Earning Money on the Internet

There are many legitimate opportunities for earning money online, and many illegitimate sites offering easy money with little prospects of actually earning any. This knol identifies genuine sites for earning income on the internet.

Note: This article does not discuss online selling through website stores, sites like eBay, or affiliate links The internet is rife with sites promising substantial income, even riches, to those who fill out some survey forms, review some websites, or post on a blog or two. The vast majority of these are misleading, at best, or out and out scams. There are, however, quite a number of legitimate sites where one can earn income online (including here at Knol). These sites are described in this article, along with (where known) the earning potential from each site. Earn Income By Providing Website Content One of the major opportunities for earning money online is by providing site content in the form of text, photos or other images, videos, or sound. The general model for sites like these is to attract traffic (viewers), who can then generate advertising income for the site through programs like Google Adsense or Vibrant Media. Numerous sites provide a platform for posting content and hosting advertisements. The income generated is then shared between the content-providers, and the company hosting the platform. Here at Knol, for instance, anyone can post content, and sign up for Adsense so that ads are displayed along with their articles. When visitors to the site click on the ads, it generates revenue, some of which goes to Google (the platform provider) and some of which goes to the article's author (the content provider). It's possible to generate ad income at one's own website or blog. This has the advantage that the site owner collects 100% of the advertising revenue (other than the cut taken by the company supplying the ads). However, it can be difficult to build traffic at a private site to the degree needed to generate meaningful income. My own website, for instance, receives about 1, 000 views per day, but rarely generates more than a dollar a day in advertising revenue. A revenue-sharing site, on the other hand, generally has high visibility in search engine results, and potentially provides higher traffic than one's own site. Sites largely focused on text as content At eHow.com, writers can contribute short How-To articles on any topic. A typical article earns the writer about a dollar a month, with some writers posting hundreds of articles and earning hundreds of dollars a month. Although writer's can be from any country, payments (via PayPal) are currently restricted to residents of the US. Google's Knol encourages postings on almost any topic, and permits writers to link their Adsense accounts to ads at the article site. Knol is a new service (as of July 2008), and its earning potential is not yet known. However, as a Google site, traffic is likely to be high. At Associated Content you can publish text articles as well as media of all kinds (photos, videos, audio files). Articles are reviewed by AC staff prior to publication. Payment varies with article popularity, and is based on the number of views, with a baseline rate of $1.50 per 1, 000 views. As an author becomes more popular, this rate can increase, with some content providers earning hundreds of dollars per month. Xomba.com is another advertising-based site, with a 50/50 Adsense revenue-sharing split . You can post brief Xomblurbs or longer Xombytes. Most posts seem to be top of the head, blog-like materials, My own Xomba income has been slim, but I've not (yet) made much effort there. There are many options for earning income through blogging...too many to review here. Creative Weblogging will pay you anywhere from $84-140 a month for writing on existing blogs, with at least three posts a week, as long as you meet their criteria as a writer. At Orble.com, you can take ownership of an abandoned blog with a specific focus, like Film, or Travel, and collect a portion of the ad revenues. A few other options: (a) At SoftwareJudge.com, write reviews of select software products...top reviews earn up to $50 each. (b) Product Reviews. You may be familiar with epinions.com, but did you know they pay cash for good quality reviews. You won't get rich, but you can get started. (c) Suggest domain names according to site descriptions at Pickydomains.com Get $25 for each name that is chosen. Telecommuting: Jobs that can be done online There are numerous types of jobs that used to be done in an office, or other place of business, that can now be carried out online: Tutoring: This is a growing field, with dozens of sites that accept applications for online tutors, with variable rates and topic areas. Two to consider are tutor.com and ehomeworkhelp.com Virtual office assistant. At TeamDoubleClick.com, you can sign on for temporary jobs as an office assistant, handling correspondence, emails, bookkeeping, data entry, and other office jobs. Pay is varied, but you are not obliged to take jobs that don't meet your financial needs. Typing. If you have good typing skills, consider Speak-Write.com, an online dictation service. Freelance work. If you have a skill to offer, check out the various freelance sites like elance.com and guru.com where you can post your skills, so potential customers can check you out, and you can also look for freelance projects that others have posted. There are opportunities in very varied fields, especially writing, computer or design work. Pay can be quite good once you're well-established, but keep in mind that your competition is global. And a few other opportunities Some other options that are hard to categorize include: Photographs: At image sites like istockphoto.com and MicroStockPhotography.com you can upload still photos or other images (and sometimes videos) for sale, and receive payment every time someone makes use of your images. Music reviews. At slicethepie.com, you can get paid for listening to music and writing reviews. The more reviews you write -- and the better you are at spotting new talent -- the more you can get paid, with some writers earning several dollars per review. Focus Groups. Companies conduct online focus groups for product reviews, political opinions. and so on. You are paid to participate, typically $50 per session, though it's unusual to participate in more than one or two sessions per year. Play Games. Moola.com may be the strangest option of all. You can play games at the site, and advance your payoff by winning, or otherwise participating in numerous activities. The site bills itself as a "Massively Multiplayer Rewards Game", but it seems to be another variation of attracting viewers to generate ad revenue, and sharing that revenue with registered users.

Jury Duty. Lawyers have average citizens review cases they prepared in online mock juries, as a way of getting input. Payment generally ranges from $20-50 per case. Sites include TrialPractice.com, OnlineVerdict.com and TrialJuries.com.
Surveys. Survey sites like CashCrate.com and SurveyScout.com also offer a chance at online earnings, but I have not yet found a survey site that offers a serious money-making opportunity. Most require minimum earnings (eg $50) before they will pay you, and make it easy to earn your first $20 or $30, but very difficult to earn the rest. If anyone's experience has been otherwise, please leave a comment, below, to let readers know. Resources: How to Make Money on the Internet 20 Scam-Free Ways to Earn Money Online Online Entrepreneurs at About.com eBook: Learn how to earn $1, 000 a month (or more) at eHow
Questions? Let me know your questions or thoughts in the Comments, below, and I'll do my best to respond promptly.

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