Loads of people really hate working for other people and want to set up some sort of business on their own.  Alternatively, they might have been made redundant and urgently need to start making some money to pay the bills.  The internet can be a really great place to start earning money but there are so many different techniques that can be used it’s difficult to know what you should and shouldn’t try.

Unfortunately there are many scams on the internet making all sorts of false claims about how to make $1,467 in an hour whilst sitting on the beach.  They make false claims, they use PhotoShop to doctor the their earnings and they even make up the testimonials.  Do yourself a favour and ignore these bogus claims.

The truth is that it takes a lot of time and effort to make money online.  It’s like anything else, you need to learn the ropes and figure out a lot of things yourself.  There are also a lot of blogs created by people who are offering up tips on making money online but the truth is they aren’t making money very successfully at all.

What happens is they read a blog by some “blogging guru” who tells everyone to create a blog and talk about what they are passionate about.  So the person reading this decides that they are passionate about making money online so that’s what they write about.  My advice is not to do this because there’s so much competition in this area and you really need to know what you are doing to make money from it.

Don’t get into the trap of reading every website and blog and forum out there.  If you only have limited time everyday then you don’t want to waste it by reading junk.  Instead you need to focus on your business.

Although writing about something you are familiar with is a good idea you don’t have to be particularly passionate about it.  For instance I know quite a bit about home improvement because I’ve done different DIY tasks around the home and I’ve watched my dad who is a joiner to trade.  I don’t particularly enjoy DIY but I can write about it very easily because I have first-hand experience in the subject.

When writing articles for your websites make sure you think about problems that people experience and would gladly pay money for a product or service to deal with the problem.  For instance, if you found mouse droppings in your kitchen would you pay money for mouse traps or an exterminator to get rid of them?  I‘ve had mice in my kitchen and I bought some mouse traps because of it!  So think about what people might type into the search engines to get help on this subject.  For instance, for those who want to get rid of mice they might type in “how to get rid of mice from my kitchen.”

There are people who will tell you that if you write fantastic information people will feel compelled to link to you.  Sure, I’ve had people link to me but usually it’s because I’m already ranking highly in the search engines in the first place.  And the reason that I’m ranking high is because I have learnt about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

So how do you go about creating a blog anyway?  Well there are some free options such as Blogger, BlinkWeb, Weebly, HubPages, InfoBarrel and also Word Wolf.  You just create an account and then start posting “how to” articles helping people with their problems and talking about products and services that can help them. 

Alternatively you can buy your own domain at godaddy.com and then get a hosting account at hostgator.com.  You can create your blog using WordPress which can be installed via Fantastico or you could try the self-hosted version of Blogger which is a lot simpler to use.  However if you really don’t have much technical skill or money then one of the free options is better to start with to allow you to get your “feet wet” so to speak.

The best way to monetize these articles is with either Google Adsense or Chitika so make sure you sign up with these companies too.  With Adsense you need to have a domain with at least 10 articles on it to show the quality of the site you produce.  If you are going to go with a revenue sharing site such as Word Wolf or HubPages you should have 10 articles published and then list your author page as the domain.

So basically if you are looking for a legit way of making money online you need to avoid the “get rich quick” schemes that will just take your money and leave you with nothing to show for it.  There’s loads of great information out there but there’s also a lot of junk so be very careful about what road you go down when it comes to making money online.