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The 10 Most Influential Dads in the Blogosphere

 

In the last few months, some excellent lists of women bloggers have been published. There’s The W List, David Peralty’s 15 Amazing Women in Blogging, Pat Doyle’s A Short List of Fantastic Women Bloggers, and the Mother’s Day Central list of the Top 100 Mom Blogs.

One of the things I have also seen each time are people questioning why these women’s lists exist in the first place - and isn’t it discriminatory? Honestly, I don’t believe that it is - just as it isn’t really discriminatory to not be named to the Top 10 Blogs in Midwest Region if you live in Alabama, or getting left off the Top 10 CEO Blogs when you aren’t a CEO.

At the same time, I do believe there is a shortage of excellent lists featuring great men. I mean a list that highlights great guys doing great things - period. So here is my list of the most accomplished and influential blogging eDads, in no particular order:

Mark Frauenfelder :: BoingBoing

Mark co-founded BoingBoing.net back in 2000 as an extension the print magazine bOING bOING that he published with his wife in 1988. The success and influence of BoingBoing.net speaks for itself, being in the top 5 blogs on the internet for a very, very long time. But Mark’s extra-cool fatherly accomplishments include being an extremely talented illustrator and the author of a science experiment book for kids called The Mad Professor.

Scobleizer as Dad - Image Credit Thomas HawkRobert Scoble :: Scobleizer

Robert’s first well-known influential blog was written when he blogged for Microsoft from 2003-2006. One of his notable contributions to the blogging medium was the transparency with which he wrote, including criticizing Microsoft and at times praising their competitors Apple and Google. He’s also been vocal as an activist, or I should say, “non-vocal” as he took a week off of writing to support Kathy Sierra when she quit blogging due to the death threats made against her. He is currently VP of Media Development with the startup PodTech, though soon to be leaving to join FastCompany.

Guy Kawasaki :: How to Change the World

Guy is the legendary Apple Evangelist turned VC hero. He’s written 8 books, has 4 children, and is the current Managing Director of Garage Technologies, a venture capital firm and that makes direct investments in early-stage technology companies. He’s also funny, humble, competitive, and a great speaker - which I was able to witness first hand when I met him at Elite Retreat earlier this year.

Darren Rowse - Dad & ProBloggerDarren Rowse :: ProBlogger

Darren is one of the most visible individuals in the blogosphere, and it’s not surprising why. His blog ProBlogger is the most read & authoritative resource for making money from blogging. He’s also one of the co-founders of the b5media blog network, one of the largest blog networks in existence. Read a recent interview with him on balancing work and family life in a home office on Dad Balance.

Brian Clark :: CopyBlogger

Brian is arguably one of the most talented writers in the blogosphere, period. It could be because he used to be an attorney, or perhaps he’s just plain good - but his blog CopyBlogger skyrocketed to success in just a few months’ time and it’s only gotten more successful since then. He recently rolled out his own training program called Teaching Sells. CopyBlogger was also recently named the #1 blog for writers for the second year in a row.

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga & Aristotle Markos Moulitsas Zúniga :: DailyKos

Markos, or “Kos“, founded Daily Kos as a reaction to the beginning of the Iraq War in 2002. Whether or not you agree with his activist views, his influence as a political blogger is huge, with Jimmy Carter, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi all posting diaries to his site. He’s also been named to the top 100 Most Influential Hispanics and his blog has been now spun off into a yearly political convention called Netroots Nation.

Frank Warren :: PostSecret

Frank started PostSecret as a community art project - people sent in anonymous postcard secrets and confessions to be published online and in a book format. Little did he realize that this artistic endeavor would change lives, save lives, and become four books. But most importantly, the PostSecret project also received a special award from the National Mental Health Association for raising awareness and funds for suicide prevention.

Leo Babauta :: Zen Habits

Leo is living proof that any parent can achieve anything. With 6 kids, in the last 3 years he has quit smoking, become a marathon runner, began waking early, got organized, became a vegan, doubled his income, wrote a novel, nearly eliminated his debt, lost 30 pounds, keeps his inbox empty and his desk clean (o.m.g.), and keeps his house clean all of the time (got any brothers for our wannabe eMoms, Leo?!). He says that some readers ask about his ‘qualifications’ to write Zen Habits. With a ‘resume’ like this, I can only say to them, “Qualifications, SCHMALIFICATIONS!”. :)

The Shoemoney FamilyJeremy Schoemaker :: Shoemoney

Jeremy acts as inspiration to hundreds of thousands of visitors every month - not just with his big $132,994 AdSense checks, but also with his occasional personal posts about being thankful for his family, his experience with Duodenal Switch weight loss surgery, and with his rags to riches story. Shoemoney is the real deal, even offering an eMoms reader free consulting when I ran a contest earlier this year to celebrate my one-year blog anniversary. Jeremy leads by example and it shows.

Jeffrey Zeldman :: A List Apart

Jeffrey was one of the pioneers of web design, publishing online tutorials as early as 1995. In 1998 he co-founded the Web Standards Project as well as started his flagship blog A List Apart. Today he still runs his web design firm HappyCog and has taken to the road running An Event Apart, a traveling road show teaching web design around the U.S. The event is billed as “Not your father’s web conference”… but I’ll have to beg to differ, because being on a list of completely cool dads like this, who wouldn’t want to learn from these fathers?!

If you liked this post, you might also like The Top Ten Hottest Moms in Search Engine Marketing.

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    Comments

    1.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 7:46 am, Pat B. Doyle said:

    This is a great list - I like the idea, and these bloggers are all excellent. I love the cute pictures of them with their kids too. ;)

    2.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 8:01 am, James Chartrand - JCM Enterprises said:

    As a “blogging eDad” (I’m electronic?), I’m sitting here cheering for your post. Thank you, thank you, for recognizing this group of people. (When you write this up again next year, tuck me in between Darren and Brian…)

    3.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 8:55 am, Elizabeth said:

    A great list, some of my favorite reads and some new ones to me, thanks!

    4.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 9:48 am, Aruni said:

    Wonderful post Wendy. It’s great to see you highlighting dads and their career choices that enable them to spend more time with their family!

    5.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 1:27 pm, Jim Turner said:

    Yeah but are they actual Daddy Bloggers? Man you would think us Daddy bloggers would get a mention! www.genuineblog.com

    Great post otherwise Wendy.

    6.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 2:16 pm, Suzanne - HomeBiz Direct said:

    Those are some great blogs that I think I might follow. I also liked the 5 hottest internet marketing moms :)

    7.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 4:45 pm, Leo Babauta said:

    Great list, Wendy! I do have a couple of younger brothers, but they’re not of marrying age yet. Also, they’re much sloppier than me. :)

    Thanks for including me on this list and thanks for the kind words! It’s an honor to be included among all these other great blogging dads (Darren Rowse is my hero, btw).

    8.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 8:37 pm, Cory Huff said:

    What an amazing list. I am also amused at the timing of this article. I recently began The Good Husband, my new blog about what it means to be a husband. I’m hoping it becomes a place for others to come and gather for discussion about the challenges committed relationships face.

    I’m rather new to the blog world, but I like this blog and I think I’ll subscribe!

    9.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 9:37 pm, Sonia Simone said:

    Such a sweet idea for a post, and a great bunch of bloggers as well. Dads rock, geek dads even more so.

    10.
    On December 18th, 2007 at 10:09 pm, Dr.Mani said:

    With all due respect to the fantastic bloggers you have listed, it is presumptuous to label this list “Most Influential Dads”.

    Call it dads who are influential bloggers and you’d be right. EVERY dad is the ‘most influential’ dad - to his kids. Ditto for moms. I wouldn’t think ANY other dad was more influential (for me) than mine. And many would agree.

    Your list has most of my PERSONAL heroes, so this is not in any way bashing your A-list. Just criticizing the choice of title/label you gave to this list… which *might* sound condescending or even insulting to some wonderful dads out there in the blogosphere.

    This one’s for you, guys! :)

    All success
    Dr.Mani
    - just another blogging dad!

    11.
    On December 19th, 2007 at 8:19 am, Brian Clark said:

    Thanks for the inclusion Wendy, but my kids don’t listen to a word I say. :)

    12.
    On December 19th, 2007 at 8:23 am, Everything Finance said:

    I’m an eDad too, but no where near the Dads on this list.

    Love Darren’s Problogger. Even though I blog about Personal Finance, I have learnt a lot about blogging in general from him.

    Good post! I see some new blogs that need to be checked out.

    - http://www.everythingfinanceblog.com

    13.
    On December 19th, 2007 at 11:00 am, Tamar Weinberg said:

    Wendy, this is an awesome list. I love the pictures too. I Sphunn it :)

    14.
    On December 21st, 2007 at 3:42 pm, Jenny said:

    Makes me wish I could get my husband into it. xD

    Mentions on other sites...

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    3. 10 Most Influential Dad Bloggers « The Good Husband on December 18th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
    4. “Most influential DADS In The Blogosphere?” Feh! — Money.Power.Wisdom on December 18th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
    5. Random Thoughts on Authority and Influence — Money.Power.Wisdom on December 19th, 2007 at 7:37 am


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