Hello, and welcome. I’m John Dawson, a professional graphic designer and, more recently, an OH&S student.
DawsonDecoded.com
Originally, DawsonDecoded.com was meant to be a place to explore software, social platforms, and marketing strategies, with the hope of building a sustainable online income through blogging and affiliate marketing.
Like many people, I was fascinated by AI’s potential and by the promise of supposedly passive income. The idea was to “decode” what really helps you earn money online. Hence the name.
That was eight months ago.
I took it seriously. Including my day job, I worked ten to fourteen hours a day, even on weekends. And I don’t regret it. With help from AI, I put this site online, launched several YouTube channels, wrote and published my first eBook, did a lot of research, learned marketing, explored social media, and experimented with dozens of tools.
These are all skills I now use at work, in my studies, and in everyday life.
The lure of online income
But when it comes to online income, the more I dig, the more I realise how much this is just a mirage. Yes, some people manage to generate some sort of income, and a few even get rich. That’s the appeal! Yet among all the noise on social platforms, very few truly succeed. It’s closer to a lottery where talent, timing, and network effects matter as much as hard work.
Look at the competition: estimates run between 250 and 500 million active websites. Every day, more than 250,000 new sites go live, and nearly six million blog posts are published. And now with AI-generated answers in search results, blog visibility is shrinking even more.
Most of the revenue goes to a small minority of very skilled entrepreneurs, who also monetize the idea that you can do the same. The rest share the crumbs. Given the effort and time it takes, you might be better off as a paid apprentice at McDonald’s.
So what should you do if you want to build wealth? First, study. Earn a degree in a well-paid, in-demand field. You can do it online for reasonable costs. In two or three years, you’ll reach a salary that would be considered a “dream outcome” in the online world. Then, invest in the stock market or, if you can, in real estate.
For me, it’s time to give Dawson Decoded new meaning and step out of the online commercial matrix.
I will still be blogging, but at my own pace. I’ll cut through the hype around online income. I’ll also share what I’m learning and talk about the projects that genuinely matter to me, like writing novels and composing music for my YouTube channels.
I hope this helps you progress and avoid some of the mistakes I’ve already made.
JD
October 25, 2025
N.B. Some of this site’s content still reflects my earlier enthusiasm for making money online. I’ll go through the posts one by one and either update or remove them so that this site reflects what I believe today.