You've probably seen a lot of articles already on making money on the internet. How to separate out the real deals from the scams, though? Don't worry, it's possible. I make about $1500 a month on the internet. Not a full time salary, but a nice addition to my income just the same. It's pretty easy, and pretty quick, to get a SMALL income stream started, but it takes time and effort to really build it up. Might as well get going today.

First off, take stock of what you have to offer. If you are a writer, programmer, designer, or photographer, there are plenty of opportunities for you. If you have a special skill or talent of any sort -- carpentry, raising kids, planning vacations or weddings, playing Guitar Hero 3 -- you can get paid for what telling people what you know.

Even if you think all you can offer is time, there are opportunities for you as well.

There are a whole mess of online opportunities for making money listed here. As far as I know, they are all legitimate. They all pay real cash money, and none of them require any money from you (no books to buy, clubs to join, investments to make). It's real work...it just happens to be over the internet.

Freelance Work (sometimes called "personal outsourcing"). If you have a skill to offer -- especially programming, web design, writing and editing -- check out the various freelance sites like elance.com and guru.com. You can post your skills at these sites, so potential customers can check you out, and you can also look around for freelance projects that others have posted. Pay can be pretty good, especially after you get a bit of a track record and some good client feedback, though you are competing against other freelancers from around the world.
http://www.elance.com/
http://www.guru.com/

Writing. You're here at Xomba, but you may not realize that you can get paid for posting content here. There are other sites that will do the same, mostly by sharing Google Adsense revenue. A good article can bring in perhaps $50 a year (or if it goes viral, a lot more!). Post 100 articles, and you're talking some nice spending money. A thousand articles, and it really starts to add up.
http://www.xomba.com/overview
http://www.ehow.com/

More Writing. At SoftwareJudge.com, you can write reviews of select software products and earn up to $50 each for a top-rated review. Epinions.com pays cash for good quality reviews. At PickyDomains.com, suggest domain names according to site descriptions and get $25 for each name that is chosen.
http://www.softwarejudge.com/rules
http://www.epinions.com/help/faq/?show=faq_earnings
http://www.pickydomains.com/

Research/Question and Answer (Q&A) Sites. I earn much of my income as an online researcher, answering questions on everything under the sun. Yep...people pay for that kind of information. This isn't an easy way to get started, but if it sounds like your cup of tea, take a look at a few possiblities. The Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) can give you good ideas for building your own Q&A website and business, and an opportunity to network with others in the field. I work with Uclue.com which is not accepting new researchers right now, but it's worth a look just the same. Another Q&A site is JustAnswer, and they offer small payments for answers to questions.
http://aiip.org/
http://uclue.com/
http://www.justanswer.com/

Income from your website or blog. Use (or build) your own blog or website to make money online. Income comes from your visitors clicking on ads and affiliate links. The more people visiting your site, the more income you can earn, though it takes a long time to build up. Assuming you already know about websites and blogs and such, the best resources I know of for ads and affiliates are: Google AdSense, AssociatePrograms.com and Commission Junction.
https://www.google.com/adsense
http://www.associateprograms.com/
http://www.cj.com/

Photography. At istockphoto.com you can upload your best still photos or videos, and receive a small royalty payment every time someone purchases your content.
http://www.istockphoto.com/

Surveys. Caution...haven't tried this one myself. Apparently, you can get paid to take online surveys. There are a lot of scams associated with this, but some legitimate opportunities as well. SurveyScout and CashCrate seem to be among the better options.
http://www.surveyscout.com/main/
http://cashcrate.com/

Teaching/Tutoring. Search on Online tutoring and you'll uncover tons of sites in this booming business. Many accept applications for online tutors. Two to consider are tutor.com and ehomeworkhelp.com
http://www.ehomeworkhelp.com/tutors.cfm
http://www.tutor.com/apply/faq.aspx

Online "Jury Duty". Yep, you heard right. Lawyers often want feedback on how a case will play before a jury. Some use focus groups, others use online e-jury sites to solicit input from average citizens like you. Yes, you get paid. Fees for complex cases can run over $50. Check out onlineverdict.com, or trialpractice.com.
http://trialpractice.com/juror.htm
https://onlineverdict.com/jurorssignup.php

Listen to Music. Believe it or not, you can get paid for listening to music. Yep, listen to new artists just coming up, and review their music. The the better your reviews are at spotting new talent, the more you can get paid. Some folks are pulling in several dollars per review.
http://www.slicethepie.com/About/FAQ.aspx#secST1

Typing. Consider Speak-Write.com, an online dictation service, if you have good typing skills and want to put them to use.
http://www.speak-write.com/

Focus Groups Online focus groups are another possibility. You review a product you've used, or discuss an issue of interest to you, and get paid for your opinions. Payment ranges from about $50-150 per session, but only expect to join a group once or twice a year.
http://www.2020research.com/php_panel.php

Google Knol You can earn Adsense income at Google's new Wikipedia-style site called Knol. Check out my Knols at:

http://knol.google.com/k/david-sarokin/earning-money-on-the-internet/l9cm7v116zcn/3#
Earning Money on the Internet

http://knol.google.com/k/david-sarokin/earning-money-online-through-ehow/l9cm7v116zcn/2#
Earning Money Online through eHow

http://knol.google.com/k/david-sarokin/online-newspaper-archives/l9cm7v116zcn/5#
Online Newspaper Archives

That's it for now, but that should be more than enough ideas to get you started. Check back in a few weeks, as I update this list regularly.

Leave a comment if you have any questions, and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Best of luck.