The internet has spawned a whole new world of opportunities - never even imagined a little over a generation back! The amount of information already available is in itself remarkable and its continuous growth is truly phenomenal. Individuals go online for different purposes at different times to fulfill their needs at that particular point in time, one of which could easily be the opportunity to make money online.

While we tend to think that the information, services, etc. we avail online are free of cost, a little investigation of how these sites work would show that in many cases someone, somewhere is making money by us going online and visiting a particular page that interest us.

Some of the most common methods of making money online are listed below:

"Online Selling" - it can be anything; physical, a service, information, ideas, etc. The term itself denotes that someone is making money out of it. In a number of cases, online selling is the most appropriate and efficient way to get the item across to the customer. Online coupons for retailers are a related money making / saving option.

"Online Trading" - a very good example would be trading in shares and is a corollary to the previous point, though different in that the money is made (or lost) in the difference between the purchase price and the sale price.

"Online Service Business" - the whole IT / ITeS /BPO / KPO industry would not have survived without these, and it sure pays (even though less than before)!

"Creating Informatic Products" - e-learning methods are a hot sell in any kind of society and economy. They are also one of the more recession-proof offerings than most other options.

"Affiliate Marketing" - money given to a person or entity for directing customers to a particular site through his (or their) marketing efforts.

"List Building and Lead Generation" - generating, updating and selling (mail) addresses is another method of making money online. This can be particularly remunerative if the list(s) are customized to fit the product to a particular set of customers; more likely to purchase that product.

"Web Designing" - an obvious method of making money online and would include aspects of advertisement, content website, digital entrepreneurship, etc.

"Starting a Blog" - a well designed, relevant and regularly updated blog with a lot of traffic can become a money spinner.

"Starting an Online Store" - Amazon is a great example.

"Online Money Transfers" - saves money, effort and the environment!

Some lucrative online money making options, though having questionable moral and societal standing and/or approval:

"Online Gambling" - does not require too much elaboration; someone's loss is another person's gain so there is always someone making money!

"Prepaid Porn" - elaboration again not necessary!

"Internet Fraud" - the possibilities and examples are too numerous and left to the imagination!

Any, or better still, a combination of the above options allows "regular" people to use "regular" ways to make money online and quite often earn more than what one would be doing at a "regular" job!