If you are running a website, it must be your ultimate goal to generate income from the online page. There simply are too much opportunities waiting for you as you maintain and update your site regularly. But you would find that web page keeping is just like operating any media outlet. There must be a significant amount of readers to be able to communicate messages to a greater number of people.

Thus, if you are promoting products and services online, you must make sure that your website is regularly checked out, visited and read by prospective online clients. To do so, you have to employ strategies. The use of forums is one of the tried and tested schemes for making money on Internet.

Using Forum Signatures

Forum signatures are constant specific information coming after your name in every forum posting you make. For example, you are replying a message to a forum about computers in a popular online site. At the end of your name in the posting, data would be enumerated like your contact number, address, and of course, your website address.

Thus, after reading your post, online users and readers would inevitably take notice of your signature and the details that come with it. This way, you would be able to redirect people to your site. Doing so would significantly lead to higher traffic into your site. You could also build your own list of potential customers that you could regularly contact and send emails to if you are promoting your products and services. This logically aids efforts for making money on internet.

Making Good Posts

Before taking notice of your signature, you must make your forum posts significantly readable and interesting. Good forum posts would enable you to impress online readers. If online users are impressed, they would take note of you, your signature and the website or products and services you are endorsing.

You have to exude sense in every forum post you make. Do not directly seek readers to buy your product or visit your website. Invite people in a subtle way. You should be scheming enough to lead people to read your posting very well. You could mention your product or site within the posting.

Reviews

Forums most of the time involve reviews of products and services. If you do reviews, be sure to be fair and sensible. If you are making a review of your own products and services, include the pros and the few cons so people would get an overview of what your product offers.

Helping Others

Forums are meant to build a network that would help one another. If there are concerns and inquiries posted and you incidentally know answers and solutions, volunteer to air your suggestions. That way, you would be helpful to many people. In return, online readers would pay attention to your signature or to any products or websites you are endorsing. Making money on internet would be easily facilitated afterward.

I’ll be updating this regularly (most recent update is Winter 2010), so you might want to bookmark it, and check in once a month or so.

Step1

**Read this, just for a bit of inspiration**

I make about $3000 a month on the internet. Not quite enough for me and my family to live on, but a nice addition to my income just the same. It’s pretty easy, and pretty quick, to get a SMALL income stream started. It takes time and effort to build it up. Might as well get started today.

Step 2

**Take stock of what you have to offer**

If you are a writer, programmer, designer, or photographer, there are oodles of opportunities for you. If you have a speciality of any sort — carpentry, raising kids, planning vacations or weddings, playing Guitar Hero 3 — you can get paid for your expertise.

Even if you think all you can offer is time, there are plenty of opportunities for you as well.

Step 3

**Scan the available steps**

I’ve listed a lot of options in the steps that follow, all of them legitimate. Pick the one that seems the best fit for you and your skills, and start exploring.

Step 4

**Freelance Work**

If you have a skill to offer, check out the various freelance sites (sometimes called “personal outsourcing”), like elance.com and guru.com (see the Resources section for the links I mention).

You can post your skills at these sites, so potential customers can check you out, and you can also look around for freelance projects that others have posted.

There are tons of opportunities for freelancers, in very varied fields. Common projects, though, are writing, computer or graphics design work, creating web pages, programming, writing brochures or reports, illustration, photography, and so on.

Pay can be pretty good, especially after you’ve earned a quality rating at one or more of the freelancing sites. At the same time, though, keep in mind that you’re competing with freelancers from around the world.

Take a look at the “How Elance Works” video on their main page to get a quick overview.

Step 5

**Try Writing Web Content**

There are a number of ways to take your skill as a writer and turn it into cash.

One of them is right here at eHow. Write brief “How to” articles on any topic of your choosing, and get paid for the article. The more popular the article, the more income you can expect. A good article will bring in $50 per year or more. Write 10 top-notch articles, and that’s $500. A hundred articles…you get the picture.

I can’t say enough good things about eHow. To my mind, it is the best income generating opportunity available. Google the term ‘ehow101′ to learn more about how to make it work.

Step 6

**More writing opportunities**

–At SoftwareJudge.com, write reviews of select software products…top reviews earn up to $50 each.

–Product Reviews. You may be familiar with epinions.com, but did you know they pay cash for good quality reviews. You won’t get rich, but you can get started.

–Suggest domain names according to site descriptions at Pickydomains.com Get $25 for each name that is chosen.

–At Xomba.com, write anything you feel like, and collect 50% of any advertising income from Adsense clicks on your page.

–Become a fledgling journalist at examiner.com, and cover a special topic area in your neck of the woods…they pay pretty well.

–Other writing sites include associatedcontent.com, firehow.com, helium.com, and Squidoo. In fact, one of my eHow colleagues has put together a very nice Squidoo ‘lens’ with 101 sites where you can get paid to provide content…check it out in the Resources section.

Step 7

**Check out Q&A Sites**

I earn much of my income as an online researcher, answering folks questions on everything under the sun: investments, market research, divorce law, homework help…you name it. If this sounds like your cup of tea, here are some resources to explore:

–The Association of Independent Information Professionals (aiip.org) can help you build you own Q&A website and business. I’ve built my research business at xooxleanswers.com, and it is a steadily growing source of income for me.

–I also work with Uclue.com Though they are not accepting new researchers right now, it’s worth a look to see how a well-developed Q&A site works.

–Another Q&A site is JustAnswer, and they offer small payments for answers to questions.

Step 8

**Earn money from your own blog or website**

The key is to generate as much traffic as you can, and to have your visitors click on ads and affiliate links. The more people visiting your site, clicking on ads, and buying affiliate products, the more income you can earn. As good as this sounds, income is generally more a trickle than a flood. But again, steadily building your site (or sites), and building traffic, is the key to generating a steadily growing stream of income.

Google Adsense is the most commonly used service for placing banner and text ads on blogs and websites. As I’ve learned to maximize Adsense income over the years, I’ve come to recognize this as one of the best income-generating opportunities available.

You can also incorporate in-text ads (the colored, underlined text with small pop-up ads). I like InfoLinks.com for this, and Kontera.com is another commonly used service.

Affiliate ads usually pay whenever a sale is made for a product. Amazon.com has one of the most well-known affiliate programs that all you to sell books or other Amazon products on your site or blog, and earn a cut of the sale.

Other good affiliate resources are Commission Junction at cj.com, LinkShare.com, and AssociatePrograms.com.

Step 9

**Blog With the Best of Them**

If you don’t have a site of your own, starting a blog is pretty easy at sites like Blogger.com, and WordPress.com (Blogger even makes it simple to automatically place Adsense ads on your blog).

Also, at Orble.com, you can take ownership of an abandoned blog with a specific focus, like Film, or Travel, and collect a portion of the ad revenues. The advantage of this is that the blog is already well-represented in search engines, and can often generate much more traffic than a new blog of your own. See Orble under the Resource links for more information.

Step 10

**Sell your photos**

At sites like istockphoto.com and shutterpoint.com you can upload still photos or videos for sale, and receive a royalty payment every time someone makes use of your content.

Step 11

**Take Online Surveys**

I mention survey work with a good deal of trepidation…the surveys are tedious, the pay is meager, and there are many sites that are dubious, or out and out scams.

The most legitimate operation I know is GlobalTestMarket.com. They offer real surveys, and they pay real money. Again…tedious, and earning takes a long, long time.

CashCrate.com also pays users to take online surveys. They strike me as legitimate, but I confess, I don’t have any first-hand experience with it, so approach with caution…

SurveyScout.com is another possibility, but unlike CashCrate, they charge a membership fee before you can get started (Boo!). I’ve also heard some negative feedback from users of this site, so proceed with caution (if you proceed at all!).

Step 12

**Teaching and Tutoring**

Search on [ Online tutoring ] and you’ll uncover dozens of sites in this booming corner of the internet. Many accept applications for online tutors, with variable rates and topic areas. Two to consider are tutor.com and ehomeworkhelp.com

Step 13

**Check into online “Jury Duty”**

Here’s an odd one. Lawyers looking for feedback on how a case will play before a jury can make use of online e-jury sites to solicit input from the type of average citizens that show up on juries. Yes, you get paid. Fees for complex cases can run over $50, though $20 is more typical. To serve as an online juror, check out onlineverdict.com, or trialpractice.com.

Be aware, though, that none of the sites I’ve registered at has ever actually contacted me for a jury case, so I’m not sure just how active these services are. If anyone knows more about them, please leave a remark in the Comments.

Step 14

**Become a virtual office assistant**

At TeamDoubleClick, you can sign on for temporary jobs as an office assistant, handling correspondence, emails, bookkeeping, data entry, and other office jobs. Think of it as an online temp agency for virtual work. Pay is varied, but you are not obliged to take jobs that don’t meet your financial needs.

Step 15

**Play games**

At moola.com, you can get paid to play.

This is probably the strangest one yet, and I can’t personally vouch for it (I’ve only tinkered with the site), but it looks legitimate. Moola starts you off by giving you a penny, which you can then double, and double again, through a variety of games and activities.

Presumably, they make oodles of money through ads, and are willing to throw some of it your way by participating in their zany set of games and marketing gimmicks. They call themselves a “Massively Multiplayer Rewards Game”. It’s too complicated to explain here, but worth a look.

Step 16

**Participate in crowdsource design**

“Crowdsourcing” is the buzzword for getting a lot of people to do your work for you. If you’re good at designing things like t-shirts, logos, fancy fonts, and other graphics, take a look at the challenges at 99designs.com and threadless.com.

If your design is chosen, you can collect hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Step 17

**More blogging opportunities**

How does $100 a month sound for writing a few blog posts every week? That’s what you can be paid (actual range is $84-140) if you get accepted as a blogger at Creative Weblogging. They are a large blog network, and seem to have mastered the art of monetizing their many sites. All they need are people to write them, and keep the content fresh.

Step 18

**Earn with any type of content**

Blogging, articles, photos, video, you name it. Flixya offers 100% of ad revenue to anyone who posts at their website (you need to have your own Google Adsense account to participate). Words, pictures, videos, whatever ya got. Post it, bring in some traffic, and collect some ad clicks. (Haven’t tried it yet myself, but Flixya has a good reputation).

Step 19

**Just Visit**

Another site that pays for content is mylot.com, but they also promise earnings everytime you use the site!. They also pay for referrals. Haven’t given them a test run yet, so use them with caution, but they seem worth exploring, at least. If you have experience with them, please post a comment, below.

Step 20

**Listen to music**

At slicethepie.com, you can get paid for listening to music.

Say what!!! Yep, listen to upcoming artists, and review their music. The more reviews you write — and the better you are at spotting new talent — the more you can get paid. Some folks are pulling in several dollars per review.

Step 21

**Typing and Dictation**

If you have good typing skills, consider Speak-Write.com, an online dictation service.

Step 22

**Stay focused**

You can participate in online focus groups at 2020research.com, where you review a product you’ve used, or discuss an issue of interest to you. Payment ranges from about $50-150 per session. Participants are typically asked to join a group once or twice a year.

Step 23

**Work for Google**

Ha, ha…couldn’t resist. But you can earn through Google by posting content at Google Knol.

This online encylopedia-like site is a place where anyone can contribute content, and you can place Adsense ads on your article to generate revenue. I wrote a Knol about eHow. You can see it by searching on the term ehow101.

Step 24

**Review websites for usability**

You can get paid for reviewing websites. Usertesting.com pays $10 per website review, where you provide feedback on quality and usability. It’s not open-ended…you have to be selected to test, based on your demographic profile.

Step 25

**Earn money reading emails**

Really! Of course, there are ads involved, and you might be asked to click a few things, but it’s not difficult. Expect to get 5-10 emails a day (more, if you register multiple email addresses), and earn a few pennies per email. Check out InboxDollars.com.

Step 26

**Try a little bit of everything**

Genuinejobs.com is a legitimate work-at-home (telecommuting) site that lists hundreds of jobs, none of which require a fee, and many of which can be done online. Registration is simple…worth checking out.

Step 27

**Write for the NY Times**

Really! The Times owns two sites that regularly hire writers.

ConsumerSearch.com uses freelance writers to create detailed reviews of common consumer products…minimum pay is $350 per write-up, and they do a lot of hiring.

About.com, another Times property, hires writers as guides. These positions, paying $725/month or more, are tough to get, but worth looking into.

Step 28

**Shop**

This is not exactly earning, but Bing.com, Microsoft’s new search engine, offers cash back when you shop. It’s a bit cumbersome to use, but hey, cash is cash.

Step 29

**And don’t forget…**

At the risk of repeating myself, eHow is just about the best opportunity out there, and it’s pretty easy to get started. If you want to know more about the site, check out the eHow Forums…don’t be afraid to make a post, and ask a question or two.

Step 1

Stage a garage sale with anything you have in the house that has not moved or been used in two years. Clear the driveway, get $20 in change and set out items as early as you can on Saturday (dedicated garage sale shoppers start cruising before 7). Sell broken items for parts; take any offer after 11 am. To increase sales, begin on Friday or even Thursday. Buy cans of soda, ice them in a cooler, and sell for 50 cents.

Step 2

Organize the family to make money on the side. Economists call this the informal sector: babysitting, dogsitting, housesitting, mowing lawns and running errands for people in your neighborhood who then pay you in cash. Look for notes posted at the local grocery store or nearby thrift shop. Ask around; sometimes people have chores they mean to do and would be happy for you to haul trash or pile branches for cash. Or maybe they know someone who needs your services.

Step 3

Resolve to halve your grocery budget for this month, pocketing the difference. Many strategies can help you save temporarily on food: Diet for a week, make everything yourself (buying just basics such as milk, eggs, flour and vegetables) or shop the pantry. Most people keep a stash of food in their pantry.

Step 4

Work a local event like the annual county fair or other festival taking place over a weekend or two. Such events often pay low wages to people to set up displays, sell food or direct traffic. Not elegant, but it will make you some money and you need few abilities to qualify.

People jump into online web marketing all too often expecting it to be a walk in the park, only to fail and wonder why. It is true that it is a learning experience for everyone, but not thinking of it as work is what leads to most new marketers’ downfalls. The truth is that web marketing is work, and in some cases it can be hard work. Though it is certainly not physical labor, it does entail quite a few repetitive tasks and, to be frank, boredom.

Someone would have to be extremely lucky to be able to just put a site on the internet and start seeing profits. Hours of hard work go into optimizing websites and promoting them. In your question to become successful, you will have to really put your heart and soul into making the most out of your web campaign.

Choosing a market and then a niche is the first part that can actually be considered difficult. Some research with keyword tools can give you the information you need, but how do you choose your first niche? Every niche has a certain amount of searches per month as well as competition and advertising payouts. Even if a niche is over saturated with other marketing campaigns, it is still possible to profit via aggressive website promotion.

Optimizing your website is crucial. Sticking to a keyword density that will not offend search engines or visitors alike is going to do much more for you than repeatedly sticking he keyword into the articles and other content. Try to keep the density down to 1% or 2%, as it is just enough to garner some attention without being offensive. The actual content that is written in your articles matters as well. Keep it informative to give visitors the information that they are looking for — and to encourage them to click those advertisements.

The most daunting part of online web marketing for many is website promotion. There are hundreds of thousands to millions of websites within a niche. Search engines sort results according a variety of factors, one of the most predominant ones being promotional efforts. The overall goal is to get links on other websites coming back to yours, but without making it seem like spam. This in itself can be a task, but avoiding spam tactics will do more for your long term rankings as a whole.

Website promoting is the most difficult part of internet marketing, and many slack off when it comes down to it. Keeping the fact that online web marketing is work and not play will help you stick to your promotional efforts. You can make the best content on the web and still not get very far without at least a decent amount of promotion to work your way up the rankings. Keyword research, writing, and promoting are all work — so kick that mindset to the curb and treat your efforts like a business and not a leisure activity.

Drive for Dollars

Place ads for companies on your car. Major companies sometimes pay drivers to place advertisements or decals on their car. According to an article on Wired.com, drivers who covered part of their car with a “half wrap” of banners and text were paid in cash to drive their car an agreed upon amount of miles per month. Wired also states that companies realize cars are one of the most frequently seen things outdoors by potential consumers. This makes your car their traveling billboard while adding to your bank account.

Sales

Sales are as individual as the person doing the selling. If you are a sales party type person comfortable giving demonstrations, there are a number of companies that pay you to show their products in person. If demonstrating is not appealing to you, you might be interested in selling online products for various companies or even for yourself. Place your gently used items on an online auction site for people to bid on.

Skills

Ask yourself what type of skills you have that translate into moneymaking opportunities. For example, having expertise at a craft or advanced computer skills are frequently sought after by adult education organizations. Find out what is needed and how much is paid locally by making calls to the YMCA, churches and other places that might require adult education course teachers.

Errands and Tasks

People today are busier than ever. Work, family and more fill 24 hours and beyond. Some would love to have someone do their grocery shopping, walk the dog or even cook a homemade meal and deliver it. Place an ad in the paper to attract time-strapped customers.

Laundry

Do you live in a college town? College students frequently have little time or desire to do laundry. In addition, if it is a large college, many of the students are from out of town, so they cannot just go home to their parents to wash their clothes. Turn your washer and dryer or even a local laundromat into a source of income by offering this valuable service.

Doggie Daycare

Dogs are said to be man’s best friend, and they can be yours when it comes to making money. Just think of how much dog owners love their pet. Many owners hate the thought of leaving their fur baby home alone while they are at work and would be willing to pay someone to care for them. The idea of their dog enjoying playtime with other tail-wagging friends and being fed and petted is appealing. Just be sure you really do love dogs and have the time and care to participate fully in their day.

Search

Do not forget an easily overlooked option. Go on a money search in your home and car. Coins often fall out of pockets or get misplaced. Look in cushions, car floors, behind dressers and anywhere else you usually handle money.

Take Pictures

If you happen to be handy with a camera, hire out your camera and you for children’s birthday parties and small weddings. In addition, take candid shots of everyday objects. These are in demand for stock photography needs for writers, web designers and more.

Shop

Become a mystery shopper. Mystery shoppers go into places of business behaving like a regular customer. They make a purchase and make a mental note of the customer service experience. Then at home, they write a report about the experience and send it off to the mystery shop company they work for. The mystery shop company pays for the time spent shopping and reporting plus reimburses any money spent on the product. Some reimburse travel expenses as well, plus you get to keep the purchased product. For more information, visit secretshopnet.com.

Win

Save money by winning free prizes or even cash. Every day contests run on the Internet and locally giving away thousands of dollars in merchandise and money. For example, fast-food places often have no purchase necessary contests. Pick up a free game piece. You just might be the next winner. If not, at least it will be fun to do while using other ways to make the cash.