When it comes to legit ways to make money online, it can get very overwhelming, frustrating and down-right very expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The reason its overwhelming, is because there is a lot of money to be made selling to people who are looking to make more money. Because of this you just don’t know whats legit until you’ve done your own research.

My goal, in this article, is to spark some insight into you on how to find legit ways to make money online. So you don’t get scammed or fall into a dead end business opportunity.

The very easiest way for a newbie to make money online is to start a blog on a popular topic and write about that topic daily until you are receiving free traffic from the search engines.

Then make money by placing advertising throughout the blog. I would start by using the Google’s AdSense network. All you have to do is sign up and they will give you a piece of code to put on your blog that will pop the ads to your blog visitors. When people click on the ads you get 68% of the gross amount the advertiser paid for the ad.

This can be anywhere from.05 cents to $8.00. To do this full time and make a significant amount you are going to have to write a lot of content and learn some search engine optimization. This will allow you to get your blog ranked high in the search engines, bring in more visitors and get more ads clicked on.

The second way I recommend, of making money online, is with affiliate marketing.

This can be done in many ways but the basis of it, is selling other people products and getting a big slice of the profit. They handle all the back-end work, customer service, returns, money issues and headaches.

That’s what makes it ideal to someone just starting out. I recommend you start by joining an actual affiliate network. They can provide lots of free detailed training and leverage.

Here are a few:

– ClickBank
– Commission Junction
– Neverblue

Just fill out the application and be legit with them. Tell them you are just starting out and need their guidance.

The third legit way to make money online, is by offering a service as a freelancer.

Many websites like oDesk, eLance and guru.com have freelancers who advertise their “skills for hire”.

These are usually on a hourly or lump sum basis. You might have to work for very cheap at first to get some feedback in your profile, but its worth it. The key to doing this is learning a valuable skill, usually marketing related, that small entrepreneurs would need.

Including:

– Article Marketing
– Video Marketing
– Link Building
– Search Engine Optimization
– Data Entry

Get courses and take classes on the skill you want master. Become so proficient that you are able to teach a seminar off the top of your head if you had to. Replacing your job income and finding legit ways to make money online is not hard, it just takes time and effort.