If you are a webmaster, you will see this everyday if you are searching for a profit in the online world. Now I am not speaking of opening up a store or selling something. I am speaking of affiliate programs, banner exchanges, paid surveys, paid e-mails, paid to surf, and paid to click. These programs promise much profit, but do they really mean what they say? Can you earn a decent living off taking surveys?

The answer is yes and no. First off, you will be able to earn this kind of money if you have no job, no hobbies besides online, and have nothing better to do. I have signed up with numerous survey sites and have received around fifty dollars within a year (I don't take many as you can tell.) This isn't bad for a latte or a movie but it will be gone within the week. See most surveys take approximately fifteen minutes. Most surveys offer a reward between two and five dollars. Also, one gets about three to four survey requests a day. If we do the math, that would equal about twelve bucks an hour. Not bad, you say? Consider this, one day you decide not to do any surveys, the next they appear to long or the reward amount is very low and you don't take them. You've made zilch. Exactly my point. You must have plenty of time on your hands, a real passion for earning money online, and a lot of luck to succeed. It is possible.

Can affiliate programs gain you some income? It depends once again on your resources. Unlike surveys, affiliate programs don't take your time away. You simply paste a link on your site and watch people sign-up. Right? Wrong, getting people to sign-up for under your link demands a high quality website, good search engine positioning, links to your site, and quality visitors. That's the part that will take time. Success in affiliate programs depends on your traffic. If you have little or no traffic, you are wasting your time. Unless you have visitors whom you personally know and most likely have coaxed into signing up, you won't make much money. You must get visitors. I have found the best way to do this is to submit products or resources on other sites. I have begun to build and submit website templates for free to certain websites. The very same week I submitted my template I began receiving hundreds of visitors a day. Once you get started, you can't stop. These first-time visitors, if they like your site, will most likely post something about it in a blog, tell their friends, or disregard it for lack of time. My encouragement to you is to do something for the general public like write articles or submit templates and have a link back to you from the site you submitted too.

The conclusion is you can make a decent profit online if you know how to do it and manage your time. Best of luck to you.

Jason Lutterloh is a web designer, webmaster, and all-out computer enthusiast.