Best blogs for presenters & public speakers – 2016 edition

To find public-speaking wisdom, do you go to specific blogs? I certainly do. In fact, 3 years ago, I published a list of 6 of the world’s best.

But a lot’s changed in 3 years, and some of the blogs on my original list have gone belly-up. (In fact, you can still access most of those, but they don’t publish anything new.)

So I thought you might appreciate a fresh list.

Mind you, given that I’ve also listed 10 extinct public-speaking blogs, it’s not easy to find contenders.

Free public-speaking class (in Sydney, via @AuthenticBen)

The best 2 hours I’ve ever spent…

Are you serious about wanting to improve your public speaking? If so, do yourself a favour and listen to what Benjamin J Harvey has to say about it. I did that last Wednesday night, and it was probably the best 2 hours I’ve ever spent on improving my presentation skills!

What a great move that was!

Ben’s a Sydney-based entrepreneur who offers occasional free public-speaking workshops. (Wherever you live, you might also like these 5 free public-speaking courses.) As I’m in Sydney too, and his workshop happens just every few months, I took the chance to go along. What a great move that was!

Why so great? There are 3 factors:

6 of the world’s best blogs for presenters

If you’re looking for world-class blogs to help you present, here are 6 of the very best…
 

• Speaking About Presenting

http://speakingaboutpresenting.com/
Blogger: Olivia Mitchell
Posting frequency: Sadly there’ve been no new posts since February 2012 – but the site has years of archives, and Olivia is still publishing readers’ comments.

To me, Speaking About Presenting has some of the world’s best content on the topic, and also includes many useful comments from other top bloggers. Two of the blog’s real strengths are that the content is so concise, and so well thought out.

Awesome opening lines: 20+ more examples for your speeches, from Patricia Fripp (Certified Speaking Professional)

For neat ideas for your next talk’s opening line, here’s a great free resource. It’s a 2-page PDF packed with almost 30 opening lines by Patricia Fripp, CSP – former president of the National Speakers’ Association in the US.

“Analog” presentation tips #2: Use a prop [Video to watch]

Want to connect more with your audience? And want your talk to stand out and be remembered, too? In this short series of posts, you’ll get many neat tips from expert presenters on using “analog” techniques – that is, without electronics – to help you reach those key goals.

That’s how I introduced the 1^st post in this series.

Make a point far more strongly…

In this post, you’ll see superb use of a prop to make a point far more strongly than a slide alone ever could. The presenter uses a few slides and video clips, certainly, but he doesn’t let them upstage him. That in itself’s a huge takeaway from this talk!

“Analog” presentation tips #1: Use a flipchart [Video to watch]

Consider these 2 questions for a moment:

Want to connect more with your audience?
And want your talk to stand out and be remembered, too? ^{Tweet this}

In this short series of posts, you’ll get many neat tips from expert presenters on using “analog” techniques (that is, without electronics). They’ll help you reach those key goals of:

• Connecting
• Standing out
• Being remembered

Grab attention – 5 great opening lines for your presentation stories [Video]

For lots more ideas, also see 20+ more opening lines from Patricia Fripp in a PDF

By giving you 5 specific examples of great opening lines, this post helps you cure three of your biggest presentation headaches. Namely, how to:

• Rivet people’s attention as soon as you speak.
• Make your message memorable, so it forms a lasting impression.
• And most of all, actually motivate people,
  so your talk makes a difference!