Last Updated on March 28, 2022 by Scott Charleboix

This post is a book review on How to make Money from Blogging:  How to Start a Blog and Profit from it.  A Step-by-Step Guide from Sally Miller and Lisa Tanner.  In this post, I’ll be providing you with the pros and cons as I review the book moving from chapter to chapter. 

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How to Start a Blog and Profit from it 

One of the bonuses that I especially liked was in what Sally calls a Passion workbook is for you to go through five steps to unleash your potential where you’ll be able to earn your first $1,000 dollars working from home. 

There’s a workbook that you can use to accompany the book that you purchased.  Sally and Lisa invite you to read every chapter one at a time and then when your done with the chapter you can refer to the accompanying working for every chapter. 

At which time, you’ll want to review the action steps that are indicated for each chapter and finish the action steps that have been identified in the workbook “before” you move on to the next chapter.

I’ve just finished reading another book shortly ago that mentions that you need to treat your blog like a business if you want to succeed and the authors do that it in this book too. 

They’ve invited you to make a commitment that you’ll follow every step that they’ve identified in the workbook.  With the intent of that when you reach the end of the book and you’ve followed all of the action steps that you will be able to take a look back at the “business” that you’ve created. 

In one of my last posts called 12 Best Books on Blogging in 2022 I purposely ordered many of the books that were in the post so that I could pass on to you how to make money from blogging. 

I haven’t got too far into the Sally Miller and Lisa Tanner book that I’m reminded of one of the things that I especially liked about a book by Ruth Soukup called How to Blog for Profit without Selling your Soul is that there were so many items that I can’t begin to tell you how marked up my book is with all of the notes of things that I plan to do on my blog. 

Copyright laws prevent me from providing you with the actions steps that are at the end of each chapter in Ruth’s book.  I mention this because when you’re on the Internet and you’re looking for how to monetize your blog you’ll find a lot of information, but there’s usually one thing missing from the grand scheme of things and that’ the plan.  Where’s the plan?  Where’s the blueprint of how to make money for your blog. 

I’m knee deep in my fourth book out of the 12 books that I recommended to you on my post Best Books on Blogging.  What I should have done is to call that post, the 12 best books on how to Monetize your Blog. 

I wish that I could tell you that I’m in expert in monetizing my blog (but I’m not).  That’s why I’m taking this opportunity so that we can learn together on how to make money for our blogs. 

How you might ask, by formulating a plan for yourself.  Get your hands on these books.  At the time that I’m writing this post, I would recommend that you get the books in this respective order:  All of these books are available on the Bookshop and the “average” cost of the books is less than $20.00. 

1. How to Blog for Profit without Selling your Soul by Ruth Soukup
   
2. Make Money from Blogging: How To Start A Blog & Profit From It: A Step-By-Step Guide by Lisa Tanner and Sally Miller
   
3. ProBlogger – Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (3rd edition) by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
   
4. The Essential Habits of 6-Figure Bloggers:  Secrets of 17 successful bloggers you can use to build (your) a six-figure online business by Sally Miller

I’m not including the other books that were mentioned in the post because I either haven’t read them yet or wasn’t that impressed by the couple that I’ve already read.  I’ll be sure to let you know the books I exceptionally like this one and the other three mentioned above. 

“You will be surprised at the doors that open once you start your blogging journey.  Which brings me to the most important reason to blog.  It’s not money.  Or fame.  Or connections.  When you start blogging, you make a difference in people’s lives.  Your words impact others.  You help your readers solve pressing problems and inspire them to reach for their dreams. 

As a blogger, you change people’s lives. And that’s powerful stuff.”

Lisa Tanner and Sally Miller.  Make Money from Blogging. 

By reading this book I’m taking a pivotal change on my blog going slightly astray from writing about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and targeting Blogging/making money online. 

I was reminded that when you pick your niche you don’t have to be an expert in it.  Moreover, we shouldn’t let the fear of moving forward in a new niche stop us from moving on to brighter pastures. 

It’s quite possible that a few readers may not want to make the transition with you because they don’t like the direction that you’re planning to move into.  However, more than likely at some point you’re likely to lose readers along the journey anyway so the author’s encourage us to forge ahead. 

One opportunity that caught my eye that looks it could be very promising is to create a weekly post called “behind the scenes” post, and maybe publish it on a weekly basis.  The exact details of what entails in behind the scenes isn’t provided in the book so we’ll need to do some research on our part to find out more how that can be inclusive on your blog (if you decide to take that approach). 

If there’s one thing that you’ll get out of this book to help you reach your readers, it’s learning about how to identify your ideal reader.  The more that you visualize your ideal reader the more likely you’ll be able to provide helpful content for your readers. 

What I’ve read is that you might want to make up some of the characteristics of your ideal reader and pretend when you’re writing your post that you’re writing directly to your ideal reader. 

For more information on how to find your ideal reader please read the post called “Who Is Your Ideal Reader and How to Identify Them”.  I’m a pet lover so that’s why I’ve included this picture of a dog with it’s nose stuck in a book (like me for the past week or so). 

To give you an idea, here’s how I visually depict my ideal reader.  Her name is Pat, she’s a blogger in her mid 30’s.  Pat likes to use Facebook and Pinterest.  She dreams of monetizing her blog so that she can quit her job and work full-time at blogging to pay the bills.  Pat has a little bit of college education but hasn’t acquired her Bachelor’s degree yet.  The kind of content that Pat would like to have delivered to her is how to make money blogging and how to use SEO and/or Pinterest to grow her blog. 

When I create my Pinterest pins this visual image I have of Pat (who doesn’t actually exist) is the inspiration that I have to make my Pinterest pins and are targeted directly to Pat. 

The more real that you can personify your ideal reader, the better.  In the book there are three to five pages that cover nothing but identifying some of the characteristics of your ideal reader. 

Don’t forget your action steps that are clearly marked Action Steps at the end of every chapter. 

Conclusion

I hope that you’ve liked this post.  In the next post, I’ll be continuing the review of this book and instead of primarily concentrating on your ideal reader, we’ll move on to setting up your blog. 

Your 1st mission is to determine the niche for your blog, preferably choose a niche that’s profitable.  I highly suggest that you check out this blog post called 120 Profitable Blog Niche Ideas and How to Pick the Right One.

Your 2^nd task is to create the persona for your ideal reader.  Are you up to the challenge? 

Here are some blog posts that are helpful if you have a blog that’s struggling to make money:

• Beginner’s Guide: How to Start A Successful Blog
• How to Make Money Online (Plus the Best Business Ideas For Beginners)
• How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing: A Beginning Blogger’s Guide
• The Ultimate Guide to Self-Publishing (and How to Reach Your First 1000 Readers)
• Ultimate Guide: How to Become a Freelance Writer
• Ultimate Guide: How to Start a Life Coaching Business