Brits making billions online

The majority of UK residents have made money by selling items online, with Britain's total web profit standing at £8.5 billion in the last year alone.

And that works out at an average of £341 per person, figures from Orange Broadband reveal.

Some 54 per cent of Britons have made money from selling things over the internet in the last 12 months, with people in their 30s topping the earnings list.

But while the average amount of money made by entrepreneurial internet users is £341, one in eight has made profits of more than £500.

And this profit can be increased further by savvy web users, as internet providers such as the Carphone Warehouse and Orange let people connect to the internet for free when people subscribe to their phone services.

However, it is not just money-making that draws Britons online, but the chance to meet new people and get their opinions to the masses.

Orange Broadband's research shows that almost two 26 to 30-year-olds in three have put their profiles on networking sites, with almost a third spending 11 or more evenings a month with their computers instead of leaving the internet and meeting their friends in the real world.

One in five have taken this further and created a personal website, with a fifth of these frequently blogging.