While there are many niches out there for blogs, the ones that spurred many on were inspirational blogs and motivational blogs. The writer’s attitude and perspective in life inspired others on top of providing insight in other topics such as productivity, social media, entrepreneurship, self-improvement and others. These are some of the best inspirational blogs – and the people that run them – that continue to be a source of motivation for all.
Best Inspirational Blogs You Need to Check Out
1. Meet Gary Vaynerchuk @GaryVaynerchuk.com
He’s a very loud and charismatic New Yorker who gained internet fame as the crazy and outgoing host of Wine Library TV, a video blog that obsessively talked about everything related to wine. Through online video blogging (commonly known as vlogging), he built his wine business from a $3-million-dollar-a-year wine retail store to a $60 million dollar wine wholesale business. Gary Vaynerchuk has built a multi-million dollar empire relating to his personal brand. He’s a two-time best-selling author and co-founder of Vayner Media, a very large digital marketing agency that works with some of the largest brands in the world. He’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, GQ, and Time Magazine, as well as appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. His inspirational blog provides details about social media, the latest business trends, and the occasional inspirational blogs about life. He has an incredible amount of depth to these topics and his blunt direction helps you to focus on what matters.
2. Meet Leon Ho @Lifehack.org
Leon’s career started at Red Hat, where he worked as a software engineer, and because of his work ethic, he quickly became the youngest manager in the company, overseeing a global team. However, he soon realized that hard work wasn’t enough to cope with the increasing complexity and requirements of the job. Before he knew it, he was in search of ways to go beyond his “fixed ability” and invested heavily in researching everything he could on productivity and management. Because of what he learned, it didn’t take long for him to outpace the demands of his work — and by his mid-20s he had already successfully managed over 150 engineering projects. In the span of less than 5 years, he achieved more than what most project managers could do in 10. That’s when he realized that he could use this knowledge to help anyone in the world who was stuck somewhere in their lives. So, he left his job at Red Hat to dedicate his time to sharing this information through Lifehack.org.
3. Meet Rand Fishkin @SEOmoz.org
Rand Fiskin is a college dropout who started blogging about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) back in 2004 while working for a family-run web development company. He was also providing SEO consulting services to a few small clients. SEOmoz has since left the consulting business and instead focuses exclusively on creating awesome SEO software, as well as supporting a large community with educational resources related to the search industry. It is rumoured that the company generates millions of dollars each and every 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 is still actively running the company and occasionally posts on the main blog. For any aspiring blogger, understanding SEO is key and the blog posts that Rand publishes occasionally can be helpful in that. Beyond that, this is one of the best motivational blogs for those who are trying to understand SEO and leverage it for their own website.
4. Meet Pat Flynn @SmartPassiveIncome.com
Pat is one of the most inspirational bloggers in the world. After losing his job a few years into his career, he was forced to scramble to support his growing family. He started a website called “SmartPassiveIncome.com” to track his progress with various websites and online money-making projects. What started as a small inspirational blog for himself grew into one of the best blogs around the world when it comes to making money. He has since built a massive following and readership thanks to his transparency and honesty. Still to this day, Pat discloses his monthly earnings to readers, which has inspired countless individuals. 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.
5. Meet Brian Clark @Copyblogger.com
Brian Clark is the founder of Copyblogger. He started the inspirational blog in 2006 as a resource for entrepreneurs to learn to be better copywriters, content marketers, and all-around “kings of content.” The blog has since grown to become an authority on creating killer content for the web. With 100k+ subscribers, Brian got smart and leveraged his readership to launch Copyblogger Media, which launched several spinoff 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 his company creates. Brian is still very active in the day-to-day of running Copyblogger.
6. Meet Andrew Sullivan @thedishdaily.com
Andrew started his inspirational blog, The Daily Dish, near the end of 2000. By the middle of 2003, he was receiving about 300,000 unique visits per month. In 2013, Sullivan made some big changes and decided to leave his other blogging gigs (formerly at TIME, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast) to work on The Daily Dish full-time. On launch day, the blog reportedly took in over $330,000 in recurring revenue, charging an average of $20/month to readers. The Daily Dish is one of the best inspirational blogs out there as its primary focus is on positive news.
7. Meet Harvey Levin @TMZ.com
Harvey is an American lawyer, legal analyst, blogger, and celebrity reporter. His website TMZ is a leading authority on celebrity gossip. You can frequently see Harvey hosting his own TV show or appearing as a guest on celebrity-related matters on CNN, FOX, and other networks. He managed to leverage the popularity of his blog to build a personal brand for himself.
8. Meet Michael Arrington @TechCrunch.com
Michael is one of my favourite bloggers of all time. He started out as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer working on tech deals in California. After realizing his passion for the startup world, he decided to start a tech blog called TechCrunch.com, where he profiled and reviewed some of the best up-and-coming tech companies and entrepreneurs from around the world. TechCrunch became one of the most widely read motivational blogs in the tech 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 set up his own investment fund, CrunchFund, to invest in startups. Today, Arrington is still considered to be a mover and shaker in the valley.
9. Meet Tim Ferriss @Fourhourworkweek.com/blog
Tim is a self-proclaimed life hacker who built a massive following online through his blog posts. He is the author of the “4 Hour Work Week” which became an instant bestseller and that people still continue to practice. He has also gone on to publish two other best-selling books. He’s a frequent lecturer around the globe. 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 wherever in the world. This is no thanks to the inspirational blog that he has created.
10. Meet Timothy Sykes @TimothySykes.com
Tim started blogging to document how he turned $12,000 of his Bar-Mitzvah money into over $1 million dollars. Needless to say, the journey made for one of the best inspirational blogs out there. Since then, he has gained internet fame for being an authority on Penny Stock trading. His blog has hundreds of thousands of visitors, which has allowed him to launch additional companies like Profit.ly, which educate other traders on trader strategies. He can frequently be seen making television appearances on ABC, CNN, FOX, and CNBC about stock market matters.
11. Meet Darren Rowse @Problogger.net
Darren is another blogger who you have to know about. He started blogging as a hobby. He blogged about the Olympics and his passion for photography. From there, he started Problogger, a website dedicated to helping other bloggers. Darren is currently a full-time blogger and started making money from advertising deals, affiliate programs, AdSense, and selling an e-book. Darren has gained quite a bit of fame online and was named to the Forbes Internet Celebrity list in 2007. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his family and still makes a full-time living from blogging! Featured photo credit: Unsplash via unsplash.com
