Useful Sites and Blogs for Consultants and Freelancers

This is like a Blogroll, only better.  Half the time when you look at a blogroll, it’s the name of a person or a title and you can’t be sure what the heck it is or how it might pertain to you.  I chose these links because they may help you make your decision to consult, set up your consultancy, or find ways to be more successful — and many should also be useful for small businesses.  To that end, there are a lot of marketing-related links, although I’m committed to adding new ones aimed at managing your business.  Hopefully, the details after each link will provide a laser-like focus on what will help you (or what intrigues you).  Please feel free to provide your thoughts on people or organizations we should add and/or good or bad experiences about ones that are here through the form at the end of this page or in the Comments.  If you’ve been here before, recent additions have NEW! in front of them.  If you haven’t been here for awhile, some of the older new stuff may have lost the New tag.  So come back more often.

And do me a favor.  Everyone tells me it’s nuts to put something on your site that encourages people to leave your site.  I see this site’s role to be part-aggregator, where you can come to look for resources to do things better (and maybe survive the tough times that are coming). Prove the naysayers wrong and take a look around this site, either before you click on some of these links or come back afterward.  Thanks!

Personal Favorites — The Best of the Best (In My Mind)

Tom Peters!  Downloadable presentations, videos, interviews with other great thinkers, and periodic links to thought-provoking posts by other bloggers.

Chris Brogan.   I almost put him into the social media category, but then I re-read a recent blog where he says he doesn’t think of himself as a social-media guy; rather he says what he does falls into one of three buckets: marketing consulting, media, and education.  He says he helps people build human business.  Incredibly prolific and a great read.

Seth Godin.  One of the best known bloggers and author of Linchpin and lots of other best-sellers.  Something new every day to help you think about how you’re marketing to and dealing with customers.  Like Chris, he’s incredibly prolific and consistent.

Duct Tape Marketing.  John Jantsch with great tips for simple, effective, and affordable marketing for small businesses.  This is the link to his blog, but wander around his entire site when you have a few minutes.

Heath Brothers.  Authors of Made to Stick and the recent bestseller Switch.  Chip and Dan also have a Fast Company column.  You can’t set your watch by their postings, but I subscribe to make sure I never miss one when they do publish.

Six Pixels of Separation.  Digital marketing, new media, and personal branding insights from Canada’s Mitch Joel.

NEW! {grow} That’s not a typo.  That’s the name of Mark W. Schaefer’s site and blog, which focuses on “practical marketing solutions.”  High tweet count.  Great stuff.

NEW! Marketing Profs  Lots of great information…The blog pulls from 300 experts across all marketing fields.  There’s a premium membership you can purchase, but the free content is also terrific.  And it has an About Us section that is one of my favorites.

NEW! MENG Blend  Great insights from the Marketing Executives Networking Group, edited by the terrific Lisa Petrilli.

NEW! Spin Sucks  Gini Dietrich and her team at her Chicago-based do a terrific  job of writing about subjects that get great discussions going.  Writing primarily about communication, social media, advertising, SEO, and being an entrepreneur, I just enjoy clicking on the e-mail that comes in with her latest posting.

Launching Your Business

Portfolio Careers.  Friends of the Consultant Launch Pad and authors of And What Do You Do?  They take a U.K. point of view, but there’s lots of good stuff on the blog.

StartupNation Blog.  Bills itself as “by entrepreneurs. for entrepreneurs.”  A lot of different voices with lots of categories.  More of a small-business focus than a consulting focus, but you may find nuggets that will help you.

Inc. Start-Up Guide.  Compilations of magazine and web-generated content that helps entrepreneurs build their companies.  Some focus on consultants and one-person businesses, but generally focuses on a broader target audience.  Lots of sections, but articles within those sections can feel kind of repetitive.

What Would Dad Say?  This may not fit perfectly in this section but serial entrepreneur GL Hoffman’s blog focuses, in his words, on “having fun here, sharing stories of what I have learned after some 25 years of doing startups, with maybe some observations about the workplace, culture and other things that interest or amuse me,…and hopefully, you.”

NEW! Help From the Government (no, really!)

Internal Revenue Service (IRS):  Lots and lots of information, and your can apply for your EIN, download tax forms, and check on the latest mileage rate.

USA.gov.  The official website of the U.S. Government.  Tons of resources for the self-employed.

Business.gov  An official site of the U.S. Small Business Administration, this site helps small businesses understand their legal requirements and local government services from federal, state, and local agencies.

General Marketing (the digital/online stuff is a bit lower)

Guerrilla Consulting.   Michael W. McLaughlin is the author of Winning the Professional Services Sale, and co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants.

Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice.   John Moore was formerly in marketing at Starbucks Coffee and Whole Foods Market. Today, John shares marketing advice with businesses aspiring to earn unwavering devotion from customers and employees. 

UnMarketing.  Scott Stratten’s mantra is Stop Marketing, Start Engaging.  This guy is huge on Twitter, but mostly responding to other people.   He’s also well-known for creating viral marketing videos.

Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That.  Andy Sernovitz blogs about “unusually useful ideas borrowed from the smartest bloggers.”  Andy focuses on “word-of-mouth” marketing and what early-stage consultant couldn’t use that?

David Meerman Scott (Web Ink Now).  David is the author of The New Rules of PR and Marketing.  He focuses on how marketing and PR have changed because of the Web.

Christopher Penn’s Awaken Your Superhero.  Worth a look if for no reason other than the name of the blog.  Christopher is one of the leaders in the area of New Media and Marketing.

NEW! Savvy B2B Marketing  Blog by a group of six Savvy Sisters, each of whom runs her own marketing business providing their clients with strategic, content-based marketing solutions and the collateral that makes them work.

NEW! Brass Tack Thinking  The founders of Brass Tack Thinking describe their approach as a mindset – a set of principles and systems – for making things happen. It’s teachable, repeatable process that uses basic elements—brass tacks, if you will—to assess a situation as it is, how we want it to be, and how to make that future state real and sustainable.

NEW! Sally Hogshead  You want attitude?  Here’s Sally Hogshead’s tagline: “A hogshead is a barrel that holds 62 gallons.  So what’s your last name, smartass.  The author of Fascinate is a terrific speaker, describing herself as a speaker, author, and brand innovation consultant, helping companies develop messages that persuade and captivate.

Psychotactics.  Not for all tastes.  He does a lot of selling on his blog, but his site also offers a lot of free stuff.  I don’t read him every day, but I do try to page through a week of postings at one sitting and usually get a few things I can use.

Shotgun Marketing.  Chris Houchens describes his approach to marketing as holistic, where an organization must, from top to bottom, ”eat, sleep and breathe its marketing strategy.”

Law/Legal

IP Law for Startups.   Jill Hubbard Bowman introduces her blog like this:  When you start a company, you enter a legal land mine field.  A misstep could maim your fledgling company or blow it to smithereens.  The biggest legal problem startups have is that they don’t know where the legal landmines are located.   If your most valuable assets are based on intellectual capital—like most software and technology companies—mapping the IP law landscape is critical for your success.  I’ve been practicing intellectual property law for more than 10 years and I know where the land mines are located.  I started the IP Law for Startups blog to give general, educational information about intellectual property law and help startups draw an IP land mine map and navigate the terrain.  This blog explains the most common pitfalls and missteps that entrepreneurs make.  It gives clear, concrete ways to protect your IP and avoid legal problems.  By the way, you can do a lot worse on your About page to explain what you do and why people should subscribe.

Likelihood of Confusion.  Ron Coleman’s blog about trademark law, copyright law, free speech (mostly as it relates to the Internet), and legal issues related to blogging.

NEW! Legalzoom.com:  The best-known and arguably the best of the online legal-document companies.  Sometimes you need a lawyer, but sometimes you can save money and use these guys.  The trick is knowing when.

Financial Management

NEW! Indinero.com   Helps business owners monitor the financial health of their companies.  The creators say “most small business owners hate the idea of learning financial software, so we’ve created a solution that’s easy for anyone to learn.

Public Relations

NEW! Help A Reporter Out (HARO)  HARO connects reporters with sources and gives you a chance to get some PR and find out what the hot topics are for reporters.  You can sign up to get regular queries.

Presentations

Presentation Zen.  One of several sites from Garr Reynolds, but this is my favorite.  Worth a periodic look (along with the next one) to remind yourself about a way to approach presentations beyond bullets and clip art.

slideology.   Nancy Duarte is one of the presentation industry’s other rock stars.  Buy her book and I guarantee it will be dog-eared quickly.

Nick Morgan.  Another great presenter and teacher.  His blog offers lots of great tips for preparing and delivering a great speech.

Social Media

NEW! Mack Collier   Mack is an Alabama-based social-media consultant whose motto is “Don’t focus on the tools, focus on the connections that the tools help facilitate.”  A lot of practical advice on his site.

NEW! Beth Harte  Her blog is titled The Harte of Marketing: Marketing & Communications for the Customer-Centric Organization.  She pulls no punches and is an active participant in a range of social-media conversations.

Personal Branding (Which for consultants and freelancers is, in many cases, the same as corporate branding)

Dan Schawbel.  Unlike some of the others in this section, Dan focuses purely on building your personal brand.  He’s the author of Me 2.0 and this blog will keep you thinking about whether you’re putting your best foot forward.

NEW! The Brand Builder Blog  Olivier Blanchard’s blog about “building strong brands through passion, innovation, creativity, and common sense.”

Web Analytics

Occam’s Razor.  Written by Avinash Kaushik, the guru of Web Analytics and the author of the bible on the subject, Web Analytics: An Hour A Day.  Occam’s Razor is a salute to simplicity, so I guess this could have gone down in that section too.

E-Mail Marketing

Blue Sky Marketing.  This will link you to the blog, but take a look at the site.  These guys are experts in e-mail marketing…but you need a pretty big list for it to make sense to work with them (IMHO)  Great webinars and some outstanding free stuff.  Nice writing style from a variety of authors.

Online Marketing

Top Rank’s Online Marketing Blog.   Insights, resources and commentary on a range of digital marketing and public relations topics including search engine marketing and optimization; social-media marketing; business blogging and marketing; and online public relations.

NEW! Remarkable Communication  Sonia Simone can be found in a lot of places around the web – Copyblogger, Third Tribe are just two examples – but she considers her “superpower” to be creating better customer communications with incredible effective communication.  And she makes a “kickass chocolate cream pie.”

NEW! Content Marketing Institute  Tips for communicating with your customers and prospects without selling – basically a blog about the tactics of content marketing.

Networking

Keith Ferrazzi.  Arguably the world’s leading authority on professional relationship development and the author of two best-sellers: Never Eat Alone and Who’s Got Your Back.  A great blog to read if your technical skills are great but you could use a bit of help when you’re face to face with prospective clients.

Strategy

Michael Roberto.  Management professor at Bryant College and the author of Know What You Don’t Know and Why Great Leaders Don’t Take Yes for an Answer.  Specializes in strategic decision-making processes and senior management teams. 

NEW! Adam Hartung   The author of Create Marketplace Disruption: How to Stay Ahead of the Competition, Adam Hartung is a successful entrepreneur, angel investor, and former blue-chip corporate executive, having served as the head of business development for PepsiCo and DuPont.

Tom Spencer.  Australian blogger who writes about management consulting and business strategy.

Technology

NEW! ReadWriteWeb  One of the most popular technology blog on the Internet, known for thoughtfully analyzing each day’s Internet news.

NEW! Mashable   Describes itself as “the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture with more than 30 million monthly pageviews.”  Reports breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new Web sites and services, and offering social media resources and guides

37signal.  These guys have gotten a lot of attention for their new book, Rework, and for their general management approach.  They make Web-based business-efficiency tools but as a recent Newsweek article about them noted, they’re about more than software.  If you’re not big into technology, their Signal vs. Noise “design and usability” blog might not be your cup of tea but they’re worth a couple of looks (just in case you don’t like them the first time).

NEW! Focus.com  Free service with 750k+ members that describes itself as a network of business and technology experts who are helping members make better business decisions. Funded by eight large technology companies who keep the service free.

Innovation

Bill Taylor.  Co-founder of Fast Company magazine and co-author of Mavericks at Work.  This is a link to his Harvard Business Review blogs, which is where he’s primarily blogging in advance of publication of his new book, Practically Radical.

Marketing Innovation.   Sort of an aggregator blog (lots of writers) whose stated mission “is to make innovation and marketing insights accessible for the greater good. The more innovative our organizations are, the better it is for people and the planet (less waste, more meaning).

Leadership

John Baldoni.  Another Harvard Business Review contributor and the author of eight books including Lead Your Boss, The Subtle Art of Managing Up.

NEW! Steve Farber  Steve Farber is a senior-level leadership coach and consultant and the president of Extreme Leadership, Inc.

Simplicity

Bill Jensen This is not a blog, but I think you’ll find that you find some valuable information on Bill Jensen’s website, which is dedicated to “ridding the world of clutter, crap, and corporate silliness, one person at a time.”

Awesomely Simple.  The companion site for John Spence’s book, Awesomely Simple.  You can also find his blog here.  And here’s a link to his blog.  Good stuff there too.

Bulldog Simplicity.  Consultant Launch Pad founder Peter Osborne’s other blog.  Oh, go ahead.  Go take a look and see if you like it.

Making Your Work Life Easier

NEW! CNN Travel:  Reports tips and information on a range of subjects including things that could impact your travel plans.

NEW! Workshifting.   Aimed at people who work out of coffee shops, hotels, airports and their homes every bit as much as the office.

NEW! Yola.com  Blog for a website builder and hosting service for small businesses.  There are similar companies out there, but the blog does a nice job of highlighting the sites of some of its clients.

NEW! Evernote:  Blog for the very cool web-based application that enables you to save your ideas and inspiration as you work on lots of things.  You can record a message, write a note, clip an article, or take a picture, and the blog gives you lots of ideas for using Evernote efficiently.

NEW! 800ceoread  Exactly what it looks like – a blog that highlights books for CEOs and business owners.

Publications

Management Consulting News.   A monthly newsletter and web site for professional services providers with a big archive and strong interviews with a variety of interesting authors and bloggers.

Associations and Trade Groups:

Institute of Management Consultants.   The mission of the Institute of Management Consultants USA is to promote excellence and ethics in management consulting through certification, education and professional resources.   It provides the only certification for individual management consultants in the United States that conforms to the international standards of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes.

Independent Computer Consultants Association

American Association of Healthcare Consultants

American Consulting Engineer Council

Society for Human Resources Management.   The world’s largest association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than 250,000 members in over 140 countries, the Society serves the needs of HR professionals and advances the interests of the HR profession.

The Interim Association.  The Interim Association serves the United States, helping corporate clients and interim managers through education, certification, and networking. Its members are corporations that can benefit from interim management and the senior executives who serve as interim managers.