BigList

The Pantheon of Blogging Gods - Know The Gurus of Blogging

This post @ the Big List blog tries to become a pantheon of all blogging gods :-). We keep hearing about these gods so much hither and thither that I thought these gurus deserved a pantheon where the rest of us mere mortals can worship them. This is a growing list folks, and please send me ( [narsi]@[esource].[in] - remove the [] for the mail ID) any other god you can think of.

I'm just putting down the list and hopefully with time, this will grow and grow and grow...so please let me know of other blog gurus who should be present at this pantheon by either sending me a note to the email noted above or by leaving a comment. Thank you!

The Pantheon

Arranged alphabetically, first letter of last name being the criterion.

John Batelle - John's runs the blog John Battelle's Searchblog, and is considered a very influential blogger. Just in case you want his expertise (for a fee of course), he also consults in areas focused on the intersection of media and technology.

Jason Calacanis - Jason McCabe Calacanis is CEO and co-founder of Weblogs Inc., a network of widely read blogs. Founded in January of 2004, Weblogs, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL in November of 2005. Prior to forming Weblogs Inc., Calacanis was CEO and founder of Rising Tide Studios, a media company that published print and online publications. He also served as a script consultant on Wayne Wang’s film “Center of the World” about the life of a “cyber-surfer” and appears in a supporting role.Calacanis is a 5th Degree in Tae Kwon Do and has run in eleven consecutive New York City Marathons. The last point was noted just to let you know that if you wish to differ with Jason, you might want to differ in a polite way. His blog title: The Jason Calacanis Weblog

John Chow - JohnChow.com - John Chow, who gies by the nick name “Moto” (named after the old video game Moto Racer), lives in Vancouver, Canada. Before internet happened to him, he was a partner in a local printing company. In April 1999, he started a little technology site called The TechZone, which has grown and grown and grown to become a, well, well-grown site on hardware tech site. Besides taking care of the day to day business at The Tech Zone, John claims he could be seen riding his bike around Vancouver, working out at Fitness World or climbing Grouse Mountain. He, according to himself, is best known for his famous quote “My World! My Rules!” and “Oh well.” By now you would have realised that one of the things you will least expect from John is an understatement. Blog title: Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com (would you have expected anything else?)

Brian Clark - CopyBlogger - Brian Clark is an Internet marketing strategist, content developer, entrepreneur, and recovering attorney (no, he is not an attorney recovering from illness, he is an attorney who helps you recover your things from others, at least that is what I think he meant at this page). In addition to building three successful offline businesses using online marketing techniques, he has sold scores of products and services online via joint venture and affiliate arrangements. Blog title: Copywriting Tips for Online Marketing Success from CopyBlogger

Mark Cuban - Mark Cuban is an American billionaire entrepreneur. He is owner of the Dallas Mavericks, an NBA franchise; and Chairman of HDNet, an HDTV cable network. (source: Wikipedia article). While arguably he is not best known for blogging, his blog Blog Maverick has a good following all the same. His latest rant (actually on-going rant) is about GooTube.

Matt Cutts of Google - Matt joined Google as a software engineer in January 2000. He's currently the head of the Google's Webspam team. His blog is titled Gadgets, Google & SEO

Rand Fishkin - SEO moz - Rand's formative years were spent writing batch files in MS-DOS and creating my own startup systems for Windows. He lated pursued a web development startup firm, which later on led him to the SEO field. He regularly wears his yellow Puma shoes to conferences and events - in case you thought he was making a rather unusual fashion statement, he claims it is actually part of a well-developed corporate strategy, "It's a good way to identify me if you're not good with faces (a common issue in the tech field)". He already owns two pairs of such remarkable shoes, but keen to extend on this ingenuous strategy, he is always on the lookout for more. His blog title: Read SEOmoz, Rank Better. Internet Marketing & SEO

Seth Godin - Well, he is god of all things marketing, so he ought to find a place here too! Blog title: Seth's Blog (how ironically unoriginal a title for someone who is so original otherwise!)

Neville Hobson - Neville Hobson, ABC, is a communicator, blogger, podcaster and Second Life explorer, one of the leading European early adopters and influencers in social media communication for business. He blogs at NevilleHobson.com with commentary and opinion on business, communication and technology, and co-presents “For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report” (www.forimmediaterelease.biz), a twice-weekly business podcast at the intersection of online communication, business and technology. His blog title: Neville Hobson

Tony Hung of Deep Jive Interests - I'll leave it to Tony to provide his own introduction - "I am not a web designer, nor a code developer, nor digerati, technorati or any other sort of new media guru. But I am blogger who has an interest on topics ranging from the evolution of all media, the social web, web2.0, marketing, and a trailmix of everything in between. I am also the editor of the BlogHerald, one of the oldest blogging institutions in the blogosphere...". Well, Tony is a doctor, and is one of the few blogger celebrities who is a doctor. Of course, we have lots of well-known bloggers who doctor things, but not too many who are doctors themselves...

Jeff Jarvis - Jeff Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com. He is associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program the City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism. He is consulting editor of Daylife, a news startup. He writes a new media column for The Guardian. He consults for media companies. Blog title: Buzz Machine.

Guy Kawasaki - Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He graduated from Stanford University where in 1976 - his major was psychology, the easiest major he could find. After Stanford, he attended the law school at UC Davis but lasted one week because he couldn’t deal with the law school teachers diabolical plans to remake him. This however appears to have left an indelible impression upon him, so much that he is now trying to remake the world with his blog: How to Change the World

Jim Kukral - Jim knows a thing or two about the business of online marketing. He has been acquainted with the Internet for over a decade. If there is one thing - amongst many others actually - you can learn for sure from Jim, it is about how to write your sales brochure. The proof of the previous statement can be found at his introduction page, and from his blog title: Jim Kukral Online Marketing Consultant 1-888-BLOG-BIZ...Hmmm

Matt Mullenweg - Google - the self-appointed god of the Internet - might consider him the most important Matt on the web, but he thinks he is but just a kid born and raised in Houston, Texas, who can write code, prose, and music. Matt is actually an important person, his protestations not-withstanding. He is the founding developer of WordPress, the blogging software that runs thousands of sites around the world. He earlier worked at CNET Networks, before founding in 2005 a new startup Automattic, which is the company behind WordPress.com, Akismet, and more to come...His blog title: Photo Matt, Unlucky in Cards

Lee Odden - Top Rank - Lee is publisher of MarketingBlog.com and has been quoted by U.S. News and World Report, The Economist and DMNews. He has also contributed web site marketing content for Yahoo!. Lee is active in the industry as a board member for the DMA Search Engine Marketing Council, a member of SEMPO and a past board member for the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association. His main blog title: MarketingBlog ?? Top Rank?? - got to figure this...

Jeremiah Owyang - Jeremiah Owyang is currently employed full time at PodTech.net in Palo Alto, primarily serving as a Social Media Resource for their clients. The purpose of his blog is to be a resource to those who deploy Social Media at corporations. He is a fifth generation Chinese-American. In addition to his own being, his last name appears to have attracted a lot of attention so he gives some resources for that - see here and here. Blog title: Web Strategy by Jeremiah.

Steve Pavlina - I'll leave it to Steve to introduce himself in a simple manner: "Steve Pavlina is a blue-eyed, colorblind, left-handed, well educated, vegan, lucid dreaming, purpose driven, happily jobless, reality manipulating, meditation practicing, Reiki healing, risk taking, goal seeking, problem solving, early rising, passive income generating, highly motivated, energetic, disciplined, persistent, optimistic, fearless, and proactive... writer, speaker, blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, game designer, entrepreneur, husband, father, and archetypal Aries. He's an extroverted introvert, a logical intuitive, and an insatiably curious seeker of truth. Simply put, Steve is one of life's runaway experiments who challenges people incessantly until they ascend to a higher level of consciousness... or flee naked into the desert screaming, "The horror, the horror!"". There are only a few words left in the dictionary, but that trivial fact apart, you will see from his introduction that Steve is someone who can say very long stories in a very brief way. Of course, a less concise person, if he were asked to give an introduction to Steve's work would have said, "He does work in personality development." Steve's blog is titled Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog

Darren Rowse - ProBlogger - An Australian living in Melbourne, Darren is a full time blogger making a living from the medium; he has been blogging since November 2002 on a number of sites. He is also one of the founders of b5media - a blog network. His main blog title: Make Money Online with ProBlogger

Steve Rubel - Steve Rubel is a senior marketing strategist with 15 years experience. He currently serves as senior vice president in Edelman's me2revolution practice, the largest independent global PR firm, where he is charged with helping Edelman identify, test, incubate and champion new forms of communications that get people talking across new platforms and channels. Widely viewed as an expert on conversational marketing, Rubel is often sought out as a speaker and appears frequently in the press.

Jeremy Schoemaker - ShoeMoney - In the 1980’s, Jeremy Shoemaker’s mom purchased an Apple IIc. Schoemaker found it amazing! He began to write simple programs on the Apple, mostly consisting of repeating test messages that said, “My mom is cool.” The "cool" factor appears to have continued with many other things he did later, ending up with his founding the ShoeMoney Media Group. From the company’s inception, Schoemaker has embraced the mantra, “prioritize potentially profitable projects.”, which of course is the oddest corporate philosophy one could have thought Internet companies (even post dot com era) could think of, but there you have it. His blog title: Shoe Money

Robert Scoble. Robert Scoble, earlier with Microsoft, currently works at PodTech.net (title: Vice President of Media Development). Blog title: Tech Geek Blogger

Jennifer Slegg - Jen writes stuff; she accepts payment in lattes; she's the contextual advertising correspondent on the Search Engine Watch Blog. To know more about this intriguing she-blogger, here's Jen making a lot of sense @ JenSense

Yaro Starak - Yaro Starak is a young entrepreneur from Australia who currently operates several Internet businesses that he operates from a home office or a laptop while traveling. He draws on his experience and passion for web business to teach others how to build and manage successful Internet enterprises. See a picture of Yaro here. If you mistake Yaro for a rock star, Hollywood actor or a fashion model - I'm not sure if Yaro will be pleased - but at least you will not be alone. Blog title: Entrepreneur's Journey

Aaron Wall - Main blog - SEO Book - Aaron runs SEO Book, a leading SEO blog covering the search space, offering marketing tips, search analysis, and more...Aaron's life is anything but easy, and is spent balancing answering emails, blogging, reading blogs and forums, buying and developing sites, working for a couple customers, and running Threadwatch...which is why, if you wish to buy consulting time from him, which is available on a limited basis, it will drag you down by $500 per hour. It appears that his life is a great balancing act, and guess it includes a great bank balance too...

Eric Ward - Eric is the guru of links...considered one of the masters of classic link-building strategies, Eric has a lot and more to offer us at his interesting blog Eric Ward

Debbie Weil - known as the MonaLisaOfBlogging, is a corporate and CEO blogging consultant and author of The Corporate Blogging Book. She also writes BlogWriteForCEOs, considered one of the most influential blogs about business blogging. As a consultant, she shows the big dogs how to use blogs as a next-generation marketing and communications strategy.
You might want to keep yourself updated on her posts at her blog having an eponymous title Debbie Weil - it is not everywhere you find a Mona Lisa telling dogs what to do. (The bigger question of course is whether the dogs have the enough brains to understand.)

Jeremy Zawodny - is currently working with Yahoo! in the platform engineering group. He has been described as "Yahoo!'s MySQL guru". Zawodny's blog, some of whose articles have beed the focus of hot debates - focuses on Yahoo! initiatives and has been praised as a "bridge blog", one that has helped build relationships for Yahoo! and attract potential employees to the company. His blog title: Jeremy Zawodny's Blog

Labels: blogging-gurus