With the creation of the internet, there was the creation of a widespread information and entertainment dissemination tool. Each year more and more people are logging on to "surf the web", look up information, buy products online or watch movies, videos or TV. Sites like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, eBay, YouTube and Hulu have all been built by creative individuals who had major vision. Nowadays these sites are part of our everyday conversations. The takeaway lesson seems to be that the internet is a providing an easier way for creative, smart, hard-working individuals to build a business and possibly a fortune. In this article we'll look at 3 individuals who you may or may not be familiar with. Each of them has created a niche, website or product and these are now people who became millionaires off websites. Read their online millionaire success stories, model them, or use them for inspiration and possibly find your own path to bigtime online moneymaking!

Markus Frind was a college student in Vancouver, British Columbia, looking to learn a programming language. In order to best learn the language he decided why not build a database type website which used that programming language. He decided to create an online dating site with a very simple interface programmed exclusively by him. The Plenty of Fish dating site (POF) was born and it became quite popular in his home country of Canada, followed by the United Kingdom and then the United States. Since his site was entirely free, Markus placed Google Adsense on the site as well as other ads to help pay for it. That move has payed off smartly as it made Markus a millionaire, due to the massive amounts of traffic which flock to his internet dating site. While not everyone is a computer programmer, all it takes sometimes is a vision, creativity and hardwork. To this day, Markus is one of just a handful of the Plenty of Fish site's employees, and he barely works 10 hours a week!

In early 2009, INC magazine profiled the amazing story of Markus Frind here.

WhateverLife.com is the brainchild of a teenage girl named Ashley Qualls (CEO & Webmaster of Whateverlife). Her vision was to get creative and make a website where her friends could go to find graphics and customizable gadgets for their Myspace profiles. As many people know, Myspace really became huge several years ago and still continues to be a widely traveled social networking media website. Due to the popularity of teens wanting their profiles to look cool to friends and strangers alike, Ashley's Whateverlife.com site gained a tremendous amount of traffic. Using Google Adsense and other ads to monetize her site really paid off for Ashley, as she began to earn over $70,000 a month. As of 2007 her website also ranked higher than AmericanIdol.com, CBS.com and Oprah.com. Ashley continues to expand her site in new directions similar to Myspace, basically creating her own social media site in the process of helping people "pimp their Myspace profiles". Yet another example of just one filling creative needs on the internet and becoming a millionaire in the process.

Read Fast Company's interesting article on Ashley Qualls, teenage millionaire.

Some internet millionaires may be questionable at best. Jeff Paul makes claims in his regularly seen TV infomercial, Jeff Paul's Shortcuts to Internet Millions, that he is indeed a made from scratch millionaire. A true rags to riches story. Jeff claims to have been $400,000 or more in debt and his life was in shambles. He eventually found a way to turn his home computer into a personal goldmine of wealth as he designed websites that brought him passive income. You may have seen his recent infomercial promoting the product which claims you can have similar success to Jeff and other individuals who are able to live the life they want as they generate cash from the internet. Regardless of whether Jeff Paul's moneymaking program makes you a millionaire, he's found a way to cash in on the success of the internet, making himself a multi-millionaire in the process.

While many people struggle day in and day out, it's important to realize just how powerful the internet can be in terms of turning dreams into cash.  The three individuals above have done it in different ways which we can all learn from.  In the case of each they are providing a service or product that others need.  Ashley Qualls and Markus Frind each provided free services which added smart monetization strategies so they could generate enough revenue to follow their dreams.  For many the verdict is out on Jeff Paul, but nonetheless he has provided a product via infomercial and the internet which could help others.  The key lessons here seem to be finding a niche that will help others and trying to provide it on the lowest possible budget possible, or create a product to sell that others will use.  Keep these concepts in mind and just maybe you too will become an internet success story one day!