Update: The Best Personal Development Blogs for 2016 have just been released!
It’s back!
To kick off the New Year in style we bring you the best self-improvement blogs for 2014. In fact, we bring you the Top 100!
But firstly, I hope you had an absolutely fantastic night to bring in 2014. I was down at Sydney Harbour, Australia to witness some absolutely spectacular fireworks. Now that we’re beginning a brand new year it’s the perfect time to launch your life, regain focus on what you truly want in life and really start to make things happen.

Last year we brought you the official Top 100 Personal Development Blogs of 2013 and now it’s time to repeat the process and bring you the best blogs for 2014!
Being a student of the personal development industry most of my life, I’m always on the lookout for the latest and greatest resources to not only implement into my own life but to also share with those around me. Since I’ve been running my own business I’ve fallen more and more into the well of personal development and self-improvement and I absolutely love it! With the internet now a common place for everyone and the ‘free economy’ being born, it’s amazing to know that what was once hidden from the majority of people and limited to a select few people paying $5,000 to access information at a weekend seminar, this information is now mostly widely available for free on the internet or at least at a much more affordable price.
The key to all this information is being able to pull what’s relevant for you and being able to apply that information in a systematic and successful way that will lead you towards your desired life.
The Best Self-Improvement Blogs for 2014
I feel honoured to know that over the last couple of years I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a lot of the blog owners in this list and share some great experiences with them. I can certainly say that I’m highly impressed with all of their work!

The tricky thing about putting together a Top 100 list is the subjective nature that it can have. To avoid this, I’ve decided to not include any of my own opinions or judgments and let pure metrics speak for themselves.
What I have provided is a list of personal development blogs that rank from the ‘biggest’ with the most traffic to the ‘smallest’. This list will provide you a clear indicator of how large a website is and its relative importance.
One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the larger the site does not necessarily indicate that the site is of better quality. Generally, you will find that the larger sites have been around for longer and have more articles being crawled by Google and larger subscription bases. In saying that, the top sites have lasted the test of time and continue to have strong readership so they must be doing something right!
A Key Note of Change from Last Year:
Last year we had a number of sites that have multiple authors contributing to the site. I have decided to remove these sites from this years Top 100 as they are more ‘commercial’ in nature and not really sites that I would classify as a ‘blog’. There are sites still in this Top 100 that do have multiple authors, however the key difference is that in the Top 100 list the blog owner is still the main, active contributor to the website and they are the primary person that you will be learning from.
The sites removed from this years list are below. I have included them in this section as they are still fantastic resources to learn from and are also great guest posting sites for those that would like to write an article on another site.
- Dumb Little Man
- Pick the Brain
- Tiny Buddha
- LifeHack
- Change Your Thoughts
- The Change Blog
- Addicted2Success
- FinerMinds
- MindBodyGreen
Yes, we do accept Guest Posts here on The Start of Happiness too. You can check out our guidelines and submit your articles here.
The thing about these multiple author sites is that it starts to blur the boundary between a ‘blog’ and a ‘magazine’… something for me to consider in future years.
How to Use This List
This is YOUR LIST. The list of the best self-improvement blogs have been put together for you to browse through and find the two or three blogs out there that really resonate with you. We all have different goals and life experiences and we are also currently experiencing a range of different situations or circumstances in life. For this reason, there is a wide variety of blogs on the list, including business, career and work, happiness, health, productivity and more. The one thing in common is that they all are themed around self-improvement.
My recommendation to you is to browse through each of the blogs below at least once and then pick out the two or three blogs that really resonate with you. Which blogs are most closely aligned to what you want to achieve in life? Which author has accomplished something that you would like to accomplish? Which blogs are helping you right now in your life and also in the future?
Make sure you enter your name and email to download your free success starter toolkit with practical guides, exercises and tools to launch your life. Let this be the start of something amazing for you.
Please don’t hesitate to bookmark this page. It’s a fantastic resource that can serve you well all throughout the year of 2014 and as you face new challenges or gain new experiences, there may be some other blogs on the list that become more relevant for you.
How The Top 100 Self-Improvement Blogs are Ranked
The Top 100 Self-Improvement Blogs are ranked in order from the ‘biggest’ with the most traffic to the ‘smallest’ (although the smallest in this case is still a Top 100 Blog!)
There are two primary tools that have been used for determining this ranking.
Firstly, I have used the Alexa rank of the website as the primary ranking method. Alexa provides a relative ranking of each website based on the number of visitors it receives. A rank of 100,000 would mean that the site is the 100,000th most visited site on the internet. With the millions and millions of websites on the internet, such a ranking is classified as pretty good! Just so you know, Google’s rank is #1, Facebook is ranked #2 and YouTube is ranked #3. The Top 100 Self-Improvement Blogs are ranked by Alexa scores (as of January 2014).
Secondly, I have included Google Page Rank. Google Page Rank is one of the tools Google uses to determine a sites relative importance. This is done primarily by how many quality backlinks the website has. Generally, a score of 4 or higher represents the site is of relative importance. The Top 100 Self-Improvement Blogs are not ranked by Google Page Rank, however I have included the PageRank of each blog for you to utilise if you wish (you can filter by this).
The accuracy of these tools has always been questionable when it comes to the detail, however when comparing more generally the relative size of a site they are pretty accurate and very useful indicators. That is, the larger and more tafficked sites will always tend to be ranked higher.
Want to know what’s really cool? The Top 100 table is dynamic, meaning you can search for your favourite blog and see what it’s ranked and sort by any column, such as page rank or alphabetical order. This is your list. Make it so!
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the Best Personal Development Blogs for 2014!
The Winners
If your blog is one of the Top 100, you have the honour of displaying the following badge on your site. This is the most comprehensive list of personal development blogs currently on the internet and I’m honoured to have you as part of this! Simply use the code provided below to add it to your site.

Code to link to this page with badge on your website:
<a href=”https://www.startofhappiness.com/top-100-self-improvement-blogs-2014″><img src=”https://www.startofhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/top-100-self-improvement-blog.png”></img></a>
(you may need to replace the inverted commas – “” on your own site for the image to work).
[sociallocker id=”3837″]https://www.startofhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Top-100-Self-Improvement-Blogs-2014.pdf[/sociallocker]
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Top 100 Self Improvement Blogs 2014
Rank Website URL Owners' Name Alexa Rank PageRank
1 Four Hour Work Week fourhourworkweek.com Tim Ferriss 4,915 6
2 Brain Pickings http://www.brainpickings.org/ Maria Popova 6,496 7
3 ZenHabits zenhabits.net Leo Babauta 8,844 6
4 Michael Hyatt's Intentional Leadership michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt 11,724 5
5 Marc and Angel Hack Life marcandangel.com Marc and Angel 13,105 5
6 Steve Pavlina stevepavlina.com Steve Pavlina 13,695 5
7 Nerd Fitness nerdfitness.com Steve Kamb 15,627 4
8 Mark Manson markmanson.net Mark Manson 30,086 4
9 Aha-Now! aha-now.com Harleena Singh 31,173 3
10 penelopetrunk.com penelopetrunk.com Penelope Trunk 32,308 4
11 Location 180 seanogle.com Sean Ogle 33,225 5
12 Live Your Legend liveyourlegend.net Scott Dinsmore 37,611 4
13 chrisguillebeau.com chrisguillebeau.com Chrisguille Beau 41,018 5
14 Marie Forleo marieforleo.com Marie Forleo 41,971 5
15 Danielle LaPorte daniellelaporte.com Danielle LaPorte 45,309 4
16 Paid to Exist paidtoexist.com Jonathan Mea 63,527 5
17 Becoming Minimalist becomingminimalist.com Joshua Becker 64,979 4
18 The Positivity Blog positivityblog.com Henrik Edberg 66,261 5
19 Scott H Young scotthyoung.com/blog Scott Young 66,466 5
20 A Daring Adventure adaringadventure.com Tim Brownson 69,643 4
21 Tynan tynan.com Tynan 71,243 4
22 Personal Excellence personalexcellence.co Celestine Chua 74,416 4
23 The Bridge Maker thebridgemaker.com Alex Blackwell 78,339 4
24 Raptitude raptitude.com David Cain 79,676 4
25 Purpose Fairy purposefairy.com Luminita D. Saviuc 80,717 4
26 White Dove Books - Inspiration whitedovebooks.co.uk Will Edwards 83,414 4
27 Derek Sivers sivers.org Derek Sivers 87,734 5
28 The Happiness Project happiness-project.com Gretchen Rubin 91,442 6
29 Jonathan Fields jonathanfields.com Jonathan Fields 96,425 5
30 Prolific Living prolificliving.com Farnoosh Brock 110,040 3
31 Start of Happiness startofhappiness.com Brendan Baker 110,553 4
32 Blog of Impossible Things joelrunyon.com Joel Runyon 115,853 4
33 Wake Up Cloud wakeupcloud.com Henri Junttila 120,976 4
34 Life Optimizer lifeoptimizer.org Donald Latumahina 122,517 5
35 Soul Speak jodichapman.com Jodi Chapman 125,390 3
36 Think Simple Now thinksimplenow.com Tina Su 130,762 5
37 Powered by Intuition poweredbyintuition.com Angela Artemis 135,144 3
38 Inspired Gift Giving inspiredgiftgiving.com Marquita Herald 144,350 3
39 Reflecting A Life reflectingalife.com Elle Sommer 157,523 1
40 Vidya Sury vidyasury.com Vidya Sury 158,752 3
41 The Bold Life theboldlife.com Tess Marshall 164,016 3
42 Life Long Learner life-longlearner.com Scott Britton 168,141 3
43 Live Bold and Bloom liveboldandbloom.com Barrie Davenport 171,174 4
44 Soul Seeds soulseeds.com Ian Lawton 171,775 3
45 Healthy Lifestyle Living healthylifestylesliving.com Larry Lewis 174,083 2
46 The Emotion Machine theemotionmachine.com Steven Handel 175,214 4
47 Simona Rich simonarich.com Simona Rich 178,697 3
48 Advanced Life Skills advancedlifeskills.com Jonathan Wells 179,203 5
49 Alden Tan alden-tan.com Alden Tan 180,123 3
50 In Pursuit of Happiness inpursuitofhappiness.net Britt Reints 182,169 5
51 Develop Good Habits developgoodhabits.com SJ Scott 188,382 1
52 Advanced Riskology advancedriskology.com Tyler Tervooren 201,815 4
53 Morty Lefkoe mortylefkoe.com Morty Lefkoe 206,338 3
54 Be More With Less bemorewithless.com Courtney Carver 222,497 4
55 Self Stairway selfstairway.com Vincent Nguyen 226,526 3
56 Good Life Zen goodlifezen.com Mary Jaksch 230,207 5
57 Positive Provocations positiveprovocations.com Zeenat Merchant-Syal 241,358 3
58 The 30-Year Old Ninja 30yearoldninja.com Izmael Arkin (Izzy) 247,305 2
59 Victor Schueller victorschueller.com Victor Schueller 268,306 2
60 Sensophy sensophy.com Jacob Sokol 269,166 3
61 Dragos Roua dragosroua.com Dragos Roua 292,850 4
62 Deliberate Receiving deliberateblog.com Melody Fletcher 296,896 2
63 Life After College lifeaftercollege.org/blog Jenny Blake 297,524 4
64 Breath of Optimism breathofoptimism.com Donald Dulin 316,878 3
65 The Un-Lost theunlost.com Therese Schwenkler 323,530 3
66 Simple Mindfulness simplemindfulness.com Paige Burkes 327,792 3
67 Sebastian Marshall sebastianmarshall.com Sebastian Marshall 339,183 4
68 Wired for Success wiredforsuccess.tv Beryl and Mel 339,865 2
69 Sid Savara sidsavara.com Sid Savara 346,065 4
70 Always Well Within alwayswellwithin.com Sandra Pawula 353,520 3
71 Your Life Your Way yourlifeyourway.net Tia Sparkles 362,555 3
72 Abundance Tapestry abundancetapestry.com Evelyn Lym 368,359 5
73 The Possibility of Today possibilityoftoday.com Sibyl Chavis 379,143 4
74 Forward Steps forwardstepsblog.com Thea Westra 391,434 2
75 Deva Coaching devacoaching.com Sandi Amorim 391,882 2
76 Positively Present positivelypresent.com Dani DiPirro 395,078 4
77 Rowdy Kittens rowdykittens.com/blog Tammy Strobel 402,316 4
78 Get Motivation getmotivation.com Josh Hinds 421,120 4
79 The Zen Mama's Blog zen-mama.com Betsy Henry 442,999 2
80 Deep Existence deepexistence.com Stephen Guise 449,210 3
81 Positive Writer positivewriter.com Bryan Hutchinso 475,132 3
82 Jo Casey jocasey.com Jo Casey 488,121 1
83 Shake Off the Grind shakeoffthegrind.com Joe Wilner 516,567 3
84 Everyday Bright everydaybright.com Jennifer Gresham 520,112 3
85 My Super Charged Life mysuperchargedlife.com Jeff Nickles 526,231 3
86 Bounce thebounceblog.com Bobbi Emel 538,527 3
87 The One Question theonequestion.com/blog Peep Laja 560,118 3
88 Life Without Pants lifewithoutpants.com Matt Cheuvront 571,228 4
89 Infinite Evolution Center infiniteevolutioncenter.com Stephanie Mulac 577,528 2
90 Meant to be Happy meanttobehappy.com Ken Wert 636,334 3
91 The Self Improvement Blog theselfimprovementblog.com Irene Conlan 690,257 3
92 Making Motivation makingmotivation.com Romane Stewart 712,314 2
93 Craig Harper craigharper.com.au Craig Harper 713,891 4
94 No More Holding Back nomoreholdingback.com Larry Hochman 751,825 1
95 Psycholocrazy psycholocrazy.com Jamie Flexman 809,000 2
96 Inspiration From The Heart suziecheel.com Suzie Cheel 900,800 3
97 Make It Happen arvinddevalia.com/blog Arvind Devalia 1,022,626 4
98 Life for Instance lifeforinstance.com Lori Gosselin 1,030,445 3
99 Optimistic Lifestyle oplife.org Roman Soluk 1,098,877 3
100 Happier Human happierhuman.com Amit Amin 1,104,548 2
101 Lucid Ability lucidability.com Jamie Alexander 1,112,247 2
[sociallocker id=”3837″]https://www.startofhappiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Top-100-Self-Improvement-Blogs-2014.pdf[/sociallocker]
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Over to You!
Now, it’s over to you to find the blogs that are right for you, learn and apply the knowledge provided and start living your most inspiring and desired life.
Do you know of a blog that you think should be on this list? Let me know!
- What’s your favourite blog?
- Which ones do you get the most value from?
- Where are you learning how to live a better life?
I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Here’s to making 2014 your best year yet!
Brendan
P.S. Do you know of someone that would love to see this list? Please share it via the buttons below
P.P.S. Don’t forget that the doors to the Launch Your Life Academy are reopening shortly! This is the training experience you have always wanted to ensure you stay focused, motivated and energised towards living your most successful and fulfilling life. Last time we opened we sold out fast so make sure you join the waiting list.
Update: The Best Personal Development Blogs for 2015 have just been released!
