Industry Sites & Blogs

I follow several sites and blogs on the internet. A couple of which have been mentioned on my previous post, being newgrounds.com and deviantart.com

DeviantArt is essentially a  free portfolio site for any and all artists. A user can post works of art, videos, photos, links, Html customizable journal entries, post in the forums, and critique works of art submitted by other users. But due to some licensing issues, the site refuses to host music, user made or otherwise.
DeviantArt is also a community, and often hold contests sponsored by big corporations and give out big prizes.
The number of users that utilize the site is immense. Art that is submitted is separated into two groups: Newly Submitted and Popular; In these two groups the art can be categorized into medium, and genre, and can be further broken down from there through several subcategories.
Due to the number of artists and incoming pieces, its nigh impossible to get any attention without resorting to buying ad space, or updating frequently to catch attention on the newly submitted page; Although, the least time and resource consuming way to gain attention is through word of mouth.

Newgrounds is much more niche than Deviantart. Its another free site whose users consists of Flash animators, programmers, musicians, and people who visit the site frequently to rate and vote on newly submitted flash animations - a key feature to the site. Newgrounds has a feed of incoming games and animations that the users can vote on, which either "Blams" (deletes the submission from the site) or raise its score which could potentially post the project on the site's front page; ensuring that every new project gets an even amount of attention
Newgrounds also has the same features as Deviantart, minus the customiz-ability of journal entries.

Newgrounds' Admins often sponsor or host contests with cash or prize rewards, as well as the users who want to get together and just collaborate. The site is very community driven, so long as one participates in the community (even minimally), it is not hard at all to get attention.
Newgrounds is built for its users, and promotes the best, or at least hard work, in the most user friendly way, which is a big plus for any aspiring artist.