content tells the same story through the opinions of thought leaders, and through some unconventional ways. - onextrapixel
Onextrapixel (OXP) is a tips and tools kind of blog for web designers, and talks about all things design. They keep sharing useful resources occasionally.
Analytics
Blogs to help you look at data and make more sense of it.
- The Signal
mixpanel has a business-oriented blog called The Signal that teaches you to make insightful use of data. It prompts you to critically analyze data and use it in the best way possible. - online-behavior
This blog has a simple objective of understanding how the online customers behave. It posts studies related to data and interprets them so you can properly decide your website and UX. - Jeffalytics
Jeff Sauer posts outstanding content to measure the growth and success of your blog using analytics. He presents some great points to show how you can use existing data to develop new insights. - Loves Data
Benjamin Mangold really loves data. He talks a lot about Google Analytics as his main aim is to help people make better use of their own data. - OnlineMetrics
A blog by Paul Koks where he primarily discusses uses of Google Analytics and Digital Analytics. Follow his blog if you wish to polish your analytics related knowledge. - Occamís Razor
This blog by Avinash Kaushik is still relevant and is regularly full of insightful ideas that can give you new things to work on with your own analytics.
SEO
Blog that will show you how to rank higher on Google and stay up to date.
- Ahrefs
Ahrefs is undoubtedly one of the most powerful tools. The Ahrefs blog is equally useful where the contributors share a lot of SEO related practical advice and tips. - Webris
A content marketing and SEO blog with some really amazing case studies that have pretty incredible results. Lots of practical tips here. - Portent
Although the Portent blog covers some other topics as well, their SEO related content is strong and useful. It’s a fantastic place to learn more. - Backlinko
The Backlinko blog by Brian Dean is exceptional. It’s suitable for all kinds of audience and explains technical nuances in an easily understandable manner, while often delving in to amazing detail. - Search Engine Watch
The SEW blog posts about analysis of search engine industry to increase the discoverability of websites. So the content revolves around ranking better and getting found by new audiences. - Ranking By SEO
This blog covers a broad range of SEO related topics such as keyword research, optimization, and technical SEO. It’s much like an all-in-one kind of blog. - WooRank
WooRank blog tries to simplify SEO and digital marketing in order to increase traffic, promote user engagement, and improve conversions. - CognitiveSEO
The CognitiveSEO blog is about monitoring and improving your search engine rankings. They share workable tips related to the same on their blog. - Moz
Still the world’s premier SEO blog in our opinion, this is the blog to follow if you want up to date advice on how to make sure you’re getting your Google SEO right.
WordPress
Helping you to get the most out of the world’s most popular platform.
- WP Superstars
The WP Superstars blog has a motto of simplifying WordPress. Its content includes a lot about plugins, themes, tutorials and hosting. Overall, it helps you resolve your WordPress related problems. - WPKube
It contains thorough articles to educate you about WordPress, and deal with any issues you’re facing. It’s regularly updated with new resources and easy hacks. - WPLift
An ideal blog for basic WordPress users who don’t want to deal with code, and need easier solutions for WordPress. The content is useful and new. - WPExplorer
The WPExplorer blog covers some frequent WordPress issues in a clear and simple way. It provides direct solutions and excludes any unnecessary chaff. - WPAll.club
This blog shows you the latest tools, deals, or themes, and also covers the problems WordPress users need to deal with on a regular basis. - DeveloperDrive
The DeveloperDrive team shares a lot of technical details and tutorials about WordPress. It’s focused on making WordPress better for you. It’s ideal for you if you’re a developer yourself. - Remi Corson
Remi’s blog is all about WooCommerce and related stuff. It can be especially helpful for those seeking a single place to learn all about this eCommerce platform.
Branding
Blogs to help you build a brand, not just another website.
- Motto
The Motto blog talks about all beautiful things ranging from creativity, design and entrepreneurship, while keeping branding at its heart. - Kaye Putnam
Kaye explain some definite ways to assist you in growing your brand, and presents some relevant examples from her work. - DBD International
David Brier’s blog presents some sincere ways to end brand-related confusion. His blog posts have specificity which help give practical insights to common questions.
Affiliate Marketing and eCommerce
Blogs to help you get better at selling things online.
- Smart Passive Income
Pat Flynn is one of the Internet’s genuinely good human beings. An absolute powerhouse of a website that covers all aspects of online business from blogging to podcasting and digital courses. - Mobile Moxie
An excellent blog that teaches you how to make sure your mobile user experience and strategy is converting to sales and leads. - Inbound Ascension
A fantastic blog by Daniel Daines-Hutt that gives actionable tips and case studies for how you can make everything online convert better. - eCommerceLift
John creates content keeping the eCommerce industry at center, and doesn’t post general content. He only publishes what holds potential for eCommerce businesses, along with some case studies. - A Better Lemonade Stand
The team dives into various parts and stages of running an eCommerce business such as platforms, apps, branding, or strategy. Overall, the have a stack of high-quality content that’s gold. - Bootstrapping Ecommerce
If you’re starting an eCommerce business on a small budget, this blog can guide you. They have advice related to starting and growing your business, even you aren’t a big deal. - Demac Media
The Demac blog comes up with ideas to help commerce businesses prosper in a competitive environment. It informs you with updates about how you can seize various opportunities. - BigCommerce
This blog features in-depth articles covering various subjects in the eCommerce scene. It shares content that can be useful to eCommerce business owners with a broad range of subjects covered. - Acquire Convert
Giles Thomas shares some tips to grow your business. He covers all facets or running an eCommerce business and making it successful. - Luke PeerFly
If you’re aiming to make affiliate marketing a main source of income with your blog then Luke’s blog may help. He shares his experience with various methods and related advice. - PartnerCentric
The PartnerCentric blog provides some thoughtful answers to affiliate marketing related doubts, and explains new ways to earn using the same.
Email marketing
Blogs to help you make your email marketing more effective and useful.
- Phrasee
The Phrasee blog breaks down all elements of successful emails, and teaches you how to craft your emails the right way. - Litmus
The Litmus blog explains all ins and outs related to using subject lines, email analytics and other parts of email marketing. They’ve also got a podcast. - Benchmark
Benchmark blog is simple, without any flashy elements. But their content is strong enough to help you better your email marketing efforts. - Campaign Monitor
Along with its blog, Campaign Monitor offers a set of tools, guides and webinars. You would find most of resources you need to enhance your email marketing. - Constant Contact
Articles published on Constant Contact are brief and clear. They tell you what you can do, and then suggest practical advice for execution. - Freshmail
The Freshmail blog constantly come up with new and useful ideas to help you create better email campaigns. They’ve got some helpful resources as well.
Hiring and Staff
Ideas for hiring staff to help your blogging business grow and expand.
- FreeUp
The FreeUp blog is for companies or businesses finding ways to hire remote workers online. It also shares tips about maintaining a healthy workflow and relationship with your team. - Glassdoor
Glassdoor’s blog is mainly for recruiters, or those who are seeking better ways to polish their hiring skills. It also teaches you about how you can become a better employer. - Officevibe
It’s an effective blog about building fantastic teams, and working well together. They also talk about keeping employees happy and being a responsible hirer. - Chris Ducker
For a long time now, Chris has built a blog that shows you how to hire people online in order to take all the day-to-day tasks off your hands so you can focus on building a company.
Videos and photography
How to use visual content to make your blog more successful and useful.
- Digital Photography School
DPS by Darren Rowse has been around a long time and is still quality. They teach you how to get the most out of your camera (or cellphone) and become a better photographer. - Light Stalking
It talks about beautiful photography. They keep sharing thoughts on becoming better photographers, and also have a forum where users can ask for feedback about their work. - PetaPixel
A blog that posts news, camera reviews, related articles, and also has a podcast. It also keeps the audience updated with newest happenings in the photography world. - Outdoor Photographer
This blog by Madavor Media features contributors who talk about equipment and techniques for mastering the art of landscape and wildlife photography. - Vlog Nation
Unlike other blogs which cover videography techniques, Vlog Nation shares tips related to the unconventional but emerging trend of vlogging for YouTube enthusiasts. - Photography Life
The team constantly comes up with content that’s useful to photographers, and share various tips and tricks for capturing better photographs. - No Film School
This blog presents serious videography content which is equivalent to some conventional course, and can take you to a pro level. It covers almost all required topics such as direction, screenwriting, editing and others. - The Beat
A blog that covers topics such as video editing, video production and motion graphics. The posts are regularly updated, with tutorials for various video editing tools as well. - Fstoppers
Fstoppers mainly aims at educating and inspiring the community of photography and videography enthusiasts. They have enough content for different genres. - The Blast
A blog by Shutterstock which mostly shares tips and tutorials for after effects, motion design and video editing.
Sales
Blogs that show you better techniques for selling and all things sales.
- John Barrows
John shares a lot of great sales advice that’s based on his experience and stories. He covers almost all sales-related consequences you’d normally face. - LinkedIn Sales
LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions blog produces a steady stream of content that’s published by various thought leaders and contributors. It’s got a bundle of useful resources, too. - No More Cold Calling
Joanne Black talks about building relationships and getting referrals to increase sales, instead of the popular way of cold calling. She shares her views about better sales tactics on her blog. - MJ Hoffman
Jeff has worked as a sales consultant in the past, and shares his lessons on the blog. His advice is often simple and workable, without any complications. - Marc Wayshak
Marc is a sales strategist who shares his blog posts combined with his YouTube videos. His advice is sensible and focuses on creating better salespeople. - LeadFuze
The LeadFuze team publishes content about lead generation and sales skills. Their goal is makes sales easier and less time-consuming. - Close.io
The Close.io blog covers topics related to almost all sales methods such as emailing, cold calling, reporting or automation. Also, their content is entertaining, but to the point. - Attach.io
Attach.io blog teaches you to communicate better for sales. They have content to help you at every stage of dealing with prospects. - Yesware
Yesware blog suggests tips to improve soft skills, increase productivity, and organize tools. The team tries to better the abilities of salespeople. - Growbots
The content addresses several sales concerns such as emails, customer acquisition, communication techniques and marketing automation tools. - Ambition
Ambition blog is for the salespeople. Its content is about how to make new hires, drive more revenue, or increase efficiency. - Spiro
The Sipro blog has a fun and casual way of addressing salespeople’s troubles. They’re capable of suggesting solutions without being serious at the same time.
What did you think of these blogs?
I’d really love to know what you thought of this list and whether or not there was anything new and interesting there for you. As I mentioned at the top of the post, if there is any other amazing online marketing blog out there that I’ve missed please let me know in the comments.
Top photo © Daniel Villeneuve.
Thanks so much!
This is the biggest bonus of 2018 for marketers.
Hope it helps!
Great list.
I thought Neil Patel would not miss when we talk about SEO.
Cheers
-Tony
Hey Tony. As I said up the top of the article, I was trying not to include too many blogs that everyone knows about but I am wondering if I’ve made a huge mistake!
I can’t find Neil Patel, Bryan Harris, Rand Fishkin, Pat Flynn in the list… they are authorities in their fields.
Hey Octavian.
Please see my reply to Tony above. But if anyone else mentions them I should probably put them in! Ha.
Thanks!
Great list man! But thought I’d be purely “online marketing blogs” but “videos & photography” made the list too.
Found 2 new cool marketing blogs I’ll watch out for 🙂
Thanks,
Simon.
Yeah, I thought they could be useful for people as we use a lot of photos in our niche.
Wow! Ramsay
You have given me so much encouragement here to learn, process and progress. I can’t wait to get stuck in and learn from these online marketing blogs. Only wish I had this earlier but as they say – better late than never. Thank you so much. It’s going to take me a while to go through everything you’ve posted here
Enjoy!
Great resource! Most of these blogs are Amazing.
I’m mad at myself for not finding enough time to keep track with at least 5-10 of them, regularly.
As for adding new sites to the list, please do consider Conversion XL. This is – in my opinion – the best website when it comes to teaching conversion optimization. Huge and detailed articles, backed by case studies and dozens of examples… Peep Laja rules!
Another one I’d love to see here is the Sumo blog. As of recently, Chris Von Wilpert started writing for the site, and created some of the most valuable content for 2017.
Check these for example (must reads):
https://sumo.com/stories/amazon-marketing
https://sumo.com/stories/hubspot-marketing
If you enjoy short content, focused around entrepreneurship, lifestyle design and dramatic shifts in perspective, check https://sivers.org/
and read the entire archive.
Here is to a great and successful year ahead! Wish you all a Happy New Year!
Those are great! Haven’t really read much but will get stuck in and add it to the list! Thanks man.
Ramsay,
This list is really amazing. Excellent work.
Thank you Vicky.
Awesome list Ramsey. Love the fact that I’m seeing blogs on the list I’ve not heard of before and after checking them out I’m like wow. Where have I been.
Thanks Ramsey.
Awesome!
Hi Ramsey, Thanks so much for this fabulous list! It’s just what I need right now:)
Happy New Year to you!
Gabrielle
Hope it helps with your blogging!
Ramsey,
I would love to have a list on “auto-publishing” a book !
Happy New Year 2018 !
Normand
Hmmm… not sure I can help with that one!
Ramsay, a great list and I am bookmarking it to refer back to it in 2018. I am sure there is a lot of wisdom waiting to be collected from the blogs you mentioned.
I appreciate that your list is not complete and people do have their likes and strong feelings about certain blogs but Jon Morrow (Smartblogger) and Neil Patel are unmissable when we talk about blogging.
Also James Clear for productivity blogging but perhaps that is not a niche you targeted in this list.
All in all, great work as ever, useful and beneficial. Have a great New Year and speak to you on the other side. Best Wishes.
Ahmad
I think I should probably add those guys, a few people have been sad that I missed them!
Awesome list Ramsey. Thanks for including LeadFuze 🙂
No worries!
Extensive list, got new content to learn from thank you Ramsey!
Hope it helps with your blogging this year!
Thank you so much for including Motto’s blog on this list – we’ve been receiving quite a bit of attention for our content and this is affirmation that we are offering great brand, business and entrepreneurial pieces for people to learn and share from. We really appreciate you including us in this awesome resource.
Glad it’s going well for you guys!
I also thank you for this list. However, I have recently started the learning process of starting a my blog. The names of the “great blogs” mentioned above would also help me with my goal (Neil Patel, Bryan Harris, Rand Fishkin, Pat Flynn). Could they also be included?
Thank you for all the work to compile this list.
Hey Alex. Two of those blogs are on the list, but maybe I should include the rest as well. Thanks for the suggestions!
Just wanted to reach out (Not just on Twitter) and say thanks again for including my site here
I’m super stoked that you enjoy reading it, and hopefully some of the content can help your readers if they check it out
Keep on rockin dude
Dan
Thank you!
Hey Ramsay! Thanks for the great list. I’m pinning for later so I can check out a new one each week until I find my favourites.
A fellow Saskatchewan blogger has started a blog about simple coding for bloggers. It’s still fairly new, but I’ve learned a lot from his articles. http://mybeautifulweb.com
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
This is a fantastic list, Ramsay.
I already visit several of these sites on a regular basis, but I plan to spend some time this weekend checking out the rest.
By the way, BlogTyrant deserves a spot on the list as well. That would be preaching to the choir of course, but it’s well deserved nonetheless.
I look forward to your upcoming posts in 2018!
Thanks Rick. That is very kind.
You’re welcome, Ramsay.
So glad to see Dre from The Branded Solopreneur on here! She’s fab. (Great list in general, but loved seeing her here.) I would add Ashley Brooks from Brooks Editorial on content. Her recent post about the changing landscape of business blogging is epic! https://www.brookseditorial.com/
Great suggestion! Nice to see you around here again, Kirsten.
I’ve been lurking unseen without commenting lately. 😉
Thanks for compiling the list. And as usual this post is also dope 🙂
Maybe I am? 🙂 I would be thrilled to be on this wonderful list of amazing people.
I will try to make friends with those whom I do not yet know.
Thanks, Ramsay!
Oh man! You should definitely be on here. Going to add.
For email marketing, if BlogTyrant is not there the the list is not complete.
Great work Ramsay.
Too kind!
It was an awesome Summary and too much inspiring also.
Keep going…
Thank you.
Great summary, thank you. I just added about a dozen of these to my Feedly.
Perfect!
Mate that’s an epic list!!
I’m going at it this year like a dog with its favourite stick, so I’ll follow quite a few on this list- thanks so much for the great compilation. Happy new year to you and I hope 2018 is epic for you and your circle of humans. Cheers dude
That is a great expression! Ha
Hi ramsay, great list, I will follow social media marketing blogs because I am more interested in SMM and hopefully will boom my business in 2018 through social media.
Hope it helps!
Extremely useful article, great job, thanks!
You’re welcome. Thank you.
Very nice collection. I do follow some of them and have checked some from top. I will be back to your site, you write awesome content.
I would be glad if you write and article on link building strategy.
Thank You
Prateek Anand
Hi Prateek. How’s this? https://www.blogtyrant.com/how-to-get-more-backlinks-and-rank-higher-on-google/
You’re welcome!
Outstanding post and great info Ramsay, thanks for sharing. I’m using a little tactic by researching page rank with both quality and quantity of site visitors, when leveraging Back Links. Geo targeting to establish affordability and adding value to the conversation had served me well over the years.
Always amazing info to be found on this blog!!!. Thanks sharing this price worthy info.
Great timing Ramsay. I have been procrastinating about researching for tools to set up a vlog on Youtube and along comes your post in my inbox. About to spend the afternoon looking through the video related resources.
Thanks for the list!
Hope it helps!
Hi Ramsay,
This is an epic roundup thank you for the wide selection, the summary is also very helpful 🙂
May I also recommend https://www.softwarefindr.com/blog/ for the WordPress category.
Let me know what you think?
This is really an amazing article.Thanks for sharing this with us.
This is quite an insightful list. I look forward to getting to read some of them
Thank you for sharing your blog, seems to be useful information can’t wait to dig deep!