In this day where there are a ton of great games out there at no cost with (previously said) amazing hobbyist developers, how can you get a customer to pay you money for an experience they may get for free? It comes down to a few basic philosophies.
This is probably the toughest way to make money...by actually charging for the game itself. If you're coming straight out of the gate with your first game... this is not really an advisable way to go. There are exceptions to that rule (for instance, you feel sooo strongly that you have a ground-breaking new game that everyone will want to play). But in general, customers will avoid games from indie developers that cost money. So IF you ever do a paid game... you may want to make a light version of it as a demo that people can play to bait the hook for a paid game.