Like any business venture, the secret of how to make money online is by creating value and delivering it via the internet. The typical business model for an online venture does not vary from the traditional money making venture, the only difference lies in the tools used to execute it.

Probably the most unique way to make money online is via web publishing. Web publishers create online content that web consumers digest, and then sell advertising space on their site. In recent years, a number of online publishing ventures have been massively successful with the Huffington Post selling for $US315 million on February 7, 2011. The creator, Arianna Huffington created the online newspaper from scratch and built it into an advertising monolith.

To build your website that will make money online, you need to create the kind of content that people want and then serve ads to the readers. Programs such as Google AdSense allow publishers to serve the ads from Google’s advertising base on yur website, without you having to worry about creating an advertising sales team. This is particularly efficient for small website owners who are essentially a one man show. With Google AdSense you can start making money online as soon as you are accepted into the program.

Another way to make money from your website is to join an affiliate marketing program. Affiliate marketing programs such as those run by Amazon allow you to sell other people’s products and services online for a commission of the sale made. This differs from the lead focussed paradigm of AdSense and requires a more comprehensive sales pitch. Programs such as those run by DGM Pro allow you to make money online by selling everything from credit cards to computers.

Apart from the online affiliate programs, you may decide to sell your goods or services direct. This allows you to potentially make more money online because you add the extra value by way of supplying, packaging and distributing. In any enterprise, the more you are horizontally integrated, the more potential you have to make money online from the value you add.

All across the internet there are thousands of people trying to make money online, so to make a success of it you need to either find your niche or you need to target the mainstream and deliver your model in a more effective way. Whilst being a small player represents a disadvantage due to the lack of market power you command, your size can also be an asset if you use it wisely. There are hundreds of online properties that started off small and grew into internet monoliths that are now generating millions of dollars in revenue. Like any business, there comes a time when an organisation thinks big and stops acting small. Being small makes you nimble and creative and able to adapt faster to change in consumer preferences. Use the fact that you are not constrained to any particular business model to your advantage.

Always remember that if you want to make money online you need to be prepared to work hard and spend long nights in front of your computer building your sites and promoting your products. There is no sure fire way to build a successful web enterprise to make money, but whatever the method is it will require hard work.

As you study the online economy and determine a course of action that will allow you to profit from it, you need to remain focussed on the fundamental principal that it is hard work and not money that builds successful online businesses. There are plenty of opportunists out there that will promote ways for you to make money online which begin with you paying large sums of money to a third party provider for either web software or products to sell. There are hundreds of free web software packages, and there are thousands of vendors that would jump at the opportunity to promote their products on your site without charging an upfront fee.

The ability to make money online is not beyond the capability of most reasonably astute business people. With careful thought and planning, followed by determination and hard work, you will be able to build a successful and money making venture that could spell the beginning of your financial freedom.