In this article, I will share 7 profitable online business ideas for beginners—really simple ways to make money from ecommerce.
If you are just starting out, you should know that running an online business is much like having a “real world” business; there is work involved, and you will need to invest money into your business.
There are many ways to promote your business without spending money, such as by utilizing free online advertising. However, to take your business to the next level, you may need to invest in essential tools like a domain name, hosting account, and autoresponder. But don’t worry, these investments will pay off in the long run!
7 Profitable Online Business Ideas For Beginners
When starting your online business career, you have many different online opportunities to choose from. In this article, I will share the best online business ideas for beginners.
#1. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing, which involves promoting other people´s products and services, is perhaps the most lucrative online business model available. When you promote only digital products, you don´t need to worry about shipping or a warehouse. The customer receives the product directly after payment, and the vendor takes care of customer support and possible refunds.
Your only job as an affiliate marketer is to promote a unique affiliate link that you receive from different digital marketplaces, such as Clickbank or Digistore24.
Every time you earn a commission, Clickbank (or whichever digital marketplace you use) will pay you directly to your bank account. Promoting digital products is also much more profitable than promoting physical products. The commissions you can earn on marketing digital products can be as high as 75%, compared to physical products, where you earn around a 4% commission.
If you are looking to make money from home, then you should really consider doing affiliate marketing. Thousands of people worldwide are earning a full-time living from it, and you can too. There is a lot of information available about how to get started and avoid costly mistakes.
#2. Do online surveys
Companies want to know what their customers think about their products so they can improve them and make more money.If you live in the United States or Canada, you have the opportunity to take online surveys. You can earn extra income by sharing your opinion. Surveys are one of the most profitable online business ideas because you can sign up for many different survey sites.
Sign up for multiple survey sites to earn more money. In order to earn a couple hundred dollars per month, you need to complete several surveys daily. It can be difficult to earn a full-time income from surveys, but you can at least earn some extra money to help with the rent.
#3. Buy and sell domain names
When thinking of profitable online business ideas, buying and selling domain names could be a great option. You would be buying domain names on the cheap and then selling them for a profit. You can register a domain name for around $15 per year. The domain registrar can help you sell your domain name using a domain auction.
Not all domain names are worth a lot of money. There are differences and things you need to be aware of.
Tips for choosing a great domain name:
- Check for expired domain names at ExpiredDomains.net
- If possible, use a.com domain name. (Other options include.org and.net.)
- Include “best” or “buy” in the domain name. (Do keyword research!)
Visit YouTube for ideas about domain flipping. You can find useful “how-to” videos with great tips about how to earn the most money from domain names.
#4. Start a YouTube channel
If you are interested in making videos, why not start your own YouTube channel? One of the most profitable online business ideas is definitely video creation. There is potential to make a lot of money; YouTube is the world’s largest search engine for videos. People who earn a full-time income from their videos often focus on one specific topic.
The topic needs to be profitable. For instance, you could start a YouTube channel that focuses only on reviews of different products and services. First, do some research to find ideas about topics lots of people are interested in. Then, you need to find affiliate products that match. Finally, you create in-depth reviews or “how-to” videos about that topic.
Over time, if you keep creating new videos regularly, you will start getting followers, and your videos will start showing up in search results. You will start getting traffic and making money from your videos in many different ways.
An example:
Let´s say you are interested in camping. First, you should visit a discussion board or forum about camping. Join, read, and participate in the forum regularly to learn about the kinds of problems people have. You could create YouTube videos that solve these problems and recommend affiliate products that earn you money.
Creating videos is time-consuming, and you need to have at least a mobile phone to be able to start. You can make money from YouTube even without any of your own videos by uploading other people’s videos. For instance, travel vloggers are looking for ordinary YouTube users to upload videos for them. You can get paid $950 a week. This is something you should look into if you are interested. More information here.
#5. Blogging (Online business ideas for beginners)
Blogging is definitely one of the most profitable online business ideas. You can start a blog about anything you want, for instance, a hobby, and then recommend affiliate products closely related to your hobby. If you are interested in a topic, then there are most likely thousands of others who want to read your content and buy the products you recommend.
Professional affiliate marketers love to blog. They realize the potential of building a content-rich blog complete with images and videos. Blogging is a business and has to be treated as one. Affiliate marketers never use free blogging platforms. They invest in their own.com domain name, a hosting account, and an autoresponder.
There is a lot of technical stuff when it comes to setting up a money-making blog. It can be overwhelming if you are just starting out. Fortunately, you don´t need to learn everything from scratch. Without having to learn any technical jargon, you can get a complete, professional money-making blog setup for free here.
#6. Create videos for customers (online business ideas for beginners)
Online business owners are often busy and have very little time (or knowledge) to create professional videos. They need videos for their blogs and to share on social media sites. Videos are also needed for their own YouTube and Vimeo channels.
If you know how to create professional videos, then you could start selling your services on Fiverr.com.
Fiverr is a big market for digital services. Besides creating videos, you can also offer other services such as article writing, programming, translations, website design, and so on. Read my Fiverr review here for more information.
#7. Online teaching (online business ideas for beginners)
Do you know a lot about a specific topic? If you have a computer with an Internet connection and a webcam, then you can start teaching online. The easiest way to get started is to visit a site called Udemy.com, which is the world´s largest education site. There are certain criteria that you need to meet in order to sign up as a teacher.
Conclusion – Profitable Online Business Ideas For Beginners
More and more people are coming online to look for ways to make money. Starting an online business is a great opportunity for many, but it is always good to know that there is work involved and that it does take some kind of investment in time, money, or both.
If I had to start my online business today, I would start blogging full-time. By doing it daily, you will build up a content-rich site that generates highly targeted traffic from all over the Internet. This traffic turns into new leads and sales for you for years to come.
