Something I hear all the time is where should I start? Well, if you are starting a business, you have to start with how you are going to make money. Just because you are starting an online business doesn't change anything.

There are hundreds of ways you can make money online, but here are my top 5:

• eCommerce
• Services
• Adverts from sponsors
• Affiliate sales
• Online coaching

The above list is not in any order of preference and they also cover very broad areas. Let's run through each of them and take a closer look.

eCommerce is huge nowadays. Think eBay, Amazon and Etsy! Each of these sites has millions of people buying and selling on their platforms. It was always a favourite with newbies looking to make money online and certainly provides a good solid way of earning from the internet.

For me though, there are some drawbacks to eCommerce, whether it's through a platform like eBay or setting up my own webstore. Stock! Selling physical items requires a number of things which puts me off.

1. Buying stock
2. storing stock
3. Postage hassles
4. Processing fees
5. Advertising costs

One way around this is dropshipping which allows you to list your products for sale BEFORE you purchase them. However, this results in a drop in profit margins which makes it less attractive. A good way to get started in eCommerce, but just not for me.

Selling services online is another way to make money on the internet. Sites such as Fiverr, People Per Hour, oDesk and Elance offer a marketplace for people with skills to sell. These sites take a commission on the money you receive for each sale, but it is a great way to get started quickly without any set up costs. Simply sign up, add your details to the profile then create your advert and wait for the orders to roll in.

You can sell anything from writing services to logo design. Be aware though that your payments may not be instant, you may have to wait for a week or two before the money is in your account, but a great way to get started none the less.

Something I do often, is to take orders for a service on my own site, knowing I can get from one of these sites and add a margin.

Sponsored Advertising can work well, you set the terms of when and how much you get paid. The one thing with this is that it will be directly related to the amount of users your site has. It's not quick, but if you are good at what you do or have a popular forum site then it can be very lucrative.

Affiliate sales is another great way to get started. Most people when getting into this business don't have their own products ready for sale, so affiliate marketing gives them products to make money from. All you have to do is register as an affiliate and getting the relevant advertising code to put on you site, in your emails or numerous other places where people and going to see it.

With some compelling copy writing in your sales letter you will have people buying the products which gives you a nice commission and which can be up to 75% of the purchase price.

Be aware though that like selling services your money make not be instant, there is often a minimum payout of $25-100. Bottom line is, I like affiliate sales, but only recommend things that genuinely help the user or your reputation will be gone quicker than the cheques come in!

Last on the list is online coaching. If you have a skill you can sell it in lessons/ tutorials rather than as a service. It can be done in a number of ways such as through sites like Udemy.com where they provide the platform for you to create and host the video tutorials in a professional way or you can have your own site selling as downloads, DVD's or even as a membership program. Great if you have skills or knowledge that other people would pay money for.

Udemy takes 30% of the sale price, but that is in return for a very professional platform and advertising service. They already have the customers who they will show your course to. If you are smart about it you can make some low cost courses as way to get noticed on Udemy and then through the course lead them to you more in depth resources which can be purchased directly from your own site.

So, we have looked at my top 5 ways of making money online, but we aren't finished there.

If you look again at the 5 mentioned you could do them all individually.

You could make an eCommerce business selling on eBay and collecting the emails you got and then use this to build out your own site and sell to these same customers and others and leave eBay.

You could sell services on Fiverr and People per Hour and have a site set up offering the same services.

You could set up a site which attracts thousands of page views a day and gain from the advertising of sponsors.

You could make up loads of minisites promoting other peoples products as an affiliate.

You could sell your skills and knowledge on Udemy.

BUT, you could link all of the above into one site, your site which you have total control over and do it all with minimal set up costs. How?

Blogging! Yes, blogging gives you the easiest way to make money online as it leverage's all the above and allows you to talk about something you are passionate about.

Take this blog for example. I am passionate not only about making money online, but in helping others to do so too while also learning how to get better at it. I get to talk about internet marketing whenever I want and hopefully it is going to help someone reading this. I can sell products from my site if I wish, I can offer services (which I do by building websites), I can sell advertising space and place affiliate links anywhere I want and if I choose I can offer training courses.

So, if you are a newbie to making money online, you can try out all of the above and much more, but for me the best way to get started is to find something you are passionate about and then make a blog on it. All you will have to do is a little research into whether there are:

1. people interested in your passion
2. people buying products of information on your passion

Once you have done the research you have to build you blog, start producing great content and add affiliate links to it as the first step to monetizing your blog. You can add other ways of making money from it later, but build up some great content, add relevant and useful links and drive traffic to the site. It will take some time to get traction, but every article/ post or page you write with it's affiliate links will be there forever and therefore always be making you money.

And to finish, the most important part, START COLLECTING EMAILS! The money is in the list!

Good luck,

David