How Do People Really Make Money On The Internet?

So, just how do people really make money on the Internet? I think you'll be surprised by the variety of money-making opportunities at your digital doorstep.

A lot of people still hold the stereotypical view of Internet income being almost entirely advertising based. There was a time when that was true.

During the tech boom of the late 90's, thousands of websites sprung up that were based solely on monetizing content (e.g., articles and news) with advertising.

And, yes, many of those businesses failed because they tried to grow into Fortune 500 sized companies overnight, riding on the back of advertising profits and the 'virtual' equity of their stock options.

Of course, the market corrected itself, and these companies crashed and burned. The major lesson learned there is that profitable Internet businesses need to offer a mix of products and services.

In other words, you need to offer real value to visitors while charging a fair price.

The types of products and services offered really run the gamut. Nearly everything for sale offline is also for sale on the Internet.

Also, there some products and services which are exclusively Internet-based, and arise from the unique needs of Internet users (for example, e-books, website graphics, Internet service providers, e-mail providers, etc).
 

Just what types of products are offered online? The possibilities are endless and they can take a number of forms:

Type One: Physical Products
Again, anything you can sell offline can sold online, too. This includes things like books, cds, clothing, jewelry, houses, cars, kitchen appliances, plane tickets, toys and so on.

Type Two: Digital Products
People also sell 'digital' products and services on the Internet. For example, downloadable ebooks, audio, video and software are considered 'digital' products.

Other types of digital products include membership-based services. For example, you can charge a monthly fee for access to a website, newsletter, consulting service and so on.

A really good example of this is the dating-related, “matchmaker” sites that charge members a fee for full-access to their match-making services.

Type Three: 'Intangibles'
What I'm calling “intangible” products aren't really products, per se, but monetization models based on Internet traffic and advertising.

A good example of this is Google Adsense. In the Google Adsense program, website publishers can place Google ads on their websites and get paid each time a visitor clicks on one of the advertisements.

Likewise, publishers can set their own advertising rates and sell space for things like banner advertisements.

This is all very similar to the 'old' model Internet businesses relied on a few years back…

It’s just a matter of finding creative ways to extract advertising profit from the content that pulls traffic to your website.