A lot of readers and clients have been asking me what are my favorite and most influential sites I visit. The one that get me excited about work and life.
I do read a lot on the web during my off hours and find there are certain key sites who do a great job to help me stay up on business issues and personal interests. In no special order:
Popurls
My first stop. This is an aggregator site which brings together many other aggregator sites like Reedit, Digg, Metafilter, Delicious, etc. It delivers the best of the best. Be careful, you can spend HOURS here. (Link)
Wall Street Journal
My business info standby. I can whip through this paper pretty quickly - I don’t get caught up in the opinion - I focus on the facts. Who’s up, who’s down, who’s doing something new - it’s all here (I get this delivered in paper form daily). (Link)
The Economist
Deep, deep analysis of the world from an international viewpoint (I also get this in print form too). (Link)
Cool Tools
My favorite gadget site by Kevin Kelly. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. (Link)
I follow a number of key influencers - Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, Ivan Misner, Tom Peters, Alyssa Milano (no kidding - she’s great), Michael Hyatt, Soraya Darabi, and Brian Soils. It’s immediate, recent and I can pop in, read, and pop out pretty quickly. It bugs me when people complain about Twitter (I don't have the time!) — it's a tool — use it as a tool, not a TV show. (Link)
Lifehacker
A great site delivering tips and downloads for getting life and business things done. Unfortunately, they just went through a horrible redesign making their site virtually unusable (owned by Gawker Media - all of their sites have the same architecture and navigation now - I hate it). Still great info. (Link)
Copyblogger & Problogger
Read both of these and your writing will most certainly improve. Brian & Darren bring lots of great ideas, innovative topics and powerful info — stuff I would never think about on my own. (Link) & (Link)
Seth’s Blog
The great Seth Godin — he's a god. Nuff said. (Link)
TED
If you haven’t visited here - you have been missing the best of the web. TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading. All of their speakers and videos are online — I link to them often. (Link)
Inc. & Entrepreneur
Two great magazines who have all of their articles online. Great for the practicing or budding entrepreneur in all of us. (Link) & (Link)
Image provided by OakleyOriginals at Flickr.