Best Blogger Books For 2023: 10 Titles That Help You Become a Successful Blogger
Some of these blogger books talk directly about what it takes to build a successful blog. Others on the list give you the motivation and inspiration you need to stay the course in your writing career.
All of the books are packed with wisdom and will help you thrive if you follow through with the information. Let’s take a look at some of the best blogging books for 2023.
You Are a Writer (So Act Like One) by Jeff Goins
Jeff Goins wrote You Are a Writer to help aspiring writers feel like real writers. A lot of beginners feel like they have to have a certain set of credentials or a massive body of work to feel like they’re a writer.
But as Jeff will tell you in his book, if you write, you’re a writer. I followed Jeff early on in my writing career and the insights and motivation I got from his work helped me stay the course in the early days where I felt like quitting.
Some people scoff at the idea of blogging and say it’s not real art, but art is subjective. Jeff considers his writing to be art and so do I.
You can write words that move people in the form of a blog post. You can use traditional blogging techniques and still create unique and interesting stories people want to read.
This book teaches you how to do just that and it also comes with a bunch of practical recommendations for building a successful blog and growing your audience.
Real Artists Don’t Start by Jeff Goins
In Jeff’s fifth book, he debunks the idea that you have to starve to be successful at your craft. Again, he’s going against the pretentious mindset a lot of writers and other artists have.
Some will say having commercial success makes you a sellout, Jeff argues that commercial success is the key to creating great art.
You make money so you can make more art.
If you want to become a successful blogger, you have to treat it like a business. Your words are the product. You should do everything in your power to promote your work if you believe in the message you’re sending.
In the book, he talks about how a bunch of different successful artists used patronage, fans, to fund their work and it also gives a bunch of recommendations for building your platform like collaborating with other artists, ‘stealing like an artist,’ and building a tribe that supports your work.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
While it’s not strictly a blogger book, the War of Art is a must-read for anyone who’s trying to build a successful creative career. The number one thing that kills your chances of becoming a successful blogger is the thing that kills most dreams, period.
Pressfield calls it ‘the resistance.’ Instead of using a beginning term like ‘self-doubt’, he talks about the resistance as this evil, insidious, omnipresent demon that tries to stop you from doing the work you know you’re meant to do.
It takes many forms — the negative self-talk in your head, societal programming, your friends and family trying to cast doubt on your future. If you’re trying to build a blogging career, you’re very familiar with the resistance.
Building a career as a full-time blogger is a bit delusional, and the resistance will remind you of that fact constantly. The only way to defeat the resistance is to sit down and do the work. Doesn’t matter whether or not the work is good. It only matters that you did it.
Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield
Turning Pro is the second book in a series of books designed to help creative professionals thrive. It’s a bit repetitive and it does go over a lot of the material in The War of Art, but trust me, you’re going to need all the motivation you can get so a little layering doesn’t hurt.
If you want to be a successful blogger, you have to turn pro. Turning pro means you stop treating your blog like a hobby and start treating it like you would any other profession. You don’t debate with yourself about whether or not you’re going to go to your real job. Your blog should be no different.
If you want a successful writing career, you have to wake up and work on your craft like a pro every single day. No excuses. I love Pressfield’s books because he just has a way of writing really motivational prose that gets you fired up to do the work. Grab both books. They’re worth the money.
The One Hour Content Plan by Meera Kothand
The book provides exactly what it says in the title. After reading it, you’ll be able to literally come up with a year’s worth of content in an hour. Meera is known for her straightforward blogging and business advice.
This book contains zero fluff and walks you through exactly what you need to do if you’re stuck on coming up with ideas for what to write about.
It covers different topics like:
- Clearly defining the purpose of your blog
- 3 unique methods for choosing blog topics
- 5 unique types of content people love to read
- Critical elements to include in each blog post
- How to truly understand your audience’s needs
The book only costs $4.99 for the kindle version. It’s an absolute steal.
The Blog Startup by Meera Kothand
This blogger book teaches you how to build an actual business with your blog.
A lot of bloggers just start writing their little hearts out without having an actual plan for how they’re going to monetize their work. This leaves them spinning their wheels and ultimately ending up with a hobby that makes next to nothing, or just nothing.
Again, it’s another straightforward and highly pragmatic book that teaches a ton of valuable lessons like:
- Figuring out which monetization techniques will actually work for your blog
- How to position yourself properly and stand out among the competition
- How to create a blog launch plan that sets you up for success from day one.
Again, this is another kindle book that’ll cost you less than a meal at Chipotle and has a ton of valuable insights. Hell, it’s a good idea to just visit her author page and grab every title she’s ever written.
Published: The Proven Path From Blank Page To 10,000 Copies Sold by Chandler Bolt
Most bloggers end up wanting to write a book. If you’re looking to write a book, Chandler Bolt is the best person to teach you how to do it. I’ve taken a bunch of online courses over the years, Self-Publishing School is, by far, the best one I’ve ever taken.
It gives you a step-by-step roadmap to writing, publishing, and promoting your book. The course has one of the highest success rates I’ve ever seen. When I took it, more than 90 percent of the students in the program successfully published a book.
If you want to write a book, you have to go out of your way to fail using Chandler’s methods. They’re that simple. The book covers a lot of the concepts that he teaches in the program itself.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive high-level overview, it’s perfect for you. Yes, you’ll probably be upsold to take the course, but it’s actually worth the money. To date, I’ve made a literal 100x return on my investment in buying that program.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
If you want to become a successful blog, you have to learn how to persuade people. Influence is the best book on persuasion I’ve ever read.
It talks about different cognitive biases we have and teaches you both how to use them to influence others and spot when others are trying to influence you.
Here’s the thing, if you have a message you believe in you should do everything in your power to get people to read it, including using subtle techniques that play on their psychology.
If you want to have an actual career as a writer, you have to sell, market, and persuade. You have to understand the minds of your readers so you can get them to do what you want. I learned a lot of the persuasive techniques I use in my writing directly from this book — from reciprocity to social proof to commitment consistency.
They help me attract new readers and successfully sell products to build my writing business. The book will help you do the same thing.
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr
If you want people to read your work, it’s important to use clear and concise language. The Elements of Style teaches you techniques to make your content more readable.
My favorite technique from the book: omit needless words.
Here’s a sample of lessons from the book:
- Place yourself in the background
- Write in a way that comes naturally
- Work from a suitable design
- Write with nouns and verbs
- Revise and rewrite
- Do not overwrite
- Do not overstate
- Avoid the use of qualifiers
- Do not affect a breezy manner
- Use orthodox spelling
It goes deeper into explanations of each and the entire book doesn’t use a single word or sentence that doesn’t need to be there. You can breeze right through it.
Your Move: The Underdog’s Guide to Building Your Business
Ramit Sethi runs a website called Iwillteachyoutoberich.com. Far from a gimmick, it’s one of the most useful personal finance and entrepreneurship blogs you can find.
With more than 30,000 satisfied customers and a ton of successful students, the results he’s been able to help people get through blogging are undeniable.
The book talks about how to build information product businesses. A lot of bloggers use information products to build a business from their writing based on the insights they share in their work.
It goes over topics like:
- How to know whether or not your business idea is profitable
- The truth about what it really takes to make ‘passive income’
- How to find your first handful of customers as soon as possible
Ramit uses no-fluff writing, sarcastic humor, and highly actionable tips that make the book a useful, entertaining, and actionable read.
Buy These Blogger Books and Thrive
Here’s what you should do next. Buy either one or a couple, of these blogger books and follow their recommendations to the letter. If you actually follow the methods they teach, you will have a blog that makes money and scratches your creative itch at the same time.
Information on its own isn’t enough. You still have to do the work. But these resources are an excellent start. Have any other blogger books you enjoy? Leave them in the comments below.
