According to Forbes.com, these are 11 strategies you can utilize in your quest to make big money. As Forbes points out, they are not surefire and all come with pitfalls; but if you’re lucky, you might might be able to successfully put one of these strategies to use in building yourself a small fortune. Obviously, just from looking at the list you can eliminate some as being possible options for you; but there might be a doable idea in the mix if you’re able to expand your thinking beyond whatever limits exist.

1. Government Subsidies - A subsidy is a kind of financial government assistance, such as a grant, tax break, or trade barrier, in order to encourage the production or purchase of a good. Interested in applying for a goverment grant? Read How to apply for a goverment grant

2. Inheritance - Obviously, if you’re not in line to inherit billions this "strategy" will be useless to you; and I suspect if you were in line to inherit billions, you’d have no need to be researching ways to make big money on the Internet.

Inheritance as a "strategy" seems unfitting somehow. You can’t strategically plan to inherit money, unless that plan involves the murder of whomsoever would need to die in order for you to inherit their billions.

Billionaires who inherit their wealth don’t usually have to do anything other than patiently wait for someone to die and it doesn’t take effort to do that unless they’re not benefiting from the wealth of their family member while the family member is alive.

Some known billionaires under age 40 who inherited their billions: Germany’s Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis, Saudi Arabia’s Saad Hariri, Brazil’s Constantino de Oliveira Jr, India’s Kumar Birla, Mexico’s Emilio Azcarraga Jean

3. Little Equity, Lots of Debt - Forbes suggests "You can make lots of money by investing with little equity and huge borrowing–as long as you’re right on the investment’s price direction." I’m still working on putting that into everyday language for myself. I’m willing to bet if I had to brain capacity to comprehend the concept of equity as well as I comprehend the concept of poverty, I might be vacationing in Maui, or maybe Cancun or Acapulco.

Note to self: find out what is meant by "Little equity and huge borrowing" and being "right on the investment’s price direction".

4. Leverage - this is apparently tied into the little equity with lots of debt strategy. Apparently that strategy results in huge "financial leverage". The example used by Forbes to explain Leverage:

Think about movies vs. stage productions. A play can only reach an audience of several hundred and must be repeated night after night by the same actors to generate much revenue. But movies are presented to unlimited audiences worldwide and, if they have legs, for decades to come. The same leverage and opportunity for big money exists for entertainment transmitted via CDs, DVDs, radio, TV and the Internet. [forbes.com]

5. Great Ideas, But Not Necessarily The First Implementers - basically, if you think you can do better with something that’s already out there go for it. Take someone else’s idea and improve upon it, or use something that’s already out there to make something brighter and better if not necessarily bigger. Bill Gates did and he’s now the richest man in the world.

6. Small Slices of Very Big Pies - According to Forbes, "a fortune can be made by taking small slices of very big pies." Obviously they don’t mean this literally as in taking a small slice of a very big apple pie or something. They’re talking about taking small per transaction fees and such; but how do you come up with feasible ideas if you’re not something like a grocery chain charging $2.00 for using your ATM, for example? I’d guess that would be an example of taking a small slice of a very big pie.

7. Cartels and Monopolies - Forbes is probably not referring to drug cartels here. An example would probably be the way Carlos Slim, called the king midas of Latin America, is said to monopolize almost everything in Mexico and use his clout to prevent other companies from coming in and providing alternatives to Mexicans. This way he can charge high prices for goods and services. Without competition, consumers have no choie but to pay the prices he demands.

8. Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak - Basically, capitalize on people’s hopes and dreams by selling a product that promises to make them thin and beautiful for example, or a product that promises to grow their hair, cure their illness, make them rich, whatever it is they want desperately to have, sell them a product that promises it can fulfill their wish. Obviously, this means scamming people out of money more often than not because you’re consciously selling them something you know doesn’t work, protecting yourself with clever disclaimers.

9. Take Advantage of Addictions and Vanity - Manufacturing/Selling cigarettes, diet pills, beauty products and the like would seem to fall under this strategy.

Caffeine addiction has created vast fortunes in coffee and tea. It had a lot to do with originally attracting the British to the Far East. And don’t believe soft drink makers when they say they put caffeine in their products to improve the flavor and pep you up. It’s mainly to make them habit-forming. [forbes.com]

10. Picks and Shovels - Forbes explains this as "supplying goods and services to a risky but potentially very profitable venture"

11. Get Paid With Money That Isn’t The Payer’s, Especially If They’re Desperate