I liked the idea of making money on the internet. Now that I haven't had a job in years, I like it even more. I use several ways to make money online, all of them carefully considered, so I don't have to be home to operate the business.

You see, there are all sorts of ways of making money on the internet. I know someone who sells surveillance cameras and equipment online, another who sells laminating machines from a web site, and several people who sell ebooks. Here are some of the other possibilities:

1. Subscription web sites. These are sites that have limited public content. To get the good stuff, a visitor has to subscribe. For example, a business-themed site might offer unlimited access to its resources, including web site templates, sales letters, and the latest news and techniques, for $10 per month. Get a thousand subscribers and you'll be making some money.

2. Sell your handicrafts. Many people sell the things they make online and make a good living doing it. Everything from handmade walking sticks to dog clothing is sold online.

3. Sell your book. The internet has made it easier than ever to sell your book without needing a publisher. You can set up a sales site and either promote it free using articles, or pay for search traffic.

4. Sell downloadable products. Ebooks and reports are easy to make now, and don't require any printing expense. They also don't require any shipping. Buyers pay with credit cards (many companies will even handle that for you) and download their purchases - even while you sleep.

5. Sell links on your web sites. If you have a good web site, people will pay to have links to their web site placed there. There are companies online that will arrange the selling of these too.

6. Collect from pay-per-click advertising. This has to be one of the easiest ways of making money on the internet right now. Just paste that code into your pages and start collecting for the clicks. I knew I liked this way the first time I passed the $50 per day mark on my click revenue.

7. Sell affiliate products. Visitors to my backpacking site click on the links I have put there and buy a tent or a sleeping bag, and I get paid a 7% commission. That is the essence of affiliate marketing, but it works in many other ways, and the commissions range as high as 75%.

8. Refer buyers to an affiliate sales page without a web site. Although it has become more difficult to make this work, you can still make commissions without a website. Postings in forums, articles, and online classifieds are all free ways you can refer buyers to a site that you are an affiliate for.

9. Sell pixels or words on your website. Do you remember the man who sold a million pixels on a web page for a dollar each, in order to pay for college (and much more)? Buyers got to advertise how they wanted with their 100 or 200 pixels space. The next incarnation was a buy-a-word site. Pay for a word and it was linked the buyers web site. What next?

10. Sell your expertise. Many people use a website and online promotion to sell their offline expertise. Whether you are a business consultant or a wilderness guide, you can make more money with an online presence.

Sell and ship products. Sell products that don't need to be shipped. Sell advertising. Sell your expertise online. Sell your offline services online. Sell other people's products. Sell your own products. These are just some of the basic categories of online business. Within each of these categories there are dozens of ways of making money on the internet. Why not get started?