One of the most amazing things about the internet is how many different ways you can earn money from it. Some are pretty well known, while others may be options you haven’t even thought of yet.

No matter how you earn money online you need to do your research first. You want a market you will enjoy, targeted enough that you can get good traffic, something that has enough people interested in the topic. You want some competition, as that is an indication that there are people interested in the product. Too much competition can make for a difficult start.

Affiliate Marketing
My personal favorite, although not as easy as some would like you to believe. You can find great products to represent from Clickbank, Shareasale, Linkshare, Commission Junction and similar companies.

Blogging
More or less a subset of affiliate marketing, many people earn good money by blogging. It takes a lot of work but can be quite profitable. Money is earned most often through affiliate marketing or contextual ads.

Café Press
How are your graphic design skills? Earning money by selling products with images you’ve created on Café Press. It’s more than just t-shirts. Mugs, bags and much more are available. You can even have them print books for you.

Contextual Advertising
Services such as Google’s AdSense can place ads on your website that relate to what you have on the page. This is for many people the easiest way to earn money online, but not always the highest earning. Don’t mistake this being an easy way to monetize a website with actually being easy, however. It can still be quite challenging to earn money with any website. One risk with this method is that your account can be closed for click fraud.

Directory Websites
Run your own directory and charge for links. Many charge only for premium links and allow basic links for free. This builds up the number of links so that there is some value to the directory. Targeted directories are probably better than general directories.

Drop Shipping
The challenge here is finding a good dropship company with products you’d like to sell. Then there’s the matter of how much competition there is at times. As you chose a company, do a search for the products online to get a feel for how bad the competition is. Some markets will be flooded. Others will be much more appealing.

eBay
Selling your products or services on eBay can be very profitable. People sell information products, things they find at garage sales, thrift and dollar stores, drop shipped items and so forth.

Freelancing
You can offer your services on a freelance basis. Sites such as eLance and Guru are a great way to build your portfolio, as well as to get work throughout your freelance career.

Information Marketing
Know a lot about a topic? Many marketers earn a lot of money writing ebooks on their topics. It doesn’t have to be about anything on the internet. You can write about family, gardening, debt… just about anything.

Informational Websites
Websites based on giving away information can do well too. If you love to write this can be quite enjoyable. You earn money through contextual ads, affiliate products or even physical products.

MySpace
Not so much a way to earn money as a way to market your sites that earn money. Many people use scripts to add friends, which can risk the relevant account. They then send bulletins advertising their product to their friends.

Pay Per Click Advertising
This method is used in conjunction with a variety of online business models. You can use it as an affiliate marketer. You can use it to bring attention to your products or services. Any website you have you can advertise on the pay per click search engines. The big ones are Google AdWords and Yahoo. There are all kinds of smaller engines as well, which often have lower bid prices, but some have more serious click fraud issues.

Selling Your Own Products
Good at making something? Sell it online! You can sell through Amazon, eBay, eBay Stores or your own website.

Software Creation
Creating your own software to sell can be great for programmers or even people with ideas willing to hire programmers. Specialized software can be a great seller.

Writing
There are many aspects to writing possible online. Writing content for your own website. Freelance writing. Writing for sites such as Associated Content may not pay as much as other options, but can do fairly well.

I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to earn money online, but this may give you some ideas if you’re trying to get started. Please, add a comment if you have more ideas or just want to expand on some of these.