'Below, I'll tell you about some of the things I’ve tried online...

...What did actually make me money, and what was a total disaster!'

💸 Welcome to your new favorite blog covering how I make money online and how you can copy and do the same!

Hey there, and welcome! I’m so glad you’ve landed here whether you’re a curious beginner, a side-hustle enthusiast, or a seasoned entrepreneur looking for fresh ideas, this blog is your new go-to resource for making money online.

🚀 Why My Blog Exists
Let’s face it - the internet has changed everything. From freelancing and affiliate marketing to e-commerce and digital products, there are more ways than ever to earn an income online, but sifting through it all can IS a nightmare!

That’s where this blog of mine comes in.
I created this blog to:
• Share real strategies that have worked for me (no fluff, no scams).
• Break down complex topics into simple, actionable steps.
• Help you build income streams that fit your lifestyle and goals.

🧠 What You’ll Learn Here
Each post, I will dive into topics like:

• How to start a profitable blog.
• Affiliate marketing tips that actually work.
• Passive income ideas (and what’s really passive).
• Tools, apps, and mindset shifts that make a difference.

I'll also be covering; 

• List building - Email marketing - and the boring stuff like autoresponders, Tracking software and site builders etc. 

Whether you’re looking to earn an extra $500 a month or looking to build a full-time online business, I'll help you the best I can with inspiration and honest advice and I'll also share with you the things that have worked and the things that didn't.

🙌 Let’s Get You Started and Making Money Online

Thanks for being here. Now let’s get to work your online income journey starts today.

Stay tuned for the first deep-dive post coming soon.

💸 Welcome to your new favorite blog covering how I make money online and how you can copy and do the same!

Hey there, and welcome! I’m so glad you’ve landed here  whether you’re a curious beginner, a side-hustle enthusiast, or a seasoned entrepreneur looking for fresh ideas, this blog is your new go-to resource for making money online.

🚀 Why My Blog Exists
Let’s face it - the internet has changed everything. From freelancing and affiliate marketing to e-commerce and digital products, there are more ways than ever to earn an income online, but sifting through it all can IS a nightmare!

That’s where this blog of mine comes in.
I created this blog to:
• Share real strategies that have worked for me (no fluff, no scams).
• Break down complex topics into simple, actionable steps.
• Help you build income streams that fit your lifestyle and goals.

🧠 What You’ll Learn Here
Each post I will dive into topics like:
• How to start a profitable blog.
• Affiliate marketing tips that actually work.
• Passive income ideas (and what’s really passive).
• Tools, apps, and mindset shifts that make a difference.

Whether you’re looking to earn an extra $500 a month or looking to build a full-time online business, I'll help you the best I can with inspiration and honest advice, and I'll also share with you the things that have worked and the things that didn't.

🙌 Let’s Get You Started and Making Money Online

Thanks for being here. Now let’s get to work your online income journey starts today.

Stay tuned for the first deep-dive post coming soon.

Kind regards

Richard

A slightly messy tale from someone who has tried just about everything.

Alright, let’s dive in. I’m Richard, and if you’re trying to figure out who I am, you’ve landed in the right corner of the internet.

I’ll walk you through my story. The good parts, the rough bits, and all the odd lessons that showed up along the way. There are some proper gold nuggets tucked in the cracks, the sort you only pick up after you’ve been knocked around by this online world for a while.

Fair warning though, it’s not a tiny intro. It’s a full journey. So get comfortable, grab a drink, do whatever you do when you actually want to take something in. Because by the time you reach the end, you’ll know a lot about me, what I’ve tried, what I’ve broken, and how I eventually pieced things together to get to where I am now.

Nothing fancy, just the real story.

As I say, my name’s Richard. Been married to my wife, Melanie, for over 30 years, which still surprises me some mornings in the best way possible. We raised two kids who’ve long since packed up their things and shot off into their own lives. The house feels different without them, quieter, but in a good kind of way.

We are originally from the UK, real dark skies and rain you can smell before it hits you. In 2010 we packed everything we owned, grabbed our little dog Lilly, and moved to sunny Florida. Big decision, bit nerve wracking, but it turned out to be one of those choices that you look back on and think, yeah, we did the best thing.

Now What!

Well, I didn't have a real plan of what I was going to do once we moved to the States, but I knew I had to do something. I certainly didn’t plan on getting into the online game. Nobody sits there as a kid thinking, “One day I’ll sell mini helicopters I buy from China” It just sort of happened.

It actually started about fifteen or sixteen years ago when I was watching a late night infomercial. You know those strange TV moments where a guy is surrounded by boxes, practically glowing with excitement as he explains how he’s making a killing on eBay. It was ridiculous, but something about it stuck in my head. By the next week, I was knee deep in eBay listings.

The eBay Madness Begins

Back then I sold anything I could get cheaply. CDs with PDF books on them, mini helicopters from China that sounded like a swarm of annoyed bees, sunglasses that made customers look both cool and slightly suspicious. It was messy, unplanned, and somehow it all sold. Not life changing or anything wild, just enough for me to realise, alright, this internet thing actually works.

I probably would have carried on with eBay forever if I hadn’t overheard people talking about these tiny websites with Google ads on them. Apparently you just picked a keyword, slapped it everywhere, wrote a few paragraphs, and boom, you had a little online “earner.” So I did that next.

The Rise, Then The Fall, Then The Hard Lesson

Those little sites were doing fine, all buzzing along like well behaved pets. Then came the infamous Google update that kicked everything upside down. Within a single day they all vanished from the search results. One moment I had a nice collection of pages working away, the next moment they were as silent as a library on a bank holiday. That one stung. Not so much the result, more the punch in the stomach feeling of watching something you built just disappear in a blink.

After mumbling a few choice words at my screen, I wandered into email list building instead. That turned out to be an interesting chapter. I grew a decent list, chatted with subscribers, sold Solo Ads across Facebook groups and through places like Udimi, and basically lived inside my inbox for a while.

The Phase Where I Tried Almost Everything

Over the years I’ve dipped into affiliate marketing, email promos, pay per view traffic, selling on Amazon, Etsy, Fiverr, and still on eBay when I felt like it. I even had my own search engine created. Lovely little project, except I was the only person that ever used it. Probably not ideal for something meant to compete with massive platforms, but we live and learn.

Truth is, I’ve tried so many random things that half of them have blurred together in my head. Some were brilliant, some were rubbish, and some were so bizarre I’m not even sure what I was thinking. But trying things is part of the job. If you never dip a toe in, you never know which pond is deep enough to swim in.

The One Thing That Actually Felt Like Home

Among all the experiments, one thing clicked for me. Creating products. Not fluffy nonsense, but helpful things based on the stuff I’d actually done. Things I’d tested in the wild, made work, broken, fixed again, then figured out properly. I love building products that show people the shortcuts, the pitfalls, the “go this way, not that way” bits.

These days I joke that I’m a baker, because I’ve got my fingers in a few pies at once. If one pie cools down, another is still warm and bubbling away. That bit of variety kept me going the day Google pulled the rug out from under me.

And honestly, I’m still doing it.
Still building, still sharing, still putting out products that help people skip the nonsense.

If you want to see the things I’ve made, just hop over to the My Products tab on this blog. Everything I create starts with something I’ve done myself, tested myself, and learned the hard way. So if it helps you move faster, avoid a few bumps, or finally get something working, then that’s exactly why I keep making them.

A bit messy, a bit scrappy, but real. And that’s good enough for me.

A short tale of ambition, stubbornness, and a lesson I should have learned!

Let me take you back to a phase I like to call my “surely-this-time-I’ve-cracked-the-code” era. If you’ve ever thought building a small empire of AdSense sites was a smart idea, well, pull up a chair. You’re among friends here.

Back in the day, probably around 2011 I went all in and decided that building little Adsense sites was the way to go. To be honest I went a little wild building the things. I kept telling myself I’d finally figured it out. I had the wordpress hosting, my niche list, the plugins and the caffeine. I cranked out site after site like there was no tommorow.

The Rise

Those first few weeks always feel good. You know that hopeful phase where everything loads fast, looks clean, and nothing is broken yet? I had that.

I was juggling keyword lists, writing content with the energy of someone who thinks Google actually notices your effort. Spoiler: it doesn’t. Google cares about Google things. Sometimes it feels like it flips a coin, shrugs, then rearranges your entire future for fun.

But I was in that classic builder’s trance. You know, the one where you tell yourself, “This one might actually work. That last one flopped, but this one has good bones.” Almost like talking to a houseplant hoping it will grow faster.

The Update

There’s a special kind of silence that happens when you log in to check analytics after a Google update. Not the peaceful kind. The kind that feels like the internet itself is quietly patting your shoulder.

The numbers didn’t just dip. They fell straight through the floorboards and kept digging like they were trying to find Australia.

Sites vanished. Rankings evaporated. All that hard work, puff, gone.

I stared at the screen like I’d just discovered the plot twist of a bad crime show. The worst part is that tiny voice in your head that whispers things like, “Well, you probably should’ve seen that coming.” Thanks, inner voice, really helpful.

The Good, The Bad, and The Lesson I Needed

Here’s the thing. Building 35 sites taught me more than any winning project ever has. Losing teaches you in a sharper, more embarrassing way, like a friend who doesn’t sugarcoat anything.

A few useful things I picked up, in case you’re somewhere on this road yourself:

Thin content never fools anyone. Not Google, not visitors, not even you. If it feels half-hearted when you write it, it’ll perform like it too.

Don’t chase loopholes. I tried stitching together micro-niche Franken-sites. Not my proudest era.

Build fewer things, but build them like they matter. One great site can do more than 30 mediocre ones desperately trying to breathe.

Stay flexible. Algorithms shift, platforms change their mind, people move on. The only constant is the need to adapt before the rug gets pulled again.

Treat it like a craft, not a lottery. A tiny shift in mindset changes how you build anything. And honestly, it feels better too.

Picking Up the Pieces

I didn’t quit. I definitely sulked a bit, maybe ate a questionable amount of chocolate, and muttered things I won’t repeat here. But after the dust settled, I started again. Slower this time. Smarter too.

Now when I build, I treat my work like it has to survive more than one update. It forces you into better habits. Real writing. Real research. Real user experience. Actual value, instead of “maybe Google won’t notice this bit.”

Final Thought, from someone who’s been smacked around by algorithms more than once

If you’re building something online, expect to get knocked sideways now and then. It’s part of the deal. But don’t let one update scare you off. Just means you’re in the game, learning the ropes, figuring out what actually works.

And trust me, it’s a lot more fun once you stop trying to game the system and start building something that feels good to make.

A little messy, sure. But so much better than waking up to 35 disappearing acts.