This is an interview with Lidiya K. She’s one of the top bloggers out there helping others attain financial freedom by doing what they love.
Hey, Lidiya. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do.
I’m a blogger and course creator passionate about personal development, lifestyle design and financial independence.
I’m the creator of Let’s Reach Success where I teach people how to start a blogging business and use that income to live their best life.
When did you start your blog and what was the inspiration behind it?
I started the blog back in 2013 simply because I had the desire to write and share my self-improvement journey.
I didn’t know anything about blogging back then and didn’t even have a self-hosted WordPress site. But over time fall in love with the business model and learned all I could about it.
Now, Let’s Reach Success is the foundation of my business and is a resource on the topics of lifestyle design, online business, blogging, and more.
What were you doing before starting letsreachsuccess.com and how has it helped you build a successful blog?
I was in university and had some summer jobs. I wasn’t satisfied with my life.
I was reading books, learning from lifestyle designers like Tim Ferriss and imagining what my life could be.
I defined what I didn’t want it to look like anymore and started from there.
I defined my passion (personal development) and combined it with the best way to express myself (writing), so I started the blog and also began doing freelance work for clients.
Freelancing was my first income stream and it allowed me to dream bigger and believe self-employment and living my best life are possible.
Let’s Reach Success is a pretty cool name for a blog? How did you come up with the name for your blog?
The very first idea was FollowMe2Success, or something like that.
Once I turned the blog into a self-hosted WordPress site, I changed it to Let’s Reach Success so the focus isn’t that much on me but more on the journey and what people can learn from it.
To this day, the main idea stays the same – I believe we can all unleash our potential thanks to constantly improving ourselves.
My content resolves around sharing what I learn along the way and the topics change as I grow (it went from a personal development blog to a business one).
What are some of the challenges you faced as a newbie blogger and how did you overcome them?
The technical aspect scared me and that’s why I had a wordpress.com domain.
Now, I actually help other bloggers take these first steps.
It’s crazy how many people are overwhelmed by hosting providers, choosing the right platforms, not knowing the difference between wordpress.com and org.
But once that initial stage is overcome, the next steps become easier.
My free blogging guides and the first modules of my blogging courses always cover the mindset, the discipline, the strategy behind your blog and choosing the right niche, as well as setting up your blog with the best platform quickly and easily.
What would you say is the biggest secret to growing a successful blog?
Not giving up on it. Every website has potential, but most people just give up on it.
Your blog might not be growing because of the niche you’ve chosen, the brand you’ve created or the offers you have.
Luckily, you can easily pivot and not even change the domain name.
I’m an example of that. I only create content around what I’m passionate about.
So my audience, niche, and offers can change over the years, but that’s absolutely fine.
If you could time travel back to day one of starting your blog and have 15 minutes with your former self to communicate any lessons you’ve acquired over the years with the intention of saving yourself mistakes, what would you tell yourself?
A long list of things comes up… but actually I won’t go back in time at all.
Then, I simply wasn’t ready to blog the way I do now, or to look at online business and content creation the way I do now.
It’s a process I had to go through and the lessons are priceless.
Also, back then I couldn’t afford investing in courses or the best tools (like an expensive email marketing provider), but now I enjoy the benefits of investing back in myself and my business.
Can you describe your typical day as a full time blogger?
I wake up and have a peaceful morning.
It includes making my coffee and tea, breathing exercises and meditation, journaling, shower and skincare routine, smoothie/breakfast, and getting to my desk to do whatever feels right first.
That might be checking my email and responding only to what’s important at that moment, or directly getting to content creation (whether it’s a new podcast episode or blog post, course updates, writing emails, social media content, etc.)
I also usually have tasks planned for the week and get to whichever I feel inspired to work on in that moment (it could be a sponsored collaboration with a brand, blog updates, connecting with readers or course students or peers, networking or posting on Instagram, email marketing, etc.)
I also take courses on so many different topics and that’s part of my business too.
The second part of the day is for sports, social life and other activities.
Many bloggers, especially newbies, find a hard time driving traffic to their blogs. Your website currently gets over a million visitors per year. How do you drive quality traffic to your blog?
I mostly get organic traffic thanks to all the content I’ve published over the years and which is optimized and ranks well in Google.
In addition, I utilized Pinterest which is a wonderful way to bring traffic as a blogger.
I also like going back to old articles and updating them so Google can crawl them again they can rank better.
I’ve learned a lot about SEO over the years and am using the right plugins, a good hosting provider, a premium WordPress theme, etc.
It’s still a content-heavy blog though as there are over 2000 articles on it and a lot of images.
But I take action to take care of site speed and domain authority.
You currently make over $5000 a month from your blog. What would you say is the most profitable way to monetize a blog? What does it actually take to make a decent amount of money off blogging?
The most profitable way to monetize a blog, in general, might be digital products. It’s not easy to sell, of course and it’s definitely not for everyone.
What I’m earning the most from is sponsored articles and ad revenue.
You can see that together with all the numbers in my monthly blog income reports.
My goal is to switch from these 2 income streams to digital products and affiliate marketing as my main ones.
To make a decent amount of money blogging you need a few elements in place first:
- Email list + lead magnets, weekly newsletter and welcome/nurture sequences
- Good content on your blog
- Audience (contrary to what most people believe, you don’t need many page views in order to make money blogging)
- Monetization (some people wait till they have a lot of traffic to monetize but that’s often the wrong approach.
- You need to test different methods and can experiment from day 1 to see what you’re comfortable with and what works best for your audience.
- Also, you should diversify. Try advertising, affiliate marketing, having a digital product such as pintables or eBooks, and pitch brands for sponsored content)
If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out with blogging, what would it be?
Start the blog today!
Most people who contact me usually have been thinking of starting a blog for months or years but never did.
There are so many excuses they come up with, but at the end of the day – actually taking these 30 minutes to set up the WordPress blog will change the game.
You will have your own platform online and can take the next steps, such as adding functionality through plugins, publishing articles, sharing your story on the About page, designing the site well, taking a blogging course, etc.
What piece of advice can you give bloggers out there that are struggling to make money online with their blogs?
If you started this with money in mind, you’re probably acting out of alignment and having a scarcity mindset.
That can’t really grow a business. You’re going for Timeless with your blog and it can be a source of income for the rest of your life.
It can also turn into your dream career.
So make sure you start a blog on a topic you’re absolutely in love with so you can attract like-minded people and do your best work.
Marketing is a very essential part of every successful business. What’s your approach to marketing?
Back in the days I was focused on producing content (writing many articles) but didn’t really promote it.
Now I’m all about spreading the word and am in love with repurposing content.
For example, 1 long blog post that’s optimized and ranks well can have multiple Pinterest graphics created for it (which increases the chances of 1 going viral).
You can create a short video about the post or have a podcast episode on the same topic.
You can turn it into a PDF and add some more points and you’ll have a new awesome lead magnet to offer to new subscribers.
You can also have content for social media for weeks solely from that 1 article.
In addition, marketing as a blogger involves networking, collaborating with others, getting backlinks, creating content that’s so valuable that others want to share it, growing your email list and online presence on 1 or more social media channels, sharing each piece of content there and engaging with your audience.
How long did it take you to feel successful as a blogger?
Everyone defines success differently and it really depends on your inner reality.
You can make $100K/month but be absolutely miserable if you didn’t work on your mindset and didn’t use that income to create a life you love.
It also depends on the metrics you’re targeting and tracking.
For example, for me a big achievement was replacing freelancing with full-time blogging simply because it changed my daily life and I felt much more satisfied with my work and was ready to get to the next level.
What were some of the worst decisions you made in your blogging journey?
I’m so positive when I look back on my journey that I can’t say anything was bad. It had to be this way.
Of course, my journey took longer and I had many limiting beliefs to overcome, but I did my best with the resources I got at that time and it all led to here. So I’m grateful.
As for the best decisions, it’s:
- Starting the blog
- Switching to a quality web host
- Starting an email list
- Investing in courses
- Getting myself out there (being authentic, sharing my real story and my challenges along the way, having pictures, being bold in my writing, etc.)
How do you plan on growing your blog to even greater heights?
Through online courses.