Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I hope you had a great week and that your weekend is off to a good start. 😊

February flew by so fast it almost felt unreal. One moment, I was setting goals for the new year, and the next, it was already March. Can anyone else relate? 😃 

I’ve slowly started taking real steps toward my 2026 goals, including:

• Building AI content workflows that actually sound like me 🤖

• Chasing that bold $100k website income goal

• Updating my money-making pages while Google keeps running its experiments on all of us

That's me taking a well-deserved day off in Mississauga, Ontario. 👆

Here's a quick look at what February looked like behind the scenes. 👇

February updates in a nutshell

Short month, but a tough one.

At work, I'm managing more client accounts than ever, making sure every single one gets quality results. It takes a lot of mental energy.

In my free time, I've been deep in learning mode, specifically figuring out how to use Claude and its connectors, like Semrush + Claude, to speed up my work as a solo website owner.

Because managing Self Made Millennials has quietly become a full-time job on its own:

• Over 130 indexed pages

• 20+ top-performing posts that need regular updates

• A dozen guest post requests and collaboration pitches landing in my inbox every single day

And on top of all that, building my social media presence at the same time. Not easy!

SEO has gone multichannel. Success today depends on your brand, your reputation, and what people say about you across the web. It's no longer just about rankings.

My focus for 2026 is simple: hit $100k from my website. No big plans, just one bold goal.

The start of the year has been slow because of ranking volatility, but I'm staying consistent.

• AI SEO tools

• AI marketing tools

• SEO tools

I connected Semrush to Claude, and it changed everything 🤯

In February, I connected my Semrush One account to Claude, and I genuinely can't stop thinking about how much this changes SEO work.

For my own site, and for the client accounts I manage at my day job, I no longer have to guess what actions will move the needle. Instead, my brain has shifted to a new kind of thinking: how to explain what I need clearly enough for an LLM to give me an accurate, useful output.

My role as an SEO content strategist is changing, and honestly, I think that's exciting.

Here's what I've been doing with Claude + Semrush that's actually working:

• Analyzing website performance and figuring out what to prioritize

• Understanding why competitors outrank my clients

• Finding keywords with real search volume

• Building SEO strategies for local businesses and my own site

• Improving click-through rates on existing pages

• Generating and optimizing content faster

• Creating quick performance reports for the sales team

This is where I'm putting most of my energy this year. I want to work smarter without losing the quality my readers expect.

I've already upgraded to Claude Pro to create dedicated projects for every workflow: blog posts, listicle generation, newsletter drafts, and LinkedIn repurposing. It's a work-in-progress, but the early results are promising.

What you need to connect Semrush to Claude:

The connection works through MCP (Model Context Protocol), an open standard Anthropic launched in late 2024. It lets AI models connect directly to external tools and data sources.

Claude doesn't have a built-in Semrush integration, so you'll need to set up a custom connector. Custom connectors are available on Claude Pro. Once you're on a paid plan, you can create multiple projects and connect different tools.

I Connected Semrush to Claude... Mind Blown 🤯

SEO just changed for me (and it might for you, too).

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/i-connected-semrush-to-claude

What you have missed in February

I have planned a lot for 2026, including some pretty ambitious 💰 goals, and I can’t wait to share the journey with you. 😉

My first affiliate report of the year is out! Here's an honest look at how my website made $2,892.46 in January 2026.

For context, my average monthly income was between $3,000 and $5,000 when rankings were stable.

The current volatility has definitely made an impact, but I'm working hard on getting those top-performing pages back. 💪

Affiliate Marketing Report: January 2026

Breaking down how my website made $2.892.46.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/affiliate-marketing-report-january-2026

In February, I was also actively sharing my website’s ranking changes that started in December last year and have been still going on, which is why you could also potentially observe a loss of traffic.

Google’s quiet January 2026 update & what I’m seeing 👀

No announcement, no guidance — just chaos in the SERPs.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/google-january-2026-update-what-i-m-seeing

The Google algorithm update has been running for the past few months, and there’s no sign that it will end in March.

Google January 2026 update hit my site. How I fight back

Google January 2026 update: From #1 to #100 in days. How I clawed back to top 3.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/google-hit-my-site-here-is-how-im-fighting-back

My most popular newsletter editions:

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• I Connected Semrush to Claude... Mind Blown

• Testing Writesonic for AI SEO Workflows 2026

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

For the Premium members: 👋

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions and brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Here’s what’s inside:

• Blog posts to LinkedIn repurposing post: Prompt for LLM

• November 2025 Affiliate report: $5,868.92 in affiliate commissions.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I hope you had a great week and that your weekend is off to a good start. 😊

I’ve got some big news that might seriously change how you do SEO.

This week, I connected Semrush to Claude… and I’m honestly blown away!!!

Tasks that used to require a lot of manual work, like keyword research, site audits, and content clustering, can now be automated with AI.

That’s a huge shift.

For the past 7 years, I’ve spent hours researching and analyzing keywords, trying to figure out which ones would help my clients achieve their goals faster.

Now, keyword research is no longer a separate task. In my opinion, it should be part of a larger prompt, with the ultimate goal of building a comprehensive SEO content strategy tailored to the client’s business goals.

Since I can’t share client strategies, I’ll share what Claude helped me generate for my site.

Claude helped me create a 13-page SEO content strategy with one clear goal: double my site earnings in 2026. 💰

If you’ve been reading my newsletter, you might remember that my site made over $40k in 2025. My goal is to hit $100k by the end of 2026.

In my prompt, I shared a lot of context, including:

• Top-performing affiliate partners

• Revenue-driving pages

• My draft strategy

• My own notes and ideas

The final strategy was detailed, structured, and it even ended with a clear action plan I can actually follow.

If you haven’t tried connecting SEO tools to Claude yet, I highly recommend testing it with a Semrush One trial.

Another way I’m using the Claude + Semrush combo is to analyze posts that dropped in rankings and figure out how to recover them.

Usually, I review the SERP, competitors, GSC data, and content manually. It works, but it takes time.

Now Claude can access Semrush data and my Google Search Console insights, and suggest improvement steps much faster.

And let’s be honest… with all the recent Google volatility, this kind of support is helpful.😅

Here are a few more things this integration works really well for:

• Analyzing website performance and prioritizing tasks based on impact

• Understanding why competitors outrank you

• Finding keywords and related terms with real search volume

• Creating SEO strategies for local businesses

• Improving CTR on existing pages

• Generating and optimizing content

• And more

I’m still a little skeptical. Hallucinations can happen. But so far, the output has been solid.

It’s honestly a bit scary how powerful AI becomes when you connect it to real data sources.

Funny enough, my random LinkedIn post about Claude + Semrush reached over 54,000 people in just 2 days and got 600+ likes and 20+ shares. That has never happened to me before.😳

What you need to connect Semrush to Claude

The connection works through MCP (Model Context Protocol), an open standard introduced by Anthropic in late 2024. It allows AI models to connect directly to external tools and data.

Claude doesn’t have a built-in Semrush integration, so you need to create a custom connector.

Custom connectors are available for Claude Pro users.

If you’re on a paid plan, you can create multiple projects and connect different tools.

The Semrush MCP connection is available for Semrush One (SEO + AI toolkit) users, as well as SEO Pro, Guru plans, and Trends API subscribers.

By default, you get 50,000 API units per month for LLM connections like Claude, ChatGPT, and others.

If you work in marketing, I truly believe this is worth exploring. This might become the new way we work. And those who don’t learn how to use AI in their workflows might fall behind.

Exciting times ahead. 🚀

Building topical authority in 2026

My in-depth guide on topical authority and how to build it is finally live. 🙌

I asked my audience on LinkedIn about how they build topical authority for their own websites and their clients. It’s always so interesting to learn about what other SEO experts are doing.

To my surprise, I got quite a few comments under my post and DMs with super detailed responses.

If you’re curious about how to actually build topical authority (not just talk about it), here’s my pos:👇

Building Topical Authority in 2026: My Strategy

How I built topical authority, outranked major SEO brands, and grew my website to $40K a year using content clusters and smart internal linking.

selfmademillennials.com/topical-authority

My most popular newsletter editions:

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• Testing Writesonic for AI SEO Workflows 2026

• Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

• AI, Google & SEO: What’s changing in 2025?

For the Premium members: 👋

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Here’s what’s inside:

• January 2026 Affiliate report: Breaking down how my website made $2.892.46.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I hope you had a great week and that your weekend is off to a good start. 😊

Last week, I shared what I've been seeing with Google's January 2026 update, which started around January 20 and is still going strong.

According to Semrush Sensor, keyword ranking volatility has been at nearly maximum levels for the past few weeks. And still, no word from Google about what's happening.

Honestly, I've never seen anything like this in almost 10 years of digital marketing experience.

I don't know about your niche, but for some of my target keywords in SEO, I've seen a complete shift in the top 10 results within just a few days. Pages completely drop from the top ten, then suddenly show up again. You can't predict what's going to happen next.

Since there's no official response from Google about what's happening lately, some SEO experts say this is Google's way of dealing with low-quality and AI-generated content.

I'm doubting this hypothesis because some of the new search results I've seen for my target keywords are neither helpful nor human.

But even helpful content from known brands is getting hit.

Below, you can see how fast Ahrefs has been losing organic traffic over the past year, and the trend is nowhere near positive.

And it's not only Ahrefs! Many other top players in the industry have been negatively affected since the beginning of 2026, including Search Atlas, Writesonic, and even HubSpot.

Clearly, Google has been experimenting with search results, and we're all trying to figure out what "helpful" content means in this new AI and SEO era.

What I’m doing to reclaim lost traffic

Unlike the entire 2025, this year my website got impacted, and I could feel the negative hit on traffic and revenue.

After reviewing impacted pages, I noticed a clear pattern: 👇

• Old pages that I haven't updated for over a year dropped significantly

• Pages unrelated to my primary niche, AI SEO, dropped significantly

• Pages with low CTR in GSC dropped in rankings

Last year, I worked on reviewing newsletter platforms, which brought me significant revenue from sponsorships. The strategy to leverage my high-performing website and trustworthiness worked... but only temporarily.

My expertise in SEO and reputation built on Reddit, LinkedIn (almost 4k followers), and Medium (21k followers) helps me maintain high rankings for SEO-related posts on my site, but only with fresh, helpful content.

Here's what I did to recover my best money-making post on AI SEO tools and bring it back to the top 3 positions.

It's worth noting that my article ranked #1 for many AI SEO-related keywords for almost the entire 2025.

Since the article ranked so well, I didn't want to make any changes. In my experience, this can only make things worse.

But January 20th 2026 hit hard...

You can see how big the drop was before the page started recovering due to multiple attempts on my part.

My article is back in the top 3 for the target keyword "AI SEO tools" and for many related keywords in the USA. This happened as a result of prompt actions from my side.

I honestly believe my article can outperform those two results above, but it will take time.

You may be wondering what I did to bring a poorly performing article back to the top.

There are a few things that worked.

First, I updated the title of the article because most top-ranking posts started copying my style and naming their posts "X AI SEO tools we've tested in 2026."

Imagine landing on a search results page where all meta titles are almost the same. Yeah, that's exactly what I saw!

As a user, I had no motivation to open any page since they all promised the same thing: top AI SEO tools I should try!

So, for my article, I did exactly the opposite!

I wrote about the AI SEO tools that don't work and aren't worth your attention.

Here's what it looks like:

I also updated around 50% of the article, including:

• A new introduction

• A paragraph about AI SEO tools that I don't think are helpful

• An updated "How AI SEO works" section with the latest information

I added Ubersuggest to the list of tools and deleted a few old tools that I don't think were a good fit.

I barely paid attention to the keywords! Surprising, right?

Instead of obsessing over keywords and keyword variations, I updated the FAQ section with questions that seem to trigger AI Overviews.

The positive impact after the update was almost immediately visible. I'm following the same process when updating other high-performing posts, such as Ahrefs alternatives and AI marketing tools.

This works because I focus on sharing genuinely helpful content with users, along with my unique SEO expertise that they won't find elsewhere.

If your website was impacted, try updating the content that matters most to your business. I'm sure you'll see a positive impact after the update.

Why I cancelled my Writesonic subscription

On February 12th, I cancelled my subscription to the Writesonic Professional plan for $249.

I've shared my in-depth, honest take in my Writesonic review post, but here are some brief thoughts in case you're wondering if it's worth it.

Asking users to pay $249/month for an AI + SEO + content tool is honestly too much, considering how the tool works and what you get.

There's no traditional SEO toolkit with reports and competitor analysis functionality inside.

Instead, you have an SEO agent that can answer all kinds of SEO questions. It's good on one hand, since you can ask AI agents all kinds of questions about your website performance, competitors, and more!

However, you should know that Writesonic is powered by Ahrefs data, and Ahrefs' traffic and keyword metrics are way off.

Pretty much every SEO analysis that Writesonic conducted was based on Ahrefs data. Then why pay $249 for Writesonic when you can get Ahrefs for as little as $129/month, including its AI SEO solution, Brand Radar?

The quality of the generated content wasn’t up to my standards, even after providing multiple instructions and examples of my writing style. Using the same prompt, Claude does a much better job.

On the positive note, I liked their AI features and reports, which I think are the best in terms of value and clarity among many tools I've used.

However, I still believe paying $249 isn't worth it for me.

Have you used Writesonic? Curious about your take. 👀

I Tested Writesonic in January 2026. My Take as an SEO

I tested Writesonic's Professional plan for a month. Here's my honest review of the content quality, GEO functionality, and whether it's worth $249/month.

selfmademillennials.com/writesonic-review

Building topical authority in 2026

My in-depth guide on topical authority and how to build it is finally live. 🙌

I asked my audience on LinkedIn about how they build topical authority for their own websites and their clients. It’s always so interesting to learn about what other SEO experts are doing.

To my surprise, I got quite a few comments under my post and DMs with super detailed responses.

If you’re curious about how to actually build topical authority (not just talk about it), here’s my pos:👇

Building Topical Authority in 2026: My Strategy

How I built topical authority, outranked major SEO brands, and grew my website to $40K a year using content clusters and smart internal linking.

selfmademillennials.com/topical-authority

My most popular newsletter editions:

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• Testing Writesonic for AI SEO Workflows 2026

• Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

• AI, Google & SEO: What’s changing in 2025?

For the Premium members: 👋

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Here’s what’s inside:

• January 2026 Affiliate report: Breaking down how my website made $2.892.46.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I hope you had a great week and that your weekend is off to a good start. 😊

Last week, I shared my January 2026 recap and everything I worked on over the past month.

But I didn’t mention something pretty important: Google’s January algorithm update, the one barely anyone is talking about.

Since around January 20, website owners have been seeing wild ranking volatility, and it’s still happening, according to Semrush Sensor. 📉📈

What’s interesting is that Google hasn’t said a word about it.

The last confirmed core update officially ended in December 2025, yet it’s very clear that something big has been rolling out quietly since then.

Honestly, this feels like one of the more impactful updates we’ve seen in the past year, especially for site owners.

Instead of official statements, the only real discussion I found was from site owners on Reddit.

One of the site owners shared:

Another Reddit user mentioned:

My take on the Google January 2026 update

Unlike many previous updates, my site, Self Made Millennials, was affected this time…

At first glance, it looked like my traffic completely dropped, but that’s not exactly what happened.

Here’s what I noticed: 👇

• Pages that hadn’t been updated in over a year lost rankings.
• Blog posts outside my main niche (SEO) dropped in position.
• Most of my money pages that I regularly update stayed stable
• Some top pages (like my AI SEO tools post) went from position 1 → 100 in days… then jumped back into the top 10. 😬

Seeing traffic dip is never fun, but I was relieved that my most important pages weren’t hit too hard.

One positive takeaway: updating old content and adding more human insight really helped affected pages recover. 💡

What’s interesting is that the effectiveness of the on-page optimization tools is close to zero.

I followed multiple SEO checker recommendations to “improve” my AI SEO tools post, and nothing changed. Zero impact.

Some creators believe that paraphrasing existing content and adding a handful of keywords will fix rankings, but that’s just not how SEO works.

Eventually, I had to step back, look at the top-ranking pages (most of them had nearly identical titles and promises), and write something different and better.

Fresh, high-quality content written from real experience beats any optimizer, and it usually works faster too.

Was your website affected by this update? 👀

January 2026 affiliate report is now live 🚀

My first affiliate report of 2026 is officially out and available to premium members.

Inside, I break down exactly how much my website earned in January from affiliate partnerships, including commissions by partner.

I also share what I’m changing in my monetization strategy for 2026 and what becoming a Semrush Gold Partner actually means for my business.

Interested?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment.

Affiliate Marketing Report: January 2026

Breaking down how my website made $2.892.46.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/affiliate-marketing-report-january-2026

My most popular newsletter editions:

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• Testing Writesonic for AI SEO Workflows 2026

• Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

• AI, Google & SEO: What’s changing in 2025?

For the Premium members: 👋

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Here’s what’s inside:

• November 2025 Affiliate report: $5,868.92 in affiliate commissions.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I hope you had a great week and that your weekend is off to a good start. 😊

January flew by in a blink. Is it just me, or did it feel unreal how fast the first month of the year disappeared? 😃 

I’ve slowly started taking real steps toward my 2026 goals, including:

• Building AI-powered content workflows that sound like me. 🤖
• Making $100k from my website (yes, it’s a bold goal, I know).

Even while working a full-time job, I made some serious progress toward both.

If you’re interested in growing and monetizing a website, here’s a quick recap of what January looked like for me. 👇

January updates in a nutshell

January officially marked the end of my website design revamp. 🎉

After almost three months of stress, second-guessing, and “why did I start this?” moments, it’s finally done. 🤩 If you’re planning a website redesign yourself, I highly recommend reading about it first. It might save you some headaches.

I also spent January working on a new website strategy, thinking deeply about what I want to achieve in 2026 and how to actually get there.

Honestly, making over $40k from a small website in 2025 still feels surreal. A lot of people would turn that into coaching or start selling courses.

I intentionally chose not to!

My long-term goal has always been to achieve more with less. And if I can hit $100k using just my website, I’m all in.

That’s exactly what my new 2026 content plan is built around: maximizing website revenue. I started by updating old money pages and creating new ones, mainly tool reviews and comparisons.

January turned out to be pretty productive. 💪

My SEO tools and SE Ranking vs. Semrush posts are meant to become long-term assets on the road to that $100k goal.

One big reason my posts rank in top positions for months is the amount of effort I put into adding real, hands-on insights about the tools. Details users simply won’t find anywhere else.

If you’re an expert in your field, this is a huge advantage. Use it!

While many companies obsess over rankings, you can focus on creating genuinely helpful content. That’s what earns long-term visibility and trust.

I also updated my older post about SEO writing. It now breaks down how I approach impactful SEO writing and why it still works.

And no, I don’t believe “SEO is dead.” 🙃

Most of the time, that claim comes from people who’ve been doing SEO the wrong way all along. Cheap guest posts and shallow content were never meant to work, yet companies are still doing it even today.

That’s why I think it’s so important to talk about SEO strategies that actually work, especially in the age of AI.

If you’re curious how AI is really impacting SEO in 2026, I collected quotes and stats from different studies that reveal what’s really happening behind all the AI buzz.

This one stood out the most. 👇

Becoming a Semrush Golden Partner ✨

One last piece of exciting news to wrap up January: I’ve officially become a Semrush Golden Partner. 🎉

This means more perks for my audience, including extended trials and extra benefits for those who want to try Semrush.

For partners, it also comes with higher commissions, some of the best on the market from what I’ve seen.

What makes this partnership easy for me is the product itself.

I’ve been using Semrush for almost 10 years, and it keeps getting better. I feel confident recommending it because I genuinely rely on it.

If you think partnering with Semrush could be a good fit for you, here’s the link to the Semrush Affiliate Program. 

What you have missed in January

I have planned a lot for 2026, including some pretty ambitious 💰 goals, and I can’t wait to share the journey with you. 😉

Building a $100k website: My 2026 strategy

New year, bold goals: how I’m scaling my website in 2026.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/building-a-100k-website-my-2026-strategy

I see 2026 as the year when many companies and creators will go all in on AI to cut costs and get more done in less time.

Since this goal means producing a lot of long-form content to rank in search results and build authority on social media, doing everything manually just isn’t realistic anymore.

That’s why I need to build my own “AI assistants.”

So if you’re currently looking for an AI SEO agent (like Writesonic’s), make sure to read this first. 👇

Testing Writesonic for AI SEO Workflows 2026

Testing Writesonic and Claude to build AI SEO workflows, automate content and LinkedIn posts, and scale a website toward a $100k goal in 2026.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/testing-writesonic-for-ai-seo-workflows

I’m sharing why I spent so much energy redesigning my website and why I started this project at the end of 2025.

My website redesign journey: 3 months, pain, lessons

Why I spent so much energy redesigning my website and why I started this project at the end of 2025.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/my-website-redesign-journey

My most popular newsletter editions:

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• Testing Writesonic for AI SEO Workflows 2026

• Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

• AI, Google & SEO: What’s changing in 2025?

For the Premium members: 👋

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Here’s what’s inside:

• Blog posts to LinkedIn repurposing post: Prompt for LLM

• November 2025 Affiliate report: $5,868.92 in affiliate commissions.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I hope you had a great week and that your weekend is off to a good start. 😊

Last week, I sent you a pretty detailed breakdown of the AI SEO workflows I’ve been testing with Writesonic.

On the bright side, their team seems to have fixed the issue with the GEO feature constantly loading. I can finally test their AI search visibility tool after waiting for two weeks. 🎉

With my subscription ending soon, I still have a lot to test. More updates coming soon, so stay tuned. 😉 

This time, I want to share why I spent so much energy redesigning my website and why I started this project at the end of 2025.

You’ll also learn:

• When it actually makes sense to invest in website design

• How to communicate with developers

• Why projects almost never go according to plan

• And a lot more

I’m writing this after almost three months of working on my website revamp. The plan was to finish everything by the end of December 2025.

And here I am at the end of January, still fixing big and small website issues. 😅

At least my new website is live, and I’m genuinely grateful for that. 🙏

Now, let me explain why I did this in the first place.

When it’s worth investing in a website design

When I launched my website back in July 2021, I had no clear idea what it was for.

I just knew I wanted a website. I also wanted to experiment with content and SEO.
I was really interested in writing side hustles, which is probably why my first posts were about my early and very messy attempts to make money online. 😬

Over the years, my writing improved, and so did the value of my content.

In early 2024, I started noticing some traffic coming in. I decided to monetize it with affiliate links.

No fancy design.

No clear message.

Just a cheap WordPress theme and honest thoughts from an SEO, content writer, and hustler.

My website was my creative space on the internet. I didn’t have big business goals for it at the time.

I wanted to write and earn a decent income, ideally passive, but I had no real plan for how to get there.

To my absolute surprise, the site made $8.8k in 2024. 🤯 I never imagined this was even possible.

I still remember sitting in the basement in January 2025, thinking about what to do next.
Back then, I had no idea this same website would triple the earnings in 2025!

So in January 2025, I created a very simple SEO content strategy.

The goal for Q1 and Q2 was straightforward. Increase the number of money pages on my site.

That was it.

I wanted to see if all the effort I put into writing high-quality, human content would actually pay off.

And it did. 🙌

In August 2025, the website made $4,199.25, followed by September 2025, the best-performing month with $8,102.18.

Once the site started making consistent income every month, I decided it earned more attention.

That’s when I chose to invest time, money, and energy into improving the user experience and design.

In a way, the Self Made Millennials website earned the right to look better.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth investing money into a redesign, and a good one is not cheap, make sure you have strong reasons.

Ask yourself:

• Is this your business?

• Does it make money?

• Do you plan to work on it for at least another year after the revamp?

• Do you have a clear strategy?

If the answer is yes, go for it.

If the answer is no, don’t do it. A redesign is a huge project that drains time and energy. That energy is often better spent elsewhere.

My website revamp process: lessons learned

The hardest part is not knowing how you want your website to change.

That’s exactly how I felt in October 2025.

I knew I wanted improvements, both visually and structurally, but I had no idea where to start.

At the time, I thought about hiring a professional designer to explore UI ideas and logo concepts.

The problem was simple. I didn’t know how to explain what I wanted.

Hiring a designer is expensive, and it’s a great investment when you know what you’re asking for.

But what if you’re completely lost and only know that things need to be better?

That’s when I turned to AI. 🤖

I used an AI image generation tool to create hundreds of logo ideas. I picked one I liked, and it’s now live on my site.

I didn’t pay anything. Just a free trial and AI doing the heavy lifting.

The same tool helped turn my photos into images that look much more professional.

Figma AI helped me generate dozens of homepage designs in minutes.
I actually liked one, and it’s now part of my website.

If you don’t know where to start, Figma AI is a great way to turn ideas into quick drafts.

I did use Figma to generate designs, but I made a big mistake.

I didn’t realize my developers needed an editable Figma file with consistent design elements across the site pages.

Yes, shame on me, especially after almost three years at a UX design agency. 🙈

Even though I later figured out how to turn AI drafts into editable Figma files, everything was inconsistent.

Fonts, margins, padding, styles, layouts. None of it matched properly.

I spent days trying to align designs across pages, and it still wasn’t perfect.

I clearly remember wasting hours editing designs and asking myself why I didn’t hire a professional from the start.

I’m glad my vision made it onto every page, but I never want to go through this stressful process alone again.

I could have hired a designer after creating AI drafts in Figma and avoided most of these problems.

I would have saved hours and used that time for what I enjoy most, SEO writing. ✍️

Instead, I went through a long trial-and-error process. I gained knowledge and experience, but it cost me a lot of time.

If I had to do it again, I’d do this:

Create mockups with AI and then hire a professional designer before passing everything to a developer.

That would let me focus on my full-time job and my website, which honestly feels like another full-time job.

Every productive hour matters.

Use it wisely and don’t waste it on shallow work.

When working with a developer, don’t settle for less. Never! You deserve a clean and professional implementation.

Communicate clearly and politely, and expect the same in return. That’s the base of a strong working relationship.

I hope you learned something useful from my story and experience. 😊

Want my LinkedIn repurposing prompt?

My LinkedIn prompt for turning blog posts into LinkedIn content is available to Premium members.

Want access?

You can become a Premium member for a one-time $7 payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes insights, real strategies I actually use to grow my site, and answers to your questions.

👉 See the prompt

My most popular newsletter editions:

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• Testing Writesonic for AI SEO Workflows 2026

• Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

• AI, Google & SEO: What’s changing in 2025?

For the Premium members: 👋

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Here’s what’s inside:

• November 2025 Affiliate report: $5,868.92 in affiliate commissions.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

How has your second week of January been going? 😊

In last week’s newsletter, I shared a big goal: hitting $100k from my website in 2026. And honestly, I truly believe this is possible mainly thanks to AI-powered SEO automations. 🤖

I see 2026 as the year when many companies and creators will go all in on AI to cut costs and get more done in less time.

Since this goal means producing a lot of long-form content to rank in search results and build authority on social media, doing everything manually just isn’t realistic anymore.

That’s why I need to build my own “AI assistants.”

I’ve already started testing this idea out this week using the Writesonic AI SEO tool.

More specifically, I wanted to see if their AI agent, Chatsonic, could help me build an automated content workflow — one that creates content that actually makes sense, sounds like me, and can be produced fast.

This is one of my biggest optimization goals for me right now. If I can make it work, it would save me a huge amount of time and energy.

So if you’re currently looking for an AI SEO agent (like Writesonic’s), make sure to read this first. 👇

My experience with Writesonic

I have one simple rule when choosing SEO tools:

If a tool helps me do my job faster and better, it’s worth paying for.

That’s it.

But you usually have to test tools yourself. Most online reviews are honestly garbage and don’t tell the real story. 🙃

So in January 2026, I decided to test the Writesonic Professional plan for $249/month, which includes SEO, content creation, and AI search tracking + optimization.

They do offer cheaper plans, but those don’t include AI features.

To be fair, $240+ per month is a lot of money, so a tool really needs to prove its value to keep me subscribed.

If Writesonic can truly support AI-driven SEO workflows, then it might actually be worth it. That’s why I upgraded and jumped straight in.

I’ve been testing two AI-automated workflows, and I want to share my early findings with you.

These are still preliminary results. Prompt refinement is definitely needed, but this should give you a clear idea of what to expect.

Automating a content creation workflow with Writesonic

First, it’s worth saying that Writesonic has one of the most comprehensive content generation workflows I’ve seen on the market. It’s actually designed to help you program AI to deliver content according to your needs and tone of voice.

Even if you build your own AI SEO agents, I’m still recommending taking a look.

I have to say: Writesonic has one of the most detailed content generation workflows I’ve seen so far.

It’s clearly built to help you program AI to create content based on your exact needs and tone of voice.

Even if you’re planning to build your own AI SEO agents, I still recommend checking this out.

The content creation process includes 10 steps. It starts with choosing the type of article you want (I chose a listicle) and the research method for gathering sources.

Since I usually create very detailed content briefs and already know what I want, I selected “Custom Resources.”

The whole workflow is thoughtfully designed. If you don’t like the suggested outline, you can fully customize it, even down to setting the depth of each paragraph.

Once you’ve filled in all your requirements (which does take time if you want decent content), the AI starts generating content while doing the following:

• Analyzing your provided links to understand your writing style

• Reviewing competitor content for your target keywords

• Automatically adding internal links (up to 15 links per article)

• Including quotes based on your preferences

• Adapting content to your tone of voice

• Optimizing everything for SEO

In the end, you get a full article with images. The images actually look nice, but they didn’t match my brand style, so I deleted them.

Chatsonic also pulled quotes from competitor websites. Since those weren’t real expert quotes, I removed them as well.

My conclusion about the content quality

Before content generation, I’ve spent some time collecting examples of my writing style, sharing up to 300 words about myself and my experience, and writing a detailed prompt outlining my requirements for listicle generation.

Writesonic lets you upload all this information to customize your writing style, which is really great.

Still, I ended up not using the content, simply because it didn’t meet my personal quality standards.

That doesn’t mean Chatsonic is bad at what it does.

I’m fully aware that my bar for content quality is very high, and many people would be perfectly fine using it as-is.

Here’s what I realized about Chatsonic (and really, about any AI SEO agent):

Success depends entirely on how well you train the AI to copy your tone of voice and include your real stories and experience.

That’s it. Nothing else.

Yes, prompt quality matters. But what matters even more is helping AI truly understand you before expecting meaningful output.

And this is the hardest part. Training AI isn’t about pasting examples of your posts. It’s about teaching it your experience, your way of thinking, your values, and your writing principles.

Right now, I’m working on a detailed training document about “me” that I’ll use specifically for AI writing tasks.

This is still in progress, and I’ll share my results in future newsletters.

Have you managed to create AI content that actually feels human and useful? 🤔

Writesonic social media agent

Besides SEO content, I’m also exploring how to automate repurposing my best blog posts into LinkedIn content that actually sounds like me.

On the surface, this sounds easy.

In reality, most AI-generated social posts feel generic, offer little value, and often don’t even include proper CTAs or links. 😐

What I want is a system that quickly turns my top-performing blog posts into engaging, informative LinkedIn posts and eventually automates publishing too.

Writesonic offers a Social Media Post Generator for this.

You first choose the platform and the product or service you’re promoting, and then you move into content creation mode.

This AI agent also uses the writing style you’ve already saved.

This week, I spent several evenings refining my prompt and teaching the agent how I want social posts to sound.

Honestly, I still wasn’t happy with the results, even after multiple attempts.

After failing to get what I wanted from Writesonic, I decided to take my 1,100+ word prompt and test it with Claude instead.

And the difference was huge! 🤯

Thanks to a very detailed prompt with writing rules, examples, and clear instructions, Claude created a solid social media content plan for an entire month. It included:

• Different post formats

• Varying post lengths

• Hashtags

• CTAs

• Visual ideas

Now all that’s left is posting on LinkedIn, manually for now, but I’m also working on automating this step. 🙂

Want my LinkedIn repurposing prompt?

My LinkedIn prompt for turning blog posts into LinkedIn content is available to Premium members.

Want access?

You can become a Premium member for a one-time $7 payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes insights, real strategies I actually use to grow my site, and answers to your questions.

👉 See the prompt

My brand-new website design is live! 🎉

As I’m writing this late on Friday night, I’m finally excited to say that my new website design is live after 2.5 months of work. 🤩 

It honestly feels surreal that this massive project is done.

I learned a lot, made plenty of design mistakes, probably tested my developer’s patience 😅 but it was all worth it in the end.

I’ll definitely write a separate (and obviously long-form) newsletter sharing everything I learned from this project. So stay tuned!

And remember: this site will hit $100k in 2026. Every investment I’m making now is part of that plan. 💪

P.S. Never deploy anything on a Friday night. Seriously. Never.

👉 Check out the new site

My most popular newsletter editions:

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

• AI, Google & SEO: What’s changing in 2025?

For the Premium members: 👋

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Here’s what’s inside:

• November 2025 Affiliate report: $5,868.92 in affiliate commissions.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

Happy New Year 2026!

I’m officially back, feeling refreshed, and excited to kick off the very first newsletter edition of the year.

I have planned a lot for 2026, including some pretty ambitious 💰 goals, and I can’t wait to share the journey with you. 😉 

If you care about growing websites, experimenting with AI SEO automations, or monetizing content, this year is going to be packed with useful insights. I’ll be sharing what I’m learning as I go, so make sure to stick around.

For now, let me walk you through what I worked on this week and how it’s already shaping my plans for 2026.

Let’s dive in!

A new purpose

In 2025, my website brought in over $40,000 through affiliate partnerships and sponsorships.

That was the year I stopped thinking of it as “just a blog” and started treating it like a real system:

• Fewer pages, but with much stronger intent

• Clear and intentional monetization paths

• Workflows I can repeat and scale

In 2026, my goal is to make $100k from my website.

This newsletter is where I break everything down.

If my website shows what I’m building, this newsletter explains:

• Why the site is structured the way it is

• What’s working — and what clearly isn’t

• How my content site actually makes money

I want you to be part of this journey and learn alongside me, in real time.

The bigger goal is to turn this newsletter into your weekly behind-the-scenes notes on growing websites with SEO, monetizing content, and testing AI — all from someone actively doing the work.

As I mentioned in my December recap, figuring out AI-driven content workflows and SEO automations is one of my top priorities for 2026. I’ll be sharing what works for me along the way.

There’s not much truly useful information on this topic out there yet, so my hope is to bring more clarity and real-world insight.

I hope you’ll follow along with me this year.

A brand new look

Only a few days left until my website’s brand-new design goes live, and I honestly can’t wait.

This has been the biggest project of 2025 for me. It took months of planning, tweaking, and second-guessing, and seeing it finally launch feels huge.

The new version will be live next week, and I’ll be sharing the thinking behind the redesign and what I wanted to achieve with it.

In the meantime, I’ve already refreshed the newsletter to match the new website’s look and feel. 😊 

The goal was simple: make it easier to read, more visually appealing, and fully aligned with the new brand.

And yes, green is my favorite color, so the color choice was never really up for debate.💚

The update is still ongoing, but you can already check my most popular editions in the highlights:

• Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

• My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

• AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

• What SEO experts think about AI (full conference recap)

• Is ChatGPT really sending traffic? Here’s the data

• Ranking in AI Overviews: Kevin Indig’s key insights

• AI, Google & SEO: What’s changing in 2025?

Biggest goal of 2026: $100k from the website

In 2025, my total creator income crossed $100k, combining revenue from my website, client work, and my new full-time role.

This year, I’m setting a new challenge for myself: turning $40k from the website into $100k.

This time around, I have a much clearer picture of how to get there and which partnerships have the biggest potential to move the needle.

That’s why I spent the first week of January deep into keyword research and building a content plan designed specifically to support my 2026 business goals.

These new goals also meant rethinking my site structure a bit.

For 2026, I’m narrowing my focus and doubling down on a few core content areas, which are now reflected as new menu categories on the site.

This year, I’ll be creating expert-led content around these key topics:

Semrush 101
Semrush is my top affiliate partner, helping me generate $15.6k in affiliate revenue last year. The monetization potential here is massive. My plan is to create expert-level content around Semrush so that anyone interested in the tool starts their journey on my site.

AI SEO
The two AI SEO pillar pages you can see in the screenshot below are already my top revenue drivers.

My goal is to maintain their rankings while building a full content cluster around AI SEO. SEO is going all-in on AI in 2026, and I’m not planning to miss out on this one.

Content That Ranks
This has always been the core of my site, even though it’s evolved over time. The “SEO tools” pillar page is on track to become another major revenue driver. This content cluster will support long-term rankings and further position me as an SEO content strategist.

Everything that took me time to figure out, I’ve shared here with you. I hope it helps you as you plan your website's growth and monetization strategy.

I’m genuinely excited to see where this approach takes me, and you’ll be the first to know how it goes.

Once the new website design is live, it’s time for some SEO magic. Stay tuned 🙂

Google’s December Core Update is officially done

In my last email of 2025, I mentioned Google’s not-so-fun habit of rolling out core updates right before the holidays — perfectly timed to stress out website owners before Christmas.

For context, this update kicked off on December 11 and wrapped up on December 29. If you want to dig into what changed, you can find more details here.

Based on data from Semrush Sensor, the biggest and only major ranking shake-up happened on December 13.

That’s when many sites likely saw noticeable changes, either drops or gains in search visibility.

On my end, I started seeing a decline in impressions and clicks around December 5. A few pages slipped down slightly in the SERPs, but overall, there was no major hit to performance over the course of the month.

It’s still unclear whether this was just a typical end-of-year slowdown or an effect of the core update. Either way, I’m already taking action by refreshing and improving the pages that saw a dip to help regain visibility.

How did your site handle the update? 🙂 

Annual affiliate breakdown — the full story behind $40K+ 💰

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

If you are interested in learning:

• How much my site made every month in 2025 (high-level, honest numbers)

• How different affiliate partners performed (I have over 10 affiliate partners)

• What decisions impact the results

• What I’m changing and why

Join my Premium newsletter edition for a one-time $7.

Inside, you’ll find a breakdown of how many affiliate programs it actually takes to make this kind of income from a relatively small site, which brands bring in the most revenue, and more!

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out affiliate reports.

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• November 2025 Affiliate report: $5,868.92 in affiliate commissions.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

We’re almost at the end of 2025 — how did that even happen? 😱

Honestly… I don’t know about you, but time has been moving way too fast lately.

And most days, I don’t even get a chance to pause and enjoy it.

My 2025 flew by, and suddenly, we are at the end of the year, which is a reflection time. ✍️

My 2025 in a nutshell 🥜

Back in January 2025, I set a bold goal: hit six figures. 💰

I remember looking at it and laughing. No clear plan. No solid strategy. Just a number on paper.

And now, in December, my annual income has passed six figures, and I still have moments where I can’t fully believe it. 😅

Most of this came from:

• My website

• Client work

• My new full-time job

I realized that sometimes, you don’t need to have all the answers from day one. It’s enough to know where you’re going. You’ll figure out the rest along the way.

Working with a sea view 🌊 (and lots of deep thoughts)

In May 2025, I spent an entire month by the seaside in Batumi, Georgia.
I also escaped to Warsaw, Poland, for a few days — all while still working. ✈️

I clearly remember one morning: Coffee on the balcony, sea view, and no rush.

I was thinking what a privilege it is to live life on my own terms.

Things like an 8-hour sleep, mornings without rush, work-life balance, and flexibility became truly precious to me.

Those thoughts stayed with me all year and changed how I approach work, maybe forever.

Founder life vs. freedom (a mindset shift)

For a long time, I thought being a “founder” was the ultimate goal. I was actively trying to turn my SEO work into an agency. But 2025 made something very clear to me:

👉 I value freedom and an empty calendar more than busy days. So I shifted my focus to something that:

• Fits my life vision

• Has passive income potential

• I genuinely enjoy

That thing was…. my website!

My website growth 📈

This year, Self Made Millennials grew from a few thousand to over 20,000 monthly readers and over $40,000 in annual revenue. 💸

And yet… I still get comments from strangers saying: “You could do more,” “You could grow faster,” and so on.

And I actually agree with some of that. 🤷‍♀️

But life doesn’t always move in straight lines.

I don’t usually share personal things online. But this year came with a lot of family-related challenges. And if I’m being honest, it completely drained my motivation.

I went into autopilot mode. I kept working because it alone carried me through some very hard moments.

I’m closing out 2025 with a brand-new website I designed entirely in Figma.

It reflects my current vision, which might change next year, and that’s okay.

Right now, I want to focus on showing my readers what’s possible when you start putting your thoughts on a blank page.

SEO IRL Toronto: the human side of the internet 🤝

Attending SEO IRL in Toronto was one of the highlights of the year.

Yes, it was insightful. But conferences, for me, are really about people.

Hearing “Hey, I’m not sure we’ve met before, but I guess I know you” was my biggest surprise.

Meeting online friends in real life, people I never thought I’d actually meet, was surreal.

Not everything was a win (and that’s okay)

I have a habit of writing down my failures at the end of the year. It helps me let go and move forward.

I truly believe focusing on 2–3 things beats trying to do everything and failing at all of it.

So if you feel like you failed at something this year — you’re not alone!

My 2025 failures ❌

• I didn’t grow my newsletter to 10,000 subscribers. It’s still at 1,300, and I did nothing to grow it.

• I didn’t automate my LinkedIn content. Everything is manual and inconsistent

• I started being active on Reddit, but never gave it proper time.

• I didn’t update my SEO ebook. With so many changes to the AI SEO, it needs a full revamp (again).

• Last year, I took all of December off. This year, I’m working right until Christmas. 🎄

And probably the biggest one: Many of my wins came at the cost of not taking care of myself enough. 💔

There’s no way to manage everything if you are a one-woman show. And finding people who’d genuinely care about what you do is even harder. I’ve tried and failed multiple times.

But I came to the conclusion that scaling a business doesn’t necessarily require increasing the headcount …

Looking ahead to 2026

With all the power of AI that we have nowadays, you can literally build and train AI agents to become a new version of you.

And that’s what I’m going to focus on in 2026 — AI workflows and automations. 

This would require changing everything that I've gotten used to, but I sincerely believe there’s no other way to succeed.

AI won’t take our jobs. Those who know how to leverage AI will do it.

One last thing ❤️

Thank you for being here.

For reading my work.

For replying to my emails.

For the kind words and thoughtful questions.

I’ll take some time off this Christmas and be back with fresh ideas in the first week of January 2026.

Meanwhile, here are a few highlights I think are worth knowing if you work in marketing: 👇

AI trends that will shape SEO in 2026

SEO is entering its next big shift.

That’s why I put together a full breakdown of AI SEO Trends 2026 — what’s changing, what’s becoming outdated, and what you should focus on to protect and grow your traffic this year and beyond.

These trends are based on my own experience working with brands, running my website, and chatting with some of the smartest minds in SEO.

Here’s a quick preview of what you’ll find inside:

1️⃣ E-E-A-T is at the core of AI SEO

2️⃣ Topical authority matters more than ever — go deep, not wide

3️⃣ AI citations rise as the “new backlinks”

4️⃣ SEO becomes multichannel

5️⃣ AI-powered workflows speed up SEO tasks

6️⃣ Traditional KPIs fade — AI visibility becomes the new metric

If this got your curiosity going, here’s a link to the article. 👇 It’s free to read.

AI SEO Trends 2026: What’s Changing and How to Adapt

Upcoming SEO trends and AI insights for 2026 from an SEO expert and content writer. Get to know how to prepare as a content creator.

selfmademillennials.com/ai-seo-trends

Merry Christmas from Google 🎄 — December 2025 Core Update

For yet another year in a row, Google is sticking to its favorite holiday tradition:
dropping a major core update right before year-end… and giving site owners a collective headache.

The December 2025 Core Update was announced on December 11, and Google says the rollout can take up to three weeks.

Some small creators on Reddit mention they’ve already felt a negative impact of the update.

On my end, I haven’t seen any change to the rankings yet.

In fact, Semrush Sensor shows that the rankings are pretty stable now, and there’s no Googlequake now.

While writing this email, I did notice a spike in volatility around December 13.

So this might not be the last shake-up we see.

Time will tell 👀

What about you? Have you noticed any ranking changes yet?

November 2025 Affiliate Report is live

💰 My website earned $5,868.92 in November — all from affiliate commissions, with zero brand partnerships.

Here’s just a quick overview of what you’ll see in my November affiliate report:

📌Total income from the website: $5,868.92
📌 $5,868.92 in affiliate commissions 💰
📌 $2,049.10 is the highest affiliate commission from one partner
📌 $0 from brand sponsorships

Inside, you’ll find a breakdown of how many affiliate programs it actually takes to make this kind of income from a relatively small site, which brands bring in the most revenue, and more — all for a one-time $7.

Already a premium member? You can jump straight in and check out the report.

Affiliate Marketing Report: November 2025

Breaking down how my website made $5,868.92

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/affiliate-marketing-report-november-2025

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• October 2025 Affiliate report: $4,716.36. in affiliate and sponsorships.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

Merry Christmas! 🧑‍🎄

Victoria Kurichenko

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I’m dropping into your inbox with my usual monthly update — a little behind-the-scenes peek at what’s been going on in my life and business. ✨

This one was supposed to land in your inbox last Friday, but I got totally caught up cooking for a friend’s dinner and didn’t get to write it. 🍽️😅

And honestly, I refuse to send anything half-baked, so the November recap had to wait… until now. 😉

Here’s a quick look at what November looked like:

I’ve finally started what’s possibly the biggest project of the year — my complete website redesign! 🤩 

My site has made over $40k this year, which has made it to the point where the entire revamp is a logical next step in the business growth.

And instead of trying to explain my feelings about what a new design should look like, I decided to do it on my own …. with a bit of help from Figma AI.

Below is the fully developed home page that will soon replace the old one:

How do you like it?

💰 My website brought in $5,730.74 purely from affiliate commissions (no brand partnerships this time!)

Normally, I land at least one brand deal a month, but this time I decided to hold off on a new partnership because the brand needs to improve their product before I can feature it. I turn down offers a lot — quality always comes first for me. Always.

On a personal note, November marked my third month working full-time as an SEO content specialist, helping local businesses with their SEO. And honestly, balancing a full-time job and a business is tough. 

I know it won’t always be like this, but trying to deliver high-quality work on all fronts has been a real challenge.

That’s why “Automation” is becoming my theme for 2026 since I’ve got big plans for my website (and more).

If you’re juggling a lot, too, how do you handle it?

Crushing website goals 🚀

Now, I'd like to share some great news about the website's performance over the past month.

Here’s a quick update on how November 2025 went:

✅ Total earnings: $5,730.74 (an affiliate report is coming soon…)
✅ 10 affiliate partners
✅ The highest amount earned from one affiliate partner was $2,049.1

So, my website brought in a total of USD $41,439.06 in 2025!

I’ll be putting together a detailed year-end review packed with everything I’ve learned, discovered, and tested, including the strategies that actually worked! 🚀 Stay tuned!

P.S. If you’re a Premium member, you can check out all affiliate reports here. You must be logged in with your email address to read it.

💰 Top partner of the month

My top affiliate partner in November, and honestly, most of this year, was Semrush.

Their platform keeps getting better, and the value for users just keeps growing. Since people already trust the brand (and I use their SEO tools myself), their partner program has been a steady income stream for me. 🙌

On the flip side, Writesonic, a fast-growing AI and SEO company, suddenly froze its Partner Program without telling anyone. They stopped replying, and pending commissions went unpaid for months.

Thankfully, after months of silence, I finally got a response, and they sent the payout I’d been waiting on since June 2025!

So now you know which company to steer clear of. 🚫

What I worked on in November

✅ Published a new article on the following topic: “My SEO Content Strategy That Made $40k in 2025.” It already ranks for the target keywords! (No link building. Just strong topical authority doing its thing. 💪)

✅ I published my thoughts and ideas about the future of SEO and AI in my latest post on: AI SEO Trends 2026: What’s Changing and How to Adapt.

If you are curious about the state of SEO and where we are heading, I suggest reading this, as it is insightful. In fact, a summary of this post generated almost 5,000 views in 3 days.

As always, every piece I publish helps me move closer to my business goals.

This year, I’ve already surpassed my goal — making $20,000 from my website. That’s up from $8K last year, and I’m already planning even bigger things for 2026.

👉 Have you done keyword research for your site yet? You can learn more about my keyword research and optimization process in my SEO ebook.

What you might have missed in November

My developer asked me, “Who creates all the content on your website?”

I said, “I do! Every piece of content reflects my personal experience and lessons learned. No one else can write about my journey as I can.”

He nodded and then added, “Just be careful, using AI content can hurt your site’s performance.”

When I said I wasn’t worried, he looked surprised. 😅

Breaking down how my website made $4,716.36 in October 2025.

Affiliate Marketing Report: October 2025

Breaking down how my website made $4,716.36.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/affiliate-marketing-report-october-2025

I finally pulled together all my thoughts, experience, and step-by-step process for creating an SEO content strategy. The same approach helped my website make over $40,000 in affiliate commissions and partnerships in 2025. 💸

My SEO content strategy that made $40k in 2025

How I turned my website pages into a $40k business.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/my-seo-content-strategy-that-made-40k-in-2025

SEO is entering its next big shift.

That’s why I put together a full breakdown of AI SEO Trends 2026 — what’s changing, what’s becoming outdated, and what you should focus on to protect and grow your traffic this year and beyond.

AI SEO trends 2026: What will shape search next year

This piece is based on years of my experience as an SEO specialist and exclusive insights from top industry experts, like Aleyda Solis.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/ai-seo-trends-2026

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• October 2025 Affiliate report: $4,716.36. in affiliate and sponsorships.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

See you next week with more updates, insights, and behind-the-scenes wins. 🚀

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

P.S. You can review all previous monthly recaps here.

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

Hope your weekend is going well!

Over the past few months, I’ve been collecting insights, testing new tools, and learning directly from top SEO experts during the SEO IRL conference in Toronto. And after connecting the dots, one thing is clear:

SEO is entering its next big shift.

That’s why I put together a full breakdown of AI SEO Trends 2026 — what’s changing, what’s becoming outdated, and what you should focus on to protect and grow your traffic this year and beyond.

These trends are based on my own experience working with brands, running my website, and chatting with some of the smartest minds in SEO.

Here’s a quick preview of what you’ll find inside:

1️⃣ E-E-A-T is at the core of AI SEO

2️⃣ Topical authority matters more than ever — go deep, not wide

3️⃣ AI citations rise as the “new backlinks”

4️⃣ SEO becomes multichannel

5️⃣ AI-powered workflows speed up SEO tasks

6️⃣ Traditional KPIs fade — AI visibility becomes the new metric

If this got your curiosity going, here’s a link to the article. 👇 It’s free to read.

AI SEO Trends 2026: What’s Changing and How to Adapt

Upcoming SEO trends and AI insights for 2026 from an SEO expert and content writer. Get to know how to prepare as a content creator.

selfmademillennials.com/ai-seo-trends

What you might have missed

Last week, I finally shared my full SEO content strategy — the same one that brought in over $40,000 from my website in 2025.

The response on LinkedIn surprised me 🙈

• 170 likes

• 7.5k+ impressions

• 56 comments

• 1 repost

If you're wondering how a solopreneur can earn $40k through affiliate deals and brand partnerships, feel free to check out the article.

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• October 2025 Affiliate report: $4,716.36. in affiliate and sponsorships.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

Have a great weekend!

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

P.S. You can review last week’s newsletter here.

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

Hope you’re doing great!

You’ve probably noticed this newsletter arrived on a Saturday instead of the usual Friday. 😊

That’s because I spent last week working on something exciting, and I wanted to share it only when it was fully ready.

I finally pulled together all my thoughts, experience, and step-by-step process for creating an SEO content strategy. The same approach helped my website make over $40,000 in affiliate commissions and partnerships in 2025. 💸

Even though I’ve built strategies like this many times for clients, I’ve never shared the full process publicly.

Because I couldn’t show client data.

And since I’m a big believer in “show, don’t tell,” I kept delaying this article… until now.

Today, you finally get a real behind-the-scenes look at how I create SEO content strategies that aren’t just “nice to have,” but actually aligned with business goals and real revenue.

As always — no fluff, no filler. Just the essentials you need to build a strategy that works. 🚀

It’s live on my website and free to read.

My SEO Content Strategy That Made $40k in 2025

Learn the exact SEO content strategy that grew my traffic by 73% and brought in $40K in 2025. No fluff—just the steps, tools, and tactics that actually work.

selfmademillennials.com/my-seo-content-strategy

October Affiliate report is live 💰

This week, I’ve published my October affiliate marketing report, sharing how I earned $4,716.36 in October from my website.

My site has already passed $40k in revenue this year, even though the yearly goal was $20k. Proof that affiliate marketing is far from dead if you’ve got a site that performs well. 🚀

In the report, I share exactly which partners brought in revenue, what’s working right now, and what isn’t.

If you are already a Premium member, you can access the report via the link below. But if you aren’t part of the community yet, check it here.

Affiliate Marketing Report: October 2025

Breaking down how my website made $4,716.36.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/affiliate-marketing-report-october-2025

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• October 2025 Affiliate report: $4,716.36. in affiliate and sponsorships.

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

Have a great weekend!

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

P.S. You can review last week’s newsletter here: My developer warned me about AI.

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

Hope you’re doing great!

You might know that I’m in the process of creating a brand new and fresh look for my website, which I’m doing all by myself with the help of AI.

Once I’m done, I’ll share all the details about what I did and what I learned, because honestly, this process helped me save a ton on hiring a designer! 💸 

Instead, I decided to bring a developer on board to turn my vision into reality. (Coming soon… 👀)

But before that, I want to share a quick story that happened to me this week: 👇

On Monday, I had a call with a developer about my website redesign. 👩‍💻

At the end of the call, he asked, “Who creates all the content on your website?”

I said, “I do! Every piece of content reflects my personal experience and lessons learned. No one else can write about my journey like I can.”

He nodded and then added, “Just be careful, using AI content can hurt your site’s performance.”

When I said I wasn’t worried, he looked surprised. 😅

But here’s what we often forget: Google never said it penalizes websites for using AI-generated content. Many top-ranking sites use it and still stay at the top for months.

👉 The real problem isn’t using AI — it’s how you use it.

Here’s what actually matters:

1️⃣ Build topical authority by consistently creating content around your niche.

2️⃣ When creating content, follow Google’s E-E-A-T principles (Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust).

3️⃣ Optimize your site to show why people should trust you.

4️⃣ And most importantly, create content because you genuinely want to help your audience. 😍 

That’s it!

No hacks, no tricks.

AI isn’t the enemy. It’s a tool. And if you use it wisely, it can actually become your advantage. 🚀

I shared how I “humanize” AI-generated content in one of my articles.

How I Humanize AI Content as a Writer (5 Ways)

Learn free strategies on how to humanize AI content. I'll show you how to align AI content with Google’s EEAT for higher rankings.

selfmademillennials.com/how-to-humanize-ai-content

In this article, I cover the following topics based on my professional experience and experiments:

• Can AI-generated content rank in search results?

• Google’s official statement on AI-generated content

• What John Mueller, Google’s advocate, shares about the impact of outbound links

• What empathy has to do with SEO (yes, it’s connected!)

• How AI-generated and human-written content differ

• Why websites that follow Google’s E-E-A-T usually have a strong organic performance

• Why “Quoara is the saddest place on Earth,” according to John O’Nolan, the founder of Ghost

• My top 5 strategies to humanize AI-generated content, so it does no harm

…. and much more!

If you’ve ever wondered how to use AI tools the right way without hurting your brand or rankings, this one’s for you.

P.S. The article even got a well-deserved shoutout from Ahrefs. 🎉

Click below to read it on my website! 👇

The one place to build 🚀

You might already know that I’ve been using beehiiv to run all my email marketing.

Since launch, they’ve positioned themselves as a top platform for newsletter growth and monetization. But everything changed yesterday… 👀

On November 13th, beehiiv officially opened a brand new chapter — becoming a true “one platform to build” for creators.

Besides their usual monetization tools like Boosts, Ad Network, and Subscriptions, you can now also:

✨ Sell your digital products directly on beehiiv with 0% fees
✨ Design with AI that understands your brand — just chat, tweak, and approve your website or landing page
✨ Build your website fast with clean, customizable templates
✨ Connect your podcast and make it part of your newsletter world
✨ Get a premium, mobile-friendly Link in Bio
✨ Show different content to different subscriber segments automatically — this one is seriously powerful! ⚡️

…and more!

Here’s a screenshot from yesterday’s presentation. 👇

I wouldn’t be surprised if beehiiv’s founder, Tayler Denk, got some inspiration from Apple while planning this super sleek and modern announcement.

If you’re curious about how beehiiv can help you grow faster, you can check it out here. 💛

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

Have a great weekend!

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

P.S. You can review last week’s newsletter here: October 2025 monthly recap.

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I’m popping into your inbox with my usual monthly recap — a behind-the-scenes look at what’s been happening in my life and business lately.

October was on fire! 🔥

Here’s the quick version:

✨ On October 16–17, I attended SEO IRL, the biggest SEO conference in Canada. It was two incredibly productive days where I got to validate my SEO approach in the age of AI. I also gathered tons of fresh insights from top industry leaders — sharing a few of them below!

💰 My website brought in $4,716.36 from affiliate partnerships and brand collaborations (more details below).

🎂 And on a personal note, I spent a few days in Vancouver, BC, celebrating my birthday, reflecting on the past year, and thinking about what’s next.

I have this little tradition of celebrating my birthday somewhere new every year, and I’m so glad I chose Vancouver this time. The city is so much cleaner and prettier than most people give it credit for! 🌆💙

Exploring Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Crushing website goals 🚀

Now, I'd like to share some great news about the website's performance over the past month.

Here’s a quick update on how October 2025 went.

✅ Total earnings: $4,716.36 (an affiliate report is coming soon…)
✅ 11 affiliate partners
✅ Made $1,500 from a brand sponsorship
✅ The highest amount earned from one affiliate partner was $1,340.03

So, my website brought in a total of USD $34,049.78 in 2025!

I’ll be putting together a detailed year-end review packed with everything I’ve learned, discovered, and tested, including the strategies that actually worked! 🚀 Stay tuned!

P.S. If you’re a Premium member, you can check out all affiliate reports here. You must be logged in with your email address to read it.

💰 Top partner of the month

My top affiliate partner in October, and honestly, for most of the year, was Semrush.

Their platform continues to improve, offering users increasing value. Since the brand already has people’s trust (and I personally use their SEO tools too), it’s been a solid source of income for me through their partner program. 🙌

But here’s the flip side, even well-known companies can surprise you… and not in a good way. 😬

To my disappointment, Writesonic, a growing AI and SEO brand, suddenly paused its Partner Program without notifying partners. On top of that, they stopped replying and haven’t paid out pending commissions.

I didn’t expect that from such a big name, but it’s all part of the creator journey, where not everything is sunshine and wins. Lesson learned.

So, now you know which company to stay away from in the future. 🚫

On a brighter note, I also closed a $1,500 deal by promoting a fast-growing business in one of my posts. 🎉

Working with trusted brands that align with your niche and expertise is always worth it — less risk, more reward, and way more peace of mind. 💡

All the insights from the top SEO industry leaders

It’s been almost a month since I got back from the biggest SEO conference in Canada, and I also got to meet legends like Aleyda Solis in person! 🤩 

I’ve put together a detailed recap of both conference days, including key takeaways, speaker quotes, and even presentation screenshots.

If you’re curious about what the top SEO minds had to say about AI and SEO, you can read the full summary on my website — it’s completely free. 😉 

P.S. It’s a deep dive (over 2,000 words) because I wanted to capture the most valuable insights from the event.

Enjoy reading! 🚀 👇

My SEO IRL 2025 Recap: SEO Conference in Toronto

Here’s my recap of SEO IRL 2025 in Toronto. Key insights, takeaways, and trends from one of the top SEO conferences this year.

selfmademillennials.com/seo-irl-2025-recap

If I could mention one thing from the conference that I believe is worth knowing and actually doing, it is this:

Brie, an SEO from Australia and the CEO of White Light Digital Marketing, shared that their team built their own search engine to figure out what high-quality backlinks actually look like.

After analyzing thousands of websites, they found that two things make a backlink truly valuable:

1. It comes from a page that ranks for keywords related to your niche (topical authority).

2. It’s from a page that gets real traffic and links to your site naturally.

So yes, backlinks still matter in 2025.
But this proves it’s not about cold outreach or spammy guest posts. It’s about building real relationships with trusted brands and creating content worth linking to. 💪

You can dive into all the juicy insights in my full conference recap here.

What I worked on in October

✅ Published a new article on SE Ranking alternatives, which already ranks on the first page for a related keyword! (No link building. Just strong topical authority doing its thing. 💪)

✅ One of my top-performing posts on AI Marketing Tools got a +1 detailed review of the Holo.ai tool. If you are looking for ways to automate and speed up your marketing efforts, this article could be a great read.

✅ I updated my old post on SEO tools for agencies, which had been left without any updates for two years. Since it’s optimized around my target keyword, I finally gave it a fresh update. Here’s how its performance has improved within the past few weeks.

The goal is to recommend only the best agency tools and make well-deserved affiliate commissions from every sale.

As always, every piece I publish helps me move closer to my business goals.

This year, I’ve already surpassed my goal — making $20,000 from my website. That’s up from $8K last year, and I’m already planning even bigger things for 2026.

Spoiler: A full website redesign is coming soon, and it’s going to look amazing. 😍

👉 Have you done keyword research for your site yet? You can learn more about my keyword research and optimization process in my SEO ebook.

What you might have missed in October

The insights of a new research report about Quora and Google’s AI Mode that Semrush has recently published.

🤖 Google’s AI loves Quora: Here’s why

New research data. 📢

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/google-s-ai-loves-quora-here-s-why

My SEO IRL conference recap.

🚀 What SEO Experts Think About AI (Full Conference Recap)

Top AI & SEO insights from 2 days of Canada’s biggest SEO event. 🇨🇦

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/what-seo-experts-think-about-ai-full-conference-recap

Ever had your site suddenly get hit by a wave of weird backlinks? You know, those shady ones that make you wonder if a competitor got a little too interested in your rankings? 😅

Well… looks like it was my turn in the spotlight…

187 spammy backlinks hit my site here’s what happened

Plus, a Halloween treat — 31% off my SEO ebook. 🎃

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/187-spammy-backlinks-hit-my-site

I published my September Affiliate Marketing report on October 14th, sharing all the insights about how my website brought in $8,102.18 in total income in September.

You can find all the affiliate reports since January 2025 here.

Affiliate Marketing Report: September 2025

Breaking down how my website made $8,102.18.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/affiliate-marketing-report-september-2025

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

See you next week with more updates, insights, and behind-the-scenes wins. 🚀

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

P.S. You can review all previous monthly recaps here.

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

Hope you’re doing great!

Ever had your site suddenly get hit by a wave of weird backlinks? You know, those shady ones that make you wonder if a competitor got a little too interested in your rankings? 😅

Well… looks like it’s my turn in the spotlight this week.

Since October 23rd, my site has attracted 187 backlinks from 96 different spammy domains — all nofollow and all pointing straight to my top-ranking posts.

Some examples:

• seo-anomaly-istanbul

• seo-anomaly-lagos

• seo-anomaly-tokyo

I’ve been using Semrush’s SEO Toolkit, specifically Backlink Audit, to track and audit backlinks on my website. The screenshot below is the backlinks report from Semrush showing these spammy links appearing in bulk.

If you’re seeing the same thing, take it as a compliment! It means your site is performing well enough to attract attention. 💪

Now, let’s talk about what to actually do with these spammy backlinks.

My take (and what the SEO community says):

From my experience, Google pretty much ignores them. I don’t even bother disavowing anymore — they’ve never affected my rankings.

It’s just frustrating that some people spend time on this nonsense instead of building something meaningful. 🙄

But if you ever get a manual action or warning in Google Search Console, then it might be worth disavowing those links. So, check in there from time to time just to be safe.

I also shared my experience on Reddit, and here’s what other SEOs said: 👇

So, that’s the little drama from this week in my SEO world.

Have you ever been hit with a “friendly” spammy backlink campaign? 😅

During the SEO conference in Toronto this past October, Brie Moreau, an SEO expert from Australia, shared a simple yet powerful answer:

Two things make a backlink truly valuable:

• It comes from a page that ranks for keywords related to your niche (topical authority).

• It’s from a page that gets real traffic and links to your site naturally.

You can check out more insights from Brie and other SEO pros in my conference summary notes here:

My SEO IRL 2025 Recap: SEO Conference in Toronto

Here’s my recap of SEO IRL 2025 in Toronto. Key insights, takeaways, and trends from one of the top SEO conferences this year.

selfmademillennials.com/seo-irl-2025-recap

👻 One day only: A spooktacular 31% off SEO deal

On October 31st only, get 31% off my SEO Ebook — your ultimate guide to writing content that ranks (and stays there)! 🧙‍♀️✨

Grab it before it disappears into the night — this treat won’t come back! 🍬

🎟️ Just add the coupon code SPOOKY31 at checkout to claim your discount!

• A step-by-step system for finding, analyzing, and prioritizing keywords

• My exact method for turning keywords into SEO-optimized outlines that Google loves

• How to create a solid content writing plan

• My best writing tips to make sure your content meets Google’s content quality requirements

• Case study on how my content outranked industry giants and ranked in the top 3 for multiple keywords

• Case study revealing what I actually do when my rankings drop — and how I bounce back

… and so much more!

👉 Use code SPOOKY31 at checkout and grab your 31% discount this Halloween before it vanishes forever!

If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a creator…

On November 13th, beehiiv, a newsletter growth platform I personally use, is hosting its Winter Release Event, and it sounds like their biggest move yet.

They’re keeping the details under wraps, but I reached out to the beehiiv team to get a sneak peek before sharing anything with you. 😉

Here’s what one of their team members told me:

Sounds exciting, right?

From what I can tell, beehiiv is evolving beyond being “just a newsletter platform.” It seems like they’re building something much bigger — a full creator ecosystem to help people grow and monetize their content online.

Here’s how beehiiv’s CEO, Tyler Denk, puts it:

As a long-time beehiiv user myself, this gets me genuinely excited. They’ve already paid me nearly $10,000 for helping them grow, and I can’t wait to see what’s next. 💰

🗓️ When: Thursday, November 13th | 1–2 PM EST
🎟️ Where: Free online event
👉 Register here

See you there, fellow creator 🚀

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

Happy Halloween! 👻

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

P.S. You can review last week’s newsletter here.

Hello, {{ first name | my friend}}!

I hope you are doing well!

It’s been a week since I got back from the biggest SEO conference in Canada, and I still can’t believe I got to meet legends like Aleyda Solis in person! 🤩 

I’ve put together a detailed recap of both conference days, including key takeaways, speaker quotes, and even presentation screenshots.

If you’re curious about what the top SEO minds had to say about AI and SEO, you can read the full summary on my website — it’s completely free. 😉 

P.S. It’s a deep dive (over 2,000 words) because I wanted to capture the most valuable insights from the event.

Enjoy reading! 🚀 👇

My SEO IRL 2025 Recap: SEO Conference in Toronto

Here’s my recap of SEO IRL 2025 in Toronto. Key insights, takeaways, and trends.

selfmademillennials.com/seo-irl-2025-recap

How to get more visibility in AI search results

Getting noticed by AI tools and LLMs is the new hot topic in SEO. It’s what every expert’s talking about lately.

If you’re still figuring out how to make your brand stand out in AI search results, I’ve got something exciting for you. 👇

My partner, Search Atlas, is hosting a free webinar led by their co-founders, including Manick Bhan (who I had the pleasure of meeting at SEO IRL!).

At the LLM Visibility Challenge, you’ll learn exactly how to improve your AI visibility.

It kicks off on Tuesday, October 28th, and it’s totally free. I’m already signed up, so I hope to see you there! 😉 

💰 September 2025 Affiliate Report is Out!

I’m thrilled to share that September was my best-performing month yet — I earned $8,102.18 from affiliate sales and sponsorships! 🎉

You can read the full report (and see all the numbers) here 👇

Affiliate Marketing Report: September 2025

Breaking down how my website made $8,102.18.

news.selfmademillennials.com/p/affiliate-marketing-report-september-2025

You can unlock everything, my full content library, all Premium posts (past and future!) for just a one-time payment of $7.💸 

No more monthly fees!

Yep, that’s lifetime access for just $7. Forever. 📚

For the Premium members: 👋

Here’s what’s new in the content library:

• September 2025 Affiliate report: $8,102.18 in affiliate and sponsorships.

• $20k+ from my website in 8 months —here’s how: It’s my 2,000-word case study, where I share everything that helped me grow & monetize my site.

• Google hit my site … then I doubled my traffic, where I show the impact of the Google Core Update on various websites (including mine), and highlight common characteristics of the top-performing sites.

• $12,000+ from my website in 5 months: I’m sharing my top-performing affiliate programs and landing pages that generate the most revenue.

• Optimize like a Pro: Here's what I do: I use these 9 content optimization strategies to rank on page one.

• My approach to affiliate marketing: Mistakes, learnings & new strategy

• How I ranked #8 on Google in just 6 days: The SEO strategy that got me on Google in a few days.

Want in?

You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠💡

Have a great weekend!

Victoria

Victoria Kurichenko

P.S. You can review last week’s newsletter here.