Earning Money Online

Earning money online is tricky, but if you do manage to get through all the scams, it is possible. Affiliate programmes, are, in my view, one of the best ways to earn some money online. Although you need to make sure it is reputable. You post a link on your blog, webpage, in forums, on your myspace, and every time someone clicks on your link, you get paid $10. I paid $10 a little over 2 months ago to recieve a link, and I've made $600 already. Not much but it's quite welcome as a little extra income. If you have a website however, you could make a lot more. Check out this free Ebook for more information. Although the website may seem a bit 1997, I certainly trust this guy.

Scams

I would say over 90% of the websites you see promising that you will earn money online are scams. Here I will give a list of the most popular types of scams that you will find online.

Data Entry

The Promise- You enter data online for various companies, and get paid $1000's of dollars a day just for that.

The Reality- You pay a large fee to sign up, then never hear back from them again.

Stuffing Envelopes

The Promise- You get sent envelopes, you fill them, you get paid.

The Reality- I've never actually fallen victim to this one, but ask yourself, why would a company need envelope stuffers, with the technology we have these days? I've recieved emails from people who have spent hours stuffing envelopes, yet never recieving a check at the end of the month.

Assembly

The Promise- They send you materials, you assemble them into a product, you send them back and get a paycheck.

The Reality- You spend hours assembling the products, only to find out when you send them back that they aren't up to company standards, so you won't be getting paid. Also, the products you want to assemble are normally things that no one would ever buy- ask yourself why they need so many people to help manufacture them?

Referrals

The Promise- A free iPod, $1000, ... the list goes on.

The Reality- In fact, these aren't scams as such, in fact they are often run by reputable businesses such as Apple, Microsoft, et cetera. The catch is, you have to refer 10 people, and each of those people have to refer 10 people to get your product. It is possible, but rather hard to achieve.

You've won the lottery!

The Promise- You've won a huge amount of money, they need your bank details so they can transfer it to you

The Reality- This is probably one of the best known scams. They are super easy to spot- normally it will be a lottery from outside the country (so how did I enter it?) and you'll either have to give your bank details, or send them some money (often to Nigeria). It might sound obvious as hell, but there are people who fall for this.

How to earn money online- without getting caught by scams

Want to earn money online- but worried about scams?

I had tried a few of these schemes- filling in surveys, data entry.... most were either complete scams, or at best you would earn a few cents after having paid $50- $100.

If you are looking to make some money online, there are a few ways to tell if the website you are on is a scam or not.

1) Website hasn't been updated in years

2) You've read pages and pages, but still it doesn't actually tell you anything about the product

3) Promises of earning thousands and thousands of dollars within weeks

4) Overzealous testimonials- "I struggled to pay the bills- now I have 3 houses and I'm writing this from the Bahamas!'

5) It sounds too good to be true

6) There is either no email adress given on the page, or if there is, it doesn't work/ you never get a response

7) Promises of a full 100% guarantee if you don't make any money

Earning money online is possible- very possible. It's just a case of not getting caught up in scams.