Ever since the internet first began to seep into the public's collective consciousness, then people have been looking for ways to make money on it. So here are some of the prominent examples of these form the years went by.
Paid To Browse (& Do Other Things)
Back in the late 90s, as the internet was becoming commonplace, companies such as AllAdvantage came up with the PTS (Pay To Surf) model where internet users would have adverts framing their screen and were paid for the amount of time or adverts seen.
This model didn't last and was lost in the dotcom crash of the early 2000s, but it did pave the way for the online advertising model on websites, but these days, the revenue goes to the content creator rather than the browser.
Sell On eBay & Other Platforms
Selling on eBay at first was a way to get rid of some of your unwanted stuff, basically an online yard sale, but it's moved on so much since the early days. Now it can be the platform from which to launch a small business; people sell home-made crafts, products, and even services such as web design, etc.
Also, eBay is not the only space to do this now; we have Etsy for crafts, Amazon Marketplace, and many more.
Create Things In Online Gaming Worlds
It seemed mad to the general public way back in 2003 when an online fantast world game, Second Life produced by Linden Labs, created a space for users to do anything, or indeed nothing in this alternative world. But even beyond that, you could create objects, as in clothes, items, even design buildings, and what's more surprising is that
people would pay real money, not game tokens or currency, for these items. This has become commonplace in online worlds, and you can get League of Legends news at this site, for example, and also buy user accounts.
Design Work
If you are a creative person, then you can always work as a freelance designer in some capacity. If you like, you can design websites or even offer print design solutions remotely as you can communicate with clients via Skype, Messenger, or email and also send finished projects to the printers local to the customer. With web work, you can offer your clients space on web servers you wither own or hire space and sub-let from another company, even
host and manage the websites for them.
Advice & Services Online
If creating things isn't your strength then you can offer advice and services online, in the early days of the web you had all manner of services being offered online, such as life coaching and advice services. These are not as much the norm these days, but there are still a considerable amount of people offering things like tutoring for students, both high-school and college, and even
writing essays and selling them to students. If you have an education, you can do this.