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There isn't just one version of "how to make money online"; it's a broad category encompassing freelance jobs, sales of various sorts of products or…
There isn't just one version of "how to make money online"; it's a broad category encompassing freelance jobs, sales of various sorts of products or content, investing, and literally dozens of other options, most of which work completely differently from each other in practice. This guide isn't a list of different paths you might want to take, since plenty of lists like that already exist; it's the fundamental preparation work that almost all of those paths require, getting yourself set up to receive money, proving your legitimacy even if you're still just starting out, and avoiding the scams specifically targeting anyone searching for this particular phrase.
Before taking on any particular option within the larger "make money online" field, it's worth making sure that you have yourself set up to receive payments; a bank account you can link to payment processors, and accounts with whichever payment services any platform or client might use, covering PayPal and direct bank transfers covers the large majority of cases. Doing this in advance, rather than scrambling around trying to do so once your first payment is ready to go out, allows you to avoid lengthy delays from many of the services when verifying your identity. This is a small, boring thing to do, but it's genuinely the first important step, before any actual plan.
Everyone, from the clients themselves to the platforms and marketplaces, requires some sort of sign that you're a legitimate person and not an imposter of some kind, which could simply mean a basic profile with a real picture, some examples of the work you offer, and a short, truthful description of what you can provide. This does not necessarily need to be complicated, as a single, real example of work will beat an empty profile with bold claims and nothing to support them. Having done this in advance means that you aren't starting with zero credibility when a legitimate opportunity appears.
Exactly this phrase is particularly heavily targeted by a variety of scammers: fake employers paying too much by check and asking you to wire back the excess, "tasks and rewards" apps requiring deposits before withdrawals, and recruiters promising unusual rates of pay for simple work. These are scams specifically designed to target people who are new to earning online and don't know what legitimate offers should look like, which is precisely why they deserve to be learned about in advance. No legitimate job or platform will ask you to pay to start making money.
There are a few signs showing up in virtually every scam of this type: the request to pay fees, buy equipment, or purchase gift cards before being able to start work or receive your earnings; attempts to divert the conversation away from a platform's messaging system rapidly; and unusually high pay compared to the amount of work required. In a legitimate case, you can expect the source of the pay you'd receive to be explained in clear terms, while scams will usually prefer to remain vague about that very point if asked directly. Trusting that hesitance when the deal looks off in general is more reliable than the deal itself.
What path will be suitable for you to start with depends on what you'll be able to bring to it; actual time and a relevant skill can mean going freelance or gig jobs, some patience and some money to invest can mean selling products or creating content, and extra capital can mean investing. Rather than going through all of the details of all of these individual paths once again, this guide should act as a sorting tool: figuring out which of them is suitable for you and then using a detailed guide to the chosen option.
Pick a particular path, set up your payments and a basic profile if you haven't done that already, and then commit yourself to a single small and concrete action every day for a week; this may be sending five messages in search of a client, listing one product for sale, or posting a piece of content, rather than endlessly researching the field without doing anything. A week is just long enough to do this and figure out if that particular path works for you.
Attempting several paths at once without giving any of them enough attention to work properly, quitting during the slow start period of every single one of those paths, and ignoring the tax issues with initial income are the most common ways for a reasonable plan to get derailed. Chasing after whatever your friend or a post on some forum claims to have worked for them, rather than sticking to the path you actually tried, is another common mistake. All of these usually come from expectations of success coming faster than almost any legitimate path could deliver them.
The first money made online is always small and comes slower than it's supposed to for virtually everyone: the first sale, first client, first small payout, before anything starts to resemble income. This is a normal stage and not a reason to think your path isn't working; the people who keep pursuing a reasonable path beyond its usual slow start are the ones who eventually succeed with it. Evaluating a path based on the results in the first month is often evaluating it before it managed to prove anything.