It occurred to me that after more than two years of writing this blog I have never introduced you to my Blogroll so I wanted to tell you about the honorable bloggers listed to the right of this post (assuming you aren’t reading this in RSS). As the oldest “still standing” blog on ERE I have seen over 20 people “pick up the pen” here at ERE Blog Central, but since you are reading this you more than likely are already reading all of theirs so let me start with introducing you to those brave recruiters who have perched their own shingle elsewhere since this whole recruiters-blogging thing started back in 2004.

Why is that important you may ask?

Well, number one, it’s voting season http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=944023026614 and if you haven’t already voted many great blogs need your support so it’s good timing for this article. There’s only two more voting days left! But more importantly, because these are the people who influence and inspire me with their writing so I am hoping that if you haven't already discovered them yourself then this introduction may give you enough reason to explore them.

You may be saying to yourself "Shally, I just don't have the time to read all this stuff!"

Well, I’m here to tell you that you can. Here's why... most bloggers don't in large volumes so it’s not that hard to keep up. In fact, to keep up you need only read new post, and for that I use an RSS reader. I have 72 blogs on my reading list and it takes me not more than 10 minutes on an average day to get through them all as long as I keep up with reading the feed. If I fall behind then I may make it lunch instead of a coffee break but I can easily get caught up.

By the way, while I'm at it, my favorite reader is the Google Reader. I also use Live.com for my sourcing searches, and my.yahoo.com for my “competitive intel” but the Google Reader has served me well in scanning the recruiting blogs because I can easily mark items as “read” and I can also share them, or even share my entire reading list as a public page like this.

But I digress so back to my point about my fellow bloggers. Here are some of the blogs I follow and why (by the way, the following links take you directly to the RSS feed so you can copy them right into your favorite reader):

• Glenn Gutmacher's Advanced Online Recruiting Techniques:
• Read Glenn to stay abreast of new developments in sourcing techniques.
• Besides being one of the most innovative researchers on the planet, and a master CyberSleuth, Glenn has a generously sharing spirit. You can ask Glenn the most challenging questions about sourcing and he may choose to answer it right there on his blog. Glenn’s posts are educational and of an exceptionally high quality. He may only write once a week or less but when he does his message carries substantial weight. Glenn and I have worked together as partners in our online businesses, and I also had the distinct privilege to lead him at Microsoft where I must admit I learned so much more from him than he ever will from me. Glenn is one of the greatest minds the sourcing industry hast to offer, and he’s more than happy to share it with the rest of us, which in my mind makes him a national treasure.
• Dave Mendoza’s Six Degrees from Dave:
• Read Dave to get behind the scene views on industry mavens and insider happenings.
• Dave’s telling biographies turn a new leaf in investigative reporting about our Industry. When he is not revealing the minds of industry leaders Dave does a great job of summarizing the zeitgeist of what is going on in the blogsphere. Not only is he a master in social networking, which comes naturally to him, but he also has the gift of being able to effectively communicate how he builds his network in a way that helps others easily do it themselves. Dave and I are partners in JobMachine, but don’t let that mar your opinion of him too much.
• Jim Stroud 2.0 - I recruit, therefore I am:
• Read Jim to become a better sourcer.
• The man, myth and legend needs no introduction, but if you haven’t subscribed to his feed you are missing out on his hilarious cartoons, his high impact and easily digestible tips, his free classes, and most of all his passion for our industry. Jim’s Fab 15 weekly digest neatly summarizes his favorite blog posts – but did you know about his Day in Recruiting? Its page that shows you headlines from all his favorite RSS feeds. Jim and I have collaborated for three years. I had the pleasure of his company at Google where he was my lead researcher, and again we worked closely at Microsoft where I had the honor of leading him as we solved the passive candidate recruiting puzzle. Jim’s contributions were a huge part of what made me look so good at both companies so I doubt I will ever be able to fully repay him, but I can at least start by telling you that his blog is an absolute requirement for your RSS feed. But don’t take my word for it – check it out for yourself.
• Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog:
• Read Ami to open your mind and provoke thought.
• Irreverent and inspiring, Ami’s fresh voice is heard world wide. He is one of a select few bloggers I would consider to be truly disruptive of the status quo. His timely commentary on industry zeitgeist is not just a fresh perspective, but a deeply thinking one.
• Amybeth Hale’s Internet Research Guru (in training):
• Ready Amybeth to learn about the research process and how sourcer can help you make more hires.
• A bright newcomer to sourcing, Amybeth gives you a tactical advantage by revealing to you the secrets she has discovered in her own travels, as well as those learned from her fellow CyberSleuths and mentors.
• The Jim Durbin Media Empire:
• Read Durbin’s blogs if you recruit in or near St. Louis, Seattle, Charlotte and/or Kansas City.
• Jim Durbin has innovated a new kind of recruiting blog that addresses the local needs of recruiters and their candidates. So far his sites include: CharlotteRecruiting, KCRecruiting (Kansas City), StlRecruiting (St. Louis) and SeattleRecruiting.
• Joel Cheesman’s Cheezhead:
• Read Joel to find out about what is going on in the world of online recruitment and search engine optimization.
• World renowned guru of SEO for HR, Joel Cheesman, keeps is informed on organically increasing your ranking on search engines, and also reveals breaking news about the online recruitment industry.
• Carl Champan’s Confessions of an Executive Restaurant Recruiter:
• Read Carl to learn how to make recruiters love you.
• Carl’s brainy commentary and insight as a third party recruiter is exceptionally poignant. No prone to “speak lightly” Carl’s posts are both disruptive and tastefully stimulating. Have you ever wondered what impact increasing the minimum wage has on our industry? How about the impact it would have on our entire economy? Well, Carl thinks about that, and many other deep subjects, but explains them to us in terms we can understand.
• Sandy Hubert’s Elite IT Services Business Blog:
• Read Sandi to become a better entrepreneur.
• Sandi is part of a St. Louis IT staffing firm that brings a fresh, consultative approach to IT placement.
• Julian and Shannon’s XCELER8ion:
• Read Julian and Shannon Seery to master social media.
• With their frank commentary, this dynamic duo breaks the code of utilizing social media to market your recruitment brand, but also be on the lookout for “Shannons Links” - a growing collection of relevant social marketing news harvested from the blogsphere.
• Jason Gorham’s CareerMetaSearch.com:
• Read Jason to learn how push posting, contextual advertising and pay-per-click can bring you more hires.
• Jason’s generous contributions reveal the secrets behind how to reach passive candidates in their natural habitat instead of trying to get them to conform to ours.
• Gautam Ghosh - Management Consultant:
• Read Gautam to learn about leadership and gain deep perspective on the recruitment marketplace in Asia and the global village.
• A strategic Organizational Development consultant in the HR space, Gautams unique multicultural views contribute towards shrinking our planet and bringing all of our worlds closer together.
• Greg Roth's "Microsoft Legal & Corporate Affairs Recruiting" Blog:
• Read Greg if you are an Attorneys or recruit in the legal sector. 
• Greg is one of a handful of Microsoft bloggers who like Heather Hamilton (below) specialize in one particular marketplace and discuss that with their audience which includes candidates, hiring managers and their recruiting peers.
• Heather Hamilton's "Marketing at Microsoft" Blog:
• Read Heather to get an insight into branding, marketing and corporate blogging.
• Heather gives us a window to her personal life with here blog diary where she discusses local events, Microsoft culture, her personal experiences and her lessons as a corporate marketing recruiter. As one of the original recruiter bloggers she continues to break new ground by openly sharing her experiences with everyone. 
• Dave Perry’s Guerrilla Job Hunting:
• Read Dave to educate your candidates on how to fight dirty and win the war for talent using Guerilla tactics.
• Recommend his eBook to your jobseekers and you win their loyalty. Dave’s candidate advocacy perspective is aggressive and can teach us recruiters a bit or two about building our own personal brand. But it’s not just about candidates. Dave is an extremely successful entrepreneur and staffing professional who can teach us a thing or three about recruiting on a budget.
• Hiring Revolution:
• Read Amy, Jen, Jennifer and Kim to learn more about developing rapport and closing candidates, and to keep up to date on employment issues.
• This subversive group blog with a Che Guevara feel answers difficult questions about making offers, dealing with salary negotiations, and many “do’s and don’ts” about our industry.
• Bill Warren’s Internet Recruiting: Past, Present and Future:
• If you are a corporate recruiter you must read Bill.
• Widely recognized as the father of online recruiting, he founded the first online employment site (OCC) back in 1992 which later became Monster. His pragmatic approach to the employment industry, and his vision of a unified solution to job postings, has deeply affected the recruitment strategies of many Fortune 500 firms.
• Tiffany’s Magic Pot of Jobs:
• Read Tiffany if you want to hear the voice of experience in IT recruiting.  
• Tiffany is an IT recruiter with a national staffing firm. She writes about writing resumes, talks to candidates about how to work with their recruiters, and talks with employers about how to work with their staffing partners.
• Harry Joiner’s Marketing Headhunter:
• Read Harry to learn about online marketing and new media recruiting.
• Harry’s approach is to communicate with career seekers on topics such as job interview tips and salary negotiation advice. But listen close and you will find jewels for your recruiting desk just as much as for your candidates. Harry’s market focus is the “new media” sector, but his advice crosses all industries.
• Dave Carpe’s PassingNotes.com:
• Read Dave to get the dirt on Competitive Intelligence.
• Dave’s alternative fuel for research people has been around since people first started passing post-it-notes to each other full of ideas about recruiting and internet research. Among the original tribe of “die hard” researchers, Dave bridges the gap between sourcing and competitive intelligence. His critically derisive views and cheeky commentary are viewed as blasphemy by many industry pundits who can’t help but admire his sharp wit and intellect.
• Peter Clayton’s Total Picture Radio
• Listen to Peter’s hard hitting interviews with industry pundits.
• When Peter calls, people answer the phone. Our very own radio station, Peter’s Total Picture Radio is an audio blog covering recruitment leadership, entrepreneurship and online savvy. Peter keeps a library of all the interviews he has done, even from his old Landed.FM audio blog.
• Barbara Ling’s Recruiter 2.0 Marketing Musings
• Read Barbara to master the basics.
• Barbara’s Aunt Gertrude approach to teaching the introductory basics about Internet recruiting is a great place to get started if you are new to the web, or new to sourcing. I particularly recommend her Flatten your beginners Internet Recruiting curve! email class. Also follow her blog for the great industry headline links she collects from press publications and a myriad other sources.
• Ritesh Nair’s Recruiting and Sourcing Secrets
• Read Ritesh to get insider tips on multicultural sourcing
• Currently one of the few “Big 4” sourcers who blog, Ritesh is well on his way to mastering CyberSleuthing and becoming the next great sourcing voice. Though his blog is only in its infancy, I still read his infrequent posts with fervor, eagerly awaiting his next thought, and looking forward to when he finally busts our industry wide open.
• C.M. Russell’s Recruiting Fly Blog
• Read C.M. to be a fly on the wall everywhere recruiting matters.
• As a fly on the wall, creator of the RecruitingFly C.M. Russell has an interesting perspective on what’s going on. His RecruitingFly is gestalt therapy for recruiters. Just about every major blog, large or small, from all aspects of our industry is listed and summarized here.
• Recruiting.com
• The National Enquirer of Recruiting
• OK just kidding, it’s not really a tabloid. Founded by Jason Davis and now a Jobster property this group blog and aggregator does have more in common with a gossip column than any other recruiting space, but it’s a very serious contribution to our industry. Instead of one or two voices, this site brings together the collective voices of many bloggers, so that makes it a great place for water cooler talk, and to keep track of what’s going on in recruiting. Jason and Recruiting.com are the organizers behind the Annual Blog Awards so please show your support for this very difficult labor of love by voting for your favorite blogs at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=944023026614
• Jeff Hunter’s Talentism
• Read Jeff for deep insights into the mind of a sourcing thought leader.
• Some people have a deep resounding voice in person but very few ever manage to have one in writing. Jeff has such a voice, and it echoes off the canyons and ravines in our industry. Keep an eye out for the Talent Unconference which may very well become the best format for industry leaders to share their thoughts in a format living up to true democratic principles.
• Chad Sowash The Chad | Enjoy The Game
• Read Chad for industry changing out-of-the box ideas
• This army drill sergeant will set you straight with his no-nonsense views. Chad is a VP at the non-profit DirectEmployers Association started by Bill Warren. From this vantage, as an outsider looking into our industry, he is able to see things in a different light than those of us burdened with corporate politics and customer service issues.
• The Irish Cyber Sleuth
• Read Irish to gain learn about International sourcing.
• I was asked not to tell you his name but somewhere deep in the web there’s a leprechaun that has been secretly listening in on all the conversations about International Sourcing, which is challenging because those conversations aren’t easily found. This lucky fellow is whispering in our ears as Irish CyberSleuth so I highly recommend you read his blog is you want to learn more about sourcing in places other than good old USA.
• Gretchen and Zoe’s The JobSyntax Blog
• Read Gretchen and Zoe to learn how to use new technology to build meaningful relationships with your target candidate pool
• The original recruiting bloggers joined forces again after leaving Microsoft to start their own business. In their blog they discuss all the issues pertaining to how social media affects recruiting, both from the perspective of your candidates’ experience as well as from inside employers.
• The Recruiting Animal
• Read the Animal and laugh as you learn.
• In a mocking tone, our Canadian friend commonly known as “RA” makes light of bloggers who take themselves too seriously, while revealing a side of things often left out of the more “polite” blogs. This is vital blogging, and RA’s intensity is contagious. Get some now!
• Steve Levy’s The Recruiting Edge
• Read Steve to live outside the box
• Box? What box? If there was one, Steve smashed it to bits. Steve’s blog is a wake up call to complacent recruiters hell-bent on keeping the status quo. Love him or love to hate him, his WWF approach to recruiting brings the smack down to anyone who does just enough to “get by.”
• Bill Vick’s XtremeRecruiting
• Read Bill to know what it takes to become a “big biller.”
• Bill’s famous “One minute interviews with recruiting superstars” is a great way to start your morning as you sip a cup of coffee. Industry Executives and Big Billers alike always answer the phone when Bill calls, and they always spill the beans during these brief intimate interviews.

Please take note that none of the above are in any particular order. I put them down as I say them come up in my reader so if anything it has more to do with the randomness of who’s posting when, so don’t read into the with any sense of priority on which should be first on your reader. My advice is to add all the above feeds, and then decide for yourself which are your favorites.

But before I go, didn’t want you to think that I was going to leave out all the awesome ERE blogs. I left them for last because you can get one single feed ERE Blog Central and subscribe to them all. But let me at least tell you a little bit about each one:

• Ask The Recruiter: Dakotta Alex has an international and entrepreneurial flair that he applies generously to his posts on diversity, recruiting and leadership.
• Blogging outside the box: You know Steve Levy’s blog from above, but he also writes an occasional post here as well.
• Contract Recruiting: Doug Franklin talks about what it takes to be a successful contract recruiter.
• DC Recruiting: Scott Kahle focuses on the local DC area and also reveals some interesting tips about recruiting tools.
• E-Cruit Blog: Jason Gorham’s “other” blog where he discusses how push posting directly affects recruiting.
• Fresh Meat: Scott Axel’s has lively debates on candidates, hiring managers and the recruiting process.
• Gen Y'd: Sara White talks about reaching the “younger generation” – watch out, they are soon going to be our hiring managers!
• Hire Calling: ERE’s founder, David Manaster, uses his blog to communicate with all of us about his life and passions, which of course include current events in the recruiting industry.
• Martin Snyder's Passing Scene: Martin’s factoid approach to blogging leads to very detailed and specific posts about issues, stats and metrics that affect us all.
• On The BioPharm: Drew explores the little talked-about industry of Biotech and Pharmaceutical recruiting.
• Recruitment in India: Adwait Joshi explores Asian, in particular Indian, recruiting issues.
• Recruitment Spin: Cheryl Hardy blogs about relationships, inclusion and communication.
• Retention Secrets: Mike Goldman espouses on performance and how to keep your candidate after they become an employee.
• Seattle - A Recruiter's Perspective: Kristen Fife is the blogging voice of the vibrant Seattle recruiting community.
• SittingXlegged: Simon Meth explores corporate recruiting, debunks myths and makes some very accurate predictions about where our industry is headed.
• The CareerXroads Annex: If you don’t already know Gerry Crispin, let me at least tell you that he is one of the most respected senior voices in our industry. He travels to China and Russia, helps our with Katrina survivors, and still has time to educate us all about the candidate experience. His blog is 4 months older than mine, so he has covered way to many topics for me to summarize here. I would encourage you to read his archives because his wisdom is timeless and much of what he said in 2004 is as important today as it ever was.
• The Good Search: Krista Bradford’s beginnings as an investigative journalist should give you a glimpse as to how inquisitive she is. In her blog she continues to ask and answer important questions with a focus on ethics and socially responsible business.
• The Honest Recruiter: If you are in California you may know Daniel Parrillo from BATRG (Bay Area Technology Recruiters Group) but on his ERE blog he honestly speaks out on ethics, discrimination, EEOC, and many other issues that affect our daily lives.
• Todd Raphael's World of Talent: As Editor in Chief for ERE Media, Todd reads ALL the articles, so you know he’s got the inside story on what’s going on.  He’s also been known to posts notes on the ERE events so if you can’t attend at least you can get the highlights from his blog.

Enjoy the feeds!

Happy New Year 2007!

Shally