Making money online is possible, rewarding, and difficult.

In most people's mind making money online is stored in the same basket as working from home.

In both cases your making your money from the comfort of one's own home.
Not to mention that for the most part you can expect to be sitting behind the desk.
In truth, they almost couldn't be more different.
Take a work from home job and you're working for someone else.
More often than not your confined to a limited number of job categories (customer service, appointment settings). 
Also work from home jobs are hardly the highest paying jobs considering the equipment needed.

Making money online is a different animal altogether.
There's almost no limit to the number of ways you can make money online.
But almost none of those ways are available without at least a certain level of technological competence.
It also doesn't mean you can expect a sudden life-changing treasure with a part-time commitment.
 You can't.

Exactly what you'll need to learn depends almost entirely on what direction you decide to take.
The most important considerations are your talents and abilities.

Example one:
Charles, a highly skilled and experienced handyman of over 20 years decides to start his own YouTube channel.
  He's been watching other handyman type videos and now genuinely believes he'll do a better job of teaching and explaining different household fixes than the creators he's watched.
He should, even if he isn't particularly good with tech, have too much difficulty putting a together a nice YouTube channel.
At least one that is at least capable of making some money. 
But this low barrier money making opportunity comes with more than a few hurdles.
Starting a YouTube channel and monetizing it are night and day.
At the very least Charles, like you, will need some things.
 A recording device (a newer smartphone or good digital camera), a video editor—even a free one will do, the know how to upload videos, how to make "thumbnails", some writing skills, and some teaching skills. 

 And at least a certain level of commitment. 
 There's some other things too but the bottom line is this.
A monetized YouTube channel is one of the easier and less tech-savvy ways of some making money.
But it still requires some tech knowledge.
Most likely you won't get rich with a YouTube channel.
It's all about quality content.
And commitment. 
Provide it and you can hopefully expect at least a decent side income.

Example two.
Jill is twenty-three years old and considers herself at least somewhat of a techie. 
At least in comparison to her circle of friends. 
She's also stuck in a dead-end job working for a retail electronics store.
After much thought she decides to completely commit herself to becoming a web designer.
For Jill to realistically become skilled enough in one year for a $70,000+ annual income she concludes the following.
She will set aside fifteen hours a week to ensure she will be comfortable creating sites for customers on at least a part-time basis.   
Is that reasonable?
Can Jill (or you) expect to be good enough in a year to become a working web designer?
In that amount of time (780 hrs) it COULD be doable.
 Maybe.  
That amount of hours could well be enough for some people to learn all the technical skills but it requires an especially dedicated and consistent effort.
What would that really look like?

Something like this.
3–6 months learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
 The backbone of all webpages. 
Three more months learning some additional areas of study you will need (SEO, web analytics, Photoshop etc). 
Another 3 months for the dozens of smaller but critical loose ends.
This includes building a robust potential client list (you want to hit the ground running), some well-designed "landing" pages" to show to potential clients.
Your own website to run your business, a thorough understanding of price structure and various other housekeeping details every new business needs to consider.
If you're really going to make this happen you'll have to be completely focused for those 780 hours.

Two quick notes.

1. If Jill, or you for that matter, finds any of this out of reach, breathe easy.
This was all a best case scenario with no detours. It might take eighteen months as opposed to a year.
Or maybe it's going to take an extra few hours each week.
If becoming a web designer is what you passionately want to do and your willing to commit, it can be done.

2. Please take note we say you have to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
 Not the pre-packaged web templates some might think.
That's because you really do need the building block tools offered by HTML, CSS, and JavaScript if your going to design the personalized sites your clients are going to demand.

Of course there's far more than two different paths to making money online.
We're using the examples we have for a reason. 
To better demonstrate how much knowledge different online avenues require.
No one can tell you exactly what you should you do to make money online. Or even whether or  not you should.
It's not for everyone.
However if you do you should go into it knowing up front it WILL be hard work.

Maybe all you really know is that you do want to make considerable money and you want to do it online.
If that's the case, the best advice be start learning web design.

Learning web design will at least familiarize you with various online concepts you wouldn't have otherwise.
Spend enough time learning design and more likely than not you will come to discover what you might like to further pursue it.
If you decide online work is not for you that's fine too.

A great place to start your web design course would be the eleven video YouTube playlist entitled "Build a responsive website with HTML & CSS" by Kevin Powell. 
A well known online web design instructor. This will at least introduce to some key concepts about web design.

I realize this has been a longer than the usual article but to a large extent that really can't be helped.
The online world is a complicated one, requiring a level of technological expertise many can learn but most don't have.

Making money online can mean making a lot of money online. 
For some.
But it also takes an enormous amount of hard work.