When you start in the world of freelancing and contracting you’ll quite often find yourself starting on a neverending treasure hunt, digging to find inspiration and novel ideas to stimulate your thought processes for a client.

The following blogs have given me the much needed confidence, inspiration and growth over the past year and I now want to pass them onto you. Enjoy!

1.) Marie Forleo

She is THE QUEEN to follow if you want to start a business and life you love (her phrase – not mine). She’s runs an interactive 8 week course called B school that will kick you and your business into gear. She’s an inspiration to so many small businesses, freelancers, even kids! Her spunky nature and voracious ‘you can do anything you want‘ attitude is really an inspiration to anyone trying to find  their place is in this world. She has so much wisdom to offer in the field of marketing (she’s quite a whizz at it herself) and her weekly YouTube show, MarieTV, is hilarious, inspirational and smart at the same time – it’s quite a talent to combine those skills and keep you hooked week after week.

Go on, check her out- marieforleo.com

2.) Derek Halpbern

If Marie is the queen of marketing then Derek is the king of sales. I’ve read a lot of sales blogs in my life and I think I’ve finally stumbled across the Eugene Schwartz of our age. (Don’t know who he is? Marketing genius of the 1960’s… think Don from Mad Men, but in real life. Cool.)

Having a psychology degree myself I was really intrigued when I stumbled across his blog – socialtriggers.com. You normally wouldn’t be able to sell me any marketing tactics or tricks, but for Derek, I’ll give an exception. It’s like I’ve got my hand open waiting to throw money at him. And for that, yes, I think he’s a genius.

3.) Socially Stacked

I first ran across this blog back when Facebook was in its early days of advertising and ‘shortstack’ was the only good product that I could find that helped run easier and more efficient campaigns. Since then, ‘Shortstack’  has consistently proved to stay on top of the latest social media trends (including the ever changing Facebook rules). And for that I’m thankful because I can get a wide range of social media advice all in one place.

Learn social from Socially Stacked.

4.) Moz

If you’re in the world of SEO like I am, you know that you have to look no further than Rand Fishkin and his blog Moz. SEO can be quite technical at times and Rand eloquently explains the ins and outs of the ever changing algorithms and trends that are always happening in his Whiteboard Friday. It’s a brilliant concept really – he breaks down every question and topic on a whiteboard and eloquently explains even the most complicated of scenarios.

View his whiteboard Friday here.

5.) Jon Dale

I thought long and hard about this last one. I’ll admit, I have more than 5 bloggers that I constantly follow, but this last inspiration popped in my mind, and I’ll tell you why. He was first my employer, then a ‘client’ and now a business partner. He’s a bloody good writer. I learned everything I know about writing from him. Well actually, I got my own voice from just being me, but he taught me to actually ‘be me.’ That people like me for ‘me’ so stop the bullshit and write like you talk to people. Because that’s my best asset. So that’s why he made the list. Because I’ve been posting his blogs for 5 years, reading his voice, learning from a witty Brit. If you own a small business and are a tradesperson (that’s his new marketing angle) then I highly recommend him for you. You’ll learn a lot about business and you won’t be bored either (he has a bit of a foul mouth,  but he’s a Brit. What else can you expect?).

Read his business tips here.

Note: this is merely an opinion piece and I was not paid to endorse any of these people. If you have other blogs that you read, pop them in the comments below! I’d love to check them out.

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