August 2025: Monthly Recap 📈

Hello, my friend!

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.

August was wild (in a good way)! 🎉

We moved out of our place in Mississauga and into a new condo in Etobicoke. Moving is never easy, and it took us over a week to get everything settled. I was pretty wiped out, to be honest! 😅

On the work front, I started a new full-time job as an SEO Content Specialist. I'm already working with a company based in Toronto, helping them create optimized content for their clients. Wish me luck! 🤞

But the biggest news is... I've officially hit my annual goal of making $20,000 from affiliate marketing and brand deals on my site! 🎉 

I'm so excited about this, and I'm putting together an article to share exactly how I did it. Keep an eye on your inbox—it's coming soon!

I even celebrated with some balloons and shared the news on LinkedIn (3,940 impressions and 104 comments), and Reddit (7.9k views, 56 upvotes) as of September 5th.

Crushing website goals 🚀

Remember how I shared my July earnings? That was $2,529.20 in total income. 

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.

But for now, here’s a quick update on how August went.

✅ Total earnings: $4,199.42 — my second-best month of the year!
✅ Made $2,000 from brand sponsorships
✅ The highest amount earned from one affiliate was $899.72

So, my website brought in a total of $21,245.09. 🤑

I’m especially grateful to my younger self, who hit “publish” back in 2021, not knowing where it would lead.

I’ve been a one-woman team the whole time, writing, editing, managing, and updating every part of the site myself.

I had to say “no” 🙅‍♀️ to 99% of opportunities, because they would have never brought me to where I am now.

The website continues growing thanks to a "traditional" SEO approach that I've been sticking to for years.

"Self Made Millennials" is becoming so much more than just a personal blog, and it makes me beyond happy. 😍 

Stay tuned for more details about what I did to grow and monetize my site. An in-depth article is coming in September that I’ll share with all my newsletter readers.

If you are curious to learn more about my approach to SEO, I share it in detail in my SEO ebook.

Google August 2025 Spam Update

Did you notice a sudden change in your website's performance at the end of August? 🤔 It's not just you!

On August 26, Google started a new update to fight spam. 🚫 

This is a worldwide update and it's still rolling out, so it might take a few weeks to fully settle.

As of September 5th, the update is still ongoing.

Google shared more about the update and what might cause the drop in rankings in the following post.

In my experience, the websites that are doing well are those that get links naturally. That means they use normal words in the link text, connect to pages that are actually related, and get new links over time instead of all at once.

This is why I turn down almost all requests for link building.

Here's how my website's performance has changed since the update began on August 26:

Are you wondering if the latest Google update is still causing waves and if it has hit your industry? 🌊

You can find it out with a free tool called Semrush Sensor.

It shows the volatility in search results for the past 30 days across various industries.

As of the beginning of September, the volatility is still high.

What I worked on in August

✅ I’ve completely updated an old blog post on Side Hustles for Writers. From now on, it’s linked from the main menu on my website. I’ll keep it up to date and will share everything I do to turn my passion for writing into 💰.

✅ I updated the AI SEO tools post (again). 😄 

The Semrush paragraph was fully rewritten to reflect the changes to their toolkits. I’ve also shared which AI-powered features you can use inside the SEO Toolkit without the need to purchase extra ones.

✅ I’ve fully rewritten my Semrush vs Ahrefs post to help it climb to the top positions in search results.

It’s now ranking 2nd on Google! 🎯🔥 Goal = crushed.

✅ I’ve also dropped something new — SEO resources page.

This is where I collect my go-to tools, SEO newsletters, podcasts, SEO courses, and more to improve my SEO skills. If you are looking for actually helpful resources, you are welcome to check them out.

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

You can see my Q2-Q3 content calendar below.

👉 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 from August

Kevin Indig is an Organic Growth Advisor who’s worked with well-known companies, like Reddit, Dropbox, and Shopify.

How I bounced back from a drop in affiliate sales.

My go-to resources to become an SEO Pro .📚

Sharing what caused a spike in impressions and clicks.

Have you grabbed my SEO ebook yet? 📖

The 4th ebook of my SEO ebook with 110 pages includes:

• A case study on how my content outranked industry giants and ranked in the top 3 for multiple keywords

• A case study on what I do when my website rankings drop

• A step-by-step guide to finding, analyzing, and prioritizing primary & secondary keywords

• How to create a solid content writing plan

• How to craft SEO-friendly outlines

• My best writing tips to make sure your content meets Google’s expectations

• And more!

Here’s a little sneak peek of the ebook design! 😎 

For a better experience, I recommend downloading the PDF ebook and reading it on your desktop. The ebook contains graphs and charts that may be difficult to view on mobile devices.

This is an actionable guide. So, I recommend implementing what you have learned on your website.

The ebook isn't compatible with Amazon Kindle yet.

For the Premium members: 👋

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

• 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.

• July Affiliate report, where I break down exactly how my website made $2,529.20.

• $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.

• April Affiliate Report, where I break down exactly how my website made $4,465.53.

• 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

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