Top 8 Skills to Make Money Online

Making money with the use of the Internet is such a lazyass way of earning money.

Ever heard of this statement from your Internet-illiterate friends who might have become your enemies right after they kept on telling you that?

People who diss people who make money online or who believe that money can be made through the Internet are either too scared of the Internet technology or are too skeptic of almost anything that they unknowingly let go of some precious opportunities in their lives. Or, ok, their only idea of working is sweating it out like slave. Really, if you’re one of those people, you might opt to stop wandering the realms of this blog. But you have to give it a chance, you will never know what wondrous thing you’d ever discover if you give things a chance.

Contrary to the concept that making money online is only for the lazy, this way of earning is actually one for the workaholics. Those with workaholic minds, that is. Why? You can’t profit off the Internet if you despise being creative and making your brain do some acrobats. So aside from being creative, open-minded but no to the point of being gullible, what skills do you need to acquire that will make your money-making via the Internet endeavor a success?

1. Computer and Internet Skills
It’s the most obvious skill. How will you ever hear those cha-chings if you don’t even know how to use the cash register, er, computer? This is one of the most workable requirements, too. Computer schools abound. You can even just buy a book and do self-study to get those fat fingers slimmer. Now I know you won’t even miraculously get to this blog if you don’t know how to use a computer and the Internet. But maybe you have some friends that you want to get enlightened. Here are some helpful sites on getting a grip of the Computer and Internet technology:

• Illustrated Computer Literacy Lessons
• AARP Basic Web Lessons

2. Typing Skills
Many may know how to use the computer and Internet but can type like they only have one finger on each hand. If you want to hasten or better your chances in grabbing that opportunity that can either give you a steady flow of income of just some source of extra dough, you will need to brush up on your typing skills. Transcribing or typing various types of audio records is one online gig that will make use of this skill greatly. Here are some sources of typing lessons if you want to start getting jiggy with your keyboard:

• Peter’s Typing Lessons
• Typing Test Typing Game
• TyperShark Paid Typing Game (But there’s a free trial version)

It would be more fun if you learn through typing games. So, go ahead check out which of the typing games thrill you most and start making those fingers work for you.

3. Writing Skills
Even if you are not a professional writer, if you are always articulate enough and it shows in your writing, you can find a host of online money making opportunities. Copywriting, blogging on your own or paid blogging for blog networks and writing web content for website owners. You might want to try some basic writing lessons from About.com.

4. Research Skills
Together with writing skills, a person’s research prowess can land him or her real work opportunities such as those mentioned under the writing skills and other profitable research job opportunities that can be found online such as working as a guide or an answer-provider for various online services that offer paid researched answers to those post questions. Taking note of reliable online resources and making them easy to access can make it easy for someone to improve on this skill.

5. Customer Service Skills
This communication skill will be very beneficial to those who prefer customer-service-based online opportunities. Large and small business owners who provide online customer service are getting more and more comfy with the idea of hiring customer service representatives who can work through taking client calls through VoIP technology or even through live chats. With the boom of the call center industry, call center training schools are now starting to mushroom almost anywhere. Take advantage of this trend. It’s one of the most in-demand skills nowadays.

6. Programming Skills
Programming is one in-demand skill that you can benefit from if you want to work either as a contract programmer or you want to build an online business offering programming services. Mostly, people who can do programming are good in website development. Web development or designing is another online opportunity that is gaining more and more popularity nowadays. If you can understand this CSS cheat sheet, congratulations!

7. Photography Skills
Expertise in photography combined with the use of different software that can enhance images such as Photoshop will get you jobs like creating headers for websites and other related stints. Stock photography is also another viable online opportunity since many companies are now paying stock photography services for their image needs.

8. Marketing Skills
After you have satisfied your first few clients and making sure that there’s this one online money making opportunity that you have become an expert in, you can enjoy more success if you have your marketing skills spiffed up so you sell your services.

Maximize the benefits of the Internet and learn Internet marketing. Although it’s starting to get over-hyped, it would be wise to learn the ropes of Internet marketing to improve your chances of getting more customers or clients if you choose to offer services or products online and know all your online money making options.

Combining many of these skills will make it a lot easier for you to get more fun online jobs such as working as a virtual assistant, which can become one source of online income or a proud owner of a Web 2.0 site offering cool services.

In summary, if you would like to make money online, knowing a lot of technical skills will get you to places. Too bad if you’re not techie enough, right? NOT! Learning those skills won’t be too hard if you are determined enough. Also, there are still a wide array of money making opportunities using the Internet that you can do even if you don’t have many of those technical skills. Just stay tuned and wait for the spilling more of the beans of money making online even for the technically-challenged.

[image from Flickr as uploaded by prozac74]