I read an advertising blog recently where the author told us to ’seek out exceptional minds’. The author of that blog often recommends people that have blogs that he thinks are exceptional. However, these blogs are almost always blogs that everyone has heard of, and ones with a ton of links. Of course, a day or so after he mentions them, they return the favor and mention his blog. Which usually prompts him to acknowledge them mentioning him. Exceptional minds stick (and link) together, I guess. So he is correct to say we should seek out exceptional minds. But actually SEEK them out. Exceptional minds are everywhere, some are on blogs with 5000 visitors a day, but many are on blogs that won’t see that many visitors in a year. So in an effort to REALLY seek out exceptional minds, I found the following advertising and marketing blogs. These are all smart people that you might not have read before. Quiver Quill Open Method LLC dim bulb New Media Marketer Thirdway Advertising Blog Style Station These are talented people that are going to have very successful blogs in a year’s time. We can either read them now and enjoy the ride, or deem them as ‘exceptional’ a year from now when they have a few hundred links to their blogs. Again, this isn’t a popularity contest, it’s a talent contest. Seek out the talented minds, not the popular bloggers. Being popular won’t make you talented, but being talented can make you popular. I’d rather be talented. Wouldn’t you?