Six Easy Ways to Start Making Money Online

In these days of downsizing and high unemployment it makes sense for everyone to have a back up plan and one good way to create such a plan is to start now in creating an online income. The extra money will help even while you're employed and if you become extremely successful you could even be one of the lucky entrepreneurs who are able to leave the corporate world and work for yourself from home.

Here are 6 ideas to get you started thinking about ways you can start making money online today and protect yourself for the future.

1. Blogging for Money

One quick and (fairly) easy way to make money is through blogging. You can do this on your own either on a host blog such as those at Wordpress.org or Blogger.com or you can host your own domain. Or you can choose to blog for others and get paid for your submissions. There are plusses and minuses to each way of blogging.

If you choose to blog on your own not only will you have to write the content for your blog(s), but you'll also need to learn about search engine optimization and how to market your blog. While this can seem daunting at first, both are very useful and valuable skills to have and well worth learning. Plus you control your destiny with your own blog and your earnings are not limited.

If you prefer the safety of writing for someone else there are plenty of opportunities out there although they may take some time to break into. Start out with service such as Triond and Helium and after you establish yourself you may be get full time work with a blogging network like About.com or Weblogs Inc.

2. Become an Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing is the promotion of another companies product or service and being paid on a commission basis for selling that product or service.

Affiliate marketing is a huge area and there are affiliate programs in pretty much any niche you might want to explore. If you want to create a site about dieting there are many programs that will pay you for leads. In the fitness niche you'll find ebooks, video courses and even hard products to promote. The amount of money you can make through affiliate marketing is only limited by your hard work and imagination. Many of the most successful online entrepreneurs made their fortunes through affiliate marketing. If you're just starting in affiliate marketing you'll want to start with the biggest affiliate networks which are Commission Junction, eBay, Clickbank and Amazon.

3. Start Your Own Online Business

Starting your own online business allows you to sell your own products or services. Successful online businesses include web design, software development, copywriting and digital products such as eBooks or video courses.

It isn't difficult to start your own business online, however you should have in depth knowledge of the niche you are considering as well as connections within that industry. In addition you'll need to be able to hire the right people for any work you might want to outsource.

Definitely do your due diligence and research your niche in depth before you jump in. You can get some very good tips at Entrepreneur.com on how to start an online business.

4. Become an Internet Real Estate Tycoon through Domaining

Domaining is the business of buying and selling domain names for a profit. Domainers buy domain names and then either immediately flip them for a profit or take some time to develop a site and then sell for a profit. It is very similar to offline real estate investing without the huge capital requirements.

Buying, developing and then selling websites like this is known as domain flipping and can be very lucrative if you know how to design a website that is both attractive and makes money. You can get a rough idea of how much developed sites are selling for by checking out the SitePoint Marketplace.

5. Take Paid Surveys Online or Try Get Paid To Sites

There are literally hundreds of websites that will pay you to take surveys online, read emails, sign up for trial offers or surf the web. Websites that pay you to complete offers are called Get Paid To sites and most of them also include affiliate programs which can also be profitable if you are able to refer others to the site.

The benefit of these types of sites is that you don't need any technical skills to make money with them. The paid surveys sites are also fairly risk free, however you will want to research get paid to sites to find which ones actually pay their members. Paid Surveys Success has a large list of paying survey companies as well as get paid to companies that do pay.

6. Freelance to Make Money Online

If you are skilled at writing, programming or web design you can join thousands of others online who are exchanging their services for cash online. Other freelancing opportunities other than the ones listed above exist in proofreading, transcription and translation.

When starting out it's best to use one of the online marketplaces to offer your services. The downside of this is that the pay is lower than usual, however after a short period of time you should be able to build a client list and command a better pay. Check out sites like Elance and Guru.com when beginning.

If writing is your thing there are plenty of places to get started. Right here at Hub Pages is one since they will pay you a percentage of the revenue generated from your hubs. Other alternatives include Associated Content or you can get paid to write for blogs as a guest writer or staff writer.

Really it doesn't matter which of these methods you use to make money online. The important thing is to get started today! Like any other business it will take some time to learn the ropes and to gather momentum, but once you do you'll be glad you started. Think of each thing you do as planting seeds for the future. In a short time you'll have a bountiful harvest of online money making projects.