100+ RSS Feeds for the Reading List of the Well-Rounded Freelancer

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100+ RSS Feeds for the Reading List of the Well-Rounded Freelancer

Posted February 22, 2010 in Tools/Resources

I am an RSS feed nut. I subscribe to hundreds of RSS feeds and the list is growing all the time. If I come across a blog or a site that appears to have interesting resources that are relevant for me, I subscribe to their feed without hesitation. Every morning I open up my Google Reader with a cup of coffee just like I used to do with my daily newspaper, only now the latest headlines are from my chosen sources and related specifically to my interests.

For freelancers, RSS feeds can be a great way to stay on top of the latest news and developments in your specific area of expertise. They can be utilized to continue your education, strengthen your skills and keep you on the forefront in your line of business. However, many people stop at only reading the feeds of their specific genre, rather than branching out and gathering knowledge in a number of other areas that, should you choose to learn about them, could broaden your capabilities and increase your offerings as a freelancer.

This post will look at a more elaborate approach to using RSS feeds in an effort to expand your understanding and knowledge in ways that can contribute to the growth of your freelance business. The idea is that you can never learn too much, and RSS feeds can be a valuable tool in the ongoing education of the well-rounded freelancer.

Freelance Folder’s Recommended RSS Feeds

Freelance Folder has published several articles focusing on RSS feeds for specific genres. Make sure to visit each of these to add to your feed reader:

My suggestion is that you go ahead and subscribe to at least a few, if not all, from each list. I am a strong believer that the more you can read that has any relevance to your field whatsoever, the more you will gain.

Suggested Feeds to Expand Your Horizons

The following feeds are some of my personal favorites, ranging from freelance to social media to SEO. It doesn’t matter what type of freelance work you specialize in, you will benefit from reading these feeds and keeping your finger on the pulse of what is going on in each of these areas. Think about it. Every freelancer should have a website and/or blog, which in turn will improve if you are at least a little knowledgeable about best design and development practices and search engine optimization. Every freelancer should be utilizing some type of social media to network, so it is important to keep up with the latest trends and resources in the field. The obvious conclusion: the more you read in any related field, the better off you and your freelance business will be.

Clicking on any of the links will take you directly to the feed subscription.

Digital Influence Mapping Project
A real, hard look at the latest in digital innovations and how they apply to business.
MediaShift
PBS.org’s guide to the digital media revolution.
Posts from the Econsultancy blog
Digital marketing – GREAT hot topic and timely subjects.
DailyBloggr.com
Covers a range of topics from Search, Online Media, Blogging, Social Media, Technology, Trends and the like. Anything that’s of interest to an average web surfing technology enthusiast.
Social Business
ZDNet’s social media blog.
Social Media Examiner
A relatively new site with lots of good posts and resources.
Social Media Today
What I consider one of the primary sites for keeping tabs on what’s going on in social media and people’s thoughts about it.
Search Engine Journal
Specializes in a community approach to the reporting of search engine news & the sharing of Search Engine Marketing knowledge & tactics.
Search Engine Land
A news and information site covering search engine marketing, searching issues and the search engine industry.
SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog
The most current News, Tips & Highlights from the search marketing industry.
SEOptimise
More SEO news and insights.

Other Freelance Sites

Google News Feeds

Did you know you can keep up with the latest news on your topic of choice by creating your own feed from a search on Google News? It’s a very simple way to automate something you may tend to search for or look up often, saving time, increasing productivity, and strengthening your education and awareness. Simply go to Google News, enter your search term, and then scroll down to the bottom of the results page and click on the RSS link or icon. Some of my favorite search terms are Facebook, Twitter, branding and social media. Here are the quick links to these feeds to save you some time:

Shameless Plug Feeds

Last but not least, this list would be incomplete without suggesting you subscribe to the Freelance Folder feed for all the latest news and resources from real-life freelancers like you and me. While I’m at it, I must also suggest my own personal blog at bkmacdaddy designs, where I share my thoughts and experiences in design, social media, freelancing and more.

Your Feed Favorites?

Do you use RSS feeds? Do you try to read about other related or unrelated fields? Perhaps you already have amassed a list of your own feeds you would care to share with the rest of us, or there are one or two that you think should be added to this list. Please be sure to share your thoughts and add your feeds in the comments below.

About the author: Brian is a freelance web & graphic designer with over 15 years' experience. His business bkmacdaddy designs specializes in completely custom WordPress, Joomla, Magento & CSS/XHTML websites as well as logo design, brand identity, social media management and more. Brian is a father of 3 and madly in love with his wife of many years.

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55 Comments

Jon Rawlins
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:34 am

Very nice post Brian, a lot of useful resources here. I myself need to get back into the RSS bandwagon.

Thanks again for a great and informative post.
Jordan Walker
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:02 am

Great list of resources. I do not know how you find time to keep up with all of them.
Damian
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:06 am

Thanks for all the feeds! I use Fever as my reader and it works better the more feeds I feed it. Awesome stuff!
Brian McDaniel
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:43 am

Jordan,

I actually subscribe to over 400 feeds – this is just a sampling. I love to stay abreast of all the latest, so I figure this is the best option. For me, it’s better than the alternative and worth the time.

Damian,

I haven’t actually tried any other feed readers – kind of started with Google and never looked back. Maybe I’ll have to check out Fever for myself. Glad this list is a helpful addition to your collection.

Thanks for the comments!
Mosotomoss
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:03 am

Thanks. Having the iphone helps me to stay updated on all the feeds that I’m interested in, since I travel allot.

Great Post
Christopher
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:06 am

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that has a big list in my rss reader, although not quite as many as you. I may check some of these out. As you said, you can never learn too much.
Alan
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:35 am

Another great post Brian.

I really need to start getting an RSS reader up and running. Been relying on me trawling sites and Twitter too much.
Afzal Khan
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:53 am

It’s an awesome list, thanks for refining and compiling the best available RSS resource. I am RSS feed lover for an fact it keep’s me always on top with latest news from blog/site of my interest. I’ll straight away subscribe to which I had left.
Travis
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:58 am

Great stuff, a lot of good resources here.

Thanks!
Amberly | Web Designer
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:15 pm

Great list of resources. Thanks for sharing..
Nick Burd
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:03 pm

I have quite a few of these set to my daily reading. :D
Freelance folder and freelance switch are two of my favorites.
Neil Brown
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Brian, great collection of resources! I subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds as well and use Netvibes to manage them all.

Thanks for including the Freelance Show in the list!
Jacob Guite-St-Pierre
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:50 pm

There’s a small problem with the address in the feed links. The href is set to href=”../../../../../20-must-read-blogs-for-freelance-developers/” which works fine when reading the article on the website, but when reading it through the RSS it tries to find the page on Feedburner instead of Freelancefolder.com

To fix it, just change the “../../../../../” to “http://freelancefolder.com/”

Aside from that, nice lists.
Brian McDaniel
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:24 pm

Jacob, thanks for the tip on the links. I guess WordPress made an automatic adjustment to the link when it was published. We’ll get it fixed.
Laura Spencer
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:39 pm

Thanks Jacob!

I think the WordPress snafu has been fixed. You should be able to click on the links from within the feed now.
Ben Teoh
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:57 pm

Far out, how do you sift through that many feeds? Nice links though, thanks for the info.
ryanMoutlrup
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 pm

I’m the same way you are with the RSS feeds. I love them and learn so much from reading blogs everyday. I just wanted to say this is a great post and I have added quite a few more blogs to my reader. Thanks
FreelanceApple
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:14 pm

Thanks for the mention Brian!
Anything Graphic
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:17 pm

Very nice post. I need to subscribe to more RSS Feeds! Thank you!
Hui
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:28 am

Very useful resources. I hope one day that I could become a freelancer. Thank you very much for sharing.
Mike B
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:13 am

I think reading as much as possible is great, particularly when you’re learning things outside of your chosen field, as its always good to have a broad knowledge base. I think you have to read what interests you though, I like to read the different sections of the BBC News site, particularly the Science & Environment section, but also general news and Technology.
John
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:22 am

Nice list of resources, I’ll definitely be taking a closer look at each of them. However, I can’t ignore my brain when it screams: “Agh! Too … much … information. About to explode.”

:)
Richard Moldovanyi
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:09 am

I’ve never really gotten into RSS feeds, but I do spend a lot of time reading copywriting, SEO and freelance blogs online, so maybe reading them through an RSS feed would be more efficient. Thanks for the list!
Stephen Webb
February 24th, 2010 at 5:34 am

With so many good blogs and resources out there it is certainly hard to keep track of them all, and select the best to read regularly. Having feeds put through to your widget, such as iGoogle is certainly a good way to solve this, saving your time and productivity. I certainly agree this is the best way to expand your knowledge, as viewing a wide range of resources will bring a lot to you that otherwise you’d not discover.

There are some good feed suggestions here that I wouldn’t have thought about previously, including social media blogs and digital innovations. Reading topics beyond your usual resources is the best way to further your knowledge and understanding.

I’ll be interested to see what links other designers suggest, as there are so many resources out there that it is easy to miss some really good information and tutorials.
hadi alaee
February 24th, 2010 at 6:19 pm

انجمن بهروزان
درمان اعتیاد ، مبارزه با اعتیاد ، آگاه سازی اقشار جامعه
ajuas
February 27th, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Its useful.. Nice article.. thanks
Mahmud Ahsan
March 2nd, 2010 at 9:24 am

Great stuff and lots of resource.

For facebook developers, I suggest to read the feed of http://www.allfacebook.com/ and also http://thinkdiff.net/. In allfacebook.com you’ll get all of the latest news of facebook and in thinkdiff.net you’ll get some cool tutorials about facebook application developments.

Thanks!
Nikki May | Web Content Writer
September 18th, 2010 at 1:19 am

Great list of RSS feeds.

What I have discovered is that in freelancing – in terms of what you can do, you are limited only by your imagination. I started freelancing as a web content writer. But today, the scope of my freelance services is very diverse, within the writing niche and in other niches as well! For instance, what I used to do in my corporate job for our corporate clients, I am now providing freelancing services on the same services.

Competition is stiff, but if you’re really good at what you do, you can easily and quickly carve your own segment of the market that you can focus on and dominate. To succeed as a freelancer, you need to stay on top of trends, you need to continuously educate yourself. You also need to know what is going on out there, so that you can identify some opportunities that you can capitalize on.

I have found RSS feeds to be very handy in keeping on top of recent trends in a niche.

Thanks Brian for this comprehensive list of RSS feeds.
phonecards
December 17th, 2010 at 12:29 pm

Thanks Brian for this list of resources. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that has a big list in my rss reader, although not quite as many as you. I may check some of these out. As you said, you can never learn too much.
cheap printing
December 27th, 2010 at 6:23 am

RSS feeds are great for staying up to date with design technologies and have helped my develop hundreds of techniques which i would not have even considered unless I had seen them here.
leaflet printing
January 1st, 2011 at 1:31 pm

really nice rss feeds here guys, keep posting.
menu printing
January 1st, 2011 at 1:33 pm

really good comments like i say, really enjoyed them.
vibe web design
February 11th, 2011 at 5:42 am

very nice post. I really like this keep up the great work
v-boom
March 4th, 2011 at 12:33 pm

Thanks Brian for this list of resources. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that has a big list in my rss reader, although not quite as many as you. I may check some of these out. As you said, you can never learn too much.
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March 30th, 2011 at 8:40 pm

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