Working online isn't as easy as people say. I spend a few dollars doing different things before I found something that really paid off. Now I do most of my income-generation online, but I do have some side projects that pay cash in the real world. I don't claim my cash income for taxes, but I do pay taxes on my internet income. You have to, unfortunately, because the services you must work with will report your earnings to the IRS. When those mouth breathing lickspittles at the IRS see a lot of 1099's with no return to match them to, they send them on to be investigated. You don't want that.
There are a few things to watch out for.
If you visit Craigslist often, you will see "Work-at-home" opportunities all over the place. 99% of these are Multi-level things that are complete ripoffs. They want you to join for some insanely high "fee" and then you find out you are marketing a product that has no desirability in the market whatsoever. I'm sure some of you are incredible marketers and can "make it happen" so to speak, but in general, if they charge you for the "opportunity" to sell the product, then it's a bad deal to begin with.
ALSO, you will see things such as Excite Cash, or similar programs. These are XXX-rated industry jobs where you will use Yahoo Messenger or AIM to con horny guys into giving up their credit card number for either a sex show or a subscription to a directory of prostitutes. I signed up for one of these services (the one I was with is now out of business, go figure) and made some pretty good money. CL blocked all my URLs, so I spaced out the internet address and routed the guys to blogs on Blogger and Wordpress. I was earning about $150-$200 per day just doing that. I'd post ads, watch the sales click in - it was great! Of course, it didn't last too long.
You see, you cannot trick people into buying something they don't want. You have to be very honest about the sale. The company (read "con artist") I worked for was telling his employees (us) that we were legitimately referring guys to a service when we were really just getting them signed up for an out-of-date directory of old prostitutes.
Finally, I joined the world of affiliate marketing. I have made at least $200 per day simply marketing programs through blogs. It's not wonderful money, but it's pretty damn good. The more blogs I put up with ads, the more I make.
When you go looking for an opportunity, you will come across so many scams and people selling old information that you will get frustrated quickly. The people like me who earn a living off the internet WON'T generally tell you that making money online isn't easy. It takes a lot of time. You have to join Google's AdSense and have a lot of blogs. That will guarantee you at least a few dollars a day. If you are earning from $25-$50 a day from AdSense, you are doing fucking great! Remember, you have to have a buttload of visitors to your blog to make it pay off. There are ways to do this, but I'll save that for another blog entry.
Second, you will have to join Google AdWords and then sign up for the best affiliate programs. It is a little tough to learn how to make it pay off - and you will have to spend a little money. What the other affiliate marketers and bloggers won't tell you is that it takes a few months to get off the ground.
It does get to the point where you are simply writing a few articles per day, but that situation doesn't arrive until you've been blogging and writing and advertising for MONTHS!!!
So, if you do want to get started online, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you personally with details. Don't go spending shitloads of money on some program full of old information.
If you must get started immediately, the best program around is The Rich Jerk. He tells you all the secrets and you can start generating income the first month. I bought this program and it really speeded up my money generation. Of course, for blogging and running ads, I'll give you all that information for free.
More stuff on earning online later.
