There are many reasons why an increasing number of people are trying their hand at making money online. For some people it’s because they dream of becoming a dot com millionaire and leaving their job to make money at home. For a small minority this dream will become a reality. For other people though, it is the more achievable dream of supplementing their existing income that inspires them. Below are three of the most popular ways of making money on the internet and the pros and cons of each method.

Affiliate Programmes

Affiliate marketing is a well known and popular method for making money online. By becoming an affiliate for a company you will be financially rewarded for every customer you provide. Terms and conditions vary for each merchant. Some will simply reward you for every person who clicks through to their site. Others will pay for every new customer that signs up to a service or give you a commission for every purchase made. It is a fairly simple arrangement whereby your financial rewards are often directly proportional to the time and effort you spend in promoting your affiliate links.

The downside is that not all affiliate programme merchants are particularly honest or legitimate. Before signing up to a programme, make sure you have researched it well and know that you are getting a good and fair deal. If possible, get recommendations from a third party, particularly if it is someone already making money through the programme. Go for the merchants with the best reputations, not necessarily the ones promising you sky high profits.

Google Adsense

Adsense is an easy way to make money online. It’s simple to use – all you have to do is insert the code into the html of your site and targeted ads will appear on your page. For each click on an ad Google will add a percentage of the commission to your account. Once your account hits a certain amount Google will send you a check or transfer the funds straight into your bank account. After you have set up Adsense you don’t need to do anything further which is great if you work full time, are a full time parent or generally have very little time to devote to your internet money making venture. It is this simplicity which makes the programme so popular and a good way of earning a little ‘pocket money’.

Now for the downside of this money making scheme. For the vast majority, Adsense is not going to make you rich so if you’re looking to make big bucks this might not be the method for you. Some of the clicks pay very little – some as little as a cent. Couple this with a low click rate and you really need a high quality, high traffic website to make a good income.

E-books

The first way for successfully making money from an e-book is to find a niche market. Write about something you know and love. If you produce a good quality e-book then the chances are that people that share your interest will be happy to pay you good money for that book. Over time you could earn hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars from your niche market.

There is a second trick to making money from e-books. If you take a moment to look at Ebay you will find many e-books being sold very cheaply, maybe for even less than a dollar. You’re probably thinking that at those sorts of prices, e-books must be an extremely poor way of generating money. But here’s the secret – people are making great money selling cheap e-books because they contain links to affiliate programmes. At tiny prices you are probably going to shift quite a few copies of your e-books and if each of the people who purchase your e-book then re-distribute it, your affiliate links will spread all over the internet earning you a nice sum of money.

Whichever money making idea you decide on, research it well and you will soon see a return on the time and effort you have invested.