The Internet world is full of “work at home” and “get rich quick” offers, and it’s very difficult for most people who are new to it all to tell the difference between a legitimate opportunity, and a scam.

So let me help you cut through the clutter and the hype. There are basically just 9 ways of making money online, and you’ll find that virtually all “systems” and methods for making money fall into one of the 9 categories below:

(1) Employment / Contracting

This is the same as working for a boss, just on the Internet! Unfortunately, most “work from home” adverts aren’t offering jobs in the traditional sense, but are usually make money or network marketing systems where there is no guarantee of a particular income.

So if you’re looking for a real job with a regular salary on the Internet, it can be a bit of a challenge.

(2) Advertising / Adsense Revenue

This is where you sell advertising space on your own web site or blog. Many people like using Google’s Adsense network, because it’s pretty simple to set up – you just stick a snippet of code on your site, and Google pay you, depending on how many people click on the adverts.

As easy as it sounds, it’s not necessarily the optimal way to make money online. To earn good money from Adsense or other advertising space, you’ll need a decent number of visitors to your site. Furthermore, when people click on an advert, you’re sending them off to be someone else’s customer.

(3) Affiliate Marketing

This is where you sell other people’s products and services (as an “affiliate”) and earn a commission on each sale.

The most important skill needed to be an affiliate marketer is knowing how to use various advertising and promotional methods to direct relevant traffic through your affiliate link, and earn enough commission to make a profit. This isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, and many people who are new to affiliate marketing often find themselves spending more money on advertising than they earn in commissions!

On the other hand, if you keep your advertising and promotional costs consistently lower than your commissions, you can make good money. (And if you keep reading this UpperMoney.com blog, you’ll soon learn how to do this.)

(4) Resale Rights

Some product owners allow you to purchase “resale rights”, which enable you to sell their product yourself.

The disadvantage of resale rights is that you can’t claim the product as your own. You are still selling somebody else’s product.

However, the advantages are that resale rights can be more profitable than affiliate marketing if you’re able to make more than a few sales, because you can keep the revenue from the sales you make.

For example: I sell resale rights to one of my products for $199. The product itself has a recommended retail price of $47, so you would need to sell just 4 copies to cover the cost of buying resale rights – after that, the revenue is yours.

Plus, when they purchase the product from you, they are your customers, so you have the opportunity to sell to them again, and build a relationship with them.

(5) Selling Your Own Product Or Service

Creating and selling your own product or service gives you much more scope for flexibility and profits, because you are in full control of what you sell.

There’s no end to the variety of products and services that could be created – ranging from simple electronic books and DVDs, right through to large services such as Paypal or Ebay, or Internet stores such as Amazon.com.

Of course, you don’t have to be the next Amazon.com to make money online. There are many successful businesses on the Internet that you’ve probably never heard of before – that’s because they’ve found their own profitable “niche”.

For many people, the challenge is coming up with product ideas in the first place. Hopefully you’ll find inspiration as you keep reading this blog over the coming weeks and months. (Don’t forget to subscribe!)

(6) Private Label Rights

Some product owners allow you to purchase “private label rights” (often abbreviated to PLR), that permit you to take their product (usually an information product), re-write it and claim it as your own!

This is a fairly easy way of “creating” a product of your own, since the bulk of the work has already been done for you.

(7) Network Marketing

Also called multi-level marketing, this basically involves not only selling a product or service, but also recruiting others to do the same and earning money from their sales as well.

Unfortunately, network marketing often gets a bad rap because it’s usually the marketing model of choice for scammers. It’s also tightly regulated in many countries, because when too much emphasis is placed on recruitment, it can resemble or become a pyramid scheme (which is usually illegal). I’ll talk about the differences in a future post.

Having said that, there are no doubt many legitimate companies using the network marketing model, and there are many people who are successful in this field.

(8) Consultancy / Coaching

If you have a professional skill that’s in demand, you could use your skills by becoming a consultant or coach online.

Just bear in mind that you may need a license and/or professional qualifications to become a consultant in certain fields.

(9) Investing / Flipping

Just about everything you create on the Internet (such as a product, website or blog) is potentially an asset – and assets can be bought and sold. For example, back in the earlier days of the Web, people would snap up great domain names and sell them, often for millions!

Sadly, it’s much harder to do this with domain names nowadays, but there are always new opportunities coming along. “Flipping” is becoming a lucrative business model for some, which basically involves buying up a site or a blog, improving it and selling it for a profit.

Just remember, whenever you create a product, site or blog on the Internet, you’re potentially creating an asset – which you could sell!

“So which model is best for me?”

With all the different ways of making money online, which one is best for you? If you’re just looking to supplement your income for now, then why not offer your services to someone who is already running a business on the Internet? This is also a useful way of generating money to invest back in your own business.

Many people choose affiliate marketing early on, because to make money it’s just a question of spending less on advertising than you earn in commissions. (As I pointed out earlier, this isn’t as easy as it sounds – which is why we’ll get into more detail in a future post).

Personally, I think creating your own product is also a great way to go. It involves more effort, but the long-term rewards are greater.

Over the coming weeks and months we’ll discuss the various ways of making money online, and we’ll look at some specific examples to get you started, or to take your income to the next level.So make sure you’re subscribed to this blog!