Whether you’re an aspiring blogger or just looking for a little inspiration in your life, here is a list of the top 10 blogs with inspiring bloggers that started as, well … bloggers. Enjoy!
1. Gary Vaynerchuk @ GaryVaynerchuk.com
He is a very noisy and charismatic New Yorker who gained fame on the Internet as the crazy and extensive presenter of Wine Library TV, a video blog that obsessively talked about everything related to wine. Through online video blogs, he built his wine business from a $ 3 million dollar wine retailer a year to a $ 60 million dollar wholesale wine business.
Gary Vaynerchuk has built a multi-million dollar empire related to his personal brand. He is the author of two sales successes and co-founder of Vayner Media, a very large digital marketing agency that works with some of the biggest brands in the world.
He appeared in The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Time Magazine, and also appeared in Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
2. Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz.org
Rand Fiskin is a college dropout who started blogging about SEO (search engine optimization) in 2004 while working for a family-run web development company. I was also providing SEO consulting services to a few small clients.
Since then, SEOmoz left the consulting business and, instead, focuses exclusively on creating impressive SEO software, as well as supporting a large community with educational resources related to the search industry.
It is rumored that the company generates millions of dollars each month from its software and subscription services. The company also raised $ 18 million in 2012, which it has been using to acquire other companies. Rand continues to actively manage the company and occasionally publishes in the main blog.
3. Pat Flynn @ SmartPassiveIncome.com
Pat is one of the most inspiring bloggers in the world. After losing his job a few years after his career, he was forced to fight to support his growing family. He started a website called “SmartPassiveIncome.com” to track his progress with various websites and projects to make money online.
Since then, he has achieved a large number of followers and readers thanks to his transparency and honesty. To this day, Pat reveals her monthly earnings to readers, which has inspired countless people.
Pat currently attends industry conferences, runs a regular podcast for his readers and spends as much time as he can with his family. Pat has earned, on average, around $ 50,000 USD per month.
4. Brian Clark at Copyblogger.com
Brian Clark is the founder of Copyblogger. The blog began in 2006 as a resource for entrepreneurs to learn to be better editors, content marketers and “content kings”. Since then, the blog has grown to become an authority to create killer content for the web.
With more than 100k subscribers, Brian became smart and took advantage of his readership to launch Copyblogger Media, which launched several spin-off companies. These software companies include Scribe, Synthesis, Premise and StudioPress.
The genius behind his business model is that his loyal readers love him and line up to buy the marketing software that his company creates. Brian is still very active in the day to day running Copyblogger.
5. Andrew Sullivan @ thedishdaily.com
Andrew started his blog, The Daily Dish, near the end of 2000. By mid-2003, he was receiving about 300,000 unique visits per month.
In 2013, Sullivan made some major changes and decided to leave his other blogging gigs (previously at TIME, The Atlantic and The Daily Beast) to work at The Daily Dish full time. On the day of the launch, the blog allegedly raised more than $ 330,000 in recurring revenue, charging readers an average of $ 20 / month.
6. Harvey Levin @ TMZ.com
Harvey is a lawyer, legal analyst, blogger and American celebrity reporter. His website TMZ is a leading authority on celebrity gossip.
You can often see Harvey presenting his own television show or appearing as a guest on celebrity issues on CNN, FOX and other networks. He managed to take advantage of the popularity of his blog to build a personal brand for himself.
7. Michael Arrington @ TechCrunch.com
Michael is one of my favorite bloggers of all time. He started as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer working on technology agreements in California. After realizing his passion for the world of startups, he decided to start a technology blog called TechCrunch.com, in which he described and analyzed some of the best emerging technology companies and entrepreneurs from around the world.
TechCrunch became one of the most read blogs in the technology industry and, as a result, it was acquired by AOL for $ 30 million dollars. Michael used the proceeds of the sale to become an angel investor and to establish his own investment fund, CrunchFund, to invest in new companies. Today, Arrington is still considered an engine and agitator in the valley.
8. Tim Ferriss @ Fourhourworkweek.com/blog
Tim is a self-proclaimed hacker who built a large number of followers online through his blog posts. He is the author of the “4-Hour Work Week”, which became an instant sales success. He has also published two other best-selling books.
He is a frequent speaker throughout the world. He has also popularized the idea of ”lifestyle design” and living an unconventional life.
Tim is credited with popularizing the “Internet lifestyle” or the ability of lifestyle entrepreneurs to work on their laptops from anywhere in the world.
9. Timothy Sykes @ TimothySykes.com
Tim started blogging to document how he converted $ 12,000 of his Bar-Mitzvah money into more than $ 1 million. He has gained fame on the Internet for being an authority in the Penny Stock trade.
His blog has hundreds of thousands of visitors, which has allowed him to launch additional companies such as Profit.ly, which educate other traders about merchants’ strategies.
He can often be seen making appearances on television on ABC, CNN, FOX and CNBC on issues of the stock market.
10. Darren Rowse @ Problogger.net
Darren is another blogger that you should know. He started blogging as a hobby. He wrote on his blog about the Olympics and his passion for photography, and then eventually started creating Problogger, a website dedicated to helping other bloggers.
Darren is currently a full-time blogger and started earning money with advertising offers, affiliate programs, adsense and selling an e-book.
Darren has gained quite a bit of fame online and was included in Forbes’ Internet celebrity list in 2007. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his family and still lives full time on blogs!
If you aspire to become a blogger, learn from these successful bloggers about how to make money with a blog:
How to Make Money with a Blog (According to 23 Successful Bloggers)
