Blogs for Inspiration

The blogosphere is huge and ever expanding. If you can think of a topic, someone's blogging it. This doesn't mean the market is closed to you; everyone has a different take on the same topic and everyone brings their own experiences.

I gain inspiration from others, not just writing and ideas, but life improvement as well. I find that my creative outlets are focused and encouraged when my life is in sync with positivity.

Today I am going to share some of the blogs that I follow, and how it has changed my life. I enjoy sharing my favorite blogs to share ideas and positivity that boost creativity.

ChrisBrogan.com
When I first started considering the idea of jumping into social media and sharing my ideas and thoughts, I sought after sites that encouraged social sites, networking, using media as a tool to build community. I wanted to establish an online presence for myself as a professional and community leader. I began to scour the net looking for great ideas and inspiration and I found Chris Brogan. His site singlehandedly pushed me over the edge;I knew that I was ready to make the jump.

His coverage on social media is extensive. His contacts in the social media world are just as extensive and was a great way to really delve into the benefits for being involved in social media both as a person and as a business. Many conventions and media events ask Chris to speak at their engagements due to his experience and expertise in social media.

Personally I would love to see him speak. Read through his archives, let the words of wisdom wash over you. His ideas on using social media (Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube for example) in the business world are priceless.

TerryStarbucker.com
Terry's site is just so full of positivity that it actually changes your outlook an a variety of topics. His writing is serious but light hearted. Reading his posts you cannot help but smile or chuckle at his humor as it runs through the posts, all while making excellent points. His thoughts on leadership and excellence were inspiring and I found myself implementing them in my own office experiences.

Naturally the gems are found in his archives. None of his stuff seems outdated, and most interesting, none of his articles are repetitive. Too often we are bombarded with negativity, "how not to do things," "you can't do this," "this is how bad the world is," but Terry always focuses on how to improve, now to elevate your skills, and his stories relay life long lessons that today's young professionals can only learn from.

Lifehack.com
This site has been the foundation of my new-found lifestyle off-line. This site has so many productivity articles that it's amazing sometimes just how flawed we can be. It's not to say that we are ruined and all broken, but rather that each of us has downfalls and problems that simple productivity enhancements can elevate. Have trouble getting to places on time? Looking for ways to increase your "karma"? Want to find a way to stop all the incoming junk mail at your home? Lifehack is a site so full of advice and suggestions it's surprising that we all have not ascended yet!

Other productivity blogs I follow are: Zen Habits, Dumb Little Man, and UnClutterer.

All of them may have different articles, but all of them seek to help the community in the same way, making us better people in our daily lives both at work and at home.

Makeuseof.com
In the world of Web 2.0 (I know hearing that overused term makes my skin crawl sometimes too!), there are programs that do all kinds of things. Makeuseof is a great site to find out how you can do anything with photos, scripts, designs, mobile phones, email, websites, GPS, anything you can think of.

Makeuseof helped me out greatly by notifying me of a site that would put me directly on the phone with a human being instead of jumping through options. That site alone was worth its weight in gold.

This is just a sampling of the types of blogs I follow.

Speak up, what are some of the sites you follow and why?

Photo Credit, Dominic