Humorous personality with knack for sports story
telling

June 22, 2009

Chuck is a relative newcomer to the blogging game, but
he's picked it up quite quickly. His blog is easy to
read, but that doesn't mean he doesn't cover hard
hitting issues. He injects his charismatic personality
into his writing, without the writing becoming all
about him.

What I most like about Chuck's writing style is his
ability to craft little stories out of nearly every
post. Like any good story teller, Chuck lets his
characters, real or imagined, tell the story for him.
An entertaining read.

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The New Boston Sports Guy

June 13, 2009

In my review of Bill Simmons, I noted that he's past
his prime and his content just isn't as interesting as
it used to be. Well, luckily Josh Gans is a newcomer
who delivers a similar writing style from the sports
fan perspective. He's very rough around the edges but
if you can look past his rookie roughness, you'll find
a man who truly loves his sports teams, know his
sports, and loves sharing his passion with others.

While he's a stats geek through and through he also
brings a light hearted tone to his writing that is easy
to digest and fun to follow along. He makes pop culture
references but keeps it to a minimum so that they're
funny instead of irrelevant.

Also, unlike Bill Simmons, Josh Gans was born and
raised in the heart of Boston giving him that Boston
personality that is so tough for outsider to properly
mimic. If you love Boston sports, or just sports in
general and want to read about them from a true fan
with admitted biases, give Josh a shot. He's got
massive potential and I'm really looking forward to
seeing him evolve.

Disclosure: Josh is part of The 42nd Estate, a
company that he and I (and two others) co-founded.

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Brings personal branding to the masses

June 03, 2009

Haven't read Dan's book but his Personal Branding blog
alone is an immense resource on branding. Dan has a
style that points out clearly and effectively that we
all have a personal brand. He really hammers home that
branding is not something just for companies and that
we all must embrace personal branding or else someone
else will do it for us (with possibly negative
results).

His content is easy to digest but still filled with
tons of valuable nuggets. When you read his articles,
it's clear that he really understands his niche. He
provides tons of suggestions for how to improve your
personal brand in a way that anyone, from a college
student to a CEO, could utilize.

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Balanced blogger with a keen eye for viral content

June 02, 2009

I've been reading Justin's blog for a couple years now
and have followed along in his adventures as he found
ways to keep myself sane in his cubicle job (by
building a bathroom hammock, trying to get fired) to
his progression to freelancing and starting a web
business (Zoopmedia) that helps people develop blogs
and internet marketing campaigns.

Justin truly understands the need for tight writing
for blogs that flows well. His posts are an ease to
read and digest and really show his ability to grasp
and explain a topic to his audience.

Justin also has a great ability to innovate and
infuse his blog designs with new ideas before they
start popping up across the rest of the web. His tips
and recaps of being a digital nomad are also a joy to
read, especially for those of us who can't or don't
travel as much as he does.

Disclosure: Justin is a small member of The 42nd
Estate, a company I am also a member of.

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The Whalehead King writes about Dorchester's culture
and passion

June 01, 2009

Matthew King has a flair for exposing the excitement,
diversity and pride of Dorchester residents and their
mixed culture. Though he's relatively new to the
neighborhood, he's been able to pick up the
idiosyncrasies of the place and put them into text that
would make many life long Dorchester residents proud
and writers jealous.

His love for his characters and settings is apparent
and makes his stories come to life. A wonderful read
for Dorchester residents and ex-residents who wish to
relive their time living in the Dot.

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Extensive resource for bloggers but exemplifies
information overload.

May 24, 2009

When I first started blogging, ProBlogger was one of
the first resources I (and likely a majority of new
bloggers) stumbled upon. At first, I found his common
sense tips great and spent hours browsing through the
archives. But, as time went along and his posts kept
coming at a rapid pace I began to become overloaded
with information. As I found myself not implementing
all the tips he fires at you I unsubscribed from his
blog and found bliss in my ignorance.

I ended up learning a lot on my own and even referred
back to problogger multiple times, but at this point
his site is best suited as a catch all repository for
blogging articles. You could easily spend all your time
reading his tip and implementing them on your blog
rather than actually learning and producing.

Like Spike, I also find that many of the same ideas
keep floating up which makes me even more inclined to
not read it daily. This wouldn't be a major flaw for
most authors but since Darren's brand is blogging, his
blog should entice you to keep checking back and
subscribing. For me, it doesn't.

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Insightful, witty, and pragmatic. A social media
realist.

May 24, 2009

Stuart tells it like it is and gets right down to
business. Though his blog posts are funny and
entertaining, they're also filled with knowledge and
actionable tips about social media. I've only been
reading Stuart's blog and his posts at Mashable for a
short time I've already learned and improved my own
social media strategies via his articles.

Stuart finds a way to integrate topics like World of
Warcraft and Social Media in a way that provides you
with real examples of social media strategies in
effect. He doesn't hide behind a persona and instead
lets his personality come through clearly in his
writing.

It's real tough to not get excited about social media
when reading his content. What's more, it's real tough
to not get immediate insights that help you. He's also
an avid practitioner of his own advice and comments and
tweets at a super-human pace.

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Master Headline Producer, Boston news aggregator and
commentator

May 24, 2009

Universal Hub, Adam Gaffin's Boston blog/news
aggregator web portal, has become a daily source for
the latest, most important and craziest news stories
going on around Boston. His reputation amongst Boston
bloggers and journalists is epic. He has no qualms
about ripping on the local news media or linking to
off-beat twitter messages.

Wherever, whenever something is happening in Boston
he finds it and shares it with his readers. He pours
through literally hundreds and hundreds of RSS feeds
from local bloggers and news sources and posts the best
stories to Universal Hub. I honestly think he doesn't
sleep or has cloned himself because nothing slips past
his watchful eye. His blog is a daily read for me and
many other Bostonians, allowing us to quickly tap into
the pulse of the city.

What he really excels at though is crafting enticing
headlines that make you laugh, shout, and most
importantly click through to read his witty and
insightful commentary on the source he's linking to.
I've had the pleasure of being linked on Universal Hub
a few times and every time his headline absolutely
destroys the one I carefully crafted for my story.

The only reason I'm not giving Adam a ten is because
I think his best days are still ahead of him. He's also
very engaging with his community on his blog and
twitter. Though he posts tons of stories he still finds
the time to engage in the conversations on his blog. If
you've yet to read Universal Hub and you're a
Bostonian, do yourself a favor and pop over and
subscribe to his blog. It's one of the few I can
wholeheartedly recommend to any Boston resident.

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Past his prime, but still one of the best

May 18, 2009

I've been reading Simmons for a long, long time now. href="http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=si
mmons/020204">His article after the first Patriots
super bowl win remains the best article written
about that Super Bowl. I think right around that time
is when Bill entered his prime. His posts were timely,
relevant and funny.

For a few more years he pumped out awesome content on
a consistent basis. Then, somewhere along the road,
after his move to LA and a little after the '04 Red Sox
world series win, Bill's article lost something.

Don't get me wrong, he's still an amazingly talented
writer, but lately I've found myself scanning his
articles more than ever and finding the best and
funniest content comes from his readers. It seems he
drops more references to random pop culture from MTV
and other places that I just don't follow. Maybe I've
just grown up, maybe Bill's lost a step or two,
whatever it is I think he's just a few years past his
prime, but is still one of the best sports writers out
there.

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Easy to digest tips from a pro blogger

May 17, 2009

Over the years, I've subscribed (and unsubscribed) to
tons of blogs that revolve around helping bloggers with
tips and news. Daniel's is the only one that has been a
constant in my feed reader. His writing style is clear
and to the point. His tips bounce around frequently
enough that you are bound to read at least 1-2 useful
tips a week.

There's been tons of times where I need to figure out
how to do something in wordpress and if Google can't
point me in the right direction I bounce over to Daily
Blog Tips. Daniel's filled the archives with tips
covering nearly everything there is to cover about
wordpress and blogging.

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