Features

• Finding useful, effective business ideas is key to making money online. If you're spending time on the Internet, you surely have heard of monetizing blogs (publishing third-party ads in your own blogs so you can get revenue from them), buying and reselling domain names and buying and selling online businesses (known as "site flipping"). While all these could potentially make you a lot of money, don't just stop at the obvious. Instead, search online for other options, join forums to see what entrepreneurs are talking about and interact with people in the business to see if any of their ideas catches your eye.
  
  

Warning

• Scams related to making money online abound. The most common ones involve your paying a fee for access to information that is basically worthless or for joining a group or company that promises high earnings for a product that is either useless or impossible to sell. Other common money-making business online scams include home typing or medical transcription offers (although may be legitimate, most aren't), advance-fee scams (for reports, credit cards, etc.), auctions for products that don't actually exist and employment scams, which can also lead to identity theft.
  
  

Types

• Many people making money online are actually doing traditional jobs, but doing them from home. Examples include secretarial work (done online and at a distance), online auctions, staff support (answer emails or deal with customer complaints), website design and copywriting, sales of stock photos or crafts, or data entry and information search.
  
  

Considerations

• For those who are looking to earn just some extra income, simple activities like filling surveys, getting paid to read emails and paid forum posting can be good options. These activities require little time commitment and no special skills, so they are ideal for people who don't have much time to invest in the process. Directory submission services and link-building are also popular and mainly involve creating publicity for the name of a company. Pay varies from pennies to a flat fee per month.
  
  

Potential

• Taking advantage of your skills is another great way to make money in the virtual world. If you can write, for example, you can probably produce an e-book and sell it on your site or blog. Or you can produce content for sites, write articles for websites or offer critiquing services. If you're tech savvy, you can probably program, resell web hosting or answer tech questions for a fee. Some educational services will hire people with expertise in a specific subject to offer online tutoring to students.