15 of the World’s Top Bloggers to Get You Inspired – Updated for 2020

Lots of people have dreamed of creating an income from home. Everyone wants to rule the world, as the old song goes. Creating a blog that makes you money while you sleep seems like a great but elusive dream to many. It’s hard to know how to get started and what to do to create a steady income. Even with limited success, it seems worth finding out more to be able to live the dream.

In this post, we’ll take a look at 15 of the world’s most successful bloggers, look at their websites and businesses, and see why these people are so successful when so many seem to fall by the wayside. There are a lot of similarities, but each came into his or her fortune in their way over years of false starts and seemingly “bad luck” situations.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk is a well-known and entertaining New York entrepreneur who came from a long line of wine and grapevine growers. He has built an Empire from his online video blogging business as well as to build up a 60 million dollar wine wholesale business online. He is very good at branding, and the two-time author and co-founder of Vaynermedia also helps other entrepreneurs get their start through his helpful and practical techniques. But don’t expect him to sugarcoat anything. He tells it like it is. His no-nonsense, practical outlook to life and business seems to work for him. He makes millions of dollars per year with his original media content business as well as through his family-owned wine business that was started by others in his family years ago when his family legally migrated to the United States to have an opportunity for capitalism at its best.

Rand Fishkin

Who says you have a to have a college degree to be successful? Rand Fishkin is a college dropout who developed an SEO optimization blog back in 2004. He had become quite an expert in this area since he was creating his content. He now provides SEO consulting services to a few clients, and he focuses on creating SEO software that helps business owners maximize and optimize their effects online. SEO still plays a critical role in the success of online business. If you master this part of the online business world, you may be able to generate a full-time income for yourself. Perhaps you will even make a fortune the way these bloggers are doing. Rand now blogs from SparkToro.com.

Rand’s company raised 18 million dollars in the year 2012, and he used this money to acquire other similar companies. This helped him to expand his already successful business base to other business types. He is an expert at blogging and creating stellar content that gets people noticed in a complex market. He has built a virtual Empire on his own all starting with a Blog and a dream.

Pat Flynn

If inspiration is a commodity, Pat Flynn has it. He was forced to create his own business when he was laid off from work. Starting with a shoestring and very little capital, he created the site Smart Passive Income and has been able to generate several online moneymaking projects that have made him a fortune. It is rumored that he makes an average of around $50,000 per month doing industry conferences and running podcasts for his writers to offer tips for success.

Not bad for a laptop job that you can work from anywhere in the world. Getting started is often the hardest part of growing a business. It’s a good idea to brainstorm what you want to do on paper before you start trying to put your plan into effect. Planning makes perfect, or so they say.

Brian Clark

If you’ve ever heard of Copyblogger, a well-known content writing site, then you already know who Brian Clark is. Businesses all over the world are looking for high-quality content sites that will help bring in quality traffic to their businesses. Brian now blogs from Further.net.

He started the Copyblogger.com site back in 2006 to be a resource for those who wanted to become better content marketers and copywriters. Brian is considered the “King of content” because of his blog and writing business and has become quite an authority or writing excellent content online for businesses.

How successful is Brian Clark when it comes to blogging? He has over 100,000 subscribers, and he launched the Copyblogger Media Business recently. He also has his hand in other companies such as Scribe, Premise, and Studio Press. The reason people lined up to buy his marketing software and his products is that his readers love him and he is very active in the day-to-day running of his businesses. Being able to connect to your readers is the key to success, if you go by the model, Brian has outlined in his business model.

Timothy Ferriss

If you’re an entrepreneur and read about other entrepreneurs and outsourcing, chances are you have come across this author. Tim Ferriss is a self-proclaimed Lifehacker who has authored several books including the very famous Four-Hour Work Week in which he initiated the idea that you don’t need to work Beyond 4 hours per week to get things done. The book is available on Amazon in both eBook and audiobook format. Of, course you need capital to start his idea of “outsourcing everything.” He is credited with popularizing the internet lifestyle and teaches people how to work from their laptop from anywhere in the world.

Andrew Sullivan

How do you get from lawyer to gossip columnist? Harvey Levin started as an American lawyer and legal analyst, but because of his connections with the movie and music industry, he quickly segued into the celebrity business. You’ll see him on CNN, Fox, and other networks hosting his TV show where he has been able to create huge popularity due to his blog and personal branding approach.

Check out his site and look at his video content and presentations to see how he has made a fortune online using an effective blogging platform that draws customers and views. Learn how he turns these views into serious capital and makes a full-time living online. Sullivan helps beginners and experts alike to grow their business into a large company opportunity. If you want to grow your blogging business, you may want to follow Andrew and see what you can learn from him.

Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington is an acquisitions lawyer who worked on startup deals in Silicon Valley, California. At the beginning of his career, he helped startups get going in the tech industry then eventually created a blog known as Techcrunch.com. which is famous worldwide for its innovative approach to the world of technology and New Media.

TechCrunch is now one of the most widely read blogs in the industry of technology and it was recently acquired by AOL for 30 million dollars. People turn to his blog for insightful information on technology, including regulations in the industry, how to fund a startup tech company and innovative technologies that have the potential to create a sound return. He is also an angel investor and has recently set up his investment fund known as Crunch Fund to invest in startups.

Timothy Sykes

Timothy Sykes is a Jewish entrepreneur who started his business from his home with only a blog and some general knowledge in penny stock trading online. He got to be an expert in penny stock trading and became an influencer in this area. He created his income by helping others figure out how to make wealth out of penny stocks by trading only a few penny stocks per day. Check out his blog to learn more about him and to find out how you, too can make a living with fractional or penny stocks. As they say, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” And a penny invested returns two pennies, perhaps!

Darren Rowse

If you say the name Darren Rowse in professional blogging circles, you might hear people say, “Oh you mean the god of Blogging!” He began blogging as a hobby and blogged about hot topics like the Olympics, Photography, and other topics which got him attention from those that were interested in those subjects.

He started the company problogger.com which is a website dedicated solely to help each other bloggers make a living online through their blogging. He uses affiliate marketing, Adsense, and other tools to do this. His blog topics are very focused, and he shows others how to keep your content in a narrow niche area to create the most income.

He is a full-time blogger and ebook author and also creates his courses that make him a lot of money. He has gained a lot of fame and attention online and he is originally from Melbourne, Australia. He has been featured in the “Internet Celebrity List of 2007” and is the author of many publications and podcasts and other materials. Entrepreneurs and freelancers comment that he has helped inspire them and many other bloggers to learn how to make a full-time living online through affiliate marketing and other means.

In addition to the content he’s created for bloggers, bloggers and writers can visit his website at Jobs.problogger.com to check out the job board as well. You’ll find all sorts of jobs that are available for bloggers and writers who have decided to make freelance writing their full-time income. Some of the jobs pay quite well.

Harvey Levin

Harvey Levin is an American lawyer and legal analyst but also a blogger and celebrity reporter. He works on building brands for other entrepreneurs and has made a successful career out of building his brand online.

Yaro Starak

Yaro Starak originally started a website about a card game that he played when he was 20 years old. The game was called “Magic: the Gathering,” and was similar to poker with dragons and elves. He grew up in a time when dragons and strange characters were becoming popular.

He became obsessed with the game and quickly gained a following of other “Magic, the Gathering” card aficionados and started selling banner ads to card game stores. Then he decided to start his online card store. He was able to net around $1,000 a month and updated the website to increase his inventory.

He went into debt though when he learned that one of his biggest customers had used stolen credit card numbers to buy from the store. So he became depressed. After that, he started learning about tech companies and created another site called Betteredit.com which was an essay editing business that helped content writing businesses in Australia. That blog changed his life, and now he helps develop new tech-oriented websites that incorporate content writing tips and software to help freelancers and content site business owners.

The lesson we can all learn from him is that you should never give up. What you learn in a “successful failure” can be valuable later when you build your next venture in online business.

John Chow

John Chow is a well-known blogger and Asian-American blogger and entrepreneur. His claim to fame is the way he developed the secret to making a six-figure monthly income on the internet. He prides himself in creating original content and sells courses that teach others how to make money like he did using content marketing and affiliate sales tools.

He hosts live events while helping people improve their content marketing and search rankings in Google. He has a lot of helpful tips and literature that you can check out of his website. He also creates quite a bit of video content from time-to-time that will help bloggers and writers get started creating high-quality content that sells. Check out his site to learn more.

Jeremy Shoemaker

Though he’s never been officially endowed with this title, Jeremy Shoemaker could easily earn the title of “AdSense king.” That’s because he has earned nearly $132,000 from Google with AdSense ads alone on his website. His first big site was called nextpimp.com and he focuses solely on Direct marketing and affiliate marketing. He also now teaches others how to create an easy life for themselves by putting together an effective website or blog that gets continued visits. He does this by showing them the techniques he has learned, and he helps entrepreneurs and freelancers generate a full-time income from home.

He is the founder of the newly-created Shoemoney Media Group and is considered an expert marketer, blogger, and author. You will want to bookmark his social media accounts to keep up with his success.

Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes is an American author, entrepreneur and former arena league football player. He owns The School of Greatness, which is a talk show that he created through a podcast. He promotes the idea of making a full-time living doing what you love and has an active Facebook presence. He is endorsed by a surprisingly large number of mainstream media outlets including both print and TV formats. He is also a frequent guest on talk shows that feature how to create an original business from scratch.

Jon Morrow

John Morrow’s website is called smartblogger.com. He focuses on the art of blogging and teaches people how to create effective affiliate marketing content that brings in views and creates increased revenue and traffic.

Jon Morrow shows you how to write blog posts, how to make money writing, as well as several mistakes to avoid when writing your first ebook. He says that if you follow his plan, you will increase your chances of success by 100 times or more.

He wrote a book called “Headline Hacks” that is a cheat sheet for writing blog posts that go viral.

A Final Look at the World’s Top Bloggers

We hope you have learned something from this look at 15 of the world’s most successful top bloggers. Blogging is not difficult if you have a hobby, a topic, or a business idea that you know a lot about. So start with a topic you know and build your blogging business around that.

Following the techniques and tricks that these successful bloggers have developed, you may be able to corner the market faster than you think. Using affiliate marketing skills, Google Adsense, and other techniques, you’ll be creating stellar content in no time and producing the income you’ve always dreamed of.

Like anything in life, it comes with no guarantees. But over time, you will start to see the profits come in if you are determined and you never give up on your dream of working at home and making a great living!

Bookmark or follow these successful bloggers and influencers on your social media. That way, you will continue to learn from their successes.

All of these successful bloggers started differently. They are all unique people with different backgrounds, experiences, and family histories. But one thing they had in common was the determination to create a fortune by using their skills to market, network, and produce. The internet has changed the way people do business, live, and work today. If you work hard, you may find that it was worth the journey!