If you’re like a lot of marketing professionals, you’re probably always on the hunt for good, actionable marketing tips that you can use to grow your business right away.

With that in mind, I’ve compiled an initial list of 18 great blogs and websites for marketing professionals. It’s not a complete list, so if you have any that you’d like to add, please feel free to do so.

Here goes.

Mainstream Media:

The New York Times: Still some of the best business writing on the planet. If you click through to their Media and Advertising page, you’ll get all the top stories all the time.

The Wall Street Journal: Ditto for The Wall Street Journal. This is just an amazing publication. If you’re young and ambitious, you should be reading their Media and Marketing page every single day. Seriously. I’m not kidding. Every. Single. Day.

DM News: If you haven’t jumped on board the direct response marketing bandwagon yet, you should do so quickly. (Why? Because direct response marketing is a highly-measurable form of marketing, which is what all CEOs and CFOs are interested in.) If you want to get the inside scoop on direct response marketing, then check out DM News. It’s top-notch.

HBS Working Knowledge: This site, associated with Harvard Business School, puts out some of the more thought-provoking and insightful articles on marketing and management. It’s heavy stuff, but good stuff, too.

Advertising Age: These guys have done a fabulous job evolving into one of the more progressive and cutting-edge publications around. I particularly like the column by Al Reis, who wrote The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, among other classics.

Marketing Websites:

MarketingProfs: Ann Handley and her team have done such a great job upgrading MarketingProfs over the past few years, it’s hard to know where to start. If you’re looking for useful information on marketing, they’re one of the best sites around.

MarketingSherpa: Another great marketing site. MarketingSherpa focuses more on marketing research and case studies, so their results are based on data, not just anecdotal information or opinion.

Marketing and Business Blogs:

ChrisBrogan.com: What can I say? Chris provides his followers with tons of great tips on social media along with his insights into new and emerging media. And, from what I can tell, he’s a nice guy. His parents should be proud.

SethGodin.com: Seth is the guy who started it all back when he wrote Permission Marketing many, many years ago. He’s a pioneer and still writing great posts on business and marketing every day.

CopyBlogger.com: One of the few writers who matches Chris Brogan for style and content is Brian Clark.  Check out some of Brian’s insights on consumer behavior and you’ll see what I mean.

ProBlogger.com: This is another excellent blog, run by Darren Rowse. He consistently provides top-notch tips for bloggers and social media practitioners. Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, Darren Rowse and Sonia Simone started ThirdTribeMarketing.com together (see below). Third Tribe is a great place to get advice on all things interactive.

DivaMarketingBlog.com: Toby Bloomberg was recently ranked as one of the 20 best marketing and social media blogs by women by Forbes. She also has a terrific new eBook called Social Media Marketing GPS that’s definitely worth reading.

Brainzooming.com: Mike Brown is a smart, strategic thinker who has some interesting perspectives on marketing and business. He’s a friend and worth checking out.

WebInkNow.com: David Meerman Scott wrote the definitive book on new and emerging media several years ago. It’s called The New Rules of Marketing and PR and has recently been updated. The book is packed with good information as is his blog. Definitely worth checking out.

Other Important Marketing Sites:

Website Grader from Hubspot: These guys are geniuses. Really, they are. They’re one of the first companies to put a tool on their website that drew visitors back to the site on a regular basis. The tool — Website Grader — uses its own algorithm to calculate how visible your site is to search engines. It’s totally worth checking out.

ThirdTribeMarketing.com: As mentioned above, Chris, Brian, Darren and Sonia started this forum as a way for marketers around the globe to learn, share and inspire each other to improve their marketing skills. I joined recently and it’s proven to be a valuable tool.

Compete.com: If you haven’t stopped by Compete.com yet, you really need to do so. It’s a great way to compare various website analytics across multiple sites. I stop by frequently just to find out how other sites are doing.

60SecondMarketer.com: Okay, shameless plug here. But if you haven’t had a chance to take a spin through our site, it might be worth checking out. We have :60 video tutorials on marketing, access to free marketing tools, marketing articles and dozens of other pages filled with useful tips and techniques. (At least, that’s what we think.)

Question:

I know there are some important blogs and websites missing here. Which ones have I forgotten? Really, which ones? I’d like to update this list with more resources, so let me know what I missed.

Thanks.

Posted by: Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer, The 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine for BKV Digital and Direct Response.