Ways You Can Make Money Online

So, like many people out there I would like to get some independence from my job.  In order to frame this better, let me describe three ways of generating cash:

Earned Income - Income from a regular job or consulting done on an hourly basis.

Passive Income - Money that simple comes in as a result of an established work process.  IE: Rent from property you own or sales of a product that you have already established.

Portfolio Income - Money that is generated through your investments.  IE: Stocks or real estate going up in value.

Most people depend on Earned Income they receive through their job while waiting for retirement to access their Portfolio Income.  The dream for me would be to earn all of my income as Passive and Portfolio Income.

In order to do this, I believe that it would be necessary to get some freedom of place and eventually time.  As a brainstorming exercise I thought it would be fun to list out the different ways to earn money online without a traditional job.

1.) Consulting - you are essentially your own boss, but you are still stuck in the trap of time = money.  However, if you are efficient or savvy you can free up a lot of your time to work on your passive income (no boss over your shoulder).

2.) Online Professor - you can teach at an online university getting benefits similar to #1 if you have the right degree/experience.  Your need at least a Master's degree for this option.

3.) Virtual Assistant - if you have office skills you can hire out your expertise to people online at hourly rates.

4.) E-lancing - you can actually hire yourself out for almost any type of work that can be done remotely (programming, web design, graphic art).

5.) Create a product - this is where things cross into the Passive Income realm.  If you create a product you could start to create a business that will run itself (selling software, e-books)

-it is possible to outsource or automate most of the tasks required for a lot of business

6.) Investing - this requires money and knowledge (neither of which I have right now).  But, if you invest your money correctly you can have it work for you.  This is the best way to truly have money work for you and it can be one fully online.