In times like these, where technology has evolved and spawned a sentient multi-faceted entity whose sole purpose is to bring lesser humans together, we have to master the commercial aspect of this entity, the Internet. Well, everyone loves money except for spiritual Buddhist monks and Bill Gates. But hopefully you are not spiritually bound or obnoxiously rich till the extent that money means next to nothing.

Well, there are many ways one can earn money on the internet.  They can be easily split into four categories: advertisements, affiliate programmes, Forex and stocks, and internet based businesses. Obviously each has its own pros and cons.  But the most important rule must be followed:

You must have a niche to offer that is different from what others have to offer. This usefulness and rarity of your niche(s) are directly proportionate to your e-income.

For advertisements based income, it can come from Adsense or other similar systems.  Reading emails, answering surveys, clicking others’ advertisement for traffic (which indirectly translates to revenue) and likewise are negligible in increasing your income. Writing and submitting articles, starting a blog or website are good ways to get Adsense or similar but less preferable systems set up for you to start profiting. Well there’s of course the other side of the story: paying for advertisements. Now, why would anyone want to do that? You probably are laughing right now at my foolishness of using paid advertisement when I could simply spend some time clicking ads and get others to see mine in return. Yeah! You’re right! Why didn’t I think of that! Wait, oh, that’s right—I did but all my wasted time was not worth the pitiful views, most of which were disinterested, of my website. The only way to go is to get people to willingly click your advertisements out of natural curiosity. SEO and Adwords, articles, press releases and forums are the major ways for a person to view another’s webpage. Pinging websites such as Automatic pinger, Pingomatic and Pingoat are also very useful, considering that they are hassle and economically free.

Now we move on to affiliate programmes. These are for beginners who are unsure or brashly overconfident about ecommerce. These novices refuse to set up websites and market their own talents mostly because that they are cautiously experimenting or deluded to think that the hidden treasure in ecommerce is in affiliate programmes. Sadly the treasure can’t be found in affiliate programs. Let me put it simply: affiliate programmes do not allow you to expend your fortes nor do they offer any genuine products other than devilishly clever tricks to optimize traffic and earnings that involve heavy splurging. Just give them up, no one wants to buy these junk other than when desperate and later regretful.  All affiliate programs are dumb. Let me repeat: all affiliate programmes are dumb unless they are organized by large and trusted companies like Amazon, ebay and Google (Adsense may be considered as an affiliate programme).Yes the repetition sounded different and that was not accidental, that was sensible advice.

Forex and stocks, if I must say, generally depend on luck if you have not majored in finance, business skills or marketing.  I can’t help you out here; if you think that your niche is exceptional clairvoyant abilities then I fully encourage you to take one this phenomenally profitable trade. I can of course give you advice. If your sixth sense is not up to par, please, please do not replace your day job or other ecommercial activities with those.

This is actually the only way you can get rich online. As in so rich that your day job would be unnecessary and you can actually live on this.  But to be successful with internet based businesses, you have to have a product to sell (no, not ecommerce strategies mostly because they are unethical and over represented). It can be software or something tangible. You can start from ebay and move on from there to establish and publicize your own internet based company. No need for an office and you get to work from home! But, how is that freedom when it sounds so tiring—developing a new product and promoting your company and whatnot! This is not what the internet promised! This is not how I planned my rags-to-riches story to be!  Look, kid, if you really want that I suggest you sell your soul for eternal wealth and join satan’s affiliate programme. You get 10% of a soul when someone sells his/her soul through you! Doesn’t that just sound lovely? Get back to your day job if you can’t accept the hard painful truth: ecommerce stinks just as much as your day job.