Ranking on Google, multiple income streams, and $500/month (from one affiliate commission).

Everyone dreams of passive income.

What’s better than waking up every day, week, or month, with an automatic deposit into your checking account?

Victoria Kurichenko, founder of Self Made Millennials, knows plenty about it.

We interviewed Victoria in this Creator Spotlight, to explore how she leveraged her expertise in SEO to earn recurring commissions (with beehiiv and other partners), how she amassed over 750,000 readers on Medium and the strategies she used to build a thriving business with multiple income streams

This is a next-level deep dive with so many insightful details about how other creators might do the same. So, if you enjoy Spotlight, be sure to subscribe to Self Made Millennials.

If you’re not aware, like many digital entrepreneurs, Victoria chose to take the path of the content creator, which has opened up a number of doors–including opportunities for multiple revenue streams.

In 2022, after dabbling in different affiliate programs for some time, Victoria decided to plant the seed of a new money tree—beehiiv.

For the past year, she’s been cashing in on the beehiiv partner program. And in March 2023, she earned her biggest beehiiv commission yet: a $499 monthly payment from one transaction.

The best part is—she’ll be harvesting that plump fruit every month for a year.

But, while she makes it look easy, the process took time, effort, and skill.

Victoria was kind enough to walk us through her journey from the early days.

Let’s get into it.

Journey to 750,000+ Global Readers on Medium

Victoria’s entrepreneurship journey began with search engine optimization. While working in the SEO game brought her some level of freedom, she always had a deep-rooted drive to create online businesses that would give her even greater freedom and flexibility

She shared, “I've been working in marketing for over five years. I work in SEO—specifically in product design companies and also in 3D modelling companies. I realized that I wanted to have more control over my life and also have more freedom, so I decided to switch to entrepreneurship.

“I’m not sure if I have more free time right now because I have been working much more. But, I am quite happy about this movement in my life.

After diving head first into the SEO world, she decided to head over to Medium to start sharing her SEO expertise and to craft her writing skills. In just a few years, she’s gained thousands of followers and hundreds of thousands of readers.

She shared, “I started on Medium in 2020. I started writing on that platform without actually knowing how it'll go. Since then, I've published over 257 pieces, grown my audience to over 7,400 followers, and also reached 755,000+ readers worldwide.”

She continued, “I realized that Medium is an absolutely great opportunity to improve my writing skills and grow my personal brand. I wrote a lot about my SEO experience, business, and entrepreneurship journey. I realized that people relate to what I write, and they have very similar issues. That’s how my small online business started.”

But, there was an issue. Victoria began realizing that her content lived on Medium. Her followers lived on Medium. Her entire business was on that platform. She was getting SEO clients through the platform. But, if she stopped posting, she knew her prospects would dry up.

She understood that if she was going to truly make her business work and expand, she would need to start her own thing.

Victoria shared, “I realized that I wanted to scale my business. And it's probably impossible to do it on Medium because it’s all about temporary traffic. So when you publish there, you have clients. When you don't publish anything on Medium, your traffic drops and nothing happens.”

“Since I am an SEO specialist, I know how to grow websites and help businesses do it. So I built my own website, which is called Self Made Millennials. I launched it in August 2021. It’s a year and a half old. The website is basically the digital environment which I use to share my marketing case studies, SEO tutorials, and my entrepreneurial journey.”

Creating the Self-Made Millennials Brand

When Victoria launched her site, she decided to go against the advice of other SEO experts, who recommended using her name as her domain. Instead, she felt that a branded approach was more aligned with her values and target audience—and would give her more options to expand the business in the future.

She shared, “A lot of people ask me why my brand is called Self Made Millennials. The common way is to use your name as a domain name, but I always say that when I created my website, I wanted my website name to reflect my personal and professional journey, my values, and my beliefs. I am a lifelong learner, and I believe that I have the power to shape my own life and future.”

“So the website name should absolutely reflect who I am. When I reviewed a lot of different domain names, this one specifically stood out among all of them. I was like, ‘Yes, I want to call my website Self Made Millennials because that resonates with me.’ It's about me as a person, as a professional.”

She continued, “It’s also about the people who I work with. They are self-made millennials, self-made experts, and self-made people.”

When Victoria first started her email newsletter, she didn’t launch it on beehiiv, since the platform wasn’t live yet. She used ConvertKit for a while. But, thanks to Medium, she began hearing about an up-and-coming newsletter platform that was creating quite the buzz online.

She shared, “I heard of beehiiv from a very established medium innovator. He wrote an article I read, and I decided to try it.”

She continued, “First, I joined the platform to give it a try. And back then—one year ago—beehiiv was just starting. The functionality was primitive, so I joined the platform to test it and write a review, and then I left it.”

“But one year after, I realized that beehiiv is much more powerful than it used to be. So I switched my email list from ConvertKit to beehiiv. I really like the beehiiv dashboard, which is very informative and helps me understand where users come from, and it visualizes how the newsletter grows.”

Growing Two Audiences At Once: Creators & Entrepreneurs

Victoria takes a twofold approach to her audience growth: focus on entrepreneurs and business owners looking to improve their SEO, and on content creators like herself aiming to build their own creator empire.

She shared, “I target two completely different groups of people. One is entrepreneurs, business owners, and people who are interested in SEO—who need help with SEO.”

“Another group of people is content creators who are interested in monetizing their writing skills. I can help both of these groups, but they are very, very different. Therefore, I need a solution that will allow me to serve different segments and also keep those segments in one place. I don't want to use different tools. I want to use one tool. And that's what I use the beehiiv email software for.”

She shared, “I experiment a lot to know what's working well in SEO because this is the industry where everything changes so fast. I write SEO guides, case studies, test many different strategies and share the findings on my website. This is how I attract new clients.”

“I’m also a content creator, so there is a dedicated section on my website about content writing tools where I have multiple reviews for different products, including beehiiv.

Converting Medium Readers to Email Subscribers

Victoria reels in both audiences by leveraging lead magnets—free downloads she offers to site visitors in exchange for their email addresses.

“In order to increase the likelihood of those people joining my email list, I use lead magnets. I have already experimented with lead magnets and without lead magnets. The outcome is better when you offer something to people in return for their email addresses.”

“I use two different free lead magnets to grow my audience. One of them is the free ebook which I give to creators. And the second is the email course for SEO specialists. I have two different audiences, and beehiiv helps me serve both of them.”

Since Victoria operates the Self Made Millennials business on her own, she’s had to leverage email automations to create a well-oiled machine.

She shared, “I have optimized and automated almost all the processes that come after people join my email list. SEO is the first and foremost way I attract and build my email list.”

“I use Medium to build my email list because I regularly publish on that platform. I write a lot on Medium because that's another way to reach my audience. I know that's one of the best ways to reach readers from the USA. At the end of every story that I write, I add a one-line call to action (CTA) to my lead magnet. It's either the SEO course or a free ebook for content creators.”

Many successful newsletter publishers first build an audience on social media before funneling them to a newsletter. Such is the case with beehiiv users like Marcus Ramsey of The Brink and Eli Weiss of All Things CX & Retention, who started on Twitter. But, Victoria found success without social media.

Victoria shared, “I know it's probably not a conventional way of attracting people because many content creators use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media platforms. But, I decided not to be everywhere because it's a lot of work. I already manage my SEO business, which takes a lot of my time. I decided to only be on Medium right now and continue working on my SEO channel.”

“That's how I grew my newsletter, which has around 800 people. I have 122 people on my SEO list: entrepreneurs, business owners, company owners, solopreneurs, and website owners. These are people who need help with SEO and are interested in SEO.”

She continued, “This is one of my most active email lists. It's small, but the audience is engaged, which is the most important thing for the content creator.”

“Another group of people is content creators. There are around 700 people oin that email list.”

Capturing & Nurturing Leads

One of the best ways to get people to sign up to a newsletter is by offering something valuable in exchange for their email. But, Victoria faced a roadblock: a generic email signup form wouldn’t work since she’s building two different audiences and two email lists. So, she decided to create two distinct lead magnets for each audience.

She shared, “For content creators, I offer a free ebook, which helps them understand how they can monetize their writing skills.”

She continued, “For SEO specialists, and for those people who are interested in SEO writing, I offer a five-day quick email course where they can learn how to hit the first page of Google.”

Victoria shared, “I start the nurturing process as soon as my target audience joins my email list. I communicate with them via email, and then of course, it leads to selling either my products or services.”

Self Made Millennials Monetization

Victoria continues pulling her audience down two different funnels by nurturing them and eventually offering different products and services.

“I keep these audiences completely separated, and I have products and services for every audience. I've published an ebook about SEO writing, which works pretty well. It’s on the same topic, how to hit Google’s front page, and I've already sold more than 130 copies on Gumroad.”

She shared, “I have recently launched a new service, which is called 12 Months Content Writing Strategy. It's a very popular service for website owners because they need help with content strategy and they can order the content strategy for one year right away. This is what I can help them with. Also, I have on-demand consulting. I monetize my SEO audience mostly with my products and services related to SEO.”

“For the content creator audience, I have another ebook, which is called How to Sell eBooks on Gumroad.”

“I share my experience of being a content creator, author, and ebook writer. Those who are interested in monetizing their writing skills can buy that ebook.”

She continued, “I also offer Medium consulting. I’ve had content creators from the United States who wanted to know how to build an audience and be present on Medium, so they reached out to me for help.”

An Honest Approach to Affiliate Reviews

Victoria approaches affiliate reviews with honesty and authenticity. To her, the best way to share recommended tools with her audience is to test them first for herself.

She shared, “I use affiliate and partner programs because I write many reviews. I test a lot of tools that help me run my online business. Those who are interested in those tools read about them, click on the links, and purchase. So I get a commission on that.”

By combining her firsthand experience with her SEO knowledge, she’s able to gain the trust of her readers and earn commissions.

“My affiliate strategy is really straightforward, easy to implement, and easy to replicate. I select easy-to-rank-for keywords, which have business potential. I test these tools, write honest, in-depth reviews and publish them on my website, and then see if those companies have affiliate programs. Very often, they do. Then I join these affiliate programs.”

“I try the tools before creating the reviews. It takes time and effort to create those reviews. I am gradually expanding my content creation team to scale the content writing process.”

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Now, She’s Being Hunted Down to Write Reviews

At first, Victoria would spend hours and hours researching different tools she was interested in to potentially write a review on. But, as her audience grew, she started capturing the attention of other tool creators looking for creators to partner with. Now, they’re coming to her first.

“Now my strategy has changed a little bit. Many companies, including established companies, reach out to me and say, ‘Look, we know you have a very well-performing page like the beehiiv review. Can you do the same for us? We’ll offer you a partnership opportunity, and free access to the tool. Please join our affiliate program.’”

“I can't say that I get this every day, but it happens. Several companies reach out to me every month, let's say. So I don't need to look for the companies anymore, even though I do—it's part of my keyword research. But I already have them coming to me with this offer.”

The consistent action Victoria’s taken and the value she’s provided to her audiences have allowed her to gain momentum and generate recurring revenue. But, it didn’t come easy.

“I like this strategy because it’s stable and an almost passive way of income acquisition. Of course, there is hard work and a lot of time spent on writing and reviewing these tools. So the reward is high, but it comes later.”

Victoria’s SEO Skills On Display: Her beehiiv Review

Victoria shared, “I use a very interesting approach to select keywords for writing tool reviews. I mainly select new tools. When I discovered beehiiv, the product was only half a year old. I wrote my beehiiv review in April last year.”

“There was almost no brand search volume and there was almost no competition. But I knew that it was probably going to change. And I was right. So when I published my review about beehiiv, I was among the first platform users.”

“My beehiiv review ranks on the front page of Google under the ‘beehiiv newsletter’ keyword and other related keywords. It brings around 500 visitors per month to my website right now. It generates around three new sales per month. That's the impact of just one review page.

Repeat Income With beehiiv’s Partner Program

Since writing her beehiiv review, Victoria began generating passive income from referral commissions—oftentimes when someone would sign up for beehiiv’s $49 Grow plan or $99 Scale plan.

Thanks to beehiiv’s partner program, partners receive 50% of revenue for an entire year. That means if someone signs up for the $99 scale plan through your referral link, you’ll get $49.50 USD every month for 12 months straight—or $594 over the course of a year. But, on March 8, 2023, she discovered her biggest commission yet: $499.50.

Victoria shared, “I was actually surprised, impressed, shocked. That's not the biggest affiliate commission I’ve ever got. To be honest, my biggest affiliate commission was $3,000 at once.

“But the beehiiv commission is my second biggest. So that’s a big achievement. Usually, I get 2-3 beehiiv commissions per month. Because you have two packages ($49/month and $99/month), it's 50% of the package.”

“But in this case, I was really surprised. And then I realized it was an enterprise package that someone purchased and $499 is half of the price. That’s an amazing thing that—not only individual creators—but also established businesses read my blog, trust my words, trust me as a content creator, and then follow my suggestion. It has put more pressure on me because I have to be even more careful with what I say, what I write, and what I recommend.”

Advice for Creators Looking to Tap Into Affiliate Income

“I think the opportunity is there and every niche has many holes in it that content creators can occupy. But, they have to figure out what niche to serve, understand the pain points and needs of people, and understand how to niche down.”

“Everyone can say that all niches are occupied and saturated. But, if you take a closer look, if you dig deeper, you will understand that there is opportunity in every niche and you just have to share your experience, help people, and eventually you'll find a way to create those opportunities.”

“There are many different tools online which you can review, which you can use, which you can recommend. You don't need to be an SEO expert. If you don't know SEO, you can do it differently. There are many great creators who run their business entirely via their email list, and they're successful.”

“They also earn a lot of affiliate commissions via different partner programs. You don't necessarily need a website, you just have to figure out which platform you are comfortable with. You can create a website, a YouTube channel, an email list, or whatever you're comfortable with. Stay consistent, share your message, and follow your niche and everything will come in time.”

Looking Ahead: Self Made Millennials in 2023

It’s been a long time since Victoria’s had to think of how she’d make enough money online to work from home. Now, Self Made Millennials has grown to the point where she’s having to turn away business. So, her goals are to strategize how she’ll meet the demand.

She shared, “I have big plans related to my SEO online business because it's growing pretty well, and I can't accommodate all the requests that are coming in. So I have a plan to hire a few more people who will help me. The problem is finding those people because I have to make sure they have enough knowledge and expertise, and I can trust them and I can work with them. But, that's a big goal.”

“I usually have a ready-to-follow content writing plan for one year, which I have already started implementing since January. Everything is already set and I'll be following that content-writing plan. My website is growing steadily, so there is no need for me to switch to any different direction because I can continue writing and sharing my SEO experience, targeting keywords, creating optimized content, and my audience will grow.”

“Also, Medium helps me attract potential clients, but that's kind of secondary. My website is my primary client acquisition channel. For the content creation direction, I have an idea to increase the number of tool reviews that are being created.”

Final Words:

We hope you enjoyed this Creator Spotlight. Major thanks to Victoria for taking the time and sharing these extremely helpful insights.

Again, be sure to subscribe to her newsletter and follow her journey as she continues building a thriving digital empire.

Lastly, if you’re interested, there’s the beehiiv beach club. We’ll send the top performing partner and a friend on an all-expenses-paid, weeklong trip to the luxurious Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas - airfare included*. 

The inaugural contest is on now and runs until June 30, 2023 at 11:59 EST. Learn more here.