Today is the MLB All-Star Game. But, I’m lucky. I have access to the greatest team of All Stars out on the web every day. Each of the folks listed below makes me better at what I do every day. I can’t imagine going a day without reading one of these blogs or going a week without reading all of them. With that, I’m thrilled to announce The 2011 Thinks E-commerce and Online Marketing All Stars:
- The RKGBLOG—Leading off, we’ve got George Michie and the RKG team. Their RKBLOG is thoughtful, insightful and colorful. Need proof? Check out their recent piece on attribution modeling and see if you don’t want them on your team, too.
- Search Engine Land—Want to know everything going on in the land of search engines? Listen to Danny Sullivan and his team. One of the first sites I read every day, Search Engine Land covers all the news you need to know about the search marketing business, along with insights to help you put that information to work. For example, their coverage of the aftermath of the Google/Twitter split not only offered headlines. It offered clarity.
- GetElastic—Of course, there’s more to life than just search engines. Linda Bustos (@roxyyo on Twitter) and the rest of the GetElastic blogging team look at e-commerce best practices and share what they’ve learned in a way both useful and engaging. With posts like “Is Multichannel E-commerce Dead”, GetElastic offers thought leadership and practical advice for online business.
- Dan Zarrella—Billing himself as “The Social Media Scientist,” Dan Zarrella separates fact from fiction about your fans, friends and followers. For instance, in “Tweet Lots of Links to Get Followers”, Dan doesn’t just offer opinion. He backs it up with data. And for walking the walk as well as talking the talk, Dan Zarrella earns the clean-up spot in the All Star lineup this year.
- Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik—Did I just mention data? Avinash Kaushik lives, breathes and sleeps data. Some guys count sheep to fall asleep. I suspect Avinash counts them, segments them and determines the ROI of each. Offering posts both brilliant and funny like “11 Digital Marketing Crimes Against Humanity”, Avinash earned his roster spot among this group of All Stars.
- SEOmoz blog—Where do I begin with SEOmoz? Rand Fishkin has built an amazing organization out in Seattle to help SEO practitioners get better and to help businesses find better SEO practitioners. Whether offering innovative ideas like using Google’s new search by image for link building or original research into how tweets affect search engine rankings, SEOmoz remains one of my top destinations and a key contributor to my All Star team.
- Mike Moran – Biznology—How many IBM Distinguished Engineers do you know? How many Chief Strategy Officers? How many entrepreneurs? OK. How many do you know contained within one individual? That’s right. One guy: Mike Moran. Mike and Biznology’s bloggers (full disclosure: I am one of them. And am humbled by the opportunity), crank out hit after hit after hit. With folks like Mike, Frank Reed, Aaron Kim, and Chris Abraham, Biznology is practically an All Star team in its own right. And it remains one of the best marketing blogs on the Web, even after adding me.
- ProBlogger—Darren Rowse was one of the first bloggers I read when I started this blog some 6 years ago. And I still read him today. With great insights on creating and marketing content such as “5 Ways I’m Using LinkedIn to Drive Traffic, Build Community, Generate Sales and Build Influence”, Darren (and his dozens of guest bloggers) prove an excellent addition to the team.
- Duct Tape Marketing blog by John Jantsch—No E-commerce and Online Marketing All Star Team would be complete without the great John Jantsch. John’s Duct Tape Marketing (possibly my all-time favorite business name), helps businesses large and small solve all kinds of problems as quickly and inexpensively as a roll of… well, something useful, quick and inexpensive. Check out his thoughts on why everything you’ve heard about Google+ is wrong, for one example of why John will make my All Star team every season.
There you have it, Big Thinkers. Your 2011 Thinks E-commerce and Online Marketing All Star Team. Check ‘em out and see if your game doesn’t improve.
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The World Series starts today, which makes this something of a holiday week in my house. You see, I love baseball. Actually, “love” may be an understatement. I watch dozens of games every year. And one thing I’ve learned about baseball is that, like business, what you see isn’t always what’s real. What do I mean? Let’s take a look.
– and in it, he writes the most remarkable passage: 
