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Most bloggers know about RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and readers. I would venture to say that most bloggers even subscribe to other bloggers’ RSS feeds. The real question is what do you subscribe to and why? Here is my list courtesy of Google (GOOG) Reader

Bloggers Category

John Chow

When I first started reading blogs and doing blogging myself, John Chow was the first I subscribed to. I did learn a lot about the ways of the Internet and how not to make money like him. John Chow is a unique blogger in the sense he makes most of his money by telling people how he makes his money. Nevertheless, I stay subscribed because every now and then there are some gems of information that percolate to the surface.

Lifehacker

The frequency of posts on this site can give a headache sometimes, but when you want to know about the latest and greatest computer hacks or web tips, this is the site. It even has its own book Upgrade Your Life (its second edition).

Shoemoney

Jeremy Shoemaker made his fame after posting a huge check he had received from Google on his blog. Since then he has started other sites (auctionads.com and fighter.com) and continues to have a one-up in the industry.

That Mutt - a dog blog

This is my girlfriend’s blog and a great resource for information about all types of dogs. If you have a dog or love dogs, this is a site you will want to bookmark.

Blogger Unleashed

Vic from Blogger Unleashed knows what he is talking about when it comes to building and promoting a website. He has generously offered his time and information freely to help others Make Money Online.

Uberaffiate

If you want to get into or grow in affiliate marketing, Paul Bourque is your guy. He makes a lot of money through affiliate marketing and is now offering his services to others. If you have read his blog for the last year, you have learned as much about affiliate marketing as you would if you paid to go to his Ubercamp.

How to make money online for beginners

Grizzly Brears teaches you how to make money online with Google Adsense. The information is free and so are the ways of making money. If you want to start making money online part-time at no cost to yourself, this is the blog for you.

Problogger

The title speaks for itself. If you are interested in blogging or just starting out, you need to subscribe right away.

SiteHoppin

For those who haven’t heard of SiteHoppin.com you should check it out. Max the creator has coded a system to easily categorize and hop your favorite bookmarks. Say you visit 300 Entrecard sites every day. Now you can bookmark those and just hit the hop button on the SiteHoppin Toolbar (code “JoshWhitford” if you want one). It is pretty slick. He is always developing something new and innovative.

Zedomax

A lot like Lifehacker above, Zedomax.com offers a wide array of random information and technology hacks for all of your everyday devices. In fact, if you want to find some hacks for your Zune, just ask and I am sure he will list them out.

Business

Seth’s Blog

If you want to learn about marketing, read everything Seth Godin says. I read his blog daily and I am often reading one of his books at any given time. Seth = Marketing.

How to Change the World

Guy Kawasaki’s blog offers a unique prospective on some different businesses. He gives great insight into the world of venture capitalism and business investing. If you want to get financial backers for your business, this is the guy to listen to.

The Daily Reckoning

One of my hobbies is investing and reading about market conditions. If you want to learn about the Federal Reserve system and the crazy printing of money and how that equates to high consumer prices, then this is the site for you.

Inside Adsense

When you start making money online, the first spot everyone goes is straight to Google Adsense. This blog, updated and hosted by Google, gives you new information as made available. When you learn that Google starts offering third-party ads you can be the first to monopolize that information into a real revenue source.

Dr. Housing Bubble Blog

If you want to know all there is to know about housing marketing and the crisis, this is the only blog you will need. I have followed this for the last year+ and can’t say enough about the invaluable information provided here.

Exercise

Weight Lifting 101: The Definitive Guide to Weight Lifting

In the last few months, I got back into lifting weights (not that I was a muscle head or anything), but still find good tips about good lifting techniques and better lifts. If you can achieve the same results by lifting properly and in less time, then by all means read more…

StrongLifts

StrongLifts is also another weightlifting / exercise blog I subscribe to. It has very good tips, and I would again highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get into lifting or back into the gym.

Development

Get Rich Slowly

The title couldn’t be more true. If you follow sound investing and debt reduction principles, you will not only grow personally but financially.

The Simple Dollar

Another great investing and money blog. I used to struggle with finances, but with blogs like these, along with financial books, I made a turnaround and now am on the up slope of wealth building.

Steve Pavlina

This is the first personal development blog I subscribed to and it changed my life. Steve Pavlina was the first to open my eyes to value and self worth. This was the inspiration for me to quit my job and set out on my own.

The Blog of Tim Ferriss

Tim is the author of the Bestseller book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, which is worth reading over and over again. Learn about lifestyle design and how to live the life you want or how to contact someone famous like Warren Buffett.

Popularity: 13% [?]

This week I interviewed Michael Marcil, the founder and CEO of The Marcil Group, based in Fargo, ND. The Marcil Group is primarily centered around the management of commercial and rental property in and around North Dakota. Other areas of involvement include construction, technology, capital investment, venture capital, restaurants and philanthropy.

I actually had about 20 some questions drawn up that I really thought would lead the interview. How wrong I was. I only asked a couple from memory, and the rest of the conversation took on a natural course of its own. Michael Marcil was recently named a winner of The Forum’s 20 under 40 award (local newspaper). A diverse panel gave the award out to recipients chosen as those who are making a difference in the Fargo community.

A majority of my conversation with Michael was focused on the unbelievably bright economic future North Dakota has and how that will transform the state’s citizens. In a time of uncertainty for the U.S. economy with the sub-prime housing mess and skyrocketing commodities such as oil and wheat, the only downside for North Dakota is its chilly winters. Just about everything else in the state will benefit greatly due to the rise in oil and food prices. Michael shared his love for all the different types of energy our state has the potential to produce and pictures North Dakota becoming the “Dubai of North America.” In case you didn’t know, North Dakota is very rich in agriculture, coal, oil and wind. Michael Marcil spent roughly 10 years in the dot com industry with his hand in a few projects like food.com and many, many more. Through consulting, he built up his management and development company extremely fast. So fast, that The Marcil Group has grown over 800% in three years. Not only that, but the company has been in positive cash flow every quarter since inception. It takes a man with a grand vision to grow and expand a company that fast. I have no reason to believe there is any slowing down in his future. The sky is the limit.

I have never before met someone who has openly endorsed the idea of promoting their competitors. I know this seems very counterproductive, but there is a genius behind it that most will fail to realize. Imagine that you own and operate a business in a town that is bursting at the seems. If you can garner some business even for your competitors, eventually you are able to leverage that flow of traffic to further your reach in that market. Essentially, you are making your competitors reliant upon your business more and more. Now that’s some unconventional marketing.

I enjoyed my time with Michael, and I can’t wait to see what he does in the future.

Popularity: 22% [?]

What do absinthe and blogging have in common? Not much, traditionally, unless you make your living off drunken blog posts. I am sure it has been done, so don’t run off and try it. Unfortunately for them, drunken bloggers are probably lousy at marketing.

What I am referring to is the ability to stand apart from the crowd. There are hundreds of gin, rum, vodka and beer varieties, but there are only a few labels of absinthe. The biggest difference between absinthe and other alcohols is the story that surrounds it.

Absinthe is almost ritualistic. Traditionally, the absinthe is placed in a glass resembling a shot glass. Then a spotted spoon (fancy way of saying a spoon with holes in it) is placed on top of the glass with a sugar cube on that. As it sits there, cold water is dripped onto the sugar into the glass until the sugar dissolves. After all the ingredients are mixed, the person can enjoy the drink. Absinthe is not cheap, due to its uniqueness, not to mention all the other accessories you have to buy in order to be a part of its story. We can learn a few things from  absinthe’s story and apply it to blogging.

What color is your blog?

Absinthe is a unique green color. You might say to yourself, “So what, tons of alcohol is colored.” But absinthe  becomes a milky green when water is added to it. It is pretty fun to watch. This is one element that separates this liquor from all the others. What separates your blog from all the other blogs out there? Are you a unique color, or do you change colors to people’s amazement? If you’re not different, how can you become different to attract others?

What is the story you are selling?

Like absinthe, people and things with a good story sell. It is reported that Vincent Van Gogh cut his ear off while drinking absinthe, and various other crimes and occurrences are attributed to absinthe. People will gladly pay for something they really don’t need as long as they can identify themselves with the story. For example, people are likely to choose Subway for lunch if they want to be healthier, like Jared. How many people have bought one of those ab machines, only to realize that diet and exercise is the only way to lose inches around the waist?

Are you a rare commodity?

When things are scarce and in demand, their value goes up considerably. Take, the markets right now dealing with wheat and other grains, gold and silver. I don’t have to mention more than diamonds for anybody to know what I am talking about. Either you control the supply and limit how much will be made available like De Beers (diamonds), wii (Nintendo), Tickle me Elmo (Tyco), or you find a way to out produce your competition. That might entail providing a service only you can provide, or perhaps finding a way to market yourself better than anyone else. Where there is a will there is a way, right? So, what’s your commodity?

What’s the kick you provide?

Why will someone return to your blog? When someone drinks absinthe, they are expecting an outcome. The same goes for your customers. If they stopped coming to your blog tomorrow, would you be losing an asset, or would they? I am not trying to reduce this to a 0 sum game here. I am simply trying to make a point of keeping a focus. If you set out to be the #1 financial blog, what will it take to achieve that? Is the customer looking for advice, resources, examples or a magic wand? Perhaps you are selling them something they don’t know they need yet and that is where your story kicks in. A good story will sell even the worst products. Chia-pet anyone? Identifying exactly what you are selling is the hard part, but once you do, you have a product like gold or iPod. Once you have your product, then selling it becomes the easy part. You get to worry about issues like demand and development later.
What is my product?

Through my blog, I am selling to you that I have what it takes to think outside the marketing box. I want to approach each project and product from a different angle than any other marketer will offer. I am selling you my story and each day it grows.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I have added a new Contest tab at the top of my page. The contests will change from time to time, and I will be sure to mention those changes. For now these are the current contests:

Contest #1

Subscribe to my RSS feed and let me know. I will give you 300 Entrecard Credits (only one subscription per person)

Bonus: Subscribe to Blogging4Cash.com and earn an extra 100 Credits.

Contest #2

One subscriber each week will receive either 1,000 Entrecredits or a one-week 125×125 ad placement. Your choice.

Contest #3

Sign up for one of the trial offers by our sponsors and receive 3,000 Entrecredits after confirmation (as advertised next to their banner, limited offer)

Contest #4

The top commenter for the month will win 500 Entrecredits

Upcoming Series

I am starting a new series based off the Budweiser’s Real Men of Genius commercials called Real Marketers of Genius. This series will feature terrible marketing strategies and what we can learn from them.

Guest Posts

If you are interested in being a guest poster or would like a guest post on your blog, I would like to work out a deal. Contact me if you are interested.

My Posting Schedule

I have mostly settled on the topics and schedule of posts for the blog and they go as followed:

Monday: Marketing Ideas
Tuesday: Marketing Strategy
Wednesday: Real Marketers of Genius
Thursday: Unconventional Marketing
Friday: Funny Stories
Saturday: Personal Development
Sunday: Random Rants

And with these I will include posts featuring guests, puzzles, contests, special offers and whatever may strike me at the time.

Receive Josh’s Unconventional Marketing Blog by Email

Popularity: 8% [?]