In August, there was a great article in Information Week called 8 Ways to Make Money Online, I have to admit that I stole the title from them but then again I think Forbes did the same when they published their piece called In Pictures: Eight Ways To Make Money Online. 

Here’s the trick to making money online, you won’t get rich. That’s a bitter pill for most people to swallow but sometimes it’s not about getting rich, it’s about helping to make the bills and earning money while you’re doing other things, a little at a time.

A few years ago I read a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad in which the author discusses how to make money and the power of a hot dog cart. In essence, he explains that the way to get rich isn’t through great ideas but by generating money while you sleep, eat or even play with the kids. That’s the trick with the Internet and making money on it, I get paid a great salary consulting for businesses around the world but I also make money every day just by running my websites.

Think about that, it doesn’t matter if I’m sick or on vacation, if I’m playing in the backyard or taking out the trash. My websites, my online stores and my games are all making me money everyday. 

Here’s how I do it:

1. Affiliate Programs – See that link for Rich Dad, Poor Dad? Click on over to Amazon and buy it, you’ll get a great deal and I’ll earn a couple of dollars for sending you to them. That’s how Affiliate programs work. I have a similar deal with BlueHost, one of the best hosting companies around, who also happen to pay me each time people sign up with them.

2. Pay Per Click Advertising – By far, the best known source for advertising revenue is Google’s AdSense. With Google, you can place a small piece of JavaScript code on your website and they’ll present your users with advertisements from related sites. Each time a visitor clicks on one of the ads (mine are located to the right on this page) you’ll receive a small amount of money from the advertiser.

3. Affiliate Advertising - Throughout my website you’ll see small ads measuring 125px x 125px, these ads are for products and services that I’ve selected for my website. Unlike Pay Per Click Ads which pay each time you click them, these advertisements work more like the Affiliate Program model, with money being paid for sales received from my referrals.

4. Write Quality Content – Regular readers here on my blog will know that I’m a huge believer in writing quality content, what they might not know is that I also sell my work to other websites and to other bloggers who need quality content for their own sites. Sites like elance.com and helium.com are great sources of professional writing projects.

5. Photographs – Web site such as istock.com will pay you between 25¢ and $3 each time somebody wants to download your photography. With the advent of digital cameras, it’s easy to upload hundreds of quality photographs to websites and earn royalty cheques each month.

6. Sell Stuff Online – Use websites like eBay, Kijiji and CraigsList to sell everything from old LEGO to quality services. Some are free, some cost a little. I wrote a piece called Making Money Online all about this. 

7. Be an Expert – Using tools such as Adobe Acrobat Connect, it’s easy to run online web seminars. Running these virtual training sessions allow people who live in remote areas to attend virtual conferences, learn from experts and take part in discussions without having to travel.

8. Create Content – We’ve already touched on the fact that you can sell photographs and writing but if you’re an illustrator or an animator, why not use those skills like I do? My content sells to people all over the world on websites such as istock.com and even Second Life.

During the course of writing this article, I found the following websites great sources of information: