We’re all on a journey to create our own lifestyle business that provides financial stability and location independence. Lidiya Kesarovska has done just that with her blog and course creation business, Let’s Reach Success.
Her story is inspiring and empowering. She did what most of us are scared to do – Start A Business! The hardest thing to do is to JUST START! Lidiya did it at a young age, and not only that. Knowing she needed a change, she left her home country for Amsterdam with plan, just a dream.
To start a blog and make a full time income!
Lidiya Kesarovska: Let’s Reach Successs
Lidiya Kesarovska is a blogger, course creator, and the founder of Let’s Reach Success where she helps people build a value-driven digital product business so they can become financially free and serve their purpose.
She’s been named a top 10 course creator to watch by Yahoo! Finance, been featured on TIME magazine, Thrive Global, Disrupt Magazine, and more.
With the content on her blog and inside her business courses, she teaches how to ditch your limiting beliefs, start a business on your own terms, grow it strategically, and use that income to live your biggest, boldest life!
For more details, visit her website here.
Here we sit down with Lidiya, to know a bit more about her journey as a course creator, blog expert, and business mentor.
What Inspired You To Become An Entrepreneur?
I wasn’t satisfied with my life back in the day and knew I wanted more freedom and independence. I was reading about the so-called lifestyle designers – a term that was so unique to me back then that I needed to learn more.
It was business owners like that who opened my eyes for all the opportunities out there. I then realized that I could build something on my own online, help people with it, enjoy that and not even consider it work, and live anywhere thanks to the income it provides.
Shifting my mindset from not knowing this existed to making it my goal was quite challenging. But I began researching different business models, reading stories of entrepreneurs from all fields, checking out podcasts, bestselling business books and anything inbetween.
This initial knowledge gave me the confidence to start planning my own venture, even though I had no idea what it could be.
If you have any desire whatsoever to build a business but aren’t sure where to start, I suggest you learn about the different opportunities and study the successes of entrepreneurs who started from nothing and love what they are doing now.
Make sure you only learn from people whose life you want to live or whose business you admire and might want for yourself. These can become your mentors.
Why Did You Choose Blogging?
I knew 2 simple things when I just started out – that I wanted to write and that the topic that interested me the most was personal development.
I was constantly reading and thinking about self-discipline, mindset, the principles of success, being your best self, forming powerful habits, etc.
I was also constantly making changes in my life and observing my thought patterns with the goal to optimize everything. So it made sense to start writing about it all.
The first thing I did was start a wordpress.com blog. It wasn’t self-hosted as back then I had no idea what hosting was or how a website could be monetized. But I knew that having my own platform online is a good start.
I began creating content for fun, anything I’d feel like but always around self-improvement. I loved blogging and got better at writing blog posts. I also got some readers and comments and that motivated me.
However, that wasn’t my first income stream. I didn’t have the confidence that I could earn from something like that and didn’t know how. But I did look into freelancing.
Realizing that I can write those same blog posts (that at this point took me basically no time and effort at all) for clients and get paid for it sounded like the dream.
I learned what I could about being a freelancer, created a profile on Upwork, used my blog as my portfolio and started pitching clients by applying for the jobs they posted. Only the jobs that resonated with me, though, and the ones that I knew I had the skills for.
A lot of frustration, self-doubt, imposter syndrome and other unpleasant feelings later, I got my first few orders and made $20 with each and eventually $100. I now had an hourly rate, some successfully completed jobs, positive reviews on my profile, and could keep going.
Meanwhile, I was growing my blog and knew that freelancing wasn’t my long-term goal, just the way to get to being a full-time blogger.
What I loved the most about blogging was the freedom to cover any topic you feel like, to own your website and content, to naturally build an audience and know that it’s the right people for you, to be able to monetize in multiple ways and earn passive income. But it took me years to get there until I eventually replaced the freelance income with the revenue from the blog.
What Was The Most Difficult Aspect of Starting Your Blogging Business?
I postponed switching to a self-hosted WordPress site for ages. The technical aspect of it scared me but once I did it, I wish I had done it earlier. The real traffic and lead generation (+ monetization) begins when you own your domain. The features you can add are countless.
I’m lucky I started with WordPress from day 1, though. I know many people who were researching different content management systems and chose one that they later regretted. Eventually, they had to switch to WordPress.
Using good tools from the beginning will save you many mistakes and a lot of trouble down the road.
Learning search engine optimization was another challenge. As a writer, it was easy to just keep creating and publishing content. But the goal was to get people to read it and that means writing content for search engines and users at the same time. So that took some time.
Eventually, it just becomes a new skill. Since then, I’ve been optimizing almost every blog post (but still, keeping it natural) for a keyword phrase and many of these rank well. Organic traffic is my main source of traffic, which is directly related to revenue growth and increasing the domain authority.
What Advice Do You Have For Aspiring Bloggers?
All the time I’m being contacted by people who want to start a blog but simply haven’t yet. Some can overthink for years or give up before it even happens.
I also didn’t take action right away. There’s a story you’re telling yourself about why you’re not ready, worthy or good enough to do it now or at all, and you gotta reframe that story.
Once all excuses are left behind, it’s as simple as finding a quick guide on how to start a blog and taking 30 minutes of your day to actually set it up.
So my advice to aspiring bloggers is to just start and to do it this week 🚀
Where Does Most Of Your Traffic Come From?
Search engines, and Google, in particular.
It took years but now most of my top ranking articles are those I wrote back in the days. SEO is a long-term strategy but it has a great ROI.
That’s why I teach it in my blogging courses, it’s an essential part of building your blogging business and earning passive income from it.
Do You Need A Lot Of Traffic To Make Money From Your Blog?
Every blogger’s journey is different. In my case, I did need to increase the traffic a lot first to then earn more. But that was mostly because I wasn’t confident enough, didn’t monetize well, didn’t have multiple passive income streams and wasn’t utilizing email marketing.
All this could have happened from day 1. I’ve interviewed plenty of bloggers who earn a full-time income or even have got to $10K months with 10K-30K pageviews a month.
Others do well with a few thousand pageviews a month, but that will mean they attract their ideal reader and get them in the sales funnel right away (by having the right lead magnet, then nurturing them with a welcome sequence and a weekly newsletter together with more value and surprises, and finally making them an offer they can’t resist).
Or they are in such a specific niche that they build a name for themselves quickly, attract sponsors that want to work with them, create one very desirable product and a magnetic offer, and turn that into a sustainable business.
Anything is possible if you start with strategy in mind, provide value, know your niche and who you’re serving, and stay consistent.
Just like on social media, you don’t need tens of thousands of followers. Random people won’t help you scale, these are just vanity metrics.
Instead, you want those you can help the most. Many influencers start earning from the first hundred followers if they are the right ones. Instead of chasing big numbers in terms of audience growth, focus on quality leads and take good care of those people – give them more of what they want, be transparent, provide value, give a lot before you ask for anything in return.
How Are You Monetizing Your Blog?
I’m monetizing the blog in 4 different ways, some of which are passive. Each took years to build and the income from each fluctuates, that’s why diversifying was one of my main goals since the first years of the business.
Here are my 4 income streams and how each one works.
Affiliate Marketing
Good for beginners, intermediate or advanced bloggers as you can join the affiliate networks of products you already love and use (or many more networks if you feel like) and start linking to them whenever you mention them.
That can be natural and inside your content, or you can create blog posts specifically with this in mind (like product reviews, roundup posts, articles that compare 2 products, or else).
Affiliate links can be included in many other places too such as in your newsletter, on socials, on other pages of your blog, inside lead magnets, etc.
Don’t forget to be genuine though and still provide value any time you mention a product or link to something. Being too salesy or offering products that don’t make any sense to your readers will turn people off.
Ads
This one is directly related to traffic. I suggest joining a quality network like Mediavine or Media.net but these usually have high requirements for new bloggers, such as high blog traffic.
Sponsored Content
That was always one of my main income streams. I work with sponsors (new or repeat clients) and publish content (that I wrote or they provided) with a link inside it included naturally but which points to their domain (or their client’s domain if they are a third-party).
Many bloggers stay away from this business model as there isn’t enough information about it out there or it looks shady. But I believe in it and think it’s a win-win – you keep publishing new quality content on your site, earn from it, have more articles to rank in search engines, and sponsors form relationships with you. Here’s how I’ve earned over $100,000 from sponsorships over the years.
I also have a course called The Blog Sponsorship Boss that teaches bloggers all they need to know to start earning from sponsored content on their website.
Digital Products
The last income stream I added is something that has now turned into my new business model. After packaging my knowledge into a course one time, I saw the value in this and kept creating more products.
Now I have multiple programs, workshops, a business membership, printables, etc. And because I learned so much about creating and selling courses, I now teach aspiring course creators how to do the same with my program Bold Business School.
I think digital products are a fantastic way to diversify your revenue, earn passive income, and scale (if blogging feels limiting at some point or you’re ready for something more). Also, we live in the best possible times to create a course (it doesn’t need to be that hard), you can even monetize it before any content is ready, and you get to sell it forever.
More people than ever are now enrolling in programs too and the online education industry is booming. So if you want to make the most of it, this is the way to go.
If you want to create your own course, you can check out my free Epic Online Course Checklist.
How Can Start-Up Bloggers Make Money From Day 1?
It’s absolutely possible to monetize your blog from day 1. A great way is affiliate marketing – publish helpful guides and include your affiliate links, optimize them so they can rank and share them on socials.
You can also use Pinterest to get quick traffic to your blog and to those first articles.
If you’re ready to announce a course you will be creating in the future, you can also create a waitlist now or let people purchase as soon as possible if you feel confident in your offer.
Were There Any Defining Failures You Experienced Along The Way Or Any Special Ah-Ha Moment?
As a blogger, everything was slow and mostly behind the scenes. As a course creator though, I had to actually sell often and with confidence, talk about my programs over and over again, charge what they are worth, not give up after ‘failed’ launches and keep learning from each and improving my process.
Many little technical things went wrong over the years too as I was trying a new platform, learning to use a new tool, or just making an error without realizing. But doing my research and actually fixing it myself helped me learn a lot and now I’m able to help other bloggers avoid all these mistakes and get results faster.
If You Were To Start Your Blog All Over Again, What Would You Focus The Most Time On?
I’d monetize much earlier.
I’d invest in a good web host.
I’d optimize my content for search engines from day 1.
I’d focus on email marketing and use ConvertKit (it’s my current email marketing software and I highly recommend it, but I started with another one).
I’d use Pinterest to get quick traffic to the blog.
I’d invest in paid programs to learn from experts and use proven strategies instead of figuring it all out myself.
What’s Next For Let’s Reach Success?
I’m now completing the first round of my program for course creators Bold Business School and will be launching it again soon. I’m excited to add new bonuses, upgrade the offer itself and welcome new students ready to build a digital product business.
After each launch, I do a debrief to analyze what went well and not so well and do better next time.
I’m also learning a lot from other business owners, mainly about sales and marketing.
I eventually want to replace the blog income with the revenue from digital products and become a full-time course creator. My year in business will be structured around product launches as well as improving my evergreen offers. That’s a whole lot different than my activities as a blogger.
My vision is now bigger. I’m going for 6 figures in revenue but also want to do it right.
I’m creating systems in my business and processes that work for me when I’m not in front of the laptop.
I’ll also keep releasing new episodes on the podcast and showing up on Instagram and providing value there. I’m thinking of rebranding the show and other aspects of my business and content strategy so I can focus on helping course creators more.
What Brings You The Most Joy These Days?
My spiritual and personal growth practices such as tapping (emotional freedom technique), journaling, breathwork, and any form of mindfulness.
I like to uncover my limiting beliefs and reframe them (I also teach that in most of my courses as aspiring business owners should tackle these as soon as possible to make sure they don’t sabotage their chances of success).
I also never stop exploring manifestation (here are my favorite things about it).
