There are lots of ways of making money online — here are my brief definitions for some of the most common:

  • Sell Advertising — that is where people pay you to steal away your visitors
  • Affiliate Marketing — where you try to convince people to buy a third-party product through you rather than one of the other ten-million affiliates for that product
  • Multi-Level-Marketing — requires trying to get others to sell the same overpriced junk you sell
  • Product Sales (1) — where the product is not of your own production, is where you try to get people to pay more for something than you paid for it
  • Product Sales (2) — where you create your own product, requires convincing people they need another ebook of money-making secrets so you can begin to actually make money
  • Subscription Sites — just convince people they should pay to read the stuff you copied off the Internet
  • Get Paid for Work — become a virtual assistant, write content, make websites, etc., at prices competitive with third-world economies

Despite my sarcastic tone and somewhat pessimistic summaries, all of these techniques really do work — people make money on each of them, and some of us even earn a living from nothing but these methods. The reality is though, you can only make money if you can offer something of value. It is difficult to find those value-laden products and services, but not impossible. There are no instant riches, but hard work that is intelligently directed will, in time, be rewarded.