While every entrepreneur's dream is to make a fortune with the web, The big question of "How to earn cash now online", is rarely answered without the person asking the question having to invest money of their own, only to lose it through scams and rip-offs.

With times in our society getting worse due to the global economic recession and the unemployment rate climbing daily, people are beginning to get more desperate, which in turn is making it harder to make money on the internet as the number of scams and rip-offs are increasing by the hour.

So before you decide to go on your internet money quest and learn how to make money quick online, it is essential for you to understand some of the terms that are being passed around online today.

Here are a few terms that is used today and this may help you to avoid some of the pit-falls you may encounter during your quest for how to make cash now online.

Scam : There are a lot of different ones, usually involves you investing your money into some washed-out product that will not sell, nor make you any money.

Phishing : This is the act of one website or web page trying to imitate another in an attempt to get your personal information, such as your credit card number, bank account number and/or login information.

Rip-Off : Any website, web page or transaction, where you did not get the product or service you had purchased, or you were purposely mis-guided or mis-informed in the transaction to ensure the transaction would be completed.

Pyramid : Is a type of scheme to where the originators and a few of the first people signed up are the only ones that will make money on it. When the market gets saturated, the fewer and fewer people will join and the people on bottom of the pyramid will take the loss. Pyramid schemes are illegal in the United States. Note:( This is often, but should not be confused with Multi-Level-Marketing or MLM ). The structure of MLM is similar, but works differently as it has tangible products offered and can be a completely legal business.

Get-Rich-Quick : Get rich quick is just what it says, but the problem is, your not the one that is going to get rich quick, the person selling it to you is. Get Rich Quick online schemes are invented for the new entrepreneur, in hopes that they will not see through the hype and that the seller can make a quick dollar. Sorry to disappoint anyone that just enrolled in a program that claims they will get rich quick, but it's not going to happen.(Ok, that was a little harsh, maybe in rare extreme cases, but probably not.) Think of this: If you are going to be able to make X amount of dollars in X amount of time, Why is somebody telling(selling) you this? If it is that easy and quick why aren't they just doing that, instead of selling you the program to do it with? Another note: A lot of these "Get Rich Quick Schemes" Give you the program, but later when it doesn't work, they are going to sell you the additional tools, supplies, leads or whatever it is that you need to make it work. Then eventually, your going to get frustrated with it and demand your money back, they will then make a point of letting you know (and anyone in their forums) that it was your fault, you didn't try hard enough, it's not their product that is no good, it is you.

Sorry again for any disappointments, but hopefully this article will help to keep the next new entrepreneur from losing his/her money or dreams.

Now for the up-side, You can still learn how to earn cash now online, but you will have to do some work and you (probably) won't get rich overnight. Never give up on your dream about your internet money quest. There are still some good programs out there, you just need to be careful about the type and method you decide on.

One of the best ways to make money fast online is by becoming an affiliate marketer, this is where you sell other people's products online and make a commission from each sale (choose your products wisely). Another good way is by creating ebooks to sell or selling someone else's.

Probably the hardest part of selling anything online is getting traffic (people) to visit your website or product link. There are a lot of different methods to getting traffic to visit your website so check out your options.

Here is a list of things you will need if you want to know how to earn cash now online.

Email address : Most people have them, if you don't, then get one.

Auto responder * : For creating a list of prospects and/or customers to send emails to.

Products or Ebooks : You have to have something to offer your prospects (a prospect is someone that is not a customer yet, but may be interested in your products).

Website or Web page ** : you'll need a place for people to go to buy you products.

How to set it all up:

To set it all up, you need your email address to sign up with most companies in order to get your products to sell, you may also want to put it on your website if you have one so your visitors can contact you if needed.

If you have a website and are planning on creating a list of customers to mail advertising to, then you will want to get an auto responder and create a sign up box with it. The auto responder will store people's names and email addresses for you and send emails that you can customize for your promotions. A lot of companies have affiliate programs that you can sign up with for free and then just promote the links to the products you want to sell. There are also companies that act as a middle man between companies that sale products and people that promote them (affiliates).

• Having an auto responder is optional if you are not planning any email promotions or list building.

** Having a website or web page is optional as you can just promote the links and send the prospect straight to the products page if you do not wish to have your own website.

3 Simple steps

1. Get your email address

2. Sign up for products to sell

3. Promote links

You may not get rich quick or over-night, but at least you know how to make cash now online. Important note: Do not spam people, with neither email nor on the social network websites, if they do not ask for a link - do not give it to them.

I purposely did not include the names of any companies as recommendations, as in my experience over the years, I have found out that each company has it strong points and it's weaknesses and some things will need to be a trial and error process on your part.

If you are asking yourself "how do I know all these things"? Well, the answer is really very simple. I've "been there and done that." Hope you have learned something about how to earn cash now online.