Title: The Million Dollar Blog
Author: Natasha Courtenay-Smith
Category: Non-fiction, Business
Rating: 5/5
10-word summary: You can have a million-dollar blog. Here’s how.
About The Million Dollar Blog
The Million Dollar Blog is a book that will help you start your own blog, create content and become successful. Don’t be misled by the title, because the book does not sell you illusions and promises that just reading this book is enough to guarantee you will make 1 million dollars with your blog.
The book offers a practical framework of blogging for money. It focuses on all the basics: finding your niche, creating a person brand, authority, blogging tips, sources of income, social media, networking and more. It also includes practical advice and interviews with popular bloggers.
If you want to start blogging or want to get better at blogging, then I definitely recommend reading this book! If you have been blogging for a few years then don’t expect to learn a lot of new things, but I think it can still be useful to you too.
What I like about The Million Dollar Blog
1. It offers a great framework for blogging
This book covers all the basics when it comes to blogging from how to start a blog to social media, ways to earn money and more. While it does not go focus on all these topics in detail, it offers a great overview that will help you start blogging with a great understanding of what it entails.
2. It covers many important topics (niche, social media, content and more)
I think that this book cover every important topic you need to know before starting your own blog. Natasha Courtenay-Smith will give you some practical advice on how to do everything from gaining authority to how to write content people will like and more.
3. It shows that it is possible to have a million-dollar blog without providing false encouragement
I think this book managed to strike the perfect balance between inspiration and practicality. The book itself makes you think that it is possible to make a million dollars a year with a blog, but it also talks about what this takes and does not state that everybody can do this.
The book includes interviews with other successful bloggers to show that it is possible and also show how they did it or what contributed to their success. Yet I feel that the author does not promote an unrealistic message (as is the case with other books about business and money). I love books that can be inspiring while also being realistic and practical.
4. It includes practical advice
The book often includes practical advice that you can apply if you are working on your blog. This is why I think that you should definitely read this book even if you have no idea how to set up a blog yourself but you want to have one. You’ll see that you can do this step by step.
What I don’t like about The Million Dollar Blog
1. I wasn’t a big fan of the short interviews included in the book
The book featured several interviews with bloggers and content creators who are successful and use their online authority to earn a living. While the interviews were often interesting or inspiring, I would have liked it if they were not as many.
I often feel that books have too many unnecessary stories, so I felt that a bit with this book too. However, I was happy to read the short interview with Lily Pebbles – a content creator I respect and admire mainly for her professionalism.
Lessons from The Million Dollar Blog
Blogging can help you share your own story, talk about a cause you care about or grow your own business.
If you want to be known as an authority in your field, prove your expertise through content.
There are several ways to make money online (affiliate marketing, working as a freelancer, sponsored posts, ads and more).
Constantly look for new sources of income. Diversify!
Work on multiples sources of traffic.
Create an email list.
Use the social media platforms that work best for your type of blog.
Quotes from The Million Dollar Blog
“Your future is your choice, so sitting around waiting for someone else to declare you the leading authority is not the way million dollar bloggers do it! We prefer to let it be undisputedly known that we are the best and we do this by blogging for authority and making our knowledge and expertise absolutely clear. We think of our blogging as building and recoding our reputation, one post at a time.”
“How quickly you start to earn money depends on your own goals and the approach you want to take.”
“The only way you stand a chance of becoming a successful blogger is through actual blogging. So it’s time to just get started!”
“Any idea is better than no idea as at least then you have something to work on an develop.”
Should You Read The Million Dollar Blog?
Do you want to start your own blog? Then you should definitely read this book! It will be helpful even if you only want to blog for yourself and your friends or if you want to turn your blog into a million-dollar business. It’s also useful if you already have a blog but it’s not as successful as you would like.
The Million Dollar Blog is a great source of inspiration and information. It provides a clear framework that will help you achieve your blogging goals – if you are willing to put in the work, of course.