Learning to Blog from Bloggers

Note: this post includes affiliate links.  Read my disclosure policy here.

Have you wanted to start a blog but you didn’t know where to start? Or maybe you have started a blog, but you struggle with understanding the basics of how to grow and make money from your blog? For years, I wanted to start a blog, I had great ideas for starting a blog, but I didn’t start a blog until I learned how to blog from other bloggers.

One of the best ways to learn how to blog is to learn from the success (and sometimes the mistakes) of other bloggers. In these 5 books,  successful bloggers share their experiences and knowledge of how to make your blog a success.  You can save time and money by learning tips and strategies from these bloggers.

5 Books Every Blogger Should Read

1.  Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook

Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook by Abby Lawson is truly the ultimate blogging handbook.  Abby will teach you everything you need to know about starting and making your blog successful.  She starts with how to name your blog, choose a hosting company and set-up your blog.

Then, she gets more in-depth with how to write content for your blog, how to include photography and the importance of writing to your audience.  In addition to content, to be successful, you also need to build relationships with other bloggers.  Abby shares the why and how to connect with bloggers.

Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook also takes you through how to set-up and post on social media.  You will learn how to make money from your blog and the secrets to working with brands.  In the last sections of the book, Abby shares how to make your own product and build your email list.

Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook gives you the ideas and tools you need to start and build a successful blog.  You have the option of 3 packages that allow you choose just the book and blog planner or upgrade to include step-by-step tutorials and interviews with other expert bloggers.  You can choose the option that’s right for you.

2.  Breakthrough + Workbook

Breakthrough: The Complete Guide to Growing Your Platform & Blogging Your Way to a Full-Time Income by Adeline Ganley will also help you build your blog.  Adeline has blogged for several years, but recently started to build her blog into a full-time income. If you are a stay at home mom or a mom who has a full-time job, and wants to work from home, Breakthrough will give you insights on how to turn your blog into a money making blog.

Adeline will teach you how to find your “blogging voice”, create your brand and set-up your blog.  She will also help you improve your writing and set-up an editorial calendar.  She even gives some basic SEO tips.

She also shares how to grow your blog traffic and email list with freemiums and social media.  As you grow your blog, you will then be able to start making money and building a business.

I especially like at the end of each chapter in the book, you are given a few short assignments to improve your blog.  The workbook provides you additional tasks for blog improvements.  Since blogs constantly need to be updated, some of the tasks you can repeat every 3 to 6 months (like updating your “about me” page or refining your audience).

3.  How to Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul

How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul is different from the first 2 books mentioned because it does not include any suggestions for starting or setting up your blog.  This book assumes you already have a blog and are ready to move to the next level.

Ruth Soukup shares what is awesome content and how to design the “perfect pin” and strategies for sharing your blog content on Pinterest and other social media.   You will also learn how to use these tools to grow your platform and audience.

Once you start growing your audience, Ruth will share with you the many ways to make money from your blog through ad networks, affiliate sales, private advertising and creating and selling your own product.

She closes the book by showing you how to stay focused on the most important tasks and manage your time better.

If you read How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul and enjoy the content, I recommend Elite Blog Academy which is an in-depth course on the 12 principles from the book.

4.  Delicious Blogging

Delicious Blogging by Debi Stangeland compares a blogging to a delicious recipe  that you can follow for success.  The book is divided into 31 chapters designed to help you understand and improve one part of your blog at a time in small steps at your own pace.

Debi will teach you how to write your “about me” page and why it’s important.  She will help you learn how to create attractive sidebars on your blog.  She teaches you how to be successful with social media, how to grow your facebook fans.  She includes several chapters on Pinterest including how to make your pins “PINcredible” and the importance of group boards.

Debi shares many additional insights from her 10 years of blogging in this book that will you make your blog a success too.  Don’t miss the secret to Delicious Blogging.

5.  iBlog

iBlog: Everything You Need to Know About Blogging from 30 Top Bloggers gives you blogging knowledge and insights from not one, but 30 different bloggers.  Each blogger writes about a different topic.  They cover all the topics you need to get started and improve as a blogger.

They will help you find and refine your niche (yes, most bloggers start too broad and narrow their audience/niche over time), design your blog, understand why you need disclosures and privacy policies.

They also share how to use stock images and how to improve your blog images.  You will also learn how to grow your subscriber list, guest post, and optimize link-ups.   No blogging book would be complete without social media insights, how to make your own printables and write media your kit.

iBlog shares more than just the business of blogging.  You will learn how to maintain balance in your life, how to use your blog as a ministry and how to maximize your blogging time.

Bonus: Money Making Mom

Money Making Mom by Crystal Paine is not a book specifically about blogging, but it’s for all moms who want to know how they can work from home and continue to add income for their family.

In Money Making Mom, Crystal shares her own story, and the stories of many other moms.  These moms share many different businesses and opportunities where mom’s can have their own business (many of the examples in this book are mom’s with businesses where a blog is not primary focus).  You will be inspired by the ideas and insights from other moms.

Crystal will teach you to study and look for opportunities that fit with your talents and abilities to create and grow a business, but also how to recognize that not every idea that we love will be a success.  The goal is to find the perfect combination between what you enjoy and your audience needs.

Which book is best?  Each book offers a different perspective and insights that will help you become a better blogger.  Each book is very affordable – all of them $25 or less (some as inexpensive as $4.99).  If you do want to be a serious blogger, learn from the experience of these successful bloggers how you too can be a successful blogger.

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Your turn…

What is your favorite blogging book or resource?  What is your best time-saving tip for bloggers?