How do people make money online?

Unless you have very specific skills, such as graphic design, web design, computer programming or sell on eBay, there are no real internet work at home jobs. On line jobs are just another urban myth. You will just be bombarded with all kinds of work at home scams such as envelope stuffing, data entry, home assembly, medical transcription, reading e mails, surveys, etc.

There are many ways. For most it’s not instant, not easy to get started, not without cost or having someone show you a step by step plan. Most of us doing it have all taken their lumps and paid their dues. There is a learning curve to it, but with a bit of dedication, devotion and time, most anyone can find a way.

Best advice I can give comes from my experience. 1. Figure out what you have a great interest in and LOVE to do or know a lot about. 2. Do a Yahoo search on that topic, using as many keywords as you can think of to narrow down the field to Exactly target your specific expertise. 3. Visit those sites of others under that topic be they blogs, articles, news, hobby or business sites. Learn all you can.

Organize yourself with notes, Ideas, etc. tracking everything that impresses you. I do it in a simple word or notepad doc. Copy site name/bookmark it so you can return often. Think up a screen name unique to you, not used by others you can use on multiple networks and design an avatar unique to you. (Good training for all this right here on Yahoo Answers).

Then: Join some of the blogs, social networks, etc. Participate in the discussions with good feedback of value to others, build relationships and your reputation. Recognize things of interest to others in these social networks – observe what kind of things do they buy, want, need, etc? Find good companies to supply those needs, Amazon is a good place to start but there are others that pay better and offer more.

On commercial supplier sites, look for an affiliate link, click, review terms, sign up as an affiliate for them if you like what you see. Take their training, learn all you can about them, their products, audience, etc. Find places you can promote them, put the referral link as your website in your Personal Info page of each social network you are a part of. Also utilize the numerous FREE Advertising online sites, learn pay per click, etc.

The more you participate, the more you learn and can do. Most important: follow all of the social rules. Don’t promote openly unless it’s specifically for advertising. Have a paypal or alert-pay account. Keep good notes and review them continually, revisiting sites so you build reputation.

This is the slow, learn as you go system, but its dependable, it works, it’s almost totally cost free so you never get ripped off. You can have a ball doing it, especially if you love and specialize in one area of expertise.

The other route is to answer a few opportunity ads, join the chain schemes, the Guru systems, the big money boys who make most of their returns exploiting beginners like you. If you have a bit of money to blow, it’s a great place to learn, cheaper than college, and you might even get lucky and be able to plug in what they provide, but for beginners, its’ tough to do. Above works best if you can just discipline yourself to have the patience for it.