EPP 099: Building A Study Abroad Booking Platform With Marina Mogilko

In this week’s episode of the Extra Paycheck Podcast I am joined by an entrepreneur, COO and the co-founder of LinguaTrip – Marina Mogilko.

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Marina Mogilko Interview

LinguaTrip is a study abroad booking platform. Marina Mogilko helps students learn languages while they’re at home. She also helps them travel abroad in order to learn a language.

When Marina was 14 years old she went to study in the U.K. This was the first time she realized that English taught abroad was very different from the one people actually spoke in the UK.

In 2011 Marina started an offline agency helping students go abroad. Her initial investment was $300. Since she also lived in Germany she understood that the best way of learning a new language is actually going to a country where that language is spoken.

You know how I always talk about starting a business in an industry that interests you? Marina claims that “language learning” was a logical and natural choice for her. She had a lot of experience in the industry and she was (and still is) very passionate about it.

A few years later she understood that the best way to grow her agency was by taking it online. Internet has a consistent flow of new users and is considered one of the best platforms for knowledge and everything else really.

Since the website for the platform she wanted to build needed to be very complex, Marina knew she couldn’t use a simple WordPress installation. She needed a custom website so she found a great coder to accomplish this task.

Growing The Business

In 2015 Linguatrip got into a 500 Startups Accelerator in the USA. This achievement provided a $100,000 funding for the platform. More importantly it generated loads of media attention all over America and other countries as well. Marina claims this was a great initial push to get the word around. Thousands of people have now heard of her brand and many signed up for its services.

Marina made the list of 16 Women Founders Making Moves in Tech.

Lingatrip currently employs 7 people full-time and a few remote employees.

YouTube also plays an important marketing role for Linguatrip. Marina currently has 2 personal channels in Russian and in English. A German channel is currently in the works. Consistently putting out videos on Youtube helps Marina generate more and more interest for her business.

Some of Linguatrip’s full-time employees initially reached out to Marina through her Youtube channel. How awesome is that?

 

Blogger Outreach

Working with bloggers is another great tip that Marina reveals in this podcast. Her team invites bloggers and vloggers from other countries to come to the US (and other countries) in order to experience the Linguatrip experience. These bloggers then share their experience with others through their blogs and videos.

 

Affiliate Marketing

You know that I love affiliate marketing. Linguatrip is also using affiliate marketing to let other people market the brand. If you want to promote the platform you will earn $50 for every trip booked through your referral link and $15 for every service (Skype lessons, consulting services).

Scroll up and press the PLAY button to hear the full episode with a lot more juicy details and helpful advice.

 

More about LinguaTrip and Marina:

LinguaTrip.com – Official Website

LinguaMarina – Marina’s YouTube channel in English

Marina Mogilko – Marina’s YouTube channel in Russian

Linguamarina on Instagram

 

You can subscribe to the Extra Paycheck podcast and review it on iTunes.

If you do have any comments or question, please do use the comment form below! I will answer every single one 🙂

– Alex

 

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