For the budding entrepreneur, these days one of the easiest ways to get started is by launching an online business. An online business can take many forms, but there are a few things they all have in common, and it is these things that may help make it a great option for someone just starting out – including low start up costs, and the possibility for free marketing.

• How Can I Start my Own Successful Online Business?
• Why Should You Start an Online Business
• What Are Some Examples of Online Businesses
• 7 Steps to Starting a Small Business Online
• Which Online Business is Best to Start?
• 5 Online Businesses You Can Start With No Money
• What is The Most Successful Online Business?
• How Can I be Successful Online?
• Why do Online Businesses Fail?
• What Are The Top 3 Online Businesses?
• How Can a Beginner Make Money?
• Is Amazon an Online Business?
• How Can I Make Money From Home?
• Is Running an Online Business Easy?
• How Many Online Businesses Are Successful?

How Can I Start my Own Successful Online Business?

Make a Plan

Of course, launching an online business is not as simple as just buying a website domain and getting started. First of all, you need to have a good and original idea. Lay out a plan – what is the point of your business, what needs does it fill, who are its competitors, and what will you be doing differently? A good business plan is the first and most important step to achieve success.

Create a Professional Website

Next, you will need to think about what form your website should take. The website is the key element of your online business, so you want to have a good plan for what it will look like before you get started. What are you doing? Are you an online consultant, so your website only needs to provide information about yourself, what you do, and how to get in touch? Or are you selling something?

Read Also: Ways You Can Make Money Online With Google

Do you need to model your site after a free classifieds website, where you are listing multiple products for sale, and your customers need a way to filter through the different products, and view information about each? Take a look at some similar business models and see what form their websites take.

Here, it might be a good idea to bring on board a web consultant. Your website will be your potential clients and customers’ first impression of your business, so you want to make sure it looks professional and puts your best foot forward.

Take Advantage of Your Business’ Online Nature

Maintaining your business online instead of in a brick and mortar location gives you a lot of flexibility. You can have clients and customers from anywhere in the world, and you have a host of free marketing options at your fingertips.

Start writing a blog about your line of business, join social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, and start promoting yourself and your business through these avenues.

Why Should You Start an Online Business 

You may be wondering why start an online business in the first place. Why not go with a brick-and-mortar one instead? 

Because starting an online business has several advantages. 

Here are the three main ones:

1. It is fairly inexpensive to start.

A lot want to start a business but are deterred by the investment required to get it off the ground. You have to pay for a lease, purchase inventory and budget for employee salaries. What if you invest all that money in your business but it doesn’t work out? This can ruin you financially.

However, with an online business, all you need is:

• Computer. You probably already have one.
• Domain name. You can get one for less than $10/year.
• Website builder: Monthly plans start for $29.90/mo.

In other words — it’s feasible to launch an online business with $100 as a starting capital.

Of course, the more starting money you have, the more online business ideas you can pursue. 

But the point is that you don’t need to risk your life’s savings to become a (successful) online entrepreneur.

2. Major potential and growth.

When you have a brick-and-mortar business, you have to deal with the limitations of the “real world.”

Renting in prime locations is expensive, there may not be enough foot traffic some days and the local crowd just doesn’t need stuff all the time.

But guess what? When you run an online business, none of these limitations apply. You can sell to anyone, no matter where they live.

And with each passing year, your pool of potential customers expands because more people are getting comfortable with the idea of online shopping. By 2023, ecommerce will account for 22% of global retail sales.

On top, the global Internet population is growing too. For example, between 2009 and 2020, the number of Internet users in North America alone has grown by 73.3 million people.

But that’s nothing compared with the regions that are still developing!

The number of Internet users in Asia went from 764.4 million to 2.5 billion, which means that an additional 1.76 billion people started using the Internet.

More people online — more potential exposure for your online brand. Especially, if you don’t mind taking your online business across the border.

3. Can run 24/7. 

Another advantage online businesses have over brick-and-mortar businesses is that they can stay open 24/7 (even through lockdowns and other disruptions). 

Once your online business website is online — you are always “on” to make a sale. Shoppers can order from you at any time. 

Since you don’t need to be physically present to make a sale, your business can generate revenue with less day-to-day involvement. 

What Are Some Examples of Online Businesses

With so many business opportunities and tons of ultimate guides out there, it can be difficult to decide which one to pursue. It’s understandable because you also don’t want to risk too much. 

We did some research from you and narrowed it all down to just five online business ideas. 

1. Start an ecommerce store. 

Ecommerce has been around for nearly four decades, but there was never a better time to launch an online store than now.

According to “The Future of Retail 2019” report, a third of US consumers (32%) now receive one or more Amazon packages per week. Meanwhile, 10% of consumers receive three or more Amazon packages per week. 

It’s probably safe to say that this reliance on Amazon also leads to people feeling more comfortable with online shopping in general.

According to the same report, 46% of consumers say that they are more open to purchasing a big-ticket item like a car or a grill online than they were a year ago.

Once you have decided on your product categories, select an ecommerce platform (BigCommerce, Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.), set up your online store and start driving traffic to it. If you intend to self-host, you can choose dedicated hosting for WooCommerce or Magento as well. Alternatively, you can start selling on online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy.

While ecommerce has all three online business advantages that we have discussed earlier, you should keep in mind that online commerce profit margins can be thin for some types of products.

2. Get into dropshipping. 

Dropshipping is an online fulfillment method that allows you to sell physical goods without keeping inventory yourself. 

Here’s how it works:

• The customer orders a product on your ecommerce website.
• You forward the order to the manufacturer.
• The manufacturer then ships the product directly to the customer.

Dropshipping is an attractive option for those who want to get into ecommerce without assuming the financial risk that comes with carrying an inventory. So no wonder that the dropshipping market is growing! The revenue forecast for the year 2025 is $557.9 billion.

Although dropshipping is appealing, it has some disadvantages too. These include low-profit margins, slow shipping speed and lack of control over the supply chain among others. 

3. Become an affiliate.

Affiliate marketing is worth considering if you want to start an online business but aren’t interested in creating your own products.  

It’s a popular way to make money online. According to the SaaS Scout, the annual affiliate marketing spending by brands is estimated at $12 billion. The figure is expected to grow by 10% in the next few years. 

Here’s how affiliate marketing works:

• First, sign up for an affiliate program.
• Then, select someone else’s product to promote to your audience. This can be any digital product (an ebook, an online course, an app, etc.) or physical goods. 
• You then get paid a commission for each sale generated through your referral link.

You can promote affiliate products on your blog by creating SEO content around relevant keywords and then optimizing it to get organic traffic from Google. Or you can promote affiliate products on social networks.

Affiliate marketing can be extremely lucrative when done right. For example, Adam Enfroy made $812,718 in 2020. $601,698 was passive income from affiliate marketing.

You can also promote affiliate products to your email list subscribers by allowing your affiliate partners to host webinars for your audience. 

Affiliate marketing is a great business model that has an extremely low startup cost. You only need to pay upfront for a domain name, web hosting and email marketing software.

That being said, successful online businesses that start out selling affiliate products tend to eventually release their own goods. You can make much more money from the same amount of traffic that way.

4. Offer web design services.

You can learn the basics of web design via eLearning platforms and experimentation. Then create a portfolio website to start attracting clients. Or register with a freelance marketplace such as Upwork or 99Designs. By the way, you don’t have to be a full-time freelancer, but do web design as a side hustle.

Freelancing can be challenging at times, though. While you benefit from location independence and a flexible schedule, you also have less predictable income and financial stability at first. So set up an emergency fund before you go all in. 

That being said, once you have web design skills, you can then expand into creating and selling your own products (e.g. WordPress templates). This can help mitigate financial instability. 

5. Create a note-worthy blog. 

Do you have a knack for writing? Then blogging might be an online business idea worth considering.

While having a blog is not a business model in and of itself, it allows you to build an audience.

Once you have an audience, you can sell your own products or services, promote affiliate products, run sponsored campaigns with brands, etc. Popular bloggers also get speaking gigs and book deals.

7 Steps to Starting a Small Business Online

There is a proven sequence of steps you can follow to guarantee your success when you’re starting a small business online. We’ve seen thousands of people start and grow successful businesses by doing the following:

Step 1: Start a business that fills a need.

Most people who are just starting out make the mistake of looking for a product first, and a market second.

To boost your chances of success, start with a market. The trick is to find a group of people who are searching for a solution to a problem, but not finding many results. The internet makes this kind of market research easy:

• Visit online forums to see what questions people ask and what problems they’re trying to solve.
• Do keyword research to find keywords that a lot of people are searching, but don’t have a ton of competition with other sites.
• Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they’re doing to fill the demand. Then you can use what you’ve learned and create a product for a market that already exists — and do it better than the competition.

Step 2: Write copy that sells.

There’s a proven sales copy formula that takes visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive to the moment they make a purchase:

1. Arouse interest with a compelling headline.
2. Describe the problem your product solves.
3. Establish your credibility as a solver of this problem.
4. Add testimonials from people who have used your product.
5. Talk about the product and how it benefits the user.
6. Make an offer.
7. Make a strong guarantee.
8. Create urgency.
9. Ask for the sale.

Throughout your copy, you need to focus on how your product or service is uniquely able to solve people’s problems or make their lives better. Think like a customer and ask “What’s in it for me?”

Step 3: Design and build your website.

Once you’ve got your market and product, and you’ve nailed down your selling process, now you’re ready for your small-business web design. Remember to keep it simple. You have fewer than five seconds to grab someone’s attention — otherwise, they’re gone, never to be seen again. Some important tips to keep in mind:

• Choose one or two plain fonts on a white background.
• Make your navigation clear and simple, and the same on every page.
• Only use graphics, audio or video if they enhance your message.
• Include an opt-in offer so you can collect e-mail addresses.
• Make it easy to buy — no more than two clicks between potential customer and checkout.
• Your website is your online storefront, so make it customer-friendly.

Step 4: Use search engines to drive targeted buyers to your site.

Pay-per-click advertising is the easiest way to get traffic to a brand-new site. It has two advantages over waiting for the traffic to come to you organically. First, PPC ads show up on the search pages immediately, and second, PPC ads allow you to test different keywords, as well as headlines, prices and selling approaches.

Not only do you get immediate traffic, but you can also use PPC ads to discover your best, highest-converting keywords. Then you can distribute the keywords throughout your site in your copy and code, which will help your rankings in the organic search results.

Step 5: Establish an expert reputation for yourself.

People use the internet to find information. Provide that information for free to other sites, and you’ll see more traffic and better search engine rankings. The secret is to always include a link to your site with each tidbit of information.

• Give away free, expert content. Create articles, videos or any other content that people will find useful. Distribute that content through online article directories or social media sites.
• Include “send to a friend” links on valuable content on your website.
• Become an active expert in industry forums and social networking sites where your target market hangs out.

Step 6: Use the power of email marketing to turn visitors into buyers.

When you build an opt-in list, you’re creating one of the most valuable assets of your online business. Your customers and subscribers have given you permission to send them an email. That means:

• You’re giving them something they’ve asked for.
• You’re developing lifetime relationships with them.
• The response is 100 percent measurable.
• Email marketing is cheaper and more effective than print, TV or radio because it’s highly targeted.

Anyone who visits your site and opts into your list is a very hot lead. And there’s no better tool than email for following up with those leads.

Step 7: Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling.

One of the most important internet marketing strategies is to develop every customer’s lifetime value. At least 36 percent of people who have purchased from you once will buy from you again if you follow up with them. Closing that first sale is by far the most difficult part — not to mention the most expensive. So use back-end selling and upselling to get them to buy again:

• Offer products that complement their original purchase.
• Send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit.
• Offer related products on your “Thank You” page after they purchase.

Reward your customers for their loyalty and they’ll become even more loyal.

Which Online Business is Best to Start?

The beauty of the internet is that you can quite literally launch a business and make money online with very little to no capital. If you understand the mechanics of online marketing, or if you’re great at social media, you’ll clearly find it easier. But you don’t need to be a pro to start your business online.

Like anything else in this world, you’ll either need a lot of time or a lot of money. If you have both, then clearly, you’re ahead of the game. But most people have more of the former rather than the latter. But considering that time is finite and we only have a certain amount of it, using your time wisely and managing your time properly is crucial to ensure your success.

1. Chatbot business

The rise of the chatbot has been extraordinary to witness. Thanks to the ubiquity afforded to us by chat on platforms like Facebook, we’ve grown quite used to chatting with friends and family across all our social media networks.

That’s why AI-powered chatbots present a new digital frontier for businesses looking to automate and relinquish much of the man-power it takes to have a chat with its customers.

This is abundantly clear when it comes to customer service. However, it’s potent value in commerce has become quite obvious as well, and businesses across all spectrums are now taking advantage of this. Platforms like Manychat, ChattyPeople and several others have sprung up to take much of the confusion and complexities out of building a chatbot.

There’s a proverbial gold rush happening today, of people trying to launch chatbots for their businesses to help automate some of their sales and marketing efforts that are needed to properly grow and scale in today’s market.

However, similar to California’s Gold Rush, those that will likely get rich are the ones that sell the picks and shovels. For that reason, why not launch your own chatbot business? Sure, there’s some effort involved here, but this is definitely worth the steep learning curve.

2. Box subscription business

The box subscription business has exploded. While it’s nothing new, and it’s been around for ages now, the overwhelming rise of the internet has breathed newfound life into this online business idea. What is a box subscription exactly? If you think back for a moment to one of the most viral box subscriptions businesses, you’ll clearly recall the Dollar Shave Club.

Founded by Michael Dubin in 2011, the concept was ingenious in its use of a video that quickly went viral. The company was sold for a billion dollars, and when you look at it from a sales funnel perspective, what Dubin did was brilliant. Like other box subscription businesses, there’s a basic level of items that you can order.

When you place your order, you’re directed into a sales funnel with numerous upsells in the form of add-ons. Dubin’s understanding of the market forces and his ability to have fun and create a business that was properly poised for explosive growth have made him an icon.

However, you don’t need to go viral to enjoy the growth in box subscription businesses. You’ll even discover websites like CrateJoy, which was created primarily to help connect potential subscribers with box subscription businesses, giving you a platform where you can get the proverbial word out about your business.

Companies like Graze, Blue Apron, FabFitFun, LeTote and many others are on the rise. In 2016, it was estimated by Shorr Packaging that there were 21.3 million box subscription websites, up from just 700,000 in 2013, a roughly 3,000 percent increase. What’s most interesting here are the consumer demographics. The typical visitor to a box subscription websites makes roughly $78,436 a year and is in their early forties.

3. Ad management business

In today’s hotly-competitive marketplace, if you don’t understand how to drive paid traffic and optimize your conversions, you need to turn to a company that does. The truth is that paid ads can get incredibly complex. Things like re-targeting and custom audience definitions, along with understanding the ebb and flow of everything with a sales funnel, is complex and confusing to most. 

However, if you do understand the mechanics of paid advertising, then you could easily launch an ad management business. Considering that ads are fueling the growth of tech giants like Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube, with loads of others coming into the mix, understanding and navigating the murky waters of paid advertising could poise you to reap massive riches. 

Why? Let’s take a look at the numbers for a moment. Consider this: according to a report by eMarketer, digital ad spending in the U.S. will exceed traditional ad spending for the first time this year. By 2023, digital will surpass two-thirds of total media spending. Total digital ad spending in the U.S. will grow 19% to $129.34 billion this year — 54.2% of estimated total U.S. ad spending.

The sheer facts point to continued explosive growth of online ads. And we’re still in the infancy of the internet. The earlier you capitalize on this industry, the quicker you can build it into a formidable online business.

Study and learn all the intricacies of advertising on platforms like Facebook and Google. Find courses, or use the free material available from a multitude of platforms to become a seasoned pro.

4. SEO business

Search engine optimization is a topic that I’ve been writing about for years now. The truth is that, while paid ads are growing at an astounding rate, the ability to appear organically and relevantly on search engines like Google is not only becoming more competitive, but also more lucrative. 

When it comes to organic search keywords, there is sheer value at the top. Considering that roughly 40 percent of people click on the first search results and that the first page accounts for some 91 percent of the search share, appear organically at the top of Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is something that is lusted and longed for by the world’s foremost online marketers.

As the internet grows and expands, not only is SEO going to get more competitive, but it’s also going to grow more lucrative. You could quite easily capitalize on this industry if you know what you’re doing. This doesn’t just go for doing work for clients, but also for yourself. You could launch any number of online businesses, niche websites, and blogs with the right amount of SEO skills.

5. Vacation rental business

The vacation rental business is booming. While the mere mention of it might make you think about billion-dollar titans like AirBnB or HomeAway, there are niche businesses like Michael Joseph’s InvitedHome and Joe Poulin’s Luxury Retreats and many others being carved out across a variety of markets.

When it comes to vacation rental homes and vacation rental management, companies are earning anywhere between 10 percent and 40 percent on the gross rental rate depending on the location and the management level.

Launching and building a vacation rental business might require some sweat equity along with the right turnkey software solution to help you keep things organized as bookings ramp up, but if you have an acute attention to detail, then this is by far one of the best businesses you can start online.

Of course, this does operate in the real world, but your web presence and marketing skills are really what define this business and helps it to succeed.

If you’re at all interested in the hospitality industry, and you live in a tourist destination, this is a terrific business that can make money fast. Companies like Lodgix, Lodgify and 365 Villas offer terrific turnkey solutions for quickly building and managing your very own vacation rental management business.

5 Online Businesses You Can Start With No Money

Today there are plenty of tools you can use to build an online business that makes the technical work a lot easier than it was in the past.

You can also live anywhere you want, set your own schedule, and work as little or as much as you want, depending on how fast or big you want your business to grow. No business or marketing experience is needed either. It’s a truly democratic medium for entrepreneurship.

Best of all, unlike a brick-and-mortar business, you don’t need a lot of startup capital. In fact, you can get many internet businesses up and running with no money at all because so many free services facilitate the possibility. For example, you can set up a website or blog for free using WordPress. Or you can leverage a third-party site like Amazon or eBay to sell goods with no inventory costs. You use their selling platform in exchange for giving them a cut of your sales.

And this is just the start of the many available no-money e-commerce startup solutions. Let’s consider five of the top ways to start an online business and make money online with little or no cost at all.

1. Drop Shipping

The basic idea behind an online drop shipping business is that, as a small business owner, you don’t have to maintain a large inventory (or any inventory whatsoever) of products or handle any delivery to your customers.

That eliminates the financial cost and risk of having a warehouse full of stuff you might not sell, and the hassle of arranging to send orders all over the country or the world. In fact, you don’t have to manufacture or store any products at all.

The only thing you have to focus on is marketing and advertising to find the customers and make the sales. Once the sale is made the rest is handled by others. Your only cost is the expense of marketing and advertising to acquire a new customer.

Once that is done, you’ll work with a company that specializes in drop shipping. Here’s how it works:

1. You list products for sale on your website or a platform like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy.
2. When one of your customers makes a purchase, you purchase the product from a third-party company (the drop shipper, usually a manufacturer or wholesaler) for a lower price. This process is as simple as forwarding the order from your customer, a process that can actually be completely automated. (Remember you don’t have any risk here of buying inventory because the sale has already been made).
3. Your drop shipper then sends the product to the customer.

Easy enough, right? With drop shipping, you can offer a wide range of products, so the operating expenses for your business are super low.

What are the downsides to the drop shipping business model? You have to find a reputable drop shipper you can count on to deliver to your customers. If an order is late or doesn’t go out—or a product is of poor quality—you get blamed, as your company is the one representing the product and customer experience.

Also, because this market is so competitive, the margins—that is, the difference between the wholesale price and how much you can sell a product for—are lower, so this will be a high-volume type business to generate a serious income. But still, it is a worthwhile low or no-cost startup option.

One way to stand out from the competition with a drop shipping business is to private label your products. This simply means you put your own label/brand on the products that the manufacturer is creating. That way you’re not selling the same product brand and just competing on price; rather you can use your own brand and face less competition.

Think about when you’re looking at medicine at the pharmacy; the brand names sell for higher prices and people think they are different from the generic brands even though the ingredients are exactly the same. Consider these important factors when looking for a good drop shipping product.

Anyone considering a drop shipping business should seriously consider leveraging Amazon.com to grow their business and learn more about becoming a profitable Amazon seller, because Amazon is an established marketplace that people already trust and has an existing customer base. Eventually, you should also consider having your own online store as well.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is somewhat similar to drop shipping but with some key differences. With this e-commerce model, you again don’t maintain an inventory of your own products, and you don’t have to worry about shipping products to customers.

Basically, you pick a profitable niche for your online business, and then you find an affiliate partner who has products available in that niche. Some of the most popular affiliate sites are Clickbank.com, Amazon.com, and CJ Affiliate by Conversant (formerly Commission Junction).

Between them, they offer just about any digital information product (like ebooks, audio files, video files) or physical product you can think of. Many big name companies and brands like Wal-Mart and Home Depot run their own affiliate programs.

With affiliate marketing, you offer the products for sale, for example, on your blog or e-commerce website. Each product has a unique link that tracks back to your account with your affiliate partner. A prospect who clicks on the link is taken to your partner’s shopping cart for checkout. Once they buy, that purchase is recorded and you receive a commission.

Commission amounts vary depending on the affiliate partner, but is generally 5 percent to 25 percent, or 50 percent or more with digital information products. As you can see, there’s little risk on your part and virtually no investment needed either. Just like with drop shipping your only costs will be marketing and advertising to drive traffic and generate the sale.

The key difference between this and drop shipping is that the business model is even more hands off. All you have to do is provide a link for the customer to click on and the merchant handles everything; billing, order fulfillment, customer service, etc.

All you have to do is handle the marketing to get your prospects to buy (through social media, email marketing, blogging, or whatever method you choose). But after they click the affiliate link, it’s out of your hands. You don’t have to ship products or handle any customer service questions. And you certainly don’t have to maintain an inventory.

All you have to do is focus on paid and free ways to market your online business.

Affiliate marketing really is one of the most “hand-off” types of online businesses you can start.

3. Blogging

If you have the expertise or a passion or interest for a subject, you’re ready to start making money with a blog. With a service like Blogger (www.blogger.com), you can start up your blog totally free.

You can also create your own site and secure your own hosting for a low price, which is generally the route I recommend, as many free blogging sites have restrictions on what you can say or do, including making money or advertising.

You may think blogging is all about writing. And it can be if that’s what you want to do. But written blog posts are just the start. You can post photos, videos, and links to other sites, you can even repost news and other articles… anything is game, really, as long as it relates to your niche.

They key is that you want to post original content that is useful to your target audience and to post on a regular basis. That is the best way to get ranked in the search engines and to also get your audience to take action.

What sort of content should you provide? Anything that is engaging to your prospect. How-to topics, top-10 lists, commentary on trends in your niche, tips and tricks articles—basically, you need to provide useful content. There’s no shortage of ideas for your blog.

You make money in a variety of ways with an online business blog.

4. Online Video

Have you watched a YouTube video lately? Of course you have! This is one of the world’s most popular websites, with more than 2 billion users watching hundreds of millions of hours of video each day. And it’s not all cats doing funny things, by any means.

You can leverage YouTube’s reach to make money online. No, you’re not trying to create a viral video, so to speak, although if it does go worldwide and is seen by millions, that’s a good thing.

Instead, you’ll be following a proven strategy for maximizing views of multiple videos on a regular basis. You’ll be creating useful content—something engaging that people want to watch. And it works in many, many different niches. It could be a how-to video or a talking-head video on a topic of interest for people in your niche—the sky is the limit.

You make money with ad revenue. Your first step is to create a YouTube account and start uploading videos. Then you enable monetization on your YouTube settings. Basically, this gives Google the go-ahead to include short AdSense ads with your videos, which you’ve seen if you’ve watched a YouTube video. When viewers click on those ads, you get paid.

Another opportunity to make money with a YouTube channel is through paid sponsorships. Build a large enough following and companies will be more than happy to pay you to promote or mention their products and services in your videos.

Some tips to create professional-looking videos (no expensive pro equipment needed):

1. You can use your smartphone or a simple video camera. But make sure the lighting is good so that everything in your video is clear and easy to see.
2. Make sure the audio is clear. You don’t want an air conditioning hum, construction noise, or other distractions.
3. Use simple editing software like iMovie to put titles at the beginning of the video and to edit out any flubs.

Above all, remember that your videos can be simple and don’t have to be slick. Just provide useful content and be engaging and interesting. Funny helps, too.

And to extend the reach of your videos, be sure to post them on your Facebook business page, Twitter, your blog, and other channels. Let people know you’re in the video business now.

In addition to ad revenue from YouTube videos, you can also use your YouTube channel to drive traffic back to your website, where visitors can read your product reviews, click on the ads on your website, or even get onto your email subscriber list—where you can make multiple sales with your email list.

5. Information Products

When you have an internet business, it doesn’t have to be about selling physical products. In fact, digital information products are one of the easiest and quickest ways to make money.

There’s no shortage of ways to create information products, but the most popular formats include:

• Audio: a recorded teleconference, interview, course, or some other spoken-word product
• Video: a recorded webinar, a how-to, an interview
• Text: an ebook, an instruction booklet of some sort, a travel guide

In each of these categories, you can really get creative and make any type and format of content, as long as it’s engaging and useful.

No matter which way you do it, it’s passive income—money you earn while you sleep because you put these products up for sale on your website and a customer can buy and download them any time of day or night, automatically. All you have to do is check the sales periodically to see what topics or types of products are selling best so you can make more of those.

What is The Most Successful Online Business?

Creating or finding profitable online business ideas can be challenging. There are thousands of possible business opportunities, yet everything seems like it’s been done thousands of times before.

If you’re looking to start your own business, below is a list of opportunities you can take advantage of today to grow a profitable business in 2022 and beyond.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is one of the best at-home business opportunities there is. Dropshipping is a business model that lets you buy products directly from a supplier or manufacturer and ship them to your customers.

Compared to other ecommerce business opportunities, dropshipping is low cost to start. You don’t have to worry about carrying inventory or buying products in bulk. You don’t even have to worry about shipping products, because your supplier handles that for you.

Since you don’t have to buy the items you sell, you can offer a variety of different products, such as beauty, keto, fashion, home, ice cream, wholesale, and more—dropshipping business opportunities are near endless. If a supplier stocks a product, you can list it on your online store at no additional cost.

Print on demand

Whether you’re an artist, designer, or ecommerce brand, print on demand is a great potential business opportunity for online clothing retailers. Printing on demand involves working with a supplier to customize white-label products, such as tote bags or t-shirts, with your own designs.

The best part? You don’t have to pay for the product until after you sell it. Similar to dropshipping, you don’t hold any inventory or buy in bulk.

Sell digital products

E-learning is exploding as an industry. Recent studies show that the industry will be worth around $325 billion by 2025, making digital products one of the best online business opportunities for creators and educators alike.

Music, videos, ebooks, and online courses are a few examples. They can be held or touched, but are popular amongst consumers because they can download them and consume on their own time.

Digital products also make for great business opportunities because they’re inexpensive to create and distribute. You can make it once and sell it repeatedly to different people without restocking inventory or talking with suppliers. If you consider yourself an expert on a particular topic, you can package that information up and sell it in the form of a one-time fee or subscription.

Sell photography

Business opportunities like selling photography are common. You can sell photos on endless stock sites—such as Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, 500px, and Stocksy—or wherever the demand for your type of photography exists.

To succeed in selling photos online, make sure to cover three important things:

1. Find your niche. Whether it’s flowers, travel, buildings, landscapes, or fashion, choose one and stick to it.
2. Build an audience. Selling photos isn’t a passive business opportunity. It’s a good idea to promote your photos on social media and build a following to sell more.
3. Create multiple revenue streams. Don’t just sell on one site. Sell on as many as you can manage to create various streams of income.

Whether you’re a hobby photographer or it’s your full-time job, selling photos is one of those free online business opportunities that can help you earn cash if you put the time into it.

Play video games

Video games have come a long way from earning you only bragging rights. Today, you can earn degrees, get sponsorships, and even become an esports professional gamer.

With an industry valued at $257 billion and growing, video games can be one of the most profitable business opportunities, if you play your cards right. Revenue doesn’t come only from playing professionally, either. You can earn money live streaming on a platform like Twitch.tv, start a YouTube channel, or even sell game-inspired merch.

Become a self-published author

Do you love to write? Have you ever thought about publishing your own book? Well, good news. Becoming a self-published author is one of the best small business opportunities for you.

Self-publishing just means that you don’t work with an established publisher to manage the editing, design, and production processes of making a book. Instead, you do it on your own. With no real shortage of readers on the internet, there’s plenty of space for you to make and sell an ebook or audiobook and turn a profit.

How Can I be Successful Online?

We are in a connected world today. The internet, along with smart phones, has changed the way business is done.

Organize Your Web Assets

This extends much further than just organizing your business. Your web assets are everything from your website to your social media profiles to your hosting account. These need to be in order.

All relevant assets should be optimized for your brand. For example, your social media and webpages should have the relevant keywords. They should fall into an integrated marketing plan. And they should be completely updated with the latest information about your company.

Maintain Customer Records Safely

One problem business owners have is that they need to be able to keep records safely. You have a legal obligation to protect any customer information obtained online. For example, you should store information on separate devices and have a number of secure backups.

You should have a system in place to destroy things like credit card details securely when they’re no longer needed.

Do you know your competition?

Any good business will know its competition. You need to know who you’re competing against so that you know why customers choose you over others, or vice versa. Nowhere is this more important than in the online world.

You should be aware of social media channels your competition is using. And you should inspect keyword usage from all your competitors using the variety of tools Google provides.

Protect Your Brand’s Online Reputation

Online business is all about reputation. The slightest mistake can taint your brand forever. The key is control. Setup a Google Alerts notification for your brand. That way, you’ll be able to inspect any mention of your brand.

Have a firm set of branding and social media guidelines, so anyone posting on behalf of your brand is aware of what you expect from them. Learn to deal with customer complaints and adopt a mindset of solving problems; even if the customer is wrong.

Be Persistent

Few businesses become overnight success stories. This is something you’ll have to accept if you want to enter the business world. Persistence will pay off in the end if you continue to do all the right things. You need to be consistent and stay focused on your goals.

Did you know most startups take three to five years before they start turning in a profit?

Know When to Call It Quits

Sometimes an idea will fail. The biggest challenge for an entrepreneur is to know when an idea has failed. It’s no point trying to revive a dead duck. So don’t be scared to change course if necessary.

Why do Online Businesses Fail?

Some studies have shown that 90% of online businesses fail within the first four months of operation. This is a pretty abysmal statistic, isn’t it? If you have a brand new business, or are thinking of starting one, you probably want to do everything in your power to be among the 10% that find long-term success. So what can you do to keep your ecommerce website or online business from failing?

1. Lack Of Business Identity

a) Who is my customer?

b) What am I offering my customer?

c) Why is it desirable?

d) How does this benefit my customer?

e) What are my long-term goals?

If you can’t answer these basic questions, this may present a challenge for your business.

2. Lack Of The Right Team

23% of startups fail due to lack of the right team. No matter you’ve spent through your nose for a creative logo design, a fancy website and an extra-luxe office space, nothing can save your startup company from falling flat if you don’t have a great team.

3. No Training And Support System

Lack of training can lead to more frustration, wasted time, and unhappy employees. Having employees who feel as though they are not developing and are becoming frustrated with their work, often leads to those employees leaving their jobs and affecting your employee retention rates.

4. Lack Of Maintenance

Internet trends and technologies are constantly changing, and your website needs regular maintenance to keep it looking and performing at its best. After your website is up and running, you may think your job is over. But it’s not as simple as that.

5. Lack Of Constant Marketing And Persistence

One of the most significant reasons most online marketers fail, is because of a lack of persistence. They simply give up too soon. They try something for a few weeks, even for a few months and then they conclude this is not working and they give up.

Building a solid online business or viable website takes time, a lot of time. Just because your business is online, doesn’t mean everything will fall into place overnight, it takes time to establish a customer base. It takes time to build your business relationships with others in your field.

Sometimes, it may take years before you see some solid returns. Building top rankings for your keywords in the search engines (especially Google) can take months, even years before you see any results. The real key is to be persistent and keep at it, day after day, until you get those top rankings. You simply must be persistent or you will fail.

What Are The Top 3 Online Businesses?

Here is the list of the top online business ideas to get you started instantly. The best part is that all of these ideas have money-making potential, meaning you don’t need to validate them before you start. If you are looking for the best online business to start, this is the only list you will need.

1. Open a T-Shirt Online Shop

Platforms like Printful and Shopify have made it insanely simple to start an online t-shirt business for anyone with a speck of imagination and an eye for design. But it doesn’t need to be an online t-shirt shop; you can set up an ecommerce shop selling anything. The key here is to learn about print on demand, which forms the base for such businesses.

2. Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping is the easiest option to start an ecommerce business without having to buy any products in advance. Use dropshipping apps to find thousands of products from suppliers to sell online. Then sell to customers across the world while building and promoting your own brand, all without needing to invest in warehousing or manufacturing costs.

You don’t need to pay for inventory until it’s sold to an actual customer. From online boutique to jewelry store to women’s clothing store to one-product store, dropshipping works for most online store ideas.

3. Selling Online Courses

Derek Halpern has built a really strong personal brand. He’s the founder of a software and business training company called Social Triggers and makes a LOT of money teaching people how to sell what they know best. And what he knows best is how to sell. If you’ve got some serious expertise, start making money out of it by selling online courses or simply teaching online.

How Can a Beginner Make Money?

1. SEO Expert

One of the online world’s hottest professions at the moment, this business is a gold mine for the tech-savvy entrepreneurs. While everyone’s slightly obsessed with getting their sites SEO optimized, not many people can actually wrap their heads around this topic.

If you decide to go into this field, you can think about offering link building, content creation, ecommerce SEO optimization, and similar one-off packages.

2. Graphic Designer

Graphic designers are always in demand from small businesses to large multinationals. Starting a graphic design business can allow you to tap into this great opportunity. Showcasing your experience with your past portfolio can help you gain customers without aggressive outreach.

3. Website Developer

In the same vein as graphic design, website development is in constant demand as businesses are always trying to upgrade and improve their websites to get more sales.

This means that you can work on new and existing websites concurrently, and get to try new things all the time. If being constantly challenged is what you are looking for, website development could be the best online business for you.

4. Translator

If you are gifted with more than one language but have no interest in teaching others, try translating. Many companies need their website and collateral translated when they move into a different market.

You can help them achieve it, while also keeping active in more than one language. Keep in mind the most common way of billing is cost per word, so price wisely to make smart money from this great online business idea.

5. Social Media Manager

Social media is an integral part of any business but it’s time-consuming and ever-changing – so really quite difficult to keep up with and, more importantly, capitalize on. Many business owners are willing to outsource this time-intensive task, so it’s a great opportunity for social media fanatics.

Bundle together a few interesting offers, such as “Startup social media kit” or “Small Business Social Media Starter Kit” that encompass everything from social media graphics to analytics reports and the seamless experience will bring you more clients than you expect.

Is Amazon an Online Business?

Amazon provides an array of products and services to businesses and individuals worldwide. As an online retailer and third-party, Amazon’s products range from books and music to furniture and clothing. This e-business operates under several business models, all of which are designed to capture and retain customers while keeping up with evolving technological customer demands.

Amazon creates business relationships with businesses of all sizes, from sole proprietorships to corporations. New and un-established businesses can start with personal accounts and then upgrade to a business account when their sales increase.

Amazon’s various platforms and services are the foundations for many of Amazon’s businesses and affiliates. These businesses benefit from the customer exposure and increased sales opportunities while Amazon earns income through its own product sales, as well as through earnings from memberships, fees, royalties and commissions.

How Can I Make Money From Home?

Making some extra side hustle cash doesn’t actually have to be that complicated. At the end of the day, it all boils down to what your goals are and just how much you’re looking to automate your income.

1. Become a virtual assistant.

One simple way to make money from home is to help others complete tasks as a virtual assistant. If you’re highly organized and can properly manage your time, then becoming a virtual assistant presents a low-friction entry point into the digital services industry. You can easily perform these functions as a remote worker no matter where you live.

Finding work as a virtual assistant can be easily done through sites like Upwork, Indeed.com and Remote.co. Search the existing posted jobs and create bids. You’ll need effective communication skills and fluency in English and popular web and business software applications.

2. Sell stuff on eBay or Craigslist.

A large subset of our society is earning a full-time income by selling items on Craigslist and eBay. You can do this by selling your own items, or you can help sell items for other people and take a small commission. Selling on eBay offers more friction than Craigslist and you’ll need to establish solid reviews before you can begin to move high-ticket items.

However, eBay does provide resources for sellers to help you get acclimated to selling on the platform. Take the time to do your due diligence and research the platform. If you have some solid online marketing skills, you’ll find this much easier than if you’re a complete newbie to the world of digital marketing. 

3. Trade cryptocurrency.

As the digital world evolves, so does our currency. What seemed like a novelty yesterday will ultimately become the preferred medium for money. A Gallop poll found that 10 percent of people claimed to use cash as their preferred payment method in 2016 (down from 19 percent in 2011). 

While cryptocurrency is still relatively new, it will ultimately become the standard. Bitcoin and Etherium might be the primary cryptocurrency platforms today, but the US Dollar will eventually become the Digital Dollar by leveraging the blockchain. You can take advantage of the current boom in cryptocurrency by trading it through platforms like eToro and Kraken, amongst many others. 

4. Online tutoring

Websites like Skooli, Tutor Me and Tutor.com provide resources for entering into the online tutoring space. While you don’t need to use a platform like these, they provide a lower friction entry point into the market. You could also search for online tutoring gigs on a variety of other sites like Upwork, Freelancer and many more. 

What types of things can you tutor online? You could easily tutor a subject like math or science, while also teaching a language if you’re bilingual. You could also tutor musical instruments like the guitar or piano, along with a slew of other subject matters. 

5. Sell services on Fiverr

Fiverr has grown significantly since its inception. Today, it’s a vast marketplace where you can sell just about any service under the sun. This is great if you’re looking to make money online as a digital nomad or even while sitting at home on your laptop while in your pajamas. 

Read Also: How Does Google Get Profit by Search Engine

What, specifically, can you sell on Fiverr? Anything from graphics and design services, to digital marketing, writing and translation services, video and animation services, music and audio, programming and application development, business services and lifestyle services that includes anything from celebrity impressions to gaming.

Is Running an Online Business Easy?

Starting an online business is easy. You can sign up for an account on an online marketplace, such as Amazon, eBay, or Etsy, or create a website, and you’re set. But if you want to set one up for success, you need to do much more work.

An online store never sleeps. Once your business website or store is active and online, shoppers can click on add to cart at any time, and you can offer the same products on multiple channels.

An online store doesn’t need a physical presence, so that means sales are coming in whether you’re monitoring it or not. If you automate your sales process from stock management to fulfillment, you can literally make money while you sleep.

How Many Online Businesses Are Successful?

According to many sources, more than 90% (Ninety percent) of all Internet business start-ups end in failure within the first 120 (one hundred twenty) days. And that number is all too accurate: NINETY PERCENT!

This alarming failure rate goes unheeded for a number of reasons:

1. Many don’t know the statistical probabilities they face.
2. Many don’t see themselves as being part of the failures or they wouldn’t leap.
3. Many are talked into things they are unprepared for.
4. Many don’t know the basic tenant of – “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”

Of course, success is still a possibility. There IS that other 10% (ten percent) that do succeed. For them, success doesn’t happen by accident. And success isn’t just a crap shoot. Success happens because of some very important factors.

Success happens because people learn about internet marketing and how it works. They do not expect to get rich quick or be able to make a killing overnight and retire to a tropical isle.

Conclusion

The internet changes so fast that one year online equals about five years in the real world. But the principles of how to start and grow a successful online business haven’t changed at all.

If you’re just starting a small business online, stick to this sequence. If you’ve been online awhile, do a quick review and see if there’s a step you’re neglecting, or never got around to doing in the first place. You can’t go wrong with the basics.

There is no one way to build an online business, so do not be afraid to take risks. Look at what your competitors are doing, and think about what you could do differently. Just because no one has done something before, it does not mean it cannot be done. Think about your end goal, pursue any opportunity to get there, and you will have a successful online business in no time at all.