Most bloggers have humble beginnings, writing for personal websites and perhaps third-party platforms, like Medium. But over time, some go on to develop brands. These pioneering individuals leap from writer to entrepreneur, opening up new opportunities to earn more money and reach new people. Many see wild success, allowing them to live the lives they want to lead.
As such, we can learn a lot from bloggers who became brand owners. Their experience shows there’s no limit to how much a writing and content creation career can grow.
This blog draws together the most popular bloggers who succeeded as brand owners. These individuals showed it was possible to transition from conventional approaches to something more exciting and game-changing.
Huda Kattan
- Website: hudabeauty.com
- Social reach: 54.6 million on Instagram
- Target audience: Women interested in using makeup
Huda Kattan started her blogging career in makeup early in 2010, launching a WordPress site dubbed Huda Beauty. She posted tutorials and tips while referencing work with her celebrity clients, including Nicole Richie and Eva Longoria.
Seeing a gap in the market for beauty products, Kattan later launched a makeup line, Huda Beauty. Her first product released through Sephora was false eyelashes which Kim Kardashian later famously wore. Soon after, she and her formulation team developed other products, including lip liners, liquid lipsticks, foundations, concealers, and eyeshadow palettes to expand her empire. Following these developments, Huda was featured in Forbes magazine and Time Magazine named her one of the 25 most influential people on the internet.
Working with celebrities, Kattan amassed a massive following on Instagram. After COVID-19, her popularity soared, coinciding with the general movement toward skincare and beauty on social media.
Huda Beauty now averages an annual revenue of $75 million from the sale of its products. It now sells over 200 separate items via its website, providing the owner, Kattan, with a sizable income.
Chiara Ferragni
- Website: www.chiaraferragnibrand.com
- Social reach: 29 million followers
- Target audience: Fashion-conscious shoppers
Chiara Ferragni is another blogger who made the jump from writing to entrepreneurship. As one of the top fashion bloggers globally, she is famous for her style and unique approach to sartorial splendour.
In October 2009, she published The Blond Salad, an Italian-language blog discussing her interests in fashion and style. During that time, she modeled for various agencies and built connections with magazines and brands in the industry, fleshing out her network.
Seeing the opportunity to earn more, she partnered with Steve Madden to create a clothing collection for the Spring 2014 season. The venture grossed an impressive $8 million (primarily from her footwear collection), setting up her fashion line almost overnight.
Chiara Ferragni’s lines were successful because they focused on stylish, high-quality shoes with a playful edge. She quickly gained attention for her garments’ unique appearance, building a loyal fan base ready to buy from her with every new launch.
Chiara’s brand is now sold internationally, with products available at luxury retailers like Harrods and Bergdorf Goodman. Because she built a strong e-commerce presence early on, she could reach customers worldwide, combining fashion with lifestyle in a way few designers had before. As she became better known globally, her enterprise became a million-dollar business with various partnerships with corporate giants.
Since then, Chiara’s businesses have come under scrutiny, particularly by EU authorities. However, she remains upbeat about the situation and believes in fighting her case.
Part of Chiara’s success is her social media mastery. She understood Instagram’s power early on, building a massive, engaged following, and showcasing her personality and style. She also thought strategically about her product lines and collaborations, helping her reach her target audience more effectively.
Arianna Huffington
- Website: www.ariannahuffington.com
- Social reach: 780,000 on Instagram
- Target audience: People interested in news and current affairs
Arianna Huffington is another woman who transitioned from blogger to businesswoman. Her inspiring story has motivated thousands of people to do the same.
Huffington started as an established figure in the media and political world, authoring several books and becoming well-known as a political commentator. With this background, she started The Huffington Post in 2005 as a news and blog platform for left-leaning audiences. Part of her appeal was her original contributions; inspiring and insightful articles about global events.
Later, she expanded her blog’s model to include guest articles from journalists, celebrity contributors, and well-known bloggers. Soon, her site was a nucleus for anyone and everyone wanting the latest information about specific topics and insider gossip, growing wildly.
As The Huffington Post continued to succeed, Huffington began expanding its presence on various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. She linked her site to these outlets, enabling her to funnel more users toward her key pages.
Because The Huffington Post grew so quickly, it began attracting investor attention. Private equity firms and venture capital enterprises started to scale the operation.
Eventually, by 2011, AOL wanted to buy the franchise. Huffington agreed to sell for $315 million while maintaining her role as editorial director.
After selling The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington focused on expanding her career as an entrepreneur by founding Thrive Global in 2016. The company aims to help people improve their lives by enhancing mental health and productivity. The brand operates through a multi-pronged business model, offering corporate wellness programs, partnerships with major brands like Salesforce and Google, and consumer-facing digital content. Today, it features a host of content, including research, podcasts, and services aimed at helping people achieve more in their careers.
Part of Huffington’s success undoubtedly comes from her prior celebrity status and media presence. However, she has also long been an advocate for women’s rights, equality, and the importance of self-care. These causes, paired with her work at Thrive Global, made her a powerful figure in the broader conversation about balancing financial success and personal well-being.
Gina Homolka
- Website: www.skinnytaste.com
- Social reach: 2.2 million on Instagram
- Target audience: People interested in cooking healthy food
Gina Homolka also leaped from being a blogger to being a successful business owner, showing her audience what’s possible. She began her journey when she founded SkinnyTaste in 2008, a blog she designed to share low-calorie, healthy recipes with her friends and family. She wanted to discover new ways to eat healthfully while ensuring her food was still flavoursome.
As her experience grew, she became one of the top food bloggers in the niche. People loved that they could follow her recipes to eat healthily and deliciously.
Furthermore, she was relatable. As a mum with a hectic schedule and children to look after, she appealed to parents in similar situations, providing them with simple insights for improving their health and lifestyle.
Homolka built a strong audience by making her cooking approachable. Her early recipes were easy to make and attracted readers who were short on time but wanted to make something healthy. Followers on social media began latching onto what Homolka was doing, sharing her recipes and ideas with others to get the word out.
As SkinnyTaste grew, Homolka began attracting sponsorships in the health and wellness space. Companies wanted to write sponsored posts and offer affiliate links through her site to gain more sales. Soon, Homolka was making money selling third-party kitchen tools to her audience.
However, she wasn’t done yet. In 2014, Gina published her first cookbook, SkinnyTaste: Light on Calories, Big on Flavor, which was a huge success. It contained her heaviest-hitting recipes and introduced her ideas to a broader audience.
She later went on to release SkinnyTaste Meal Prep and SkinnyTaste Air Fryer. These books continued her legacy of easy-to-prepare meals that maximise taste and minimise health risks.
Over time SkinnyTaste went from a personal blog to a full-fledged business. Homolka now employs a team of people to assist her as she shares her experiences running a busy family and doing everything she needs to do in the kitchen. She offers various lines directly while working with health and wellness companies to promote their products.
Today, Homolka is a successful food blogger and business owner selling cookbooks and various digital products. While she still writes for SkinnyTaste, the site is now a completely different animal, showcasing what’s possible with entrepreneurial vision.
Neil Patel
- Website: neilpatel.com
- Social reach: 1.3 million on YouTube
- Target audience: Businesses and entrepreneurs wanting to learn more about digital marketing and online sales
Neil Patel is one of the top marketing bloggers in the world. He succeeded because of his simple style and deep understanding of the industry. Now he runs a multi-million-dollar business with prestigious clients globally.
Patel started his blogging journey in the mid-2000s after discovering a love for digital marketing. He began by helping businesses improve their online visibility and drive growth through SEO, paid ads, and content marketing.
However, he soon saw that the industry’s potential was far greater and launched a blog in 2008, offering actionable advice on SEO, content marketing, and social media. Before long, his blog was the go-to resource on the internet to help startups and founders grow their reach and build an online presence.
Patel succeeded because of his focus on educational and practical tips. He made everything easy to understand, often introducing simplified jargon to help his audience grasp what we were saying. Everything he produced in those early years was relatable, relevant, and practical.
As Patel’s blog grew in popularity, he developed his personal brand. His blog was no longer a repository of helpful information, but a place where his audience could benefit from his sage and insightful advice. Eventually, he became a kind of digital marketing guru, offering answers to some of the industry’s toughest questions and dilemmas.
Patel jumped from blogger to entrepreneur when he began leveraging affiliate marketing and sponsorship. He recommended marketing tools, software, and other resources to his audience, earning commissions when his readers signed up through his links. At the same time, he also leveraged his expertise to offer online courses and webinars. Agencies, brands, and marketing departments often paid him to give them specific advice on what to do next.
However, Patel’s entrepreneurial breakthrough came with the launch of KISSmetrics, an analytics tool designed to help businesses track and analyse user behaviour on their websites. He used his blog and social media outreach to promote the product and encourage business owners to sign up.
In 2017, Patel expanded his influence further by founding Neil Patel Digital, a marketing agency that helps companies improve their SEO and content marketing. Eventually, he attracted some large enterprises with global prestige.
Patel, though, didn’t stop there. He kept writing his insightful content and created tools, like Ubersuggest, to continue improving SEO.
Ultimately, Patel’s persistence was what paid off. While he focused on educational content, he was also willing to take advantage of business opportunities when they came along (and technology allowed it).
Pat Flynn
- Website: patflynn.com
- Social reach: 458,000 on YouTube
- Target audience: People interested in finance and business
Pat Flynn is another excellent example of a blogger who turned into a successful business owner. Flynn is best known for his Smart Passive Income blog, which provides people with financial advice.
Before starting his blog, Flynn was an architect. However, he lost his job during the 2008 financial crisis and decided to do something different and pivot to new opportunities.
Later that year, he launched Smart Passive Income, a site dedicated to helping people build online businesses. He offered guides and resources and monetised his site through affiliate marketing.
Part of Flynn’s early success was his emphasis on building a transparent and honest brand. This approach earned him the trust and credibility of his niche audience, creating a group of people who would always advocate for him on social media.
Flynn made money by promoting products and services he used and believed in. His first significant success came from recommending various tools and software that were relevant to online business owners, such as web hosting services and email marketing platforms.
He also started toying with the idea of building his own products, including eBooks and online courses. These helped him go beyond conventional affiliate approaches and develop new revenue streams.
The Green Exam Academy was his flagship concept during the early stages of his business empire. It provided a full rundown of what people interested in becoming online business owners needed to do to succeed.
In 2010, Flynn took things up a notch by launching the Smart Passive Income Podcast. The show interviewed famous individuals in finance from around the globe, attracting even more people to his audience.
He also started developing his online classes and mentorships, creating Power-Up Podcasting, where he taught others how to start their own podcasts, and SPI Pro, a membership program where entrepreneurs could access exclusive content and coaching. These efforts further enhanced his community, enabling him to broaden his impact.
Eventually, this work became too much for Flynn alone, so he hired a team, including various managers to deal with things like customer support, content creation, and product development. He also diversified his revenue streams, launching on YouTube and other channels to share business tips and tutorials with a willing audience.
Ultimately, Flynn made the leap from blogger to businessman because of his authenticity. His willingness to share his failures and be brutally truthful with people gained his trust and respect, encouraging them to keep going back to him to learn more.
Joy Cho
- Website: https://ohjoy.com/
- Social reach: 448,000 on Instagram
- Target audience: Mothers and people interested in harmonious family living
Joy Cho started her career as a design blogger. However, she eventually turned her writing into a motherhood and lifestyle empire, making her one of the top mom bloggers ever.
Cho’s background as an art director initially set her up for success. Her blog, Oh Joy!, launched in 2005 was essentially an online outlet for her creative pursuits, allowing her to pursue artistic endeavours more freely. However, it morphed after she gave birth to her first child into a mommy blog with topics covering parenting and family life. She emphasised creativity, celebrating life through vibrant colours, fun DIY projects, and approachable design for everyday living.
As Joy’s success grew, she began including more aspects of her personal life in her blogging. Eventually, she built an audience of mothers going through similar experiences, building rapport. Cho’s was relatable due to her creative background and her helpful product recommendations (often items she had used in raising her children).
Before long Oh Joy! began collaborating with brands that captured her audience’s interests. Cho worked with affiliates, selling products via links and earning a commission.
However, the true transition from blogger to business owner occurred when she launched her first product collection in 2011. Partnering with Target, she began selling home goods lines, including colourful kitchenware and stationery.
The venture ultimately led to significant success, encouraging her to take more risks. Later, she added more products to her “baby” category, helping new parents find helpful items and accessories to enjoy their children’s early years.
In 2015, Cho released her first book: Oh Joy! 60 Ways to Create & Give Joy. It confirmed her status as a lifestyle brand and came with multiple DIY recipes and lifestyle tips for living more joyfully.
Cho’s success relates primarily to her creative and down-to-earth content. She tapped into her audience’s desire for useful information on motherhood and family management, turning her into a go-to resource for busy mums.
Like many successful bloggers, Cho did well because of her commitment to authenticity. The products she promotes and sells are the ones she uses in her home.
Heather Armstrong
- Website: dooce.com
- Social reach: 58,600 on Instagram
- Target audience: People struggling with mental health challenges
Heather Armstrong also made the jump from a blogger to a business owner. She began writing about her negative experiences but struck a chord with her audience, allowing her to grow into a global phenomenon.
Armstrong launched Dooce in 2001 as a space where she could write about her feelings. She talked about how she was dealing with depression and other mental illnesses.
Interestingly, the name “Dooce” came from an incident when her old boss fired her. When she started writing in the early 2000s, she became one of the first bloggers to open up and speak frankly about mental illness and motherhood.
In the mid-2000s, Dooce became one of the best-known personal blogs on the internet. Armstrong had managed to turn the hobby into a full-time career, with frequent features on news outlets and on TV media.
Armstrong began monetising her blog through conventional advertising and sponsored posts. She worked with various brands, developing her distinct voice and character. She also continued her affiliate marketing efforts, helping enterprises sell products she believed in personally.
In 2009, Armstrong published a memoir entitled It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita. She became a best-seller and went on to write the much darker The Valedictorian of Being Dead, discussing her mental health troubles.
Given the cult appeal of her blog, Armstrong also began developing a merch line under the Dooce label. It included items like T-shirts, mugs, and home décor items, bringing in an additional source of revenue for the blogger.
Armstrong’s success ultimately came down to the fact that she was a first-mover. Her early adoption of monetisation meant that she could corner the market and build multiple revenue streams quickly before the competition had time to catch up. She also attracted a loyal and engaged community to share her work with others online. This outreach allowed her to create a more meaningful connection with users.
Melyssa Griffin
- Website: futurecurrent.io
- Social reach: 7,300 on YouTube
- Target audience: People wanting to become entrepreneurs
Melyssa Griffin’s story is perhaps one of the most interesting. She began a blog called The Nectar Collective in 2013, focusing on lifestyle topics, like travel and design, before moving to concentrate more on business. As such, her experience shows that it is possible to change direction and still make money.
Griffin’s blog gained traction over time because of her passion for creativity and the assistance she provided businesses. She started writing about various strategies entrepreneurs could use to become more successful and build the empires they wanted.
This dedicated approach meant that Griffin attracted a loyal audience. Founders and executives reading her posts gained valuable insights and the confidence needed to take their ideas forward.
As her blog grew, Melyssa began monetising content through affiliate marketing, promoting products she liked. She also began developing digital products for sales, including a blogging course to help others do what she’d done. These ventures helped her diversify her sources of income and turn her blog into a full-time business.
Over time, Griffin continued scaling her offerings by building more courses and digital products. As her approach advanced, she was better able to understand and interpret what her audience wanted, turning her into a public figure.
Griffin’s strategy eventually morphed into brand collaborations and public speaking, cementing her efforts. She became a leader in the entrepreneurial space and a respected voice online.
The key factor in Griffin’s successful shift was her focus on value-driven offerings. She believes in creating or recommending products and services that genuinely help people. Offering free tutorials on her site was beneficial because people could learn about her first before handing over money.
Ruth Soukup
- Website: ruthsoukup.com
- Social reach: 239,000 on Instagram
- Target audience: People wanting to learn more about managing personal finances
Finally, we have Ruth Soukup, another blogger who leaped from writing to business. Her success came from her ability to provide consistent value and diversify her income streams.
Soukup began her blog Living Well Spending Less in 2010 as a personal outlet for sharing her money-saving tips while living well. She showed people how to stick to a budget while opening up about her financial struggles.
Ultimately, this relatable and actionable content built her an audience. Soukup began attracting readers from across the web, primarily women interested in better managing their family finances.
In those early days, Soukup monetised her blog through affiliate marketing and other methods. She recommended various products and services to people, taking a small commission from the brands supporting her.
However, Soukup’s breakthrough came with the launch of her flagship product, Elite Blog Academy. This venture taught people how to grow successful blogs, including leveraging outreach strategies and improving monetisation. Later, she created a membership programme called The Ruth Soukup Mastermind where she offered more personalised support to bloggers. After that came book deals, including Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life, which became a New York Times bestseller.
Ultimately, Soukup’s success came down to her focus on delivering helpful, actionable advice to her audience. She understands their pain points and how her advice can help them break through financial difficulties.
