Make money online

The phrase to make money online can mean a variety of things depending on your perspective and your expectations. I am by nature probably slightly pessimistic with relatively low expectations, so for me, I am quite happy with the level of earnings I can make online. I am also not reliant on this income stream, it is just extra money for treats (munny4hunny...).
So, the question 'can you make money online' can elicit a number of different answers depending on who you ask.

• At level 1, you will find those who have tried the 'get paid to click' or 'get paid to read emails' and discovered that only paltry amounts are available. [earning maybe $2-$5 a week]
• At level 2, you may find those who have invested a little more time and set up a blog for 'get paid to post' and maybe even affiliate marketing etc. [earning maybe $10-$20 a week]
• At level 3, you may find those who have set up websites to sell something directly or via a drop-shipper, or even have an eBay shop.[earning maybe $25 to $100 a week]
• Beyond that (I don't regard myself as beyond level 3 yet), you will find those with a bit more entrepreneurial spirit who have developed services that are accessed by hundreds or even thousands of online users.

Earning via the internet is undoubtedly one of those activities where the more you put in, the more you can get out of it. You can certainly make a living at it, but you would probably have to work longer hours than if you had a regular office job - even quite a menial one... However, if you set your sights high enough, you may reach a plateau where little more effort is needed (passive income).
The beauty of earning online is that it can be a voyage of discovery, and everybody takes a different path. You can't really discuss online earnings without referring to schemes that are 'packaged' to appeal to those who want to make a quick buck - my advice would be to ignore all those schemes, they will just charge you for information which is freely available (a lot of it on this blog!). Paradoxically, charging money for selling information of this kind is in itself quite a big online money spinner, but most of those doing it are pulling the wool over their customers eyes by not telling them that they don't need to pay for it. There is a certain irony in a scheme that promises you income, but actually only guarantees income for the one selling it.