I recently received a comment from a reader who claims that he thinks this whole make-money-online thing is a scam. He’s not the only one. Many people, after having struggled to earn a few pennies online, spending their hard-earned cash on programs and e-books that don’t help, give up. They are convinced that the whole thing is one big set up. That the only people earning are those who sell these ebooks and programs.

Well, earning money online isn’t easy. Sure, it SOUNDS easy. But the cold, hard truth is that you are not going to get rich quick off the internet. However, it is certainly possible to earn, if you know what you are doing.

The first thing to do is toss out the idea of earning a living off paid forums and reading emails. Yes, you can earn from those. You can also earn from clicking on free offers and trials. But will you earn enough to pay your bills and quit your day job? Very, very unlikely. That’s where most people get discouraged, because if you look up “make money online” on Google, you will mostly find these types of programs. So most people have no idea what their real options are.

DoshDosh has a very good article on what your options are for making money online. Basically, he narrows it down to the following:

- Setting up a blog or website for profit. This is very labor intensive and requires a pretty steep learning curve if you have never done anything like this before.

- Affiliate marketing. Again, steep learning curve, although possibly a bit easier than doing your own website and products. There is a lot of potential in affiliate marketing, but you do need to educate yourself. They say that 90% of affiliate marketers never earn more than $100.

- Start an online business. This is a very good suggestion. There are endless possibilities. You can also try expanding your existing brick-and-mortar business online. But don’t expect millions to flock to your website the day after you set up. It takes lots of patience and promotion to make this successful.

- Site flipping. I would suggest that you know what you are doing with websites before attempting this one. That being said, however, you can earn big bucks doing this.

- Find a virtual job. This is probably the most secure method, a steady paycheck and the opportunity to continue with your real life career online. However, it does have an earning ceiling.

- Freelance/ contract work. I do this as a freelance writer. I look for online writing jobs and apply for them. There are plenty of areas that freelance workers can provide services in. With some good promotion and knowing where to look for the right jobs, you can earn well with this.

- Create and sell your own product. Very good way to earn online . . . if you know how to market yourself. Without great promotion, your product will not go anywhere. However, this is a fairly easy way to earn if you are good at writing or programming.

- Online sales. This covers eBay and other online auctions or sites like Craigslist. I would highly recommend this to those of you who feel you have little or no talent in areas that you could freelance in. Just make sure you set your minimum bid high enough to cover costs or charge the right amount for shipping (speaking from experience here!)

DoshDosh will be publishing more information on these topics in the future, so I recommend you consider signing up for his RSS feed if you are interested in making money online. I’m already subscribed and it is one of the first feeds that I read each day.

Please feel free to add your own thoughts and ideas for earning online in the comments section.

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