Charl Norman

I have a ‘daily reads’ folder in my Google rss reader which I can’t wait to go through each morning when I wake. These are blogs and sites that have compelling news and insight each day that I can’t live without.

This post will also be a great way for you to discover some new sources of tasty info for your daily consumption.

Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins

I dabble in affiliate marketing with local affiliate company Traffic Synergy (no affiliate link). Shawn provides some serious ’super affiliate’ insight on how to maximize your campaigns and build quality landing pages that convert into leads.

Business Week

The definitive in tech source, I subscribe to the “Top Stories” feed of Business week which cuts through the clutter and leaves me with what I should be reading from a technology business perspective.

Del.icio.us popular

Truly one of my favourites, a great way to discover popular blog posts in the last 24 hours. Check out my delicious bookmarks and add me into your network.

Digg Technology

Digg has tried to go mainstream news by adding numerous content categories but the only real area, besides politics, that has good quality content is the tech area.

Inside Adsense

A healthy revenue stream for me is my Google Adsense earnings. I have Google serving adsense ads on all my blogs and need to stay in touch with the latest contextual advertising trends.

Mike Stopforth

I’ve had the privilege of meeting Mike on a few occasions - what a guy - he always inspires me and leaves me wanting to work for a week straight after a meeting. His blog serves up great insight on a variety of topics.

Muti

I have the muti rss in my reader but I often find myself logging onto the site itself to get the latest in worthy South African news. Muti is a great way to stay in touch with the local internet and its snotty bloggers.

Original Signal

Like muti, Original Signal is a human filtered content site but only features Web 2.0, gaming, business and entertainment news.

Problogger

Owning a mini blog network I need to adopt the latest blogging strategies to keep revenue flowing, no one comes close to ProBlogger for expert advice on how to get the most out of your blogs.

Read/WriteWeb & Mashable & Techcrunch

If you need to stay up to date with startups from Silicon Valley and around the world these three are your best bet. There’s really no need to read anything else - These are the first feeds I check out in the AM.

Search Engine Land & SEOMoz

Expert SEO advice for nothing - I have increased my SERPS rank for tons of keywords month after month by reading these blogs religiously.

Shoemoney - Skills to pay the bills

Another ’super affiliate’ blog by a guy who makes a killing in adsense and shares all his knowledge on his blog in a very humble way.

Sitepoint Marketplace

I love buying and selling websites, snapping up a dodgy looking blog with great content, adding a new theme and selling it for double - making money couldn’t be easier. The marketplace has a feed which I use to keep tabs on listings so I can quickly jump into the auctions and place bids.

Smashing magazine

I’ve found so many unbelievable free themes and glossy png icons from this site it’s scary - an essential bookmark for any designer.

Jason Calacanis

Jason basically invented blog networks - With a partner, he was the guy behind Weblogs, inc which he sold to AOL for a ‘couple’ million dollars. Some of the titles in their stable are Engadget and Autoblog - need I say more. His latest project is Mahalo, a human powered search engine, which is coming along nicely with over 20 000 search results already hand edited.

WebPro news - Most popular news feed (Feed link)

Another web property I use to stay ahead of the fast paced market that is tech.

Vincent Maher

A wonderfully witty writer and South African internet personality - Vincent has been instrumental in building some of South Africa’s top startups and serves as a great source of inspiration and knowledge which I use to craft my own startups strategy. I would also read Matthew Buckland daily but he doesn’t update his blog enough. (;

Vinny Lingham

South African internet rock star - travels abroad to all the hottest conferences, gets invited by Google to attend top secret affiliate meetings and makes millions of dollars through his Cape Town based Incubeta company with tons of overseas clients. Make products in rands and sell them in dollars. Brilliant.

X17 Online

OK sue me. I like trashy celebrity gossip - I thought I would throw this one in to mix things up as most of my bookmarks are uber geeky.

Ronnie Apteker

I cannot begin to describe what a legend this guy is - he basically brought email to South Africa in the nineties with is IT company - IS (Internet Solutions) - which he sold to DiData in one of the first big corporate internet company acquisitions in SA. I’m so grateful to have met Ronnie and often enjoy meetings on the DiData campus with him where I just sit and listen to his stories from back in the day heading up IS.

I’m tagging some of my fellow blogging mates Adii, Uno de Waal, Mike Stopforth and Sohaib Thiab to post their daily reads - this should be interesting - hopefully they respond!