20 Must-Read Blogs For Freelance Writers
The idea of this post comes from Steven’s recent post on freelance blogging. Freelance writing certainly has many advantages and can be rewarding too.
It goes without saying that in order to become a freelance writer, you gotta love writing. But you should also consistently work on sharpening your skills. And how do you do that? Reading well-written articles and blogs is a very good start! This can help you write innovative and appealing content.
Reading blogs with good writing is a must if you want to improve your skills as a writer/blogger. Keeping this in mind, I decided to list 20 blogs which should be on every freelance blogger’s RSS feed reading list. This is not a definitive list as there are many more good blogs and I can’t possibly name all of them. But still it’s a useful list which I hope you will enjoy.
Note: these blogs are not all about freelance writing or writing for the web. What they have in common is they’re all really well-written.
Here’s the list in no specific order (It’s not a top 20 list!)
- 1. Zen Habits & Write To Done Zen Habits and Write To Done are written by Leo Babauta, an experienced writer and a prolific blogger. Not only does he write great content he has an amazing writing style which is simple yet captivating.
- 2. Problogger I’d be very surprised if you haven’t heard of this blog. Problogger is written by Darren Rowse and teaches the art of blogging and making money through it. In spite of being one of the most famous blogs on the planet, Darren still maintains the same old way of writing articles which are useful, impressive and easily understandable.
- 3. Dumb Little Man One of the best productivity blogs around, Dumb Little Man is edited by Jay White and written by an impressive group of writers who produce useful articles on how to increase your everyday productivity and manage time in a better manner.
- 4. Copyblogger Brian Clark is an authority when it comes to blog writing and you cannot afford to miss any of his articles if you want to become a good writer. Seriously.
- 5. Freelance Switch Written by the best freelance writers and edited by Skellie, this blog presents insightful articles which include tips and tricks for freelancers and web workers. Thanks to it’s great content, the blog has achieved huge growth in the past one year and should be on your reading list too.
- 6. Dosh Dosh Maki’s writing style and his in-depth analysis of topics has gained him admiration and respect in the blogosphere, not to mention a huge reader base. One of the most well-written blogs around and certainly a writer’s paradise.
- 7. Seth Godin Seth’s unique and candid style of writing makes his blog a must read for all writers and bloggers.
- 8. 43 Folders Although Merlin doesn’t write much these days, his blog still remains one of the most useful productivity blogs with some very nicely written articles.
- 9. Skelliewag Skellie’s proficiency as a writer and blogger is well known and she has been producing great web content for years. Skelliewag is her flagship blog which boasts of some brilliant articles which are quite useful for bloggers.
- 10. Men With Pens This blog is written by James and Harry, both of them being professional and without a doubt, amazing writers. A must read blog if you aim to improve your writing skills and write impressive content.
- 11. Chris Pearson For those who don’t know, Chris is probably the best and the most sought after freelance WordPress designer (am not sure if he is doing freelance work any more). He doesn’t write much but when he does, the articles are too good to miss. He also created an immensely popular WordPress called Cutline.
- 12. Daily Blog Tips One of the top blogs in the blogging niche, Daily Blog Tips is written by Daniel and has some great advice for bloggers and writers who aim to make it big in the blogosphere.
- 13. Life Hacker Unmissable and a must-read everyday, no matter who you are and what you do.
- 14. Entrepreneurs Journey Yaro Starak aims to help bloggers and online entrepreneurs through his candid and thought provoking articles, which make his blog one of the most important in it’s niche.
- 15. Chris Garrett Chris is an internet marketing consultant and an experienced writer. He has also co-authored the Problogger book with Darren. Hence, it goes without saying that his blog is an important one, especially from a writer or freelance blogger’s perspective.
- 16. The Simple Dollar One of the best finance blogs around, Trent writes top quality articles which have made his site a huge success.
- 17. Steve Pavlina Steve’s 4000 word essays are quite well known and apart from including impressive content, they also feature an impeccable writing style.
- 18. Life Hack Like Dumb Little Man, this blog focuses on personal development and productivity and employs guest writers who consistently produce excellent content.
- 19. Chris Brogan Chris is a social media marketing consultant who writes some direct-from-heart articles on his blog which are nicely written and well presented.
- 20. Freelance Folder It’s not that I am biased towards this blog because I write for it but I believe it’s certainly a must-read blog for all the freelance bloggers out there and I have been enjoying the well written articles on this blog by influential writers, long before I started writing for it. :)
Some other blogs which feature impressive writing are A List Apart, The Writers Manifesto and Success Soul.
Which blogs do you read to improve your skills as a writer / blogger? I’d love to know your resources.
Cheers,
Abhijeet Mukherjee
******
About the author: Abhijeet Mukherjee is a blogger and freelance writer. He is a regular contributer for many blogs notably including DumbLittleMan.com and MakeUseOf.com. He also maintains his own blog about tech tips, productivity hacks and blogging tips - Jeet Blog
56 Rockin' Comments
June 24th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Thanks for the list of great blogs. Writing comes naturally to some and for others it’s a skill that comes with practice. Many of today’s best copywriters learned from studying the masters, too. I’m learning that way, too
June 24th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Sweet. Thanks for the link - and for the list. Nice eclectic choice, and there are a few on there that I’ll go take a look at. Word-of-mouth recommendation is the best kind.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Great links - a lot of which are new to me :) Thanks.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:39 am
@ Rhianna- You are right ! In fact most of the good writers suggest practicing the art of writing.
@ James- You’re welcome !
June 24th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Hi Abhijeet,
Thank you for the honorary mention. To (nearly) make it on the list of so many established and long term bloggers is an honor to say the least. I’m a regular reader of a few of the blogs you mentioned and have found a couple more of interest.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:49 am
@ Monika- You’re welcome !
June 24th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Hey Abhijeet…
I’d like to leave a tip that helped me gain confidence as a writer. I’ve mentioned this tool to a few fellow writers who looked at me in dismay but it’s helped me enormously. Glyphius is a software that scores your words for positivity and power. It allows you to tweak those words to make them score higher. This tool has improved my writing in many ways. Just thought I’d pass that on to your readers.
June 24th, 2008 at 7:33 am
DailyWritingTips.com
Don’t you read that blog by Daniel, Abhijeet?
I highly recommend reading it :-)
June 24th, 2008 at 7:36 am
I do Shankar :) But as I said, I can’t possibly include all here. I thought Daily Blog Tips has a better chance :)
June 24th, 2008 at 7:59 am
I found a few I haven’t checked out before! AllGraphicDesign.com also has some very well written informative articles though they are not as active as they were six months ago. Rachel does a beautiful job over there. Thanks for the great list!!
June 24th, 2008 at 8:15 am
That’s OK! Useful!
June 24th, 2008 at 8:58 am
A few of these were missing from my reader, so thanks for taking the time to create this list. Write to Done is excellent and I’m a recent convert to Men with Pens.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:04 am
It’s great to see Success Soul mentioned in this list here. :)
June 24th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Good list, glad to have made some discoveries. I’d never heard of Men with Pens before.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Great list of blogs. However, I would say these as a group should be referred to as “blogs for freelancers” not freelance writers. A couple of these would qualify as freelance writer blogs, but most don’t.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I like Chrisblogging and Web Writing Info. I didn’t see either on your list, but both are pretty interesting.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Great list! Many I already visit daily, but there’s some that I’d never heard of and am excited to check out!
I think you must have forgot to include my blog though. :) I post hand-picked freelance writing job listings every day and try hard to weed out the scams and low-paying jobs. http://www.writersresources.blogspot.com
Thanks again for the great list!
June 24th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
all these productivity blogs are killin’ my productivity. My adivce is to pick two or three, and stick with them. Write to DOne for writing, and Zen habits for productivity. Throw in Freelance Switch for freelancing/biz advice and presto, you’re producing more, reading less.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I LOVE Freelance Switch. Other faves include: Freelance Writing Jobs and Catalyst Blogger. I would have liked to see more blogs are writing specific, too. :)
June 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Good selection Abhijeet, I ve got most of these blogs in my feeds.
June 24th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Thanks and yikes! If I read all these, when will I have time to write?
June 24th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
This is a great list of useful blogs, but if you read all of these (and all the other blogs people recommend) on a daily basis when you find time to write - or do anything else for that matter? I agree with Allena T: pick a few favorites, stick with them and don’t worry too much about being left behind. If a blog’s awesome and useful, chances are you’re going to hear about it by simple word of mouth. There’s always going to be someone who has a longer and hipper feed list than you. Chances are, they’re not loaded down with professional assignments though.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Great List!
It’s good to know that I am not too off track with my Rss Feeds.
congrats for the Digg frontpage! ;)
June 24th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Excellent links - there were actually even two or three that I didn’t actually have. But, as a freelancer how can you leave out http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com ? Always help to find a gig to bring in some money.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Hidden gem is Http://substitute.livejournal.com
Conrad has writing in his blood. Visit, be patient, and read. He’ll floor you at times.
June 24th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Hello-
Thanks for the great list. Found out about some gems that I’ve never even heard of, I’ve heard of the biggies like copyblogger and problogger, but Men With Pens and The Simple Dollar look like great additions to my bloglines reader.
More stuff to keep me distracted from doing my own blogging!
-Thanks,
Adam
June 24th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Great post, thanks so much.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
It’s good to know that half of your list is on my Google Reader and now is yours… :-)
Thank you very much for your recommendations. Good work!
June 25th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Hi Aberjheet,
You are a pouplar name on the web!
I have set up a social network for artists, writers and musicians and I wondered if you would consider doing an article on how new social networks and websites can get honest coverage by bloggers?
I have seen a few companies which require payment to get blogged about but I guess there might be a more honest way if you know where to go and how to go about it?
Anyway, all the best and keep up the good work :)
Pete
June 25th, 2008 at 9:46 am
great post! Great resources you have here, some of them I haven’t even heard of.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am
This is an awesome list….thank you for sharing!
June 26th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Thank you very much. Great resources!
June 27th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Hi - thanks, and please have a look at http://www.timetowrite.blogs.com for your next list.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
This is a great list. I will be checking them all out with the exception of Men with Pens as I already do read that blog.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
@ Diane - I was reading your comment and thinking, “WHAT?! What does she mean, ‘except’ us? What’s wrong with us-… Oh. Oh! She *does* read us! Very cool.”
*shakes head* Got me all paranoid.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:25 am
This is a good list! You mentioned a few I hadn’t heard of plus some that I’ve enjoyed in the past but forgotten about.
July 1st, 2008 at 12:53 am
Thanks for sharing this list Abhijeet ;)
July 5th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Thanks for the great list! I’m really a fan of Sonia Simone’s Remarkable Communications.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Readers might also enjoy my blog - http://www.badlanguage.net. I’m a full-time freelance copywriter and this blog is about writing, business and technology.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I’m wondering if your glaring omission of http://freelancewritinggigs.com was an oversight on your part or if you don’t feel it deserving of a place on the list? It’s the first blog most of us visit every day and it’s the number one online community relating solely to freelance writing. Is there a reason you’re not including it?
July 6th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Abhijeet - Tripping over this blog today reminds me of finding $5 in the street when I was a child ($5 was nothing to sneeze at back then). What a wonderful source of information and I particularly appreciate this post for providing “study” material.
My friends and family have been admonishing me for wasting my writing ability for years. I finally feel like I’ve found a source from which to learn and be emboldened. Thank you again for a great blog and an equally great post.
July 8th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
So, I’m checking out my stats, and there’s a link from Freelance Folder (one of my very favorite freelancing blogs btw), and it says it’s coming from a post called “20 Must-REad Blogs for Freelance Writers.”
“Oh my goodness,” I think. “Could we have made that list?!”
Sadly, the answer was “no.” :-( Still, we really appreciate that you listed our “67 Niche Markets” post in your sidebar. It doesn’t quite make up for the sting, but it’s pretty close. ;-)
July 10th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Also, author, one of the blogs you listed was full of errors- not typos (cause I know typos, hell, I made my last comment from a Blackberry on the back of a bike!) but real mistakes. Anyway, yeah, just cleaning up my reading after the lonnnng holiday. Thanks again for putting a list together for the writers:)
July 19th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Thank you so much.
now I have all of them in my g reader :D
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 am
props for including your own site at #20 ;)
Trackbacks
Share your thoughts, leave a comment!