Fast Money Online

Whether you're in need of a little extra spending cash, or looking for the life-changing opportunity to quit your day job and do something you enjoy, this article can help. I will identify five different ways to make money online, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

This article should provide some helpful insights into how best to take advantage of our increasingly digital world -- and change your life for the better.

1. Google AdSense.

Google's AdSense program is the most popular and has been around the longest. It's also one of the easiest ways to make money online because it doesn't require any special knowledge or specific expertise. All you have to do is sign up for a free Google AdSense account and add a simple line of HTML code to your web pages containing content that you're already creating. That HTML code tells Google's search robots what pages should display an ad from one of Google's advertisers when those pages are accessed by a user who has an ad-enabled browser (most users do).

One of the benefits of Google's AdSense program is that it can provide you with a free, recurring income stream. You may have to spend a little time each day updating your AdSense account for the number of ads displayed to you, but the free cash is more than worth it.

2. Affiliate Marketing.

Most traditional income opportunities are really a form of affiliate marketing -- it's just that most of us stopped using affiliate marketing back in college when we got distracted by studying for our finals instead... (Admit it -- you've probably never done much affiliate marketing in your life. But if you've ever purchased a product or service from someone, and were later sent a referral fee for doing so, you're already an affiliate marketer. The rest of this article can help you to learn how to become one.)

The concept behind affiliate marketing is simple: When someone clicks on an ad that you created for them, it earns you a commission. In most cases, the advertiser will pay your commission directly to your Paypal or other online banking account -- which means that there's no need to submit the money itself. Put another way, the advertiser becomes your customer -- and they've chosen to buy from you instead of some other merchant.

From this point on, the process is pretty much like affiliate marketing with Google AdSense. You'll start building your affiliate page by listing the products you have available for sale (this could be anything from eBook downloads, to widgets or videos that you've created). Then, you simply submit your affiliate links to a site that your audience will find useful -- like eHow or Business Insider -- and when they click through those links they'll begin wishing they'd bought something from you in the first place.

3. Affiliate Marketing With Blogging.

Blogging has become incredibly popular in recent years, and it's now one of the most common ways for people to make extra income online. There are dozens of blogs out there... but only a few are being read by the masses. How can you make your blog one of these handful of popular blogs? Or create your own personal niche blog from scratch?

You can read more about my journey to making money online with my website in this article I wrote for eHow.com: "Make Money Blogging" 

4. Selling Others' Information Products.

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If you can write, this is an excellent way to make some extra cash -- even if you're not very good at writing... and it doesn't matter to whom you're selling the information. The content could be anything that's already available on the Internet, or it could be something completely original.

There are many services out there (like the ones I mentioned in this article ) that will sell your eBooks for you and take a small commission. However, when you make your eBook available for sale in this way, it often takes several months before the product is finished and ready to be sold. And during that time, you won't be making any money from it at all.

The better solution: Instead of selling through a middleman, you can sell your work directly to customers... by creating your own custom website (which includes using common platforms like WordPress and others - see "how to start a blog" for some good tips). With a custom website, you can sell your eBook or other information product... and, if you're being thorough, fill it with extra features that will make your visitors want to buy more from you.

5. "White Hat" Affiliate Marketing.

One of the more dangerous and blatantly unethical strategies for making money online is called "white hat affiliate marketing." It's basically a great way to make money online acting as a paid consultant for someone else's business. For an example of white hat affiliate marketing, check out this article: "Affiliate Marketing: The Good Way"

The concept is simple: You find a product or service (or you create one) that people will be willing to pay for... and you sell it through the affiliate channels that are already in place. It's sort of like a garage sale. It doesn't matter if your product is good or not. All that matters is that people will pay for it!

If your specific expertise is in demand, then there's no time like the present to start making money with it. But I would recommend that you find a more legitimate way to make money online first... because "white hat affiliate marketing" sounds pretty out-of-date by now.

6. Blogging.

Are you a creative writer? Do you like to write about your experiences? Then blogging could be the right choice for you. A blog can be monetized in several ways. You can sell advertisements, i.e., "affiliate marketing," or sell your own products and services listed on your blog, called "selling through affiliate marketing." In addition, you can implement affiliate marketing through payments made by people who want to have access to your blog content. There are several platforms that offer different types of payment options and fees for each one: PayPal, for example, charges between 3% and 5% on every transaction that goes through its system.

Conclusion

There are tons of different ways to make money online. I've just outlined six options -- and one of them is likely to be the best fit for you. It's all about doing some light research and trying a few things out. Once you're making money, just collect it and use it: Let your profits accumulate until you're ready to purchase any business or real estate that catches your eye. The best part is... if you become good at one of these six strategies, you can apply those same skills to almost any other type of income-generating activity that comes along later on down the line.