How to Find Brilliant Blogs to Follow

How to Find Blogs to Follow

Did you start blogging because you were following some brilliant blogs and got so inspired you just had to try your hand at blogging too?

Or did you set up a blog and then think, oh, I had better start following some blogs or I can’t expect anyone to follow mine?

Or are you a serial blog reader? You spend so much time reading blogs it’s almost like your second profession?

There are so many awe-inspiring blogs out there, we’re pretty spoilt for choice nowadays, aren’t we?

Blogging has become the new Magazine industry. You used to find people sitting in waiting rooms, reading magazines. Now they are all on their smartphones, reading Flipboard or Medium or Huffington Post, or scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram, which means they are usually following blogs.

How I Found the Blogs I Follow

Affiliate Disclaimer: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

I have 5 main ways I find brilliant bloggers and their blogs.

1. Pinterest

It’s no secret I just adore Pinterest and so it’s no surprise I found many of the Blogs I follow on Pinterest.

Let’s be more specific.   I found most of the blogs I follow in Blogger Round-Up Posts on Pinterest when I was doing research for my 7 Top Mom Blogger Income Reports Post.

These were the Round-Up posts I found most helpful:

• 35 Bloggers Making $1000 to $300,000 – by Millenial Boss 
• 53 Blog Income Reports – by Suzi Whitford of Start a Mom Blog

I knew many of the names already because most of these Top Mom Bloggers have a presence on Pinterest.

There are also some other bloggers I follow simply because I love their Pins and when I’ve read their posts I fall in love with the way they write or I’m impressed by the overall look and feel of their blog.  They are not all Mom Bloggers.

2. Google

When I was researching Bloggers for my Top 10 Mom Blogs Post, I also googled a few lists.

These are the posts I found particularly helpful when I was researching on Google:

• How Much Money Do Top Bloggers Make and How – by Anil Agarwal of Bloggers Passion 

• My Favourite Bloggers With Income Reports  – by Lauren of Becoming Wellthy
• Best Mom Blogs – Credit Donkey
• Top 50 US Mom Bloggers – Cision
• Mummy Blogs UK Top 10 – Vuelio
• The UK’s most influential mummy and parenting blogs – Influential-Blogs
• Mommy Blogger to Mompreneur– Candis Hidalgo on the Huffington Post
• 10 Mom Blogs Full of Inspiring Advice – Mashable
• Top 10 UK Parent Blogs, 2016 – Tots100
• SA Blog Awards 2016 – SA Blog Awards

3. Facebook Groups

I found once I joined a few Facebook Groups that Facebook would give me further suggestions of Groups to Follow in a similar niche.  Often I’ll follow 3 New Facebooks Groups in my niche while I’m engaging in another group.

4. Wealthy Affiliate

As a Premium Member of Wealthy Affiliate, I have access to the most amazingly supportive community of bloggers and have met some incredible bloggers there and I get to engage with them every day.

The wonderful thing is that, although Kyle and Carson, the Founders of Wealthy Affiliate, are Canadian, they have attracted bloggers from all over the globe. There are even some that hail from South Africa.  This is where I became friends with one of my blogging mentors, fellow South African, Lynne Huysamen.

I can highly recommend being part of a blogging community, it makes the world of difference.

5. Online Summits

Another way I’ve found brilliant Bloggers is by attending Online Summits or Conferences.

When you watch an interview of someone who’s presenting something you’re interested in, it’s really easy to get hooked on them. There’s something really special about video interviews, you get to know someone way better than you can from reading dozens of their blog posts.   You see who they really are.  I almost always visit their websites and sign up for their newsletter.

There were two interviews that really stood out for me.

1. When Caitlyn Pyle interviewed Rosemarie Groner aka The Busy Budgeter on the Work-at-Home Summit.  I really enjoyed “meeting” Rosemarie and her enthusiasm and bubbliness absolutely sold me.
2. When Desiree Ward interviewed Abigail Wald of Real Time Parenting about Hand in Hand Parenting on the Mom Conference.  I was so bowled over by this interview I blogged about it on Happy Human Pacifier and considered becoming a Hand in Hand Parenting Coach. Which reminds me, I really must set aside a month to do  Abigail’s 30-Day Family Reset sometime soon.

How to Find Blogs in Your Niche

Now I know I’m giving you advice based on my niche but you can do the same kind of research in any niche.

Simply go to Pinterest, Google or Facebook and type in:

“Top Lifestyle Blogs” or “Top Health and Wellness Blogs” or “Top Affiliate Marketers” or whatever niche you’re into and see what comes up.  And then follow my formula below.

And I’m sure you’ll find Online Conferences in every niche and you’ll definitely find a blogger in every niche in a blogging community like Wealthy Affiliate.

Identifying the Best of the Best

This is the system I created for zeroing in on the creme de la creme.

• Once I had done the research I compiled an Excel Spreadsheet of the Top Mom Bloggers.
• I then ran each blog through Moz.com to find out which blogs had the Highest Authority and Sorted my Data from Highest to Lowest DA. (I still use the free version of Moz so don’t be nervous about signing up).
• I also looked at their Social Media Following to see how popular they were.

Yes, it’s time-consuming work but I believe it is well worth it. You get to know so much in the process.  Looking at other people’s blogs also gives you inspiration and ideas for your own blog.  And many of the Top Bloggers love giving blogging advice and a lot of it is free.

These are some of the Blogs I currently Follow:

First, let’s define what I mean by follow because I have 4 ways I follow bloggers:

1. I am subscribed to these blogger’s email lists and receive regular newsletters from them.
2. I follow them on all their social media channels.
3. I join their Group Boards on Pinterest and pin to them.
4. I join their Facebook Groups and sometimes participate in them (when I have time). Facebook is not really my thing.

Below is a sampling of the bloggers who email me their newsletters every week or so. Forgive me ladies if I don’t get to read them all. I do my best.

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner – Making Sense of Cents

Does Michelle need any introduction?  She is a Blogging LEGEND!  I blogged about the $1.5 Million plus she made last year, blogging, in my latest income report post.

Rosemarie Groner – Busy Budgeter 

Like I mentioned before, Rosemarie stole my heart in her interview.  She is stunning, one of those people you would just love to call a friend and I’ve heard her courses are amazing.

Lynne Huysamen – Kaboutjie

Lynne is a prolific blogger with a huge social following and she also has great community engagement on her actual site. You log in with a username and password to comment and like posts.

Ruth Soukup – Elite Blog Academy

Ruth gives away so many outstanding freebies that I think that I’ve signed up to her list about 10 times. And I’m not kidding.

By the way, I just signed up for Ruth’s FREE EBA® video training, Blogging Made Simple.  It starts on Tuesday, February 27th. I signed up after reading Saira Perl’s latest email.  You can sign up here.

Saira Perl – Mom Resource

I just love Saira’s email newsletters.  They are punchy and to the point and they get me clicking her links.

Elise McDowell – House of Brazen

Elise is the author of the very popular book, How to Make Your First Affiliate Sale in 24 Hours. The book is amazing because Elise shares how to set up Board Booster (which I found pretty near impossible without her help).

I’m one of her Affiliates and Elise just notified us that she’s just created a new ebook, Sweet Sales Systems where she breaks down all of her top converting blog posts, emails, funnels as well as her affiliate program.

Elise is literally giving away all her secrets to making consistent sales every day so other bloggers and entrepreneurs can replicate the same systems in their businesses.

Sammy – Well and Wealthy

Who can forget Sammy’s Blog Bundle Giveaway in January? It was packed with all the most amazing Blogging Courses, Tools and Resources. This girl really knows how to make you listen up. Also love her chatty newsletters.

Suzi Whitford – Start a Mom Blog

Suzi is what you see is what you get, she is absolutely honest in all her emails. You feel like she’s talking just to you, over a cup of coffee.  She also offers excellent blogging courses at really good rates.

Lena Gott – What Mommy Does

Lena Gott also creates really popular courses that everyone’s talking about.  I’m very keen on doing her latest one, set to launch soon, Adventures in SEO only I’m so over-committed right now. I used to have to put courses off due to lack of finances, lately it’s lack of time that’s more of an issue.

Gabriella Ribeiro – The Mogul Mom

Formerly run by Melissa Bolton, The Mogul Mom is a hub for Moms. I missed their 30 Day Best Self Challenge which launched on 19th February, but I see they are planning to launch more Challenges soon.

Vicky (Veronica) – ItsVicky.com

Veronica has been a member of Wealthy Affiliate for over 10 years.  She’s a Mom Blogger.  I look forward to Fridays with Vicky every week.

Abigail Wald led me to Hand in Hand Parenting

The Team at Hand in Hand Parenting send me very encouraging parenting emails which I wish could find time to read.

As you may have noticed,  I’m not shy to overload my inbox with newsletters and there are plenty more wonderful ladies I follow.  Having said that, I cut a whole bunch of newsletters mercilessly towards the end of last year when I just couldn’t keep up the pace.

If bloggers mail me too often, I just start getting irritated.  Don’t you? 

I find that once a week hits the sweet spot for me. It’s often enough that I remember who they are, but not so often that I start feeling hounded. I haven’t got regular posting down to a fine art with my own email lists.  That’s something I’ll be tackling later this year.

Over to You

Would love to know which bloggers you follow and why so I can consider following them too.  Or do YOU own or manage a blog I should be following?  Feel free to drop a link in the comments below.