Thanks to my Favorite Content Creators of the Past Year

Like many entrepreneurs, I consume content like it’s my job.  I think because in many ways, it is my job.

Daily reading, watching, listening, and interacting is what keeps me going.  I’m constantly on the lookout for something new to learn that might help me get ahead in some way.  Or sometimes I just need to hear someone else’s story to get inspired to take action.  It’s how we as entrepreneurs stay in tune with what’s next: where things are moving and what we can do to align our work with where everyone else is headed.

So I want to take a minute to thank and share some thoughts on a few of my favorite content creators I’ve been following during the past year.  I honestly would not be where I am today without the work of these folks, who consistently put out interesting, insightful, useful, and valuable content on a regular basis.

Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com

Without a doubt, this goes at the top of the list this year.  Having chomped up every single fascinating video interview Andrew puts out on his blog, it was a no-brainer to pay up and become a premium member to gain access to the in-depth courses produced by the Mixergy team and guests.  The lessons and stories by and for tech entrepreneurs are amazingly insightful and actionable — exactly the stuff that guys like me crave.  And it’s been great to watch Andrew hone his craft of being the best interviewer out there.

Zeldman.com

Jeffrey Zeldman, known in some circles as the “godfather of the internet”, continues to be an inspiring, thoughtful creator and commentator for the web design industry.  Starting with his eloquent writing on his personal blog zeldman.com to his funny and creative interviewer role as host of the Big Web Show podcast, he’s the kind of writer/speaker who makes you feel smarter the more you listen/read.  He constantly raises the standard for what content-creation on the web is, and never puts out an ounce of fluff.

Dan Benjamin of 5by5.tv

Dan Benjamin has put together an amazing network of podcasts on 5by5.tv.  My favorite being The Big Web Show with Zeldman, other great ones are Founders Talk (interviews with entrepreneurs) and the always geeky/entertaining Hypercritical show with John Siracusa, which disects the world of Apple and their products in more detail than any company should ever wish to be covered.  Dan’s work on 5by5.tv was a big inspiration for us when we started Freelance Jam.

37 Signals & the Signal vs. Noise blog

Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson and the team at 37 Signals continue to inspire our industry to create awesome products, conduct business honestly, transparently and efficiently, and communicate our ideas with conviction.  I’ve been particularly drawn to the work of Ryan Singer, UI designer at 37signals, who not only is an amazingly talented UI designer, but he brilliantly communicates his ideas in his articles, talks, and demonstrations.

I’ve also been really into their Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud series of interviews profiling successful businesses that haven’t taken any outside investment.

Other favorites:

AVC / Fred Wilson’s blog – Although I tend to be more interested in the bootstrapped approach myself, I like reading his blog to stay somewhat in-tune with the VC perspective on entrepreneurship.

Adii Rockstar – Always inspiring to follow Adii’s thoughts on strategy and life, particularly as someone heavily involved in the WordPress space.

The Godfounder – Great little blog pointing out the little things that make web-apps great.  It’s all about the details.

A Smart Bear – Jason Cohen’s blog on “Startups + Marketing + Geekery”.

Think Vitamin – Team Carsonofied always puts out quality stuff, all the way down to their blog posts.  I had the pleasure of attending their Future of Web Design conference in NYC in 2011.  Ryan Carson is definitely an inspiring business owner to follow.

Trent Walton & Paravel – Man, these guys are good.  From their amazing design/web/illustration work to their clever copy and innovative tech work… if ya don’t know, now you know.  Film geeks, you gotta check out their awesome site, The Many Faces Of.

Usability Post – Been a fan for a long time now.  Well-written Usability/UI design blog.

Pippin’s Plugins – I’ve been working with WP developer, Pippin Williamson quite a bit lately.  He runs a great blog all about WordPress plugin development, with lots of value-packed tutorials.  This dude knows his stuff.

Amit Klein – Amit is a long-time buddy of mine, and one of my only hometown friends who actually uses Twitter  He’s a web/startup guy and keeps an interesting blog all about his work.  Check out his posts from the last few years when he lived/worked in India.

Making Good – Another friend and frequent collaborator, Ed Mullen, writes about design (among a variety of other topics).  ”Thinking about doing things better” is a good way to sum up his blog.

Mikes Lessons – I guess this counts as “content”… I’ve been learning to play drums thanks to this high-quality collection of video lessons.

Thomas Friedman & Paul Krugman – I read just about every piece from these NY Times op-ed writers.  Aside from their ideas, I really admire their writing style and their ability to effectively present complex ideas in a short, quick-read format.

So many more that just fly by in the day-to-day stream of content overload… Thanks to Instapaper, I’m starting to get a handle on it all