Although there might be a number of easy ways to make money online out there, it's important to compare your options before you begin. Here is a list of four popular opportunities that are considered to be the best solutions for making money online:

1. Affiliate marketing

How does it work? When you become an affiliate for a product or a service, you agree to distribute that product/service as an independent salesperson. Every time you make a sale, you receive a commission anywhere from 30% to 80% of the sale. The most common examples of online affiliate products are e-books, software, advertising services etc.

How much does it cost? It depends. It could cost nothing or it could cost a few hundred dollars to become an affiliate. Ultimately, it's the monthly cost of your marketing campaign that is going to make or break you, not the affiliate entry fee.

How much can you expect to make? Most likely, you will NOT make much if you're marketing only one affiliate product. The key is to market a few at the same time to the same targeted group of people. If you're running an MLM business, you could become an affiliate for several email marketing websites and make commissions each time one of your team members signs up for their services.

2. MLM

How does it work? MLM (multi-level marketing) is the closest thing to affiliate marketing. The difference between MLM and affiliate marketing is that with MLM, you are not only making commissions on sales, but also recruiting a downline of other affiliates.

How much does it cost? It depends on which opportunity you join. There are plenty of affordable MLM products out there, but, keep in mind that you will have to sell large amounts to make any money with low cost products, while you will only need a few sales to make a profit with a higher priced product.

How much can you expect to make? The amount of money you make with MLM will depend on the amount of products you move. Move a lot of products - make a lot of money. Move a little bit of products - make a little money. Move no products - make no money.

3. Paid online surveys

How does it work? Many consider online surveys to be "the king" of the easy ways to make money online. On the surface it does appear quite simple - you fill out a consumer research form and get paid for the information you provided - but online surveys could turn into a frustrating ball of confusion if you do them haphazardly.

First, understand that by providing your information to a survey web-site, you are opening a door to all kinds of companies sending you their special offers. If you think that's good, think again. Some of the offers you receive will be legitimate, but you might also get contacted by scam web-sites, or get sent emails containing viruses. Your regular mailbox will also be filled with junk mail because your address is going to be sold by various mailing list websites.

You have to also keep in mind that most surveys will require you to sign up for a "special offer" of some kind. Normally those kinds of offers are free or low cost; the trick is to keep a calendar of when you signed up and when you need to cancel. Otherwise, your credit card could get charged for things that you're not even using.

How much does it cost? Your privacy + the "special offer" fees.

How much can you expect to make? Most surveys average at about $25 a pop. You will have to give your information to a lot of survey websites to get a few good (low or no cost) surveys a day. Expect to have to look through dozens of emails before you find one good one. The payment usually takes a few weeks to be deposited into your account.

4. Cash Gifting

How does it work? The concept of giving cash as a gift has been around for quite some time. What's new is the idea of using that concept as a base for an online business. Cash gifting as a business is easy to comprehend: you give a gift of cash to join a gifting program and receive cash from people who join under you. A good cash gifting program would provide you with a professional looking website and extensive marketing training. The main reason why cash gifting has become popular is because the gifts that you receive don't have to be reported as income; the IRS tax code states that anyone has a constitutional right to give a gift of a sum up to $12,000 to any person absolutely free of tax. Basically what this means that is any money that you receive is yours to keep.

How much does it cost? Most programs have various entry levels, starting at as low as $75 and going up to $12,000. What you give determines what you can receive. For example, a person at a $1,000 level would be eligible to receive any sum under a thousand, but if they received $2,000 they would pass that up to their upline. For every gift you pass up, you build credit - that's how you move up to the higher levels.

How much can you expect to make? That depends on how much you're willing to work. Marketing is the secret to success; you would be writing articles, posting videos, sending out postcards and "blasting out" phone messages. You could do all of that or only some of these things - the results would vary accordingly. A successful cash gifting entrepreneur typically receives anywhere from $500 to $10,000 a week.

As you can see, there are many relatively easy ways to make money online. What you need in order to succeed is good marketing training. If you choose cash gifting or MLM, the person your sign up under (your mentor) has to be able to show you all of the best marketing techniques and give you tips.

Good luck in all of your online business endeavors!