You may want to know is it possible to Make Money Online in 2019? – The answer is “YES“
But let me explain one thing to you…just like anything, it is not easy, takes a lot of work and you have to be prepared to learn and get out of your comfort zone to earn online.
I should know because that is exactly what I am doing today, but let me explain why and my journey might help you to get started and make a living online working remotely if that’s what you want.
I first became aware of online marketing properly in 2006, when I relocated my ‘traditional’ business from London to Dallas, Texas and I met a guy called Jack Spirko.
Jack at the time was the SEO consultant to a full-service advertising agency and we ended up working together, where Jack was both my business partner in an online agency called Franklin-Spirko and headed up the marketing for my technology staffing and software companies.
Our company ended up producing Martial Arts videos like the one below and sold them online, then taking on a few other projects before Jack left to set up his own podcast, which has become a huge success.
Now as much as I was involved in Internet Marketing and was the co-founder of the agency, I didn’t understand it operationally, only conceptually and although I was familiar with the terminology and could sell the services, I should have then taken it a stage further and learned much more. In my defense, I was running my main companies and that took up a lot of time and energy.
I Got The Internet ‘Bug’
Working with Jack opened up a whole new world and one that I became obsessed with and I wanted to apply online marketing techniques to my main companies and met a whole load of resistance from my Senior Executives, which annoyed both Jack and me and yes, I could have ‘bulldozed’ them into doing what I wanted to do, but you have to let your team do the job you recruited them for and at the time, they were doing a good one.
But now I was searching furiously on the net and found people like Michel Fortin, Gary Vaynerchuck, Seth Godin, Matt Furey, and a host of others – I was hooked.
I did actually create my first blog way back at the time, but it was a part of a group of sites that got hacked and I lost the blog and all of the content. So it wasn’t going anywhere about earning money mobile at that time.
Fast forward to today and I am now taking action and questioning is it possible to make money online at the ripe young age of 55, to build my online brand – something I should have done properly many years ago, so please don’t make the same mistakes as me.
Frustration, Frustration, Frustration!
Over those years I searched out many so-called online ‘guru’s and reached out to many of them for help. Most wanted to charge a small fortune and many were adopting the sales techniques that I abandoned in the 1980s – ‘close the deal’ or move on. For those who support that method, then I have to say it does and can work well, but to me it is unnatural and I follow a much more educational’ approach to selling and teach the customer how to buy – it worked well for me as I started my business with no revenue in a living room and built it up to a turnover of $65m.
I also joined various membership sites and Facebook groups to find answers and maybe it’s me, but I just got more and more confused.
I joined one membership site that was very reasonably priced and professed to be the site for entrepreneurs who wanted to build an online business from a laptop and the concept was great and it made total sense.
Logging into the site was easy and then came the problem – “where do I start?”
There was so much information and help that it was overwhelming and I was literally crying out for help even following the link ‘start here.’
Maybe it’s me and I literally thought that maybe I should stick to what I know and just forget this whole ‘online thing.’
What annoyed and frustrated me the most was that the site was all about ‘helping entrepreneurs’ and promoting the lifestyle that people dream of, so I emailed and asked if I could have a chat with the owner to see if I was missing something – after the response from the assistant that said something like ‘let me see,’ I never heard back and similarly when there was an offer to attend a ‘mastermind’ course that I wanted to attend but couldn’t due to illness at the time (I explained this is an email), I had no response.
As a businessman and entrepreneur that made myself available to my clients 24/7, I cannot and will never understand this approach. Fair enough, we are working online and everything can be done by email, but if someone needs that ‘personal touch,’ why not give it and if it is abused, then simply take that privilege away.
I found this to be the norm and I had one situation that blew my mind away – I saw this Facebook ad and clicked it, went to the landing page, and then found the main site with a contact number.
So I phoned the number and the owner of the site answered and was very nice after I introduced myself and explained I was responding to his ad, but then told me to go back through the ad and follow the process as it is better for him to manage his inquiries!
I was astounded and even if he did want me to do that, he could have taken my number, called me back and walked me through the process – I thought that leads were the ‘everything’ about business and what better lead could you get than a person picking up the phone to you and who is ready to buy?
So I was pretty much ‘done’ with the entire business and decided to let things lie a little, but I just couldn’t resist one more search toward finding out ways to earn online and searching for more to justify is it possible to make money online and that led me to Fernando Raymond.
Fernando was one of the few experts who published a contact number, so I rang him up and he answered.
We must have spoken for around 30 minutes, where I vented all of my frustrations to him and we agreed to meet soon after which saw me make the journey from South Wales to the City of London – roughly a 4-hour journey and for me, it shows the fact that I had immediately bought into Fernando.
Fernando has a vision that everyone should have a blog and I have been saying this for years, which is why I started my first one and it is Fernando, who inspired me again to start this blog and has pushed me hard to write content, but more importantly to learn the art of blogging – something I should have done years ago and this is where I am out of my comfort zone and it is a very good thing because it gives you independence and that is another thing Fernando and I share. In my coaching and mentoring business, I teach my clients to solve their own problems as they shouldn’t become dependent on me and Fernando has the same philosophy.
The one thing about Fernando that screams through in abundance is his passion and enthusiasm for what he does and also the amount of time and help he gives to people and this is extremely important as I will explain next.
How to Making Money Online in 2019?
The image shows both coins and incremental growth and in my opinion, this is how you should view making money online rather than thinking about thousands and millions. Just like in every business, you have to start by building a solid foundation and then build slowly at a pace you can sustain and continue to sustain and the money will follow.
I have seen all of the same ads that you have promising you fortunes and many ways to earn money online and if you buy into their latest ‘secret’ and also beware of those emails that tell you that this ‘one time offer’ ends tonight and you will never see it again, only to get another apologetic email that explains that so many people tried to click on the link and for some, it didn’t work, so the offer is being extended for one more day, etc.
When Jack and I produced and sold the martial arts videos we did run promotions that did entail a one time offer, but when that offer expired, it was never seen again and we mainly ran those promotions on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Labor Day, etc.
I will only operate online in the same manner that I work offline.
Next, as I tell everyone in business or who is about to start a business – never do it for the money!
If you are passionate about what you do and in my case I am passionate about ‘business’ period, you will come across totally different than someone who is simply in it for the money – just like Fernando, who wants to get the whole world blogging and he points out it as a core skill in his guide to make money online.
Passion drives everything for me and it is almost like a ‘force’ that drives you incessantly and helps you break through barriers that would stop most…but beware of people who tell you that you can easily turn your passion into income. You can definitely turn your passion into income, but it is not easy and also dependent on what your passion is.
I have many passions alongside business and they are music ( I learned the piano from the age of seven and have been drumming for twenty years) and here is an example of a pianist who has turned his passion into a business – Willie Myette and Jared Falk, who has done the same with drums and I have both their products.
I could go on and I also love golf, food, wine, and cooking – there are so many people who are out there doing it and let’s not forget my friend Jack Spirko, who is doing what he loves in the world of preparedness and survival – he has built up a cult following!
Where Are We In 2019
It would be easy to believe that the market is too saturated now and you have ‘missed the boat’ and nothing could further from the truth – I believe we have only just scratched the surface in the world of making money online and the industry will grow much, much more and take a look at this article about Britain.
I do however believe that there have been some significant changes in the online economy over the last 15 years – on the one hand, we have got over the fear of conducting business online and many will buy products without hesitation and you only have to look at the impact that the retail industry has experienced to see this.
On the other side, I believe marketing tactics have changed making it more difficult and competitive for individual entrepreneurs selling products and services, and going back, there was simply less competition and there was a huge first to market advantage.
For me, competition is great because it forces you to really think of what you are offering, and also over time, it will weed out those sleazy sales driven people who are there just to take your money and this simply because people become more aware of those tactics.
I’ve been in business since the age of 19 and at 55 and I am totally sales focussed, so I have seen it all when it comes to sleazy and cringeworthy selling and I have to thank the Internet for doing a great job for me.
My industry was International and when you went to certain countries, it became clear that many of the clients, who came from strong engineering backgrounds had never really been sold to and this was exploited by many unethical salespeople.
The Internet provided a huge platform for information and therefore research and over time, many buyers for the client companies became much more aware of the companies that we’re supplying them and in some cases, were far more informed about those companies than their own employees – also, they started to research sales techniques and became aware of what was being taught.
So I welcome both the increased competition and the awareness and let me throw another article at you to show you some growth figures for online courses.
So don’t get disheartened or ever feel you have missed the opportunity as in reality we are just going to get started and there is one point that Gary Vaynerchuk has made and that I totally agree with – we are going to see a market correction as far as the Internet economy is concerned.
He believes that too many Internet entrepreneurs are not building real businesses, but simply wooing investment from large funds for ideas that will not work and that will weed out as he puts it the ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ players, just as it did in my industry through three recessions.
I don’t think that we need to talk in ‘recession terms’, just that we need to understand that so many people have bought into the Internet hype and have thrown vast sums of money into people and projects and that is not new, it happens in all-new economies and the real opportunities come from the period after – now you will be left with people who provide real value, a much more wary market, but a boatload of opportunity.
How To Get Started and earn money online?
I believe the best way to get started is to start a blog and build your own personal brand, just as I am doing with the help of Fernando and he offers free advice here as to how to do it.
It is a great way to actually get you off the ground and moving, something I have been guilty of not doing over the years and you will feel out of your comfort zone, especially when you start putting out some videos for sure, but that is part of the process.
Now I use the term ‘blog‘, but what I really mean is to start an online presence – take Jack Spirko, in his own words he has a “look that was designed for radio,” so he operates a podcast.
But that doesn’t stop him from producing videos with some excellent video content, so don’t get too hung up on what you do, just go out there and do it.
Even if you are in full-time employment now and you are extremely happy, why not create your own brand online as well, you never know when you might need it!
You can produce content on yourself to build your own brand, on specific topics to become an authority, to provide education as a subject matter expert, to provide freelance services or a combination.
As an entrepreneur and businessman for over 35 years and now a coach and mentor, I naturally gravitate towards business, entrepreneurship and I am using my life story to help and inspire others – I keep it ‘real’ because everything I share and teach, I have used personally and I know what works and more importantly, what doesn’t, just like Fernando.
This doesn’t mean I won’t throw in some of my other passions along the way, so look out for some future videos of me on the golf course talking about golf…and business, or me in the kitchen teaching you how to cook some obscure, but delicious recipe…and talking about business, etc.
I’m sure you get my meaning.
Now as a recruiter for most of my life, I want to share with you one key reason to get a blog out there right now and that is we are going to see a shift in the way we work in the future.
I believe that the tide is turning recruitment wise and the ‘power’ will be handed back to the individual or potential candidate, rather than nesting with the employer – we will see a ‘talent on-demand economy.’
In simple terms, people will work in a more freelance economy, choosing how they work as much as how much they work for, and the era of “send me your C.V/Resume” will be long gone.
This is why I am so passionate about everyone having a blog and why my children all have their own domain names right now – future ’employers’ will be searching online for talent as it is the most efficient means of making contact and those who stand out will win!
Just my personal thoughts.
How Social Media helps you earn online?
Social Media is a critical part of online marketing and must be used but in the right way. The word ‘Social’ is the key here and just as you would not have walked into a social environment in both pre-internet days and today and immediately try to sell something, you should do the same online.
I am not going to go into the various platforms here other than to explain to you that when the big marketing dollars are spent on platforms where eight-year-old kids are connecting to one another across the globe to learn the latest game hacks, then you know where the future is heading.
This has revolutionized marketing and you can understand fully when some marketers describe traditional marketing as ‘dead.’
You have probably heard about certain YouTubers for example who have made millions of money from videos and one such guy is Dan TDM, who incidentally was born in Aldershot, the same town as me!
Can anyone make as much money online as Dan?
The answer has to be “yes,” but it probably is not as easy as it was.
Now I am going to caution you slightly about Social Media platforms and one danger you might face if you rely solely on Social Media for your online dollars and it is that you don’t own the content and the rules can easily change and there is nothing you can do about it!
So this is why I recommend that you build your own website and let me talk here about WordPress, as there are two platforms – .org and.com – I’ve linked to the .org site – and say you want to build your own personal brand through a blog and you use the free .com version, you do not own the content and it has the potential to be taken down.
Both versions are free but one requires hosting and on the subject of hosting, check out SeekaHost from Fernando, it is a great option.
So use Social Media as it is meant to be used, but make sure you have all of your data held firmly on your own site!
I have deliberately left the money aspect until the very end, because as I have said, “don’t do it for the money.”
Money is simply a byproduct and you can earn a ton of it if you have the right product and/or service, conduct your business sincerely and ethically and most importantly deliver value and great customer service in whatever you do, or whoever you work with.
You will see many ads as I have explained all offer you methods of earning money while you sleep, running a side hustle and so on – most of these are here to take your money and proceed with extreme caution if you go down that path.
You can go to sites like this to look at ideas as to how you can make money online, but while many of the ideas mentioned can actually make you some money, the returns are small and the effort is not proportional to the return, so they are not sustainable.
Another place to look is here and the same applies, but I am just trying to show you that it is possible and it should at least give you confidence that opportunities are actually out there.
So get started today and learn to earn online with sustainable ways!
Neil Franklin
Blogging Digital Marketing Making Money Online
Last modified: May 29, 2020
