According to blogpulse.com, right now there are some 172,000,000+ blogs out there in cyberspace. There’s no doubt it can seem overwhelming and nearly impossible to find a blog you genuinely want to follow. So, how do you find the best ones?

Below I’ve put together a list of 10 easy ways to try to answer that question. You might expect some of these tactics, others may be new to you, but overall I hope they help you better understand and better benefit from the Blogosphere.

Here we go…

1. From the Media

This is one of the best ways, if not the best. The media love to cover interesting stories, as well as engaging and influential personalities, and bloggers make their list quite frequently.

I’ve come across a number of great blogs thanks to traditional media. They typically give a little background on the blogger so you get a good feel of why they are blogging, their style and what they blog about. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and internet media all cover the blogosphere. So next time you hear, see or read about an interesting blog, why not take a quick second and check it out to see if it ‘speaks’ to you.

In addition to the media covering blogs, a lot of mainstream media also offer their own blogs and bloggers as well. The New Yorker (newyorker.com/online/blogs, Toronto Star (thestar.blogs.com) and Harvard Business Review (blogs.hbr.org) to name a few, are great examples. These journalist/media blogs are typically more text driven, but the writing is of high-quality, and if you have a favourite columnist, they probably have a blog you can follow too.

2. Blog Awards

There are a number of Blog Awards that have been developed over the years and you can expect more to come. Two of the most notable ones are the Bloggies (The Weblog Awards) and the Webbys.

The Bloggies began in 2001 and are the longest running Blog awards program. I recently had an email interview with the founder of the awards, Nikolai Nolan, and when I asked him what inspired him to start awards he said: ”Back in 2000, there was some discussion among bloggers about whether the “A-List” blogs were really better than the lesser-known ones. I decided to create the Bloggies so readers could vote on their favorites and determine which weblogs were really the best.”

The Webbys began way back in 1997 and are ”an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile.” They are known as “The Oscars of the Internet.” The Webbys first presented a blog award in 2005, and they now present 3 blog awards (Business, Culture/Personal, and Political).

There numerous others blog awards you can discover as well, and some are quite niche oriented. If you “google” blog awards you can find a bunch to explore. For these two particular blog awards, you’re able to check out the winners and nominees from the current year and all previous years, which is great.

3. Blogrolls

Many bloggers feature a ‘blogroll’ on their blogs. It’s essentially a list of links to other blogs and/or websites they like and recommend. These lists might say Blogroll above them, or they may be something a little different. For example, Blogger Reb Stevenson has her list under the humorous heading: “sites that don’t suck”. These link-lists might have a gem in them, so why not click on a few that a good blogger is sharing and see where it leads you!

4. Blog Comments

Ever read comments on blogs or news stories? Ever commented on a blog before? If you have, you’ll notice that a number of those who do post something, are bloggers themselves. They typically leave a link to their blog, or to a post they’ve written which is similar to the one they commented on. If someone says something interesting, or perhaps even something more interesting than that blog post itself, you might want to click on their blog link and see if they can back up their words. They just might.
 

5. Blog Aggregators

Blog aggregators – as I’m calling them –  are websites that organize and track blogs. Site’s like blogs.com and technorati have Top 10 and Top 100 lists, as well as categories to help you sift through blogs by popularity, by interest and more. Blogs.com has a neat celebrity ‘top ten list’ where they feature the favourite blogs of celebrities/ authors/ bloggers.

Another interesting blog-related site that I’ve come across recently is bloglovin.com. It’s the first site that I’ve seen like this where they not only help you find blogs by category, but also let you subscribe to blogs as well; They make it a little easier for you to track and follow your favourite blogs. On a side note, how to best follow blogs is another topic in itself, but a few considerations are: RSS, Google Reader, your Browser Bookmarks, and this bloglovin.com site. It’s also a habit you need to build, to remind yourself to check the blogs.

Also included in this aggregator group are sites that feature multiple bloggers, like Huffington Post. Huff Post is supposed to have a network of over 9,000 bloggers, and i’m sure most of those featured bloggers have their own blogs too. So if you like a blog post there, it may be worth checking out if that contributing blogger has their own blog as well.

6. Blog Books

There are more and more books on blogging these days. Most – if not all – blog books are on how to blog, or how make money blogging. But these books do typically feature a number of blogs as best practices. i.e. notable bloggers worth checking out. Books like ProBlogger and Visually WordPress are examples.

7. Word of Mouth

Blogs, YouTube videos, websites and apps come up in conversation all the time now, don’t they! Pay a little closer attention to what people recommend, and for the ones that interest you, check them out. As a conversation starter, why not ask your guests or friends if they follow or know of any good blogs?

8. Word of Web – Social Networks

My friends and acquaintances on twitter, facebook and linkedin post links to interesting videos, websites and blogs all the time. They might even post a link to their own blog. If you end up clicking on a link that sounds interesting, and it turns out to be a good blog post, why not check out a couple other posts of that blog and see if they have more good stuff to offer.
 

9. Search Engines

When you use a search engine to help you find tips for painting your ceiling, or how to take a better picture, it’s pretty good odds it will end up being a blogger who helps you out; or at least tries to. There are tons of specialty and hobby focused blogs out there. If that’s what you’re into, search engines can help you find them. Google even offers a blog search option.

10. Blog Conferences

I recently attended a blog conference in Toronto called Word11, which was the “world’s first 24 hour blogging festival”. As you might expect, there were a bunch of blogs mentioned throughout the day, some of which I knew, and some I didn’t. Believe it or not, I even met some real-life bloggers there too Another notable blogging conference is BlogHer. I’m positive online and marketing type conferences are the same way with this. Who knows, the keynote speaker could even be a blogger.

That’s it! I hope these 10 tactics helped you make some sense out of how to find the best blogs. I wish you all the best of luck in finding great blogs!

Do you know of any other good ways to find great blogs? Please leave a comment here.

 
~ Flickr photo credit ~

I gave a talk this past weekend called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Blogosphere” at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

The presentation was a multi-media journey through the exciting universe of blogs. I introduced attendees to 20 of the most extraordinary and interesting blogs around today. I was able to take people behind the scenes to learn the stories of the people who run the blogs.

Instead of telling you the whole stories behind each blog, I’ve posted a video to go with each featured blog. You can easily google these people or find out more about them on their websites/blogs. Hopefully you’ll discover a few blogs that you’ll want to follow, and who knows, you might even want to start your own blog!

Please leave a comment below and let me know your favourites!

Also, come back to my blog soon, as my next blog post will be on how to find the best blogs. Hint: One way is to check out winners from blog awards.

1. Angela Aiello – iYellow Wine Club
www.iyellowwineclub.com/blog

2. Gary Vaynerchuck – Wine Library TV
tv.winelibrary.com

Gary wrapped up his 1,000th Wine Library TV episode just this past spring, and then moved over to his “Daily Grape” iPhone Application where he also posted videos and wine reviews. He then announced his official retirement from daily wine video blogs at the end of August, but you’ve still got a ton of videos to explore!

3. 65 Red Roses
65redroses.livejournal.com

Sadly, Eva Markvoort’s blog “65 Red Roses” is no longer run by Eva as she passed away March 27, 2010. It is now run by her family, but well worth exploring.

4. Julie Powell – Julie & Julia
juliepowell.blogspot.com

You can no longer access Julie’s original Jule & Julia Blog, but she still keeps this blog.

5. Reb Stevenson
rebstevenson.com

6. Facehunter – Yvan Rodic
facehunter.blogspot.com

7. Style Rookie – Tavi Gevinson
www.thestylerookie.com

8. Art Matters Blog – Art Gallery of Ontario
www.artmatters.ca

9. Montréal Tourism’s Blog “The Montréal Buzz”
www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog

10. 1000 Awesome Things – Neil Pasricha
www.1000awesomethings.com

11. Post Secret – Frank Warren
www.postsecret.com

12. Zen Habits – Leo Babauta
zenhabits.net

13. Four Hour Work Week Blog – Tim Ferriss
www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog

14. Seth Godin Blog
www.sethgodin.typepad.com

15. Richard Branson
www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog

16. Perez Hilton – Mario Lavandeira
www.perezhilton.com

17. Sh*t My Dad Says (warning: explicit)
http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

18. Mashable – Pete Cashmore
www.mashable.com

19. Huffington Post – Arianna Huffington
www.huffingtonpost.com

20. Boston Globe’s “The Big Picture”
www.boston.com/bigpicture

LIKE THIS LIST? WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE BLOGS? PLEASE COMMENT & SHARE HERE!

Today as I was working on the talk, I came across award-winning blogger Neil Pasricha’s “awesome” TED talk. In typical ted-talk fashion, it’s short and sweet, and for those curious about his blogging success story, it’s certainly worth the watch. It was cool because while I knew some of his story, I didn’t know he had given a TED talk.

In a nutshell, Pasricha went from blogger, to award-winning blogger, to author, to best-selling author, to author again (sequel), and this past January he became a TED Speaker (video below)…it’s really an amazing blogging success story! It’s also cool to learn what drove him to start his blog www.1000awesomethings.com ~ you’ll have to watch the video to find out. His blog is one of my 20 “most extraordinary and interesting blogs around today” that I will be featuring in my talk.

Tennis Grunts are Awesome?

I read Neil’s blog every once and again and I am usually impressed with the awesome and comforting insights he has about life. The other day though, I had a moment of doubt about his ‘awesome’ leadership. It made me think he had run out of material or something…

He had a post saying ‘Tennis Grunts’ were awesome. Now, I enjoy tennis, and watching tennis. In fact I’ve been catching US Open video highlights the past couple weeks on usopen.org, but I just can’t understand how Tennis grunts are awesome?

Check the comments on this post and you’ll find I’m not the only one who thinks so. The day he posted that blog I thought I’d try to comment and see if he’d publish it. I suggested in my comment that while I didn’t agree about tennis grunts, I did think tennis fits pumps were awesome.

Don’t you love seeing those guys and gals celebrate after a great shot or point. Ever since last year’s US Open (mostly thanks to Nadal) I have made a regular effort to do the ‘fist pump’ when I have a great accomplishment.

Anyways, he didn’t end up publishing it!?! I thought it was right on the money. Not exactly sure why he didn’t? Maybe because I didn’t put my real name in the comment, but lots of commenters don’t – it might also be because I put something like “Fist Pump Fan” as my commenter name, maybe he didn’t like that? Or what if he realized that I one-up-ed him and didn’t like that? who knows, but regardless this guy has millions of people following his blog and tons buying his books.

Here’s the video. Enjoy!

Pretty Awesome Story, eh!
What did you think? What about the tennis grunts? Am I out to lunch? Do you agree with me about tennis fist pumps? You better! Would love to hear your thoughts….feel free to comment here>>

Topics Include…
- What is Zen?
- How to meditate
- How these people manage their lives
- How to live with meaning
- How to use the technology and the tools of our times”

Quoted from Jesse Jacobs’ vimeo page.

This is a great topic and I think we need more of this type of interviewing, especially from good society role models. I find it interesting and useful to learn how “successful” people live their lives and choose their everyday routines and strategies. Sometimes it reaffirms my choices and actions, and sometimes it can open my eyes and mind to new opportunities and approaches. Enjoy!

I had tweeted and posted on facebook that I would do a live blog from class, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. Maybe next week?

Overall the class went well. Leading the class today – and seeing it through the eyes of newcomers – I must say it made me pretty proud to be a blogger.

Blogging is in some ways very easy to do, but in so many other ways it’s actually very challenging and requires a lot of learning to do it well.

Basically the class went like this: I told my personal blogging story and background, I took them to a custom blog that I set up just for the class which had videos and links etc. related to the class. From there we visited a bunch of examples of various types of blogs that are out there, we watched a couple useful videos explaining what blogs are, and then for the second half of the class, the students finally got their hands dirty.

Everyone in class learned how to sign up for an account with WordPress.com and they all then set up a test blog in their account, so that we could play around a bit. We ended up only touching on “posts” and “pages” so far for their test blogs, but I’ve given everyone homework to come back with some names for their new blogs for next week where they’ll be able to start building a real blog, and also learn a bunch more  tips and tricks on how to run and market their blogs. They’ll be a lot to cover next week, but it should be really useful to the students.

When researching for my class I came across this fun video called “Blog Song”. I played it at the start of class and it got a few laughs. It reminded me of the fun side of blogging. Enjoy!