How to earn money online is the question that gets repeated over and over again.

Here is the most simplified answer:

1. You make money online by working for others.

2. You make money online by working for yourself.

Even to work for others, you need to develop the skills that will get you the best online jobs.

So first start working for yourself and keep looking out for better and better opportunities to work for others or develop your own business.

How do you work for yourself?

1. Make Lists

Skills: First make a list of the skills you already have.

Then start a list of the skills you will need to acquire. Keep adding to that list.

As you acquire some of the skills add them to the first list and delete them from the second list.

Interests: Make a list of things you love to do, you love to learn, you love to spend time on.

Make another list of things you don’t love but you are ready to do, if there is a necessity.

Contacts: Make a list of people you can contact through email, Orkut, Yahoo Group or any such online means.

Make a list of common interests you share with them.

2. Decide Your Budget

Time: Decide how much time you will be able to spend on this online venture. Do NOT give up your job. Once your online business is established you can give up your job and take this full time. But wait for three to five monthly earnings of your desired income to be sure, you can earn money on a regular basis through online ventures.

Effort: Decide how much effort you will be able to put in to learn the required skills. Be honest with yourself and set a realistic goal.

Money: How much money are you ready to invest in online ventures? Remember if you do not want to spend time and effort, you may need to invest more money to get started. On the contrary if you want to start from scratch at $0, you may need to put in more time and effort to do a number of things that are necessary to get you started.

3. Choose One Thing to Start With

Once you start earning you should diversify your efforts and earn through multiple online ventures. But when you are starting it is better to start with one thing, learn it thoroughly and then go on to the next thing.

Based on what you have noted down for the three main points listed above choose a topic for creating a blogger blog or a WordPress blog.

Blogger blog is free. For WordPress blog you need webspace and domain name.

To build your own website without the knowledge of html or java scripts you need an easy to use website builder. Watch this website builder video.

If you do not want to spend money right now, start with a blogger blog, learn the skills, earn through Google AdSense and affiliate program and then invest what you earn to make more money.