We firmly believe that the best way to learn is through the teachings of fellow experienced bloggers and business owners in your field. For those in the freelance writing online niche, it is even more important to constantly learn and absorb information. This has led us to compile the best books for bloggers, WordPress enthusiasts, and business-minded people to help take your ventures to the next level.
Additional entries will be added over time to ensure you don’t miss out on the latest (and greatest) guides available.
Blogging Books
How To Blog For Profit: Without Selling Your Soul
By Ruth Soukup
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After growing her blog to over one million visitors each month, Ruth Soukup decided to share her knowledge with the rest of the world — and we’re certainly glad she did. How to Blog for Profit’s main theme revolves around ethical practices, as it shows how anyone can grow a highly successful blog without grey-area methods or taking unnecessary risks. With determination and a solid marketing strategy (which are all very well laid out here) Ruth effectively guides you to undisputed blogging success.
Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses
By Joe Pulizzi
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While traditional marketers develop a product first and seek potential customers later, Joe Pulizzi decided to work against the entrepreneurial current and has found nothing short of success. He teaches you how to elevate your blog to new heights, build solid connections through solid content, and then help your audience with the best products at your disposal. Inc magazine has consistently lauded his efforts, and we can’t help but agree to the very fullest.
Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community
By Joy Deangdeelert Cho
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We all know the immense amount of work it takes to launch and maintain a blog. Thankfully, Joy Deangdeelert Cho feels our pain and has done something about it.
From choosing an adequate theme to financing your blog’s growth to attracting a highly engaged audience, this nifty guide reveals the very best methods to tackle the blogosphere puzzle with ease. Best of all, the book convincingly speaks to both newer and fully-established bloggers alike, ensuring that no one is left out in the cold. Definitely one of the best books for bloggers of all levels.
Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
By Ann Handley
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It’s easy to assume that writing isn’t a big deal. Simply explain your point and add a call-to-action at the end, correct? Not a chance.
In truth, we can all jot down words but very few can make a powerful impact through them. Ann Handley teaches you all about great storytelling, presenting the facts, retaining your audience and building new customers through the power of effective writing. As a fellow blogger and marketer, can you really afford to miss out on this kind of information? We think not.
Blogging: The Ultimate Guide On How To Replace Your Job With A Blog
By Efron Hirsch
This gem has a very specific trait: The ability to get straight to the point while teaching you all there is to know about successful blogging. Aimed primarily at beginners, Efron Hirsch guides you through the very beginning stages to growing a massively large following over time. This is a definite winner among the best blogging books, showing you how to go about everyday-blogging without feeling overwhelmed.
Blogging All-in-One for Dummies
By Susan Gunelius
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Eight minibooks and over 700 pages deliver all the information you need to choose a blogging application, write content people want to read, build an audience, make money with a blog, and use Twitter to expand your reach. As far as effective blogging books go, this one has definitely managed to catch our attention.
ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
By Darren Rowse
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If you think you can earn a six-figure income by just sitting in front of your computer and writing about topics which interests you, then think again! Blogging has finally taken it to the next level and you might just even be one of those fortunate people to earn lots and lots of money through it.
Find out how you can be a problogger.
Google Blogger For Dummies
By Susan Gunelius
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Learn how easy it can be to join the world of online publishing using the most popular free blogging application, Google’s Blogger. This step by step guide to launching a blog goes beyond the basics by showing readers exactly how to promote their blogs and earn money from them, too.
Blogging For Dummies
By Amy Lupold Bair
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Blogging can be complicated for newbies like you but it wouldn’t be that much hard when you read the simple instructions in this handbook. Write about the most interesting things and improve your style in blogging about the things you like. Definitely, this book is your ultimate guide to knowing the dos and don’ts in blogging.
The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging
By Various authors/editors
Website
The Huffington Post editors give you an entertaining and informative A-Z guide about everything that you can blog bringing you concise and relevant information for newbies and even experienced ones who wants to extend the limits of blogging. It presents you with what you should do when you start a blog, easy ways to help you build it, create communities, and other strategies.
Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World’s Top Bloggers
By Joel Comm; Michael A. Banks
Get it straight from the biggest names in the blogosphere. Learn from the most influential and successful bloggers from different fields who blog about parenting, business, entertainment and more. You will be surprised as it is the best way to know how a good blog is established through intimate interviews of Michael Banks to these blog heroes revealing their secrets and philosophies in blogging.
Blogging for Fame and Fortune
By Jason R. Rich
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Blogging for Fame and Fortune will show you a lot of great ways for your blog to be popular and eventually make money from your traffic focusing in its premise to inform the readers how they can earn money while blogging while emphasizing that getting rich through blogging is not a quick scheme.
Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them
By Robert Walsh
Website
Clear Blogging tackles the bright future of blogging and its effects on changing the world’s perspective and what you can do to magnify that change. Surely, you will relate more as the book is very fun to read, comprehensible and conversational while emphasizing on getting started, success through blogging and taking blogging to the next level.
Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business
By DL Byron; Steve Broback
Publish and Proper tackles and motivates writers and those who need to express their thoughts to blog and eventually earn money through blogging. It gives a lot of necessary information from theory to practice and recommendations on setting up a working blog. Definitely, it preps up your blog in engaging into a business which can give you greater revenues.
The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie
By Joelle Reeder; Katherine Scoleri
Website (Joelle Reeder)
If you do not know where to start but you are so indulged in making a blog, the Moxie Girls will make you feel that blogging is a lot easier and fun to start with. And that you just need to polish your writing styles and get involved in communities online – all these, told in a spontaneous, fun and humorous way!
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
By Timothy Ferriss
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Youll probably be surprised with a book that will tell you how to get rich slowly, and this probably is it. The book is very promising as it holds lots of strategies to work out on making sure that you get what you need as well as what you desire to do with it. If you are a smart reader, you can extract a lot of good ideas from the book.
No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog
By Margaret Mason
Website
If you are tired of posting boring entries in your blog, then you have to take the next step into achieving a more informational and useful blog! Get inspired and create unique things in your blog as Margaret Mason presents you the methods you can do to spice up your blog.
WordPress Books
Starting a Successful Blog when you have NO CLUE! – 7 Steps to WordPress Bliss…
By Gundi Gabrielle
Website
This is another resource for beginner bloggers, especially those interested (yet overwhelmed) by the likes of WordPress. You see, there are still many bloggers and marketers who are relying on free content management alternatives. G. Gabrielle looks to fix all of this by helping you make a smooth transition and learn all there is to know about professional WordPress blogging. This includes picking a niche, a theme, setting up the site’s core essentials, and (most importantly) monetizing it. And everything is done in a single afternoon!
WordPress To Go: How To Build A WordPress Website On Your Own Domain, From Scratch, Even If You Are A Complete Beginner
By Sarah McHarry
Website
With almost 300 highly-rated reviews as of this writing, it’s no wonder this made it to our list of best books for bloggers and WordPress guides. This handy guide focuses on the small business owner or aspiring internet entrepreneur, as she understands that a “personal blog” is simply unacceptable for lucrative clients and high-volume sales. From defining your audience to publishing your very first post, WordPress To Go walks you through everything and helps elevate your business to new heights.
SEO 2020: Learn search engine optimization with smart internet marketing strategies Kindle Edition
By Adam Clarke
Building a professional website is great, but you would be leaving money on the table without some serious SEO efforts. This is where SEO 2017 comes in, as it takes you through everything you need to know about optimizing your content for maximum results. And thanks to WordPress and its many available features, you are practically guaranteed to rank high for any given keyword in conjunction with this guide’s lessons. We highly recommend this one for bloggers and content marketers of all levels.
Professional WordPress: Design and Development
By Brad Williams; David Damstra; Hal Stern
Website
If you’re looking for a more robust and advanced WordPress experience, then this one might be your cup of tea. Designed for experienced WordPress professionals, this book covers a wide range of tools, techniques and practices from a development standpoint. As explained by the author, the guide “offers techniques for crafting the best user experience, securing WordPress, managing data, and determining when WordPress is the right tool.” All in all, this is ideal for taking your professional website to the next level and expand your reach.
WordPress: 672 Free WordPress Plugins for Creating Amazing and Profitable Websites
By Chad Tennant
LinkedIn profile
Website
With so many plugins out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and even install the absolute worst currently available for download. Most blogging books cover the essentials, but very few actually talk about the most recommended WordPress plugins.
This guide serves as a one-stop-shop for every plugin you’ll ever need to run and grow your WordPress blog. From SEO to social media to e-commerce and much more, we’re glad author Chad Tennant did the homework for us. Plus, can you believe most of these options are free?
WordPress In Depth
By Bud Smith; Michael McCallister
Website
WordPress In Depth by Bud Smith and Michael McCallister covers WP 2.9 and might be the most low profile book about WordPress out there, but certainly is the surprise among the books covering WP. The book is well written and covers the popular blogging platform in an easy way, focused mainly on beginners. Read our review of ‘WordPress In Depth’ here.
Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog
By Thord D. Hedengren
Website
Former The Blog Herald editor and WordPress designer Thord D. Hedengren wrote the excellent Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog which is aimed mainly at WordPress users with Intermediate and Advanced knowledge. In the book, TDH guides the reader through theming and building advanced platforms with the WordPress blog software. We interviewed Thord for the release of his book.
Digging Into WordPress
By Chris Coyier; Jeff Starr
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Digging Into WordPress, written b Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr, is an excellent guide for advanced WordPress users. The book available both as PDF and print version shares many advanced tips for WordPress and uncovers the platform user many a special tip. Definitely a recommendation. Read our review of ‘Digging Into WordPress’ here.
WordPress for Dummies
By Lisa Sabin-Wilson
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Website
If you’re familiar with the Dummies brand, then you know this book won’t disappoint. WordPress for Dummies covers all there is to know about the popular CMS – from the basics to various advanced techniques that everyone could benefit from. We recommend you grab this one even if you already have decent WordPress knowledge, as there is always more room for improvement.
Business Books
Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams
By Jeff Walker
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Website
If you’ve ever been eager to sell anything online – especially on your own terms – then Launch might be the book you’re looking for. This guide teaches you how to start and grow your business by selling just about anything and keeping the momentum flowing, non-stop. From here you could sell small products on your blog or launch a full-blown e-commerce store to thousands of customers – your choice. Kudos to you, Jeff Walker.
The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
By Chris Guillebeau
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Website
If you think that a startup requires thousands of dollars in funding and investment, then think again. Author Chris Guillebeau worked with more than 1,300 business owners and learned how many of them started their business with $100 or even less. Moreover, these people have implemented their passion into these creations in order to make a living doing what they love. This is by far one of the best books about blogging, business, and everything related to success combined.
Passive Income: 30 Strategies and Ideas To Start an Online Business and Acquiring Financial Freedom
By Richard Gadson
Let’s face it: We all love the idea of passive income. The ability to receive money gradually means that you could walk away from your business and still receive money in your bank. Don’t get us wrong; the book isn’t about building a self-sustained business (every business needs oversight and maintenance). Rather, the guide is all about launching an income stream that requires little and infrequent efforts, thus helping you live a more flexible lifestyle. Highly recommended.
Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies
By Shannon Belew
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Website
This book is about much more than starting a website; it’s about growing a long-lasting, sustainable business without leaving room for error. It goes over many advanced lessons including website structure, legal requirements, accounting options, site optimization, and traffic. If you’re ready to move on from a personal blog and launch the next big thing online, this book is undoubtedly a good place to start.
40 Rules for Internet Business Success: Escape the 9 to 5, Do Work You Love, and Build a Profitable Online Business
By Matthew Paulson
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What we like about Matthew Paulson is that he tells it like it is, without shame. A respected business owner for well over a decade, the author teaches you absolutely everything about launching a business from personal experience. This effectively means you don’t have to commit the same mistakes, as he’s already been there and done that. Learn the fundamentals that make or break every business and, most importantly, transform your idea into a million-dollar empire.
These are the very best books for bloggers and creatives. If you have additional recommendations or questions, don’t hesitate to drop us a line.
