It was a cold winter afternoon in 2008. I was sitting on my then-girlfriends’ couch with a laptop when I came across something that would change my life forever.
A blog.
I was never much of a reader, but there was something about this platform that kept me engaged, that kept me reading and learning and thinking and dreaming. That was the start.
Ever since, I’ve read thousands of blog posts on hundreds of blogs and today I’ve compiled a list of 10 blog posts I’ve read over the years that have made a significant, everlasting impact on my life.
Top Young Entrepreneurs: The Rich List
By Michael Dunlop
Back when I was first discovering blogs, I remember stumbling upon this Retire@21 post. Not only was it my first encounter with one of Michael Dunlop’s sites, it completely reshaped what I wanted to do with my life.
It’s a list of the richest young entrepreneurs in the world. One thing they all had in common is that they were almost entirely internet-based.
I credit Michael’s list with inspiring me for the first time to look into becoming an internet entrepreneur.
Read: Top Young Entrepreneurs: The Rich List
How My Fan Mail Can Serve as a Motivator to You
By Alex Fraiser
Around that same time, I came across another site called, Blogussion. At the time, I wasn’t particularly interested in blogging. I just wanted to become one of those internet entrepreneurs.
This site, however, convinced me that one of the best ways to get started online was with a blog.
The first day I found Blogussion, I spent over eight hours reading Alex’s posts. Right before I went to bed, I decided to send Alex an email asking him how he built his site (even mentioning Michael Dunlop). It was the first time I had ever reached out to a blogger, so I didn’t know what to expect.
A few days later, he wrote this post based on my email. For the first time I recognized how awesome it would be to cultivate a community of like-minded folks through a blog.
Read: How My Fan Mail Can Serve as a Motivator to You
My Million Dollar Mistake
By Neil Patel
Quicksprout was another one of those sites that I’ve read for years. And one of the first Quicksprout posts I remember reading was Neil detailing the biggest business mistake he has ever made.
I took quite a few business lessons away from this post, but what I truly learned was that people like to read about other people’s failures. They like to know that even people they respect make mistakes.
From a blogging perspective, one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience is to reveal the things you’re not proud of.
Read: My Million Dollar Mistake
The True Story of My Overnight Success
By Michael Dunlop
I had been following Michael’s (and many others’) sites fairly closely for a year when Michael wrote this post detailing his “overnight” success.
In the post, Michael walks through all the different businesses he dabbled in before he ever started IncomeDiary. Michael ran sites for 4 or 5 years before he even started IncomeDiary in 2008.
By this time, I had my own site and I was struggling to get even a couple thousand people a month to it. It was refreshing to read about all the hard lessons Michael learned along the way and to realize that there’s no such thing as overnight success.
Read: The True Story of My Overnight Success
How to Be Interesting
By Jon Morrow
Like IncomeDiary, Copyblogger has had a profound impact on how I see internet marketing.
This is the first Copyblogger post I remember reading. In it, Jon Morrow picks apart 21 different routes you can take to be more interesting.
I have this post as a featured bookmark in Chrome and I often revisit it to brainstorm new ideas for blog posts.
Read: How to Be Interesting
1,000 True Fans
By Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly originally wrote this blog post in 2008 and it has since become one of the most influential blog posts of all time.
The premise is that you only need 1,000 true fans of your business to make a full-time income doing just about anything.
I remember reading it a few years ago, and for the first time I was convinced that anyone could become an entrepreneur selling almost anything.
Read: 1,000 True Fans
How to Pet a Kitty
By The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman)
I’m not particularly fond of petting cats, but this comic captured my imagination and gave me a whole new outlook on creating quality content.
When Matthew originally created this comic, it went viral with almost 400K Facebook Likes. So he turned it into a poster and started selling the poster with a link at the end of the comic.
A funny comic that was relevant to a lot of people became a sales page that people wanted to read and share with their friends. You should have that goal with everything you write.
Read: How to Pet a Kitty
Build Internet 2009: The Year in Review
By Zach Dunn
BuildInternet.com had an incredible first year in 2009. The Dunn brothers and crew managed to write 178 blog posts and gather over 1.75 million visits.
This post details a few fun facts about the site, walks you through the evolution of the design, and gives you an inside look at many of the stats around the site.
This post made such an impact on me because it was the first time I remember seeing a site so generously provide the stats around their success. There’s a lot to learn from simply knowing those numbers.
Read: Build Internet 2009: The Year in Review
How to Make an Electric White Board for Your Videos
By Pat Flynn
Pat Flynn is, perhaps, the best blogger in the world when it comes to creating every form of content: text, images, audio, and video.
Now that embedded videos are starting to show up in search results, video blogging is more important than ever. In this post, Pat walks you through exactly how he creates many of his videos.
Prior to reading this post, I always viewed video as something only the big guys could do. But now I can see how simple it is to create professionally produced content with only a few pieces of software.
Read: How to Make an Electronic White Board for Your Videos
On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas
By Jon Morrow
If you only have time to read one of these posts, read this one.
I’d write a summary for it and describe how it has impacted me, but that wouldn’t do it justice. You need to read it for yourself.
Read: On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas
The Final Point
A great blog post is like a great song. You always remember the first time you read or hear it.
And the truly great blog posts make such an impact on you that you remember them forever.
Don’t you want to create that sort of content?
Do you have any blog posts that made such a profound impact on you that you still remember reading them for the first time?