The Internet is same as the real world only the medium is different. Just like in the offline world you need a product to sell and people to buy it. The product can be just about anything. It could be yours or other people's products, it can be tangible or intangible or it can be even a service. And you need people, really interested people to buy your product.

As I said there are a million ways to make money online. Your own creativity and imagination, ability and skills, patience and application are the only limits on how much money you can make and how soon. If you need help starting online there are thousands of websites offering "How to make money online" advice that you can put to use immediately and start making money. Some ideas work almost the moment you apply them others can take 6 months or more for you to see the results.

As a beginner if you want some proven money making ideas online here are a few that have worked for me and more importantly made money.

Affiliate Marketing - You sell other people's product and get paid a referral commission for it. This is by far one of the most popular methods of making money online for newbies. Commission junction, Associate Products, Linkshare, ClickBank are a few places where you can find lots of affiliate products to sell.

Pay-per-click - You build a website and put ads on it, you drive traffic to your website. When people click on the ads on your website, you get paid for it. You can earn a few cents, or even a few dollars for every click in some niche markets. Google Adsense is the most popular pay-per-click income model for website publishers, though there are many others like Yahoo, Kontera, and Chitika.

Direct Selling - Sell your own product, report, ebook, services. Are you passionate about something? There may be others equally intersted in your specialty who may be willing to pay for your knowledge. Do you have some special skills - programming skills, writing skills, reviewing skills? You could sell them and get paid for it.

Those are just three of the almost unlimited opportunities that exist. Go ahead and pick one that suits you.