13 Books For Bloggers That Completely Changed My Business & Life
If you are new around here, you would know that I love reading.
I don’t just read books about blogging, but also books about personal finance, business, entrepreneurship, marketing, relationships, Christianity and much more.
After reading a ton of books, here are the books that I highly recommend if you’re a blogger + entrepreneur.
Some caveats first
You will find that in this list, most of the books I talk about are not directly related to blogging. Why?
Because most books directly about blogging are outdated, and I haven’t really found an excellent one that I would say “changed my life”. I would rather you spend the money on an ebook or a course (a great one is my very own Kickstart Your Blog) if you want to learn the skills to start a successful blog and business.
*Kickstart Your Blog is my step-by-step beginner course that will help you start and grow a new blog + biz profitably, even when you have no tech knowledge and minimal time.
Books are great for many other things though – such as business principles, how to sell, personal development, mindset, and more.
Also, when you think about it, blogging is really an amalgamation of business, marketing, mindset, organization, and writing.
I will only mention paper-back books in this post – perhaps I would write another post featuring great ebooks (want to write an ebook?) in the future!
These books have literally changed my business and life, so if you have time to spare – please, read these books.
Let’s go!
**Please note that there may be some affiliate links, but only where relevant at no cost to you**
13 best books for better blogging that every blogger should read!
1. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
When I first started out with this online business, Psycho-cybernetics was one of the books that changed my life for the better and helped me a lot. An online entrepreneur who I respect a lot recommended it to me.
This is a classic personal development book that covers having a positive self-image, setting goals, and having a success mindset. I 100% recommend you to read this at least once in your lifetime.
Mindset always seems to be a very “woo-woo” concept for many bloggers and entrepreneurs, but this book is different because it covers self-improvement from a scientific, logical point of view that I find immensely helpful.
Suddenly, vague self-help concepts start to make so much sense and you start to see why they are so important.
Check out Psycho-cybernetics here.
2. Profit First by Mike Micbalowicz
Whether you are an aspiring blogger or a six-figure blogger, Profit First details the cash management system that will ensure any business will become permanently profitable.
Namely, it talks about how you should pay yourself first (rather than last) and how an entrepreneur should be focusing on profits, not revenue.
The book also talks about you should automatically portion any money that comes in to 4 different accounts – profit, tax, salary, operating expenses.
3. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
If you’re a blogger/ entrepreneur you may have heard of people talking about how they want to run a “lean start-up”.
This book is a must-read for any entrepreneur. It is a concept and perspective shift that you need to have.
The Lean Startup method teaches you how to drive a startup-how to steer, when to turn, and when to persevere-and grow a business with maximum acceleration. It is a principled approach to new product development.
Many businesses run for years and years “surviving”, spending a ton of money and not making a cent. The lean start-up methodology talks about validating your idea and then creating a minimum viable product (MVP) to get money in as soon as possible.
Check out The Lean Startup here.
Great list of books that every blogger and entrepreneur absolutely has to read! Click To Tweet4. Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
You probably know about this book. Sophia Amoruso is the founder of Nasty Gal, an e-commerce clothing company that grew from sales of $223,000 in 2008 to almost $23 million in 2011.
This book was written about her success – of course, we now know how Nasty Gal subsequently filed for bankruptcy a couple of years later. That doesn’t make the book any less valid though, in my opinion. Today she has recouped and is focusing her efforts on the Girl Boss brand.
I find this book to be very fun to read and inspirational, about how a girl next door managed to build a successful business.
My top takeaway from this book?
You have to be willing to do the unscaleable at the beginning to be able to reach a stage of your business where you can scale.
Do you know how Amoruso grew Nasty Gal at the very beginning? By mass adding friends to Myspace and growing her following from there. While I do not advocate this particular method (after all, Myspace is dead) – it shows something.
Small things that seem “dumb” and “unscalable” at the start may not be that useless after all.
Similarly, think about how Airbnb went about selling cereal boxes to fund Airbnb during its early days.
The same applies to your blog – at this moment, doing things like posting in Facebook groups may seem dumb and unsustainable. But do you know where that will lead you?
To success, potentially.
Related post about Facebook groups: Why I Closed My Facebook Group of 580 Entrepreneurs and Started a New Facebook Community From Scratch
5. Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
You have to be willing to read this book to correct any money mindset problems you have if you intend to run a successful blog and business.
I love this book because it gave me many new perspectives on how one should view money.
Did you know that the phrase “Money is the root of all evil” was actually taken out of context from the bible?
The verse should actually be, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through.” – 1 Timothy 6:10. What this means is how money in itself is not evil, but it is only when you LOVE money so much that you place it above God… that’s when trouble begins.
That’s just one of many lessons you will learn from this book.
The bottom line – Addressing any potential limiting beliefs in your mindset with regards to money will help a ton if you want to be financially abundant.
Check out Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind here.
6. The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
I have read all of Gary V’s books, and this one is my favorite. This book is hyper-focused on one concept which I feel that every blogger needs to have nailed to their head.
And that is caring for your customer, which would lead to further word-of-mouth down the road. Real business happens in the small, personal interactions that allow us to prove to each other who we are and what we believe in, honest moments that promote good feelings and build trust and loyalty.
Especially when you run an online business, it is very easy to slip into the misconception of seeing everything from a transactional point of view because everything appears as a pixel on your screen. But behind every number is a human.
So yes, everything I do revolves around quality and providing the best for my readers and customers. For instance, providing an amazing user experience was one of the main reasons why I switched to Teachable to host my online courses.
Don’t get me wrong – I am all about getting more traffic and subscribers. I strongly believe that no audience = no business. But this book also talks about what happens after you get the sale.
Check out Thank You Economy here.
7. The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
Okay – this book is here because it’s a “classic” for the digital nomad wannabe, lol. I find this book to be one of those books that trigger the possibility that perhaps, your life could be vastly different than how it is now.
You don’t need to be in your job if you don’t want to, for instance.
Tim Ferriss talks about a new perspective for the reality of life. He about talks about the “new rich”, who are people with time and mobility – it’s not just about the money.
It is one of those books that people repeatedly point to for being responsible for the “turning point” of their life, simply because it opens a new perspective for them.
So yes, I’m including this here in case you need that turning point.
Check out The 4 Hour Work Week here.
8. Tapping Into Wealth by Margaret M. Lynch
This book dives into a ton of subconscious beliefs that you may not even know you have, and then guides you to use tapping is a great way to reset these limiting beliefs.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), also known as Tapping, have become a popular tool for realizing personal goals.
For many of us, increasing our wealth is one of our greatest ambitions, but also an area where we feel the most stuck because we have limiting fears and beliefs that sabotage our success.
EFT uses the fingertips to tap on acupuncture points while emotionally tuning in to negative attitudes and past experiences, thereby clearing the inner blocks to attracting and managing wealth.
With this book, I was able to identify and release certain limiting money beliefs that I have had since young, and also heal from certain past experiences that affected the way I view money.
Don’t ask me how tapping works and why it works, all I know is – it works!
This book is by far the best book you can get if you want to get into tapping.
Check out Tapping Into Wealth here.
9. The One Thing by Gary Keller
This book focuses on one core concept throughout the book, and that is, surprise, to focus on one thing.
Which sounds very easy hypothetically, but difficult to implement into your business and life.
One of the questions the book covered talks about how you should ask yourself:
“What’s the ONE Thing you can do this week such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?”
Amazing, right? I don’t know about you, but when I get really focused on one thing in my business, I tend to get better results from it. For instance, I have dedicated the next 30 days to increase the page views on this blog. Hence, I will be posting EVERY SINGLE DAY (I will try) for the next 30 days.
Are you prone to the shiny object syndrome? Do you have troubles figuring out what to blog about? Have you been asking yourself “should I start a blog?” but getting distracted by a gazillion things?
If the answer is yes to any of those questions, then you need to read this book because it talks about how you should be focusing on ONE THING at a time and live a disciplined life with good habits.
10. The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte
The Desire Map is all about focusing on how you feel. The Desire Map is a holistic approach to life planning that uses your core desired feelings as the guidance system for your goal setting.
This is yet another book that has many entrepreneurs tripping over themselves exclaiming about how awesome it is. This book is all about focusing on wanting what you want, rather than what you should want. Makes sense?
While I don’t agree with the concept of prioritizing everything in your life around how you feel – often, Christians (and many humans, Christian or not) are called to do things in obedience that don’t make you feel good at the moment but are absolutely essential, I find this book to be amazingly game-changing once you keep that in mind.
Knowing how you actually want to feel is the most potent form of clarity that you can have. Generating those feelings is the most powerfully creative thing you can do with your life.
My primary takeaway from this book is how important my intuition is and how spot-on it can be.
I also identified my core desired feelings and mapped out how I could get there.
Check out The Desire Map here.
Great list of books that every blogger and entrepreneur absolutely has to read! Click To Tweet11. Epic Blog: One Year Blog Editorial Planner
Not a book, but this planner is as amazing, if not more amazing.
If you’re looking for a great blog planner, this one is for you. This one-year blog editorial planner helps you create a purposeful and profitable content plan for your blog through a mini blog business plan, an ideal reader survey, monthly theme planning, monthly content planning, and standard monthly calendars.
I can’t recommend this enough if you want to get organized with your blogging!
Check out Epic Blog: The One Year Blog Editorial Planner here.
Good Books About Blogging
And lastly, these are books about blogging – I wouldn’t exactly say they are “life-changing” but they do provide a lot of helpful tips if you’re a new blogger.
12. How To Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul by Ruth Soukup
This book is a little outdated as it was last updated in 2014, but many core principles still apply. If you’re a beginning blogger, you may want to read this for some helpful tips.
Some lessons that are covered by the book:
- Craft your blogging editorial calendar
- Write pillar content
- Aim for viral growth
- Pay attention to what your readers are buying
Check out How To Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul here.
Related: Want to start a blog? Check out my 4-part blogging for beginners series and learn how to start a blog in 20 minutes! This series has been shared over 50,000 times.
13. Secrets For Blogging Your Way To A 6-Figure Income by Darren Rowse
If a book is written by Darren Rowse, one of the “fathers” of teaching people how to blog, then perhaps we should all read it. Haha.
Once again, great for basics, but you may want to take a course (my Kickstart Your Blog course is a great course if you want to learn how to kickstart a profitable blog online) as it was last updated in 2012. This book contains some helpful tips about blogging from a veteran blogger who is very successful in his own right.
Check out Secrets For Blogging Your Way To A 6-Figure Income here.
Summary
If you found this post helpful, it would be really cool if you could tweet and/or pin this post.
Great list of books that every blogger and entrepreneur absolutely has to read! Click To TweetThat’s all folks! Once again, these are my 13 recommended books:
- Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
- Profit First by Mike Micbalowicz
- Lean Start-up by Eric Ries
- Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
- Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
- The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
- The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
- Tapping Into Wealth by Margaret M. Lynch
- The One Thing by Gary Keller
- The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte
- Epic Blog: The One Year Blog Editorial Planner
- How To Blog For Profit by Ruth Soukup
- Secrets For Blogging Your Way To A 6-Figure Income by Darren Rowse
I hope this helps, and happy reading!
God bless,
Raelyn
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