Six figures, burnout, and the lessons of 2025

Hello, 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.

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.

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! 🧑‍🎄