This article serves as a brief introduction to just a few different options – I recommend that you do your own research as well to find what fits your personality, interests, skills and time-requirements best.

People browse the web for all different reasons: to shop, to access information, to entertain themselves and to network, among others. You can make money online by getting the attention of these people, even if you don’t have your own product or service and you will eventually need to learn how to influence them.

There are three free money making opportunities that I will mention here: taking surveys, selling your knowledge/expertise (consulting) and affiliate programs. I will just briefly go over taking surveys since this doesn’t require any sales or promotion of any kind. Filling out surveys is another way to earn money without spending any. You won’t make a lot of money doing this but it is just one way to get started while you learn other internet marketing strategies that you can really profit with.

If you have no product or service of your own, affiliate marketing is definitely the way to go. Just choose a product from one of the many affiliate marketplaces like Clickbank – make it something that generally interests you – and start promoting it in any of the free online sites like Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Squidoo, HubPages, EzineArticles, etc.

Is there something that all your friends and family can ask you advice about – a topic that you are considered to be an expert in? If so, you can start offering your advice to others for a price. Set up a free blog at Blogger.com and write a couple of articles about your service. Send anyone you know to that blog.

If the information that you provide is valuable and becomes popular, many companies will come to you and ask to advertise on your site. So that can add passive income to the profits you are already getting from your own sales.

Some people prefer to stick to just one of these to perfect it but, most internet marketers, combine all three of them for variety and greater earnings.

There are so many free money making opportunities available to you on the internet. The biggest advantage to starting an online business venture is that it doesn’t have to require any initial investment and the profits can be significant. Just pick something to start with and learn the others as you go.

No matter what people start out looking for, it’s very likely that they end up doing something at least a little bit different or a combination of many things. The lure of the internet is powerful and promising. But no matter what your end goal when it comes to making money online, there are some surefire easy ways to get you through some rough spots. In the past, you could actually make money surfing the internet.

However, that has changed quite a bit and it isn’t really worth it anymore. Some of the paid to surf programs such as AllAdvantage (then Agloco) have closed down. Others have reduced payouts or never pay people what they are owed at all. This is because they are not earning enough on advertising. But if you are interested in checking them out, AllCommunity and CashSurfers are a couple that are still around.

If you use search engines quite a bit, you can try Scour.com which allows you to see all the search results from the three biggies (Google. Yahoo and MSN) at the same time. The other really great thing about Scour is that if you sign up for an account with them, you can actually earn money while doing your own searches. Now, the money isn’t big and it takes a while to add up, but it is another way to make money surfing the internet.

While being able to make money surfing seems to be less and less likely, you can still make money by taking surveys which is pretty much on the same level of difficulty.

It so easy to start with this type of job. The hardest part may be finding the best legitimate ones. But then you will be your own boss, and can choose when and where to do this job. A few survey sites are WinningSurveys, IPSOS Survey, Survey Networks, RatePoint, ECNResearch, Survey4Profit, RewardsGateway and TheNetPanel but I strongly recommend you do your own research as well.

Once you have decided what survey site to register, it is important to complete the application form and the profile survey. What the research companies need from you is the correct information you will put in your profile. Your profile will be the basis of your survey. They will categorize your profile. This means that you will be receiving surveys that suit your profile, for example, your interest, needs and wants, etc. Once you are done with these steps, all you need to do is wait from your home and check your registered email regularly for new surveys.

While it’s becoming more and more difficult to make money surfing the internet, there are alternatives which are just as easy and quick to start-up.