You can make money online it just depends on how much you want to make and whether it is a small income of a few pound or whether you are going to run an online business turning tens of thousands of pound., How successful you are depends upon a number of factors: The purpose of your business: expected turnover an income: weather you are going to build your own online business from scratch or work with and already established business; and how to sort out the good online business partners from the bad.

If you aim is to make just a few hundred pounds selling relatively low value items such as DVDS, Books and small electrical items then eBay is possibly the best place to start. The site is fully integrated with PayPal which means that you can ensure that you are paid before you send you goods to a customer via the post. eBay is essentially an advertising browser that allows people from all over the world to shop from one site and brows under specific general categories such as 'Sportswear' or be specific, 'Nike trainers, under £50, size 7'. You can upload a picture off your product usually for free, with a description and price.

eBay is am auction site which means that you place a reserve price on the item that you intend to sell (this is the minimum price you will sell it for). The buyers bid against each other for over a period of days, weeks, in some cases hours, the duration of the auction is set by you. When the auction ends whoever has made the highest bid 'wins' the auction, pays for the product, usually via PayPal, and receives the item in the post.

There are two other ways to price an item on eBay. You can set a 'Buy Now Price' at the same time a setting the reserve price. For example, you can set your 'Reserve' at £10 and the 'Buy Now Price' at £100. If during the duration of the auction the bidder wishes to pay the 'Buy Now Price' they hit that button and 'win' the item. The process also stops the auction and no more bids are taken. The 'Buy Now Price' bidder will send the money, usually via PayPal into your PayPal account.

The last pricing method is 'Fixed Price'. This is where the seller state that they will only accept X amount for the price of the item on offer. This is in effect a direct offer of sale with no price negotiation or auction with running bids. The beauty of eBay is that is depends on customers and sellers feedback. Namely number of items sold, buy a seller, divided by number of satisfied customers. Most good eBayers should have 100% satisfaction both as a customer and as a seller. It is important to bear-in-mind that if a seller is selling 100s of items there score may not be 100% you can't always please every customer every time and there are also some unreasonable customers online too. Always take a look at what has been said about a seller and compare any negative comments against the good ones.

Cost on eBay vary: As a rule of thumb if you starting bid price is less than 0.99p then you can usually list for free and upload a free photo and product description. Anything above this price and eBay takes a percentage of the start listed price. The more you spend on you add the better positioning you will get in the listing. Remember, however, not to spend more than 10% of the total value of the item you are selling or you may be in danger of eating away at your profit! The forgotten cost of eBay - Postage! Unless you have specified for collection only or you intend to deliver the item yourself there is no point selling your old TV for £10 if it is going to cost you £100 to send it in the post. Be sure that you have factored in the postal cost of sending you item before you determine the item price. Once the price is set and sold you are legally bound to fulfil that sale whatever the cost to you.

eBay is a fully automated system with call center backup if things go wrong. It has an easy to follow step by step instructions that can be followed by anyone with basic computer skills. It is worth noting that some eBayers are able to turn their small business into big money earners and that eBay offers some great products like online shops to help you grow your business. eBay is a good place to start small but the growth potential is there though this may take a long time. If the purpose of your business is to earn you a living, maybe, replace you current job you need to consider two important things! Do I go it alone? 2. Do I work with an existing business?

Going solo can reap huge rewards but only if you know what you are doing. You need to ask yourself, do I have the technical skills to set-up my own online business, my own website, update it, maintain it, run it, operate servers, understand viral protocols, operate merchant accounts, deal with customer issues and what will you do when your beautiful online business crashes? Aside from all that you have to know who your potential customers are and how to market you business to them. Do you have these skills?

You may well have all these skills but you must also consider whether you have the time and money to invest in getting this business off the ground and have the funds to keep the business running until it turns a profit. Don't be surprised if you spend 20 - 100k in your first year setting up and running your new online venture. Contra to popular belief you cannot setup an online business for free!

If you are really serious about making money online then it may be wise to partner with a company that is already making a success of it. Beware, there are many companies out there trying to get you to part with your money and give you nothing in return.

How to spot a bogus online opportunity:

1. Big income claims - you will not make 1000k in your first month

2. Fully automated - you should be able to talk to a representative of the company on the phone, by e-mail or face-to-face

3. Contact details - have they listed there contact details on their webpage. Have you called the number and checked that it is genuine?

4. Testimonials - What have other business partner said about working with that company. No testimonial no company.

5. What do you get for your money? - If you sign up to partner in a business opportunity what tangible (real) product or service is that business offering?

Real online business opportunities will offer you some or all of the following:

1. Income statements - These should be able to be verified. How do you earn money with this company?

2. Investment - there should be a number of levels at which you can invest in the online business opportunity

3. People - Do you have a company representative who you can talk to? Someone who is there to give guidance, set your expectations, help you define you business and personal goals. The company should assist you not sell to you.

4. The Company Online System: This should be a fully integrated and personalized online marketing and customer management system that allows for detailed traffic, lead and sales tracking capabilities. The system should be supported by a professional call center to assist in closing member product sales.

5. You should be offered Training - This may take the form of comprehensive video training library. Explaining about marketing plans for variable budgets and levels of experience and as your experience grows you should be offered Master Marketing Programs that teaches a combination of traditional and contemporary Internet marketing techniques. Ideally this should be supported by weekly educational webinars and tele-seminars coupled with daily entrepreneurial and mindset training. You should also be offered to meet other members of the business at events such as Live Master Marketing Events and if you are a success the be further developed with business leadership programs

6. Online Business Support - Your online business partner should offer you email, phone and live chat support as well as professional outsourcing and virtual assistant services and personal marketing mentors to help drive you business and achieve those all important sales