I thought that I would share some of the resources that I like to use when looking for solid dividend based investments. For an introduction to dividend based investing, check out my article An Introduction To Dividend Based Investing. Please note that most of the links I provide here, are based on Canadian investments since I personally prefer to concentrate on the Canadian markets. Regardless of what market you are planning on investing in, most of the information contained in these sites (other then individual stocks) are beneficial to all dividend based investors, and are definitely worth spending a bit of time to read.

To start off, there are two very important lists of dividend paying stocks that should not be ignored, these are the Dividend Achievers list and the Dividend Aristocrats list. I'm not saying to go out and buy every stock on these lists, but they are a great place to start your search, I like to take stocks that are on these lists, and do more thorough research on them to see if they'll fit into my investment criteria. In order for a stock to be added to these lists, they need to pass certain criteria, one of these; is to be an Achiever you need at least 5 or more years of continually increasing dividends, and to be an aristocrat you need 25 or more years of continually increasing your dividend payouts.

Mergent's Dividend Achievers
Mergent's Dividend Achievers (including Income Trusts)
Standard and Poors Dividend Aristocrats
(Click on S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats then choose 'constituents' which is located at the top of the page to download the excel file.)

I have to say, that blogs are the source of some great investment ideas and lessons. here is a list of some of the dividend based blogs that I like to check in on. (In no particular order)
Dividend Based Investing - I highly recommend reading through the Canadian Dividend Growth category.
The Dividend Guy
Middle Class Millionaire
The Div Guy (Mostly American stocks)
Dividends4Life

I should also mention that sometimes I also like to look at certain ETFs or Mutual fund's constituents list to get an idea of what the 'professionals' are investing in. Although If you stick with the Achievers and Aristocrats you will have more then enough quality stocks to do further research on. By utilizing these resources you are giving yourself a starting point to build from and after doing your own research and due diligence you'll be able to get a list of quality dividend based stocks to follow and invest in. I hope this gives you a good start and If I've missed any good resources that you'd like to share, please let us know in the comments.

You may have noticed that this article is similar to one I wrote at www.ImprovedLife.ca. I am transitioning all of my investment articles over to this site to save me from having to write investing articles for two websites.