Many people are moving away from the traditional brick and mortar stores, me being one of them. I found I could access to millions of customers through an online store, which is better for business. Another benefit to running an internet business is that I can work from anywhere in the world.
All that is needed to get an internet business that works is to register a domain name, and web hosting and build a website or blog. Here I am going to show you some online business ideas that you can get up and running in a matter of days.
Great Online Business Ideas to Start Today
There are numerous ways of earning an income online. Whether you want to earn some spending money or make a living from your online business.
There are numerous benefits to starting up and running an online business and these include:
- Reach out to more customers
- Being able to work from anywhere in the world
- Very few overheads
- The business can be up and running within a matter of days
There are many different types of online businesses to can make money from and I have chosen some of my favorite ways. They are:
- Writing and managing a blog
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling photographs or designs
- App developer
- Buying and selling domains
- Teaching, webinars, and Tutorials
- Virtual assistant
- Online marketing
- Research assistant
- Freelance writer/Proof-reader
- WordPress Themes
- Social media consultant
- Crypto trader
- Web developer
- YouTuber or Vlogger
- An Amazon FBA business
- eBay seller
So, without further ado, I want to show you some of the best ways of running an internet business.
1. Write a Blog
One of the easiest ways to make money online is by starting a blog. To get a blog started you need an interesting and relevant domain name, web hosting and a WordPress installation on the hosting.
There are no limits to what a blog can be about. It could be about anything and you do not have to be a good writer with a great imagination to make money.
One of the small internet business success stories that had my jaw dropping was the ViralNova website. A person, who went on to pay a couple of writers to rewrite content that was already viral on other websites, set up this website. In the end, he was making in excess of $400k per month from ads. He eventually went on to sell the website for a whopping $100 million. This is a blog that someone set up from home and became a multi-millionaire from it.
Your own blog also provides you with the opportunity of selling advertising space. Of course, the blog will have to have enough visitors coming to it per month to sell advertising space. If you have upwards of 10,000, visitors each day you could make a tidy sum from selling advertising space on your blog or website.
If you do not want to sell advertising space yourself, you can set up an account with Google and earn money based on cost per click. When visitors go to your website and click on ads, you earn money. If thousands of visitors are heading to your website every day, you stand to make some decent money.
Key Factors to Success with Blogs
One of the keys factors to becoming successful with any blog is to promote on social media.
I found you could get visitors very quickly by promoting content through Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. It is possible to attract around 30k visitors per month in only a couple of months.
Starting a small Blog and Building Up
I started out my first blog with a basic hosting package and paid $2.95 per month. A domain name cost $10 per year. I installed WordPress; free software in the control panel offered by the provider and was up and running the same day.
To start with, you can expect to make very little but over a couple months of adding viral content daily to the blog, your visitors will grow. The earnings will mount up over time and you could make a decent living of around $1000 plus per month.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Among the best online business ideas is affiliate marketing. This means you sell products from other companies and make a commission.
This is an excellent way to start an online business and repeatedly it has proven to be among the best internet businesses that work well.
Again, you need a domain name, web-hosting package and a WordPress website to get started. You might want to install e-commerce such as WooCommerce or you can just use links in the text of articles you write.
A good way to get started is to write reviews of products as review websites are popular. I became an Amazon affiliate and chose a niche of products to sell. In my case, it was digital cameras. I wrote reviews about the products, which I took my other sites and rewrote in my own words. I linked the product name with the product on Amazon. I chose digital cameras as they sell for hundreds of dollars and so the commission is high on each product sold.
At the top end, the commission tier is 8% so if you sell products with a commission rate that is high you can generate a good income per month.
Popular affiliate sites I recommend include:
- ClickBank;
- Flexoffers;
- Shareasale;
- MaxBounty;
- Amazon;
- CJ Affiliate.
3. Sell Your Own Photography or Designs
If you are handy with a camera, you could set up an online business by selling your own photography. There are many ways of incorporating your own photos into products online through websites.
I recommend CafePress as an online store to use for selling products using you own photographs. Other sites include Teespring, Lulu and Zazzle. With these online stores, you make an account, an online store, upload designs or photographs and turn them into products. Products you can have printed with your photos or designs include:
- T-shirts
- Calendars
- Notebooks
- Hats
- Bags
- Posters
- Wall Art
- Cards
You do not have to make the products, just upload the photos to the site and then choose the products you want to show your designs or photographs on. When someone buys a product with your photograph or design on it, you earn a commission.
4. Become an Android or iOS App Developer
Demand for smartphones is huge, along with apps to install. I would recommend becoming an app maker for Android or iOS if you have the skills to do so. There are many tutorials out there to teach you how to make apps.
One of the small internet business success stories I recall is that of a person who made an app called “Flappy Bird” on Android. This was a very simple game but went viral. It earned the developer around $50,000 per day when it was at its peak. The developer made huge sums of money despite the fact that he did not pay out for advertising.
You might not be lucky enough to make a game that goes viral as fast as Flappy Bird did. However, you could make a decent income each month from ads.
5. Buy and Sell Domains
Some people out there make a living by simply purchasing and then selling domain names. This is a simple but effective way of running an internet business. The way of making money from this is buying a cheap domain name that is popular and then reselling it later for a profit.
Of course, not all domain names will have people clamoring to purchase them so you do have to choose wisely. There are domain auction websites such as Afternic.com and Sedo.co.uk where you get an idea of what is the most popular.
I would suggest checking out terminated lists as these offer domain names that have expired. These can be purchased and then sold on.
6. Teach, Webinars or Tutorials
Another of my online business ideas for running an internet business is teaching, conducting webinars or offering tutorials.
If you are good and something, you can show others how to do it. This could be just about anything you are passionate about. E-teachers can offer expertise in a wide range of subjects and are popular with students. There are even sites you can sign up to if you do not want to start your own website. These include TutorVista and Tutor.com.
You could always video yourself doing something and show it as a tutorial for others to follow. Simply make yourself a website and upload the tutorials to share with others and make money from advertising. If you offer top-end tutorials or webinars, you can also charge money for them.
7. Spend Your Time Being a Virtual Assistant
All small businesses require some help with the everyday running of their business and you can make your business out of this by becoming a virtual assistant.
Businesses might want to turn over the reading and replying of emails to a virtual assistant. They might want an assistant to tend to schedule, managing bills, and invoices, making travel arrangements and such.
You can set up a website offering your services as a virtual assistant and work from anywhere in the world. You could just work a few hours per week to earn a bit of extra cash or turn the venture into a full-time business working for several small businesses.
8. Online Marketing
You might choose to go into online marketing for your new business. SEO is a great niche to get into.
When businesses set up websites, they turn to experts in SEO to manage their websites and blogs. SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO experts ensure that blogs can be found in search engines and help them to reach the top of the search rankings.
SEO experts also promote websites through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. They take care of article marketing, bookmarking on sites, posting on forums, writing press releases and more. SEO businesses are rated highly among internet businesses that work and will always be in need.
9. Become a Research Assistant
Many businesses need to research and many do not want the task of doing it themselves and pay others to do it for them. Many companies’ research competitors and you could do this for them and be paid for doing it.
Writers need to research and many pay a research assistant to research and gather lists of web pages for them on particular subjects. Setting up a research business is very easy. All that is needed is a domain name and web hosting with a blog or website uploaded to it.
You can earn money by offering to research for businesses and individuals along with making a few dollars in the process from ads on the site.
10. Become a Freelance Writer or Proof-reader
All online companies’ websites have one thing in common, lots of text on their websites. With this in mind if you have a good command of language and spelling you could become a freelance writer.
You could set up your own website and offer freelance copywriting services from there or start by joining one of the many freelance websites online. The only downside to going with a freelance website is that they take a percentage of the money you make through them. On the plus side, many companies and small businesses look for freelance writers through such sites.
If you build your own website, you can also make money through ads, and recoup the costs back of the website through this each month.
Another alternative is to add become a proofreader or add this into your writing website for an additional fee. Many companies will pay to have someone check text already written on their website. This can be a profitable route to go down if you love reading and are great at picking up grammatical errors.
11. Start Your Own WordPress Theme Site
If you have knowledge of HTML coding and website design, you could set up an online business selling WordPress themes.
WordPress is the number one platform for bloggers and many want an attractive theme that stands out among the free ones available. People are willing to pay good money for unique themes and if you can tailor them to meet, the specific needs of the client all the better. This is one way of running an internet business while doing something you enjoy doing and you can it from anywhere in the world from home.
12. Social Media Consultancy Business
Social media is huge with all corporations and businesses both big and small having social media accounts. In some cases, businesses have several accounts on different platforms. Many hire a social media consultancy to take care and update all of their social media accounts so if you are a whiz at social media you could make money this way.
When working as a social media consultant you will work with businesses in regard to the best tactics to use, scheduling posts or links and posting content on a regular basis.
13. Become a Crypto-Trader
If your skill set lies in finance, you might want to go into business as a crypto-trader. Cryptocurrency is said to be the next big thing with Bitcoin being one of the main currencies.
If you know something about trading and are willing to take some risks, you can purchase cryptocurrency and then hang onto it until the value of it increases. Of course, there is always the risk of you having to wait years for that to happen.
If going down this route it is important to remember to invest only in what you could afford to lose if things did not work out. It is also important to research before going ahead and buying cryptocurrency.
14. Web Development
Web development is another option for an online business. Many small businesses want a website but they do not have any idea where to start. Many also do not have the skills needed or the time to build their own website.
You could start up a web development business online if you have the skills needed. You can make a website for businesses or individuals from start to finish and earn good money doing so.
To get started buy web hosting and a domain name then display your website and upload a portfolio of other websites you have built. Web developers can earn a lot of money so this is definitely among the internet businesses that work.
15. YouTuber or Vlogger
Yes, it is possible to earn an income, and a good income at that, by posting videos on YouTube or becoming a Vlogger.
YouTube is one of the biggest videos platforms online and it is the first source people turn to for videos. There are many types of video posted on YouTube with the most popular ones being those made to promote or review products.
People searching for products online like to see the product in action and there is no better way than in a video? Money can be made easier this way providing, of course, you have screen presence. Once you are established as a YouTuber or Vlogger and have thousands of followers and views companies may start to contact you to review their products. This is a win-win situation for you as you get to keep the products you are reviewing along with getting money in from advertising.
Some people earn thousands of dollars each month just from promoting or reviewing products. The more visitors you get to your YouTube channel the more ad revenue you are going to make and the more companies will offer you products.
To start up as a YouTuber or Vlogger you need a decent camera and microphone and good lighting. A basic SLR camera is enough to get started, or even the camera on an iPhone.
16. Run an Amazon FBA Business
Among the many online business ideas is to run an Amazon FBA business, also known as fulfillment by Amazon.
With this option, you are going to have to have products to sell. However, rather than set up your own website you can sell them on Amazon. Amazon is one of the biggest websites for buying products so you are off to a good start.
Your products are listed on the Amazon website and when you sell something from the store, Amazon does all the hard work. They will get the item ready for delivery and deliver it. This means you are taking full advantage of the power of Amazon in regard to their customer base and distribution network. This saves you the time of having to build up your own customer base and packaging and delivering products.
Essentially Amazon acts as the gateway and you have all the advantages of a huge corporation but without any of the hassle or expense that comes with it. All you need to do is come up with some good ideas for products, or make them yourself, then send them to Amazon and they do the rest.
17. eBay Business
Last, but by no means the least, among my online business ideas is to sell on eBay. This is a great option for anyone who has products to sell. You can set up an online eBay store and list products for sale through them. As millions of people search eBay every day, for items they are looking for this could be a profitable business venture.
Conclusion
As you can see from the above, there are numerous choices for starting up a business online and making money from it.
A few of the online business ideas above do require certain skills, but most can be undertaken by anyone with a bit of common sense. Many people choose to set up an online business just to make some additional cash, while others make a living out of it and earn a good income each month.
As when setting up any business, you are not going to get rich overnight. Unless of course, you go into app development, and the app goes viral instantly as “Flappy Bird” did.
I hope the above online business ideas have given you some ideas and you are eager to start up your own internet business. Running an internet business can be very rewarding and of course, you are your own boss. Good luck.
