Anyone that has followed my web presence for a number of years knows that I have publicly experimented with many ways to make money online. Initially I did it for the sheer thrill about the fact that I could actually make money with this machine -- or that anyone could, for that matter. Nowadays I'm doing it for a living. I recall around a year before I decided to go freelance, I'd shared my desire with a friend and she told me, cliche intended, "Don't quit your day job." Now, six months since I've quit my day job, I can't imagine going back.

Internet marketing isn't for everyone (particularly if you can't find the power button on the computer or don't know what a "blog" is...). If you didn't pick up on that, almost anyone can succeed with internet marketing if you have the savvy, time, and patience. Even during months when I'm not making much money (usually when I'm sleeping instead of working or not taking my vitamins for productivity), I refer to inspiring posts such as those written about Top Young Internet Entrepreneurs Under 21 for inspiration. Then, I get my butt out of bed and find a product to market or a website to promote!

What inspired this post is seeing my boyfriend -- who went from knowing only the "On, Off, and Porn" buttons on the computer (comedian's joke about men) to starting his own blog back in May -- royally kick my behind in affiliate sales this month. With what program, you ask? Amazon Associates. December is usually the golden month for internet marketers, for obvious reasons. It's the 5th day of the month and my boyfriend has sold $600 worth of products online. How much work went into that? One hour. Where was the market based? Around his blog.

Not only does his "young" success inspire me to step up my own game, but it inspires me to help people that are exploring ways to make more money on the internet. Times are rough. People are losing their jobs. But, internet marketing never dies. The internet, my friends -- unlike a national recession -- is international.

Start Building Your Internet Business

Start a blog -- "Stop talking about yourself and start helping others" was the best advice I've ever heard about blogging. Take your passion -- whatever it may be -- and talk about it. Share tips and network with others while promoting your website around the internet. Now, fund the time you spend working on your blog by joining ad programs, selling paid links (related to the topic of your blog), and linking any product you recommend to it's respective affiliate program. Just as a beauty advisor earns commission for selling items behind the cosmetics counter, you too should get a kickback online for recommending the products you love.

Recommended programs: Amazon Associates (get commission for ANY item sold from Amazon!), Chitika, PayPerPost, Azoogle Ads (for advanced marketers - great for Squidoo marketing, etc - private message me for tips on getting accepted there)

Join Squidoo -- Squidoo is a network where you can create pages (or "lenses") about anything you want. You make money when visitors buy products through modules that Squidoo provides you with (Amazon and eBay being top game). Let me save you some time: Create lenses about things that you like that other people are willing to spend money on. Or, capitalize on holidays (a successful lens I made this season was about Bratz Dollz after I watched a commercial about them). Ideas are everywhere! Let me make you some money: Your lenses won't get attention if you don't promote them. Promote them everywhere (using discretion depending on the topic of your lens)!

Advertise Your Services -- What are you good at? If you can design a graphic, or build a website, or even do makeup for weddings, Craigslist has a job for you. If it weren't for Craigslist there are thousands of dollars I wouldn't have made this year.

Internet marketing is all about diversification, or not having all your eggs in one basket.

Doing all these things can bring in a few hundred dollars a month. Once you get into the swing of everything and could blog in your sleep if you needed to, you begin to multiply all your income streams (by building new blogs, finding various products to promote, and more techniques that would exhaust this post if I tried to cover them all) and start making thousands of dollars per month.

If you can sit around on the computer and play on MySpace/Facebook all day, you have no excuse to be broke. Work is what you make it. If you can make enough money online (or elsewhere) to quit your day job (and remember to pay your taxes), then do it! That is true freelance freedom.