Have you considered how to make extra money online when you’re still struggling with the Microwave’s instructions? There’s a ton or information on this topic, and if you’ve been studying how to make extra money online for a while then I can understand your frustration.

But before you pull out your hair and hurl your laptop out of an upstairs window, you must understand two indisputable facts. Firstly, people from all over the world, some from very humble educational backgrounds have earned enough extra money online to be financially independent and secondly, the job market, pension, and government initiative (oxymoron?won’t protect you and your family’s income. Quitting on your online marketing research is simply not an option.

‘So if I really can learn how to make extra money online, what are the methods that other people are using?’ Good question. The simple answer is that they are providing a product, service or information that people want and are getting in the ‘click path’ of those people at the time they want to buy. Easy? Simple, perhaps, rather than easy.

An effective way that you can do this is to construct a very simple website, which is nowhere near as difficult as it sounds, and promote a product to a particular market. Building a website is far easier and cheaper than in days gone by using programmes like ‘Frontpage 2003′ to name but one.

What you then need is a product, and I would certainly recommend an ‘information product’. The commissions are so much greater when there is no physical product to ship. There are a vast range of ready-made information products you can promote as an ‘affiliate’, and earn a commission on all the products purchased through your site. This is a widespread and proven answer to how to make extra money online but it doesn’t require you to create your own product. How to do that is beyond the bounds of this article.

The best place to look for these virtual products, where 75% commission rates are not uncommon, is Clickbank. You would simply sign up for free, choose the product you’d like to sell, and you’ll be given some html code to place on your website, to ensure you’ll always be credited with the sale. You would then copy this code into Wordpad or Notepad and then just paste it into the right position on your web page.

What’s to stop Clickbank just pocketing the money? I’ve often been asked that. What purpose would that serve? This company thrive on the integrity of their system, and thousands of ordinary people who were once looking how to make extra money online are being paid sometimes thousands every month thanks to this resource.

‘So I’ve created my website, put in my affiliate link, and I’m still no nearer knowing how to make extra money online’. No. Good point. You’re going to need to generate traffic. It’s well worth researching methods of doing this. Let’s say your product was an information product on how to install a solar water heater. Yes, there are products in even ‘tighter’ niches than this!

You need to write your site to include certain keywords, as in ‘on-page search engine optimaization or SEO. Eh? Don’t worry. All that means is you can generate lots of free traffic over time if your site features a sprinkling of certain keywords related to solar power, solar water heaters, etc etc. Use a keyword tool such as ‘Good Keywords’, ‘Digital Point’ or ‘Wordtracker’ (paid), to find keywords related to solar water heater installation that ideally have a high ‘demand (ie, lots of searches per month) and a relatively low ’supply’ (ie not overwhelming competition). You’d then want to use these keywords in your text as well as your ‘title tag’, ‘description’ and ‘meta tags’, the first two being the most important. This is simpler than it sounds.

But if your eyes are glazing over about now, it is possible to make extra money online without even having your own website. You need a ‘business-in-a-box’ that you can simply join up for and then concentrate fully on traffic generation. This would most likely follow a multi-level marketing model but before you dive for cover, you need to know that the internet has given multi-level marketing or MLM a new and wholly ethical lease of life. In reality the age of getting rich in MLM is far from over, and the net has made the infamous prospecting methods of yesterday just a memory.

A ready-to-go online business like this can maybe become the best answer to how to make extra money online and can be a ‘launchpad’ for your internet business that can give you a taste of the ‘goodies’ that the web can offer the technophobe. Forget the PhD. Plug into an online business that works already and that can give you a fantastic head start. Whichever method you prefer, keep learning more about this topic. As Benjamin Franklin said, ‘empty the coins of your purse into your mind and your mind will fill your purse with coins’.