The Truth About Making Money Online

Take a moment and open a new tab on your web-browser. Open it up to your favorite search engine and do a simple search for "make money online." There's a 100% chance you will see advertisements for companies that give very vague descriptions with promises of making huge sums of money without any mention of work. Let's face it, when trying to make money on the internet, 90% of the systems out there are crap. There are no easy ways to make large sums of money on the internet, it takes hard work, dedication, and a little bit of knowledge, just like every real job you've ever had. Let's look at the different ways there are to "make money online."
Scams - When you try to learn about making money online, you will find yourself visiting dozens of different pages with erroneous claims about how you can make thousands of dollars every week, just by following their proven system. Of course they don't tell you what their proven system is or how it is supposed to make money. If you see one of these, just don't bother. Their claims are bogus in almost nearly every case, don't waste your time, no matter how attractive they look.
Get Paid To Take Surveys - You can actually make a bit of money here and there by taking surveys on the internet. There is a lot of misinformation about how much money you will make in hopes that whoever is trying to sell you on the idea will be able to refer you to the website and make some sort of commission. You will have to take a lot of qualification surveys, and if you meet the qualifications, then you can make $10 or so an hour to take a survey, but you definitely won't get rich off it and probably won't get more than a survey a week.
Blogging - Blogging works well for some people, but this takes tons of dedication and research. A lot of people start blogging hoping for some sort of great return from advertising, but the reality is that it takes work, a lot of work. In my first month of blogging, I probably put 40 hours of work into the website and only ended up making $30.00. I know I'm worked for peanuts, but it was fun, and I know that if I stay dedicated to it, over time it could build a following and I might do pretty well with it. Usually it takes years to make any sort of decent money blogging, it's definitely not a get rich quick scheme.
Get Paid to Read Email / Advertisements - There are sites online such as Inbox Dollars which will pay you to read emails. I've had an account there for several years now, and still haven't met the $30 minimum to get paid, and I have nearly 50 referrals! The problem is that you'll get an email every other day, and make 3 cents for each email you read. At that rate, it would take you over 5 years just to get your $30 payment! Don't bother.
Freelance Work - If you have special skills such as writing, programming, graphics, or other highly requested skills, there's a good chance that you will be able to find some work online. The problem is that you need to find people who need your skills online. There are a number of places that will connect freelance workers and people who have projects that need to get done, but often times you have to pay a fee to be apart of these. It's just part of doing the business. If you're going to be serious about freelancing, you can make some money doing it, but if you're just going to think about maybe doing a project some time, you're better off not quitting your day job.
eBay / Auction Sites - Some people have become very successful in eBay sales, but don't listen to the hype of the over-night cable shows and think you will get rich very quickly. There are already people on eBay in practically every niche market with years of experience that you don't have. They already have the best distributors and are selling things as low as they can. It seems as if it would be very easy to enter this market, but unless you have a great distributor and have found ways to cut costs below the competition, you probably won't get too far.
Quixtar, Amway and Other MLM Programs - Amway has been around for decades, and Quixtar is the latest reincarnation of the same program. These programs pay you to shop from their web-portal and refer other people to the program. There are a few people in the program who have done quite well but most people quit after a year, and never any make serious money in it. In order to do very well with these programs, you need to refer a lot of people. Most people don't have the salesmanship that it takes to convince their friends, family, coworkers, and strangers from the street to be in their down line.
Don't fall for the hype, there's nothing magic about the internet which makes it easier to make money with. You have to do all sorts of research, come up with a very solid business plan and have a very hard work ethic to even consider starting your own web-based entrepreneurial enterprise.