I personly am kinda new to this myself, and although I have a female sub, i believe i might have some insite from the newbi couch.

I had the same problum thinking of punishments as you did, luckly my sub is a bit more experienced then me. I personly feel that writing lines or an essay about what they did wrong is a good place to start with an online D/s relationship. I also agree with Widget, you CANNOT let transgresions slide. This was one of my hangups for a bit, i love my sub very much, and had a hard time at first with punishing her. Luckly, she is very well behaved and i have not had to punish her yet.

You can be a good Domme without a heart, but being to soft will only cause you a lot of problums in the end, but you must figure out for youself what to punish him for, and what not to. If you cannot bring yourself to punish, then you might want to re examin if this is the right thing for you.

As far as ideas for online play go, jump in the chat room here and see how other people online play around. Get a feel for it. I have seen some really good scenes in there myself. Gave me a few more wicked ideas!