About Me
Hi, I’m David O’Connor. Coffee in hand, several browser tabs open, mildly obsessed with whether these “make money online” programs actually pay what they say they pay. Here’s why this site exists.
A quick, honest note on the name
“David O’Connor” is a pen name, not because I’m hiding anything shady, more that I’d rather you judge the guides than my LinkedIn photo. Everything on this site is written and fact-checked by one actual human (me, no ghostwriters, no content farm), based on official program documentation and my own time spent poking at these platforms. If a guide is wrong, that’s on me, and I’d genuinely like to know so I can fix it.
Why I built this
Go searching for “make money online” and you’ll mostly find two things: someone trying to sell you a $497 (~€432) course, or a listicle that says “start a blog!” and calls it a day. Neither one tells you how long it really takes, what it actually pays once you strip out the best-case screenshots, or the specific way people get their accounts permanently banned in week two. That gap annoyed me enough that I started writing the version I wished I’d had. One method per page, plain language, real numbers, and the boring-but-important stuff nobody puts in the headline.
What this site is
Fourteen ways to earn, all built on real, widely available platforms or skills you can actually learn. Nine run through Google in some form: display advertising, video platforms, app stores, paid search marketing, organic search (SEO), paid surveys, business software reselling, local listings, and shopping ads. The other five are resale, ecommerce, and social commerce platforms: Etsy, Shopify, the big online marketplaces (Amazon and eBay), Vinted, and the major social media marketplaces (Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok Shop). I explain the jargon as it comes up instead of assuming you already speak fluent marketing, walk through each process start to finish, and try hard to say plainly which methods are realistic side income and which can turn into something closer to a real living, and how long that honestly takes, not the fantasy version. Beyond the 14 guides, a small set of resource pages covers what comes after you start earning: comparing all the methods side by side, taxes and legal basics for the US, UK, and EU, how to spot a scam, and how to actually get paid across borders.
What this site is not
It’s not financial advice, and it’s not an official anything for any company mentioned here. Google, YouTube, Etsy, and everyone else named in these guides show up purely to explain, factually, how their programs work. I have no affiliation with, endorsement from, or backroom deal with Google LLC, YouTube LLC, or any other company on this site. Their trademarks and logos stay theirs. Program rules and payouts are set by each platform and shift more often than anyone would like, so I link to the official pages throughout and would genuinely rather you double-check current details there than take my word as gospel. This site runs ads (via Google AdSense) to cover hosting, and a few links may be affiliate links. I’ll say so plainly wherever that’s the case.
How I research and fact-check these guides
Every guide starts at the source: the actual help center pages, eligibility rules, and policy documents linked in each guide’s “Sources & further reading” section, not from five other blogs quietly copying each other’s homework. Where I’ve genuinely used a method myself (this site runs on AdSense and takes Stripe donations, so a couple of these aren’t theoretical for me), I say so outright rather than dressing up secondhand knowledge as firsthand experience. Every guide carries a “last verified” date up top, and when a platform quietly changes a requirement or payout, I update the guide and move that date forward instead of letting stale numbers sit there fooling people. Spot something out of date? Tell me. Details below.
Get in touch
Found something inaccurate, out of date, or just plain confusing? These programs change constantly, so I’d rather hear about it than have it sit there being wrong. Or if a guide actually helped, I like hearing that too. Email me at Contact@OpenVaultStudio.com: a real person (still me) reads every message.