Oh boy, do I have a lot to say about this one.
As I know, there are the primary ways one can make money online:
1. Provide a product or service that people are willing to pay for. (e.g. Ebay.com, Amazon.com, etc.)
2. Serve as an online middle man and outsource work to others, earning commissions from the deals made and services rendered.
3. Provide good web content that draws significant steady traffic - by generating content on a website, blog or forum (a public platform where others can generate content for you), and using backlinks, optimized key words for SEO (search engine optimization), advertising and cross-promotions to build up your traffic. Then earn advertising revenue and affiliate commissions from that traffic, and product/service sales as well. (that's what I do)
4. Do freelance work for others, such as freelance writing, editing, video editing, programming, etc. on a contractual basis.
5. Provide some kind of personal service, such as consulting, teaching English to foreign students via Skype, etc.
Why don't you start first, by putting your ebook on Kindle? I do that and it gets regular sales every month. It's very easy to do. Just go here and set it up.
http://dtp.amazon.com
Google "How to make money online" to find a lot of information about this. Here are some good links I've found:
http://www.thewebmoneyworld.com
http://www.moneyonline.net
http://www.blogstash.com/53-ways-to-make-money-online/
http://www.101waystomakemoney.com
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com
I personally recommend this Passionpreneur guy I know who teaches people how to turn their "passion into profit". His books have a lot of awesome valuable advice in teaching you how to find resourceful ways of doing what you love and making a living from it. His name is Walt Goodridge. See his site here:
http://www.passionprofit.com
Freelancer sites:
http://myseoblog.net/2008/04/07/lists-o ... nce-sites/
http://www.freelancer.com
http://www.getafreelancer.com
http://www.elance.com
http://www.guru.com
http://www.directfreelance.com
http://www.demandstudios.com
http://www.odesk.com
http://www.essaybay.com
Teach English online:
http://www.verbalplanet.com/teach-english.asp
Anyway, making money online takes a lot of time to build up.
If you had been the guy to start Forumosa.com, the biggest Taiwan expat forum, you would have been set. That forum has high traffic and with Adsense, you could make good money from it. Forums take time to build up and are hard to jumpstart unless you have a pre-existing fan base. But if you have a lot of traffic, you can monetize it with online ads, adsense, affiliate ads, pay per click ads, monthly sponsorship ads, etc. But this area is very competitive.
Or if you have a product or service to sell that sells well, then you can sell it online too.
Or you can do freelance work at the links above. If you're in a rush, that's probably the best way to start.
Or you can teach English online. Ladislav can help you get started with that. You have experience teaching English, so you'd qualify.
The owner of plentyoffish.com makes about $10,000 a month I hear. He sleeps on a mattress made of $100 bills.
So running a dating site is another option.
Maybe you can run a dating site for foreigners seeking Taiwanese partners? Or ABC's seeking Taiwanese partners? That'd be something more unique. When you run a dating site, you can charge membership fees, or make it free and make money from Adsense ads, like the highly successful DateinAsia.com does. If thousands of people are viewing Adsense ads, which contain pay per impression ads (CPM) in which you make money just from people viewing the ads even if they don't click on them, it's easy money. Of course, clicks are paid and counted too.
You can also sell text link ads:
http://www.text-link-ads.com That too, is easy money.
See if you can learn from the successful sites above.
You can learn a little from my site too, which as you can see, earns money from multiple income streams - advertising revenue, affiliate commissions, dating site memberships, ebook sales on Amazon, etc. I earn just enough now to cover my basic expenses, and am about halfway toward financial independence. That's better than what most have been able to do.
It's not easy though, and it takes a lot of time, promotion and improvement. Remember, content is the key.
You can also try to buy an existing online business at
http://www.sitepoint.com . We have a discussion about that here:
viewtopic.php?p=11227
The Digital Point Forums specializes in online money making opportunities. There are millions of people sharing ideas there.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com
Momopi, anything you want to add?
So gits, what's wrong with continuing to teach English in Taiwan? What are the downsides of doing that? Do you qualify to be an IELTS examiner? You can talk to Mr S about that. It's an easy job with short hours, only a few days a week, and pays very well.