Searching for online business ideas can be tedious, in fact back in 2018 when I started my online journey it took me weeks to find the right business model for me.
Which is the reason I’ve created such a comprehensive article, so hopefully it’ll help you speed up the process.
As you may already know building a business online is a great way to achieve time and geographical freedom, especially if you pick the right business model that offers complete flexibility.
As well as freedom, creating a successful online business can provide complete financial security, allowing you to take full control of your finances, rather than leaving it in the hands of an employer.
Sounds great right?
But why isn’t everyone doing it?
Well, like anything that sounds awesome, the catch with this is it requires hard work, dedication, and consistency to achieve success.
I know, I know, I know it sounds obvious, but unfortunately in this day and age, we are bombarded with adverts and people on social media flaunting success and saying how easy it is.
Which just isn’t true.
However don’t let that put you off, because with the online business ideas I’ve laid out for you below, success is inevitable if you’re willing to work at it.
All of which can offer time, financial and geographical freedom.
As a favorite quote of mine goes:
“If you do what’s easy, life will be hard
If you do what’s hard, life will be easy“
So on that note, let’s dive in and find you the perfect business model.
15 Of The Best Online Business Ideas
- Affiliate Marketing
- Create a blog
- Amazon FBA
- User-Generated Content (UGC) Creator
- Dropshipping Business
- Social Media Marketing
- Sell Online Courses
- Become a coach
- Publishing
- Influencer Marketing
- Day Trader
- Online Store
- Web Designer
- Blog Writer
- Market Research Analyst
Highly Profitable Online Business Ideas
1) Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular online business models as it has such a low barrier to entry.
You can get started with less than $100 and in some cases for free, so the risk to reward can be huge.
It’s the process of promoting other people’s/businesses products and earning a commission on each sale you make.
Meaning you don’t have to deal with customers, refunds, complaints, fulfilling the product, staff, or anything a traditional business has to deal with.
You simply find the business you want to promote a buying customer and you’ll earn a commission, which will vary depending on the price of the product.
Sometimes it can range into the thousands per sale if you promote high-ticket products.
I’ve personally been an affiliate marketer for years and I absolutely love it!
Initial Investment Cost: Under $100
Experience Needed: None, however an understanding of sales and marketing can help.
2) Create A Blog
Personally, I feel starting a blog is probably the most simple and most profitable option out there.
Now, I don’t mean create a blog about your life because that’s not really the “in thing” anymore, that’s what social media is for.
I’m talking about building a business blog where your goal is to sell and promote products or services.
There are so many ways you can monetize a blog from creating review articles and including affiliate links, landing deals with prospects in your niche, promoting your own products and services, receiving advertising revenue, and the list goes on.
Example:
You create a blog post ranking the top 10 best laptops to buy, you include affiliate links to each one, and when someone lands on your blog/article and clicks a link you’ll earn a commission.
You only need to write the blog once and it’s then a piece of digital real estate earning you income years into the future.
Creating a blog is one of the best online business ideas as it also doesn’t require much upfront investment, in fact, you can start building out your website for as little as $3 a month with Bluehost (which is who I personally use).
Initial Investment Cost: Under $100
Experience Needed: Basic website and SEO (search engine optimization) knowledge will help, but there’s no harm in learning as you go
3) Amazon FBA
Amazon FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) is a fantastic way to make your own e-commerce business come to life, without the hassle of having to stock your inventory in a warehouse, dealing with customers, sort refunds, etc.
With this service, Amazon basically does the whole process for you.
Here’s a brief overview of this business model:
Your job when creating an Amazon FBA business is to research products that there is high demand and low competition for.
You can use software such as jungle scout to do this, where you can scout out how well your competitors are doing and how many products they are selling each month.
Once you’ve chosen your niche/product, you’ll then want to head over to alibaba.com (Chinese Wholesale Website) and get in touch with manufacturers who can create your product for you.
Make sure your profit margins are there because if it’s a good product you’ve chosen and it sells well, you’ll want to scale the business asap!
The next step is to get your product sent directly to an Amazon warehouse in the country you’re looking to sell in, list the product for sale and then Amazon does the rest.
This business model is extremely popular as it can be a very hands-off business once it’s up and running.
Plus, there are millions of potential customers on Amazon, so the sky is the limit when it comes to sales!
Initial Investment Cost: Between $1,000 – $2,500 is needed to get started
Experience Needed: None, however, it’s important to do a lot of research before launching your business as picking the wrong product can be costly.
4) User-Generate Content (UGC) Creator
If you’re looking for a creative online business idea and have a knack for producing content such as videos and photos, then becoming a UGC creator could be perfect for you.
UGC stands for user-generated content and it’s exactly what it sounds like: content that is created by users instead of businesses.
This type of content is extremely popular on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat.
As a UGC creator, you would be responsible for creating this type of content for brands and businesses using their products and essentially reviewing them.
The businesses will then use the content on their own social media platforms or marketing campaigns to attract new customers.
Essentially you’re part of their marketing team, creating content for them.
However you can work with as many brands as you like, so the skies the limit when it comes to income potential.
Initial Investment Cost: Nothing
Experience Needed: It’s important to have a good idea of how to create engaging content and how to pitch yourself to brands.
5) Create a Dropshipping Store
Dropshipping is an e-commerce business model where you sell products without having to carry any inventory.
When a customer places an order on your website, the order is then sent to and fulfilled by your supplier who ships the product directly to the customer’s door.
This means you can start your dropshipping store with little upfront investment and scale your business very quickly once you find successful products to sell.
The biggest benefit of this business model is not having to hold your inventory and stack up tons of boxes of products in your living room!
One of the best places to start building your business is Shopify, they allow you to fully build and customize your own website and integrate payments systems straight away.
Most dropshipping stores drive customers to their website by using paid advertising such as Facebook or Google adverts, so it’s important to factor that into your costs.
Startup Costs: $100-$200 Max (+Advertising spend)
Experience Needed: None, however a good knack for understanding what types of products are needed in the market is definitely going to help.
6) Social Media Marketing
Are you someone who’s great at creating content and posting on social media?
If so, this could be the perfect online business idea for you.
Thousands of companies want to utilize social media to drive customers and eyeballs to their business, however it’s super time-consuming.
Creating content, engaging with followers, replying to comments, posting every single day…
I must say, I don’t enjoy it at all!
This is why most businesses that are established will outsource their social media to a social media agency or a social media manager who can do all the heavy lifting for them.
The job would be to create more brand awareness or sales for the business through social media platforms.
And the best part about it?
You aren’t tied to just working for one company, so it can be an extremely lucrative business model that can be done from almost anywhere in the world.
Start-Up Costs: $0 You’ll just need to hustle like crazy to find your first clients
Experience Needed: Understanding of social media algorithms and how to create engaging content.
7) Sell Online Courses
Selling courses and services online can be an extremely profitable business model, especially if you approach it in the right way and always put your customers first.
If you’re an expert in a certain field, maybe it’s playing guitar, yoga, singing, marketing, trading, or fitness then I can guarantee there will be people out there who will want to learn from you.
As much as selling courses can be extremely lucrative, it’s also incredibly rewarding to share knowledge and to see students and clients get results.
It’s one of the reasons I teach affiliate marketing because I love helping others create their dream lives and start crushing it!
There are 2 methods to attract customers to your course, build up a following on social media platforms or create paid marketing campaigns and send traffic through your sales funnel.
This should be used to educate the prospects on what you do and how you can help them get their desired results.
8) Coach or Consulting Business
Similar to selling courses online, becoming a coach or consultant is essentially another way of helping people get results but with a more hands-on approach.
While selling courses can be made automated and clients can watch pre-made videos.
Coaching allows more ‘over-the-shoulder’ training and support.
For example: You’re a fitness coach and you help clients lose weight online. You do this by giving them a training and diet plan to follow and by jumping on calls each week to hold them accountable.
Another example: You’re a business consultant, who knows how to scale revenue and cut costs. You work with businesses who aren’t so clued up on their finances, and you guide and grow their company.
This business model can be extremely lucrative as most coaches/consultants charge thousands of dollars for their time.
Merging both Coaching and Online courses can be the best of both worlds and the best way to scale your business.
You could create an online course that attracts people with a smaller budget who want to self-study, however for those who want the extra help and a more hands-on approach, you can up-sell them into your coaching services.
9) Publishing
If you’re a great writer and have a passion for sharing stories with the world, then why not look into publishing?
It’s not like the old days when you need to get large book and publishing deals to have any chance of success.
Now you can create a book, upload it onto amazon and sell it there. (Print-on-demand service)
Each time someone makes a purchase of your book, Amazon will print it, package it and send it on to the customer.
This means you don’t have to worry about getting thousands of copies printed initially, which is perfect if you’re starting out on a budget.
10) Influencer Marketing
Becoming an influencer is a bit of a controversial topic, some people can’t stand the word, others love the fact you can create a large social media following and earn a fortune.
My take on it is simple, if you enjoy creating content and sharing it with others, then this could be the perfect idea to start an online business.
The real concept of being an influencer is to ‘influence’ a buying decision.
A company will be willing to pay someone with a large engaged (engaged being the key world) following to promote their products, as they know the audience trusts that person (the influencer).
People will always buy from people they trust.
So the job of the influencer is to share the product/service with their following, talk about the benefits and how it can help them, and then make sales, or at least bring brand awareness to the company.
There are influencers making $5,000+ per Instagram post, so the sky really is the limit when it comes to income potential.
But remember, competition is fierce, it’s important to stand out and be slightly different than your competitors.
11) Day Trader
If you’re good with numbers, willing to learn a new skill and have patience then becoming a day trader is certainly a great way to create enormous amounts of wealth.
Day trading is when you buy and sell stocks/commodities/cryptos within the same day.
For example: You buy a stock at $15 in the morning, it goes up to $20 by the evening and you sell.
You’ve made $5 for each stock you bought and sold.
Let’s say you bought 100 stocks, well you’ve just made $500,.
Or perhaps 1000 stocks, then you’ve made $5,000 in a day.
It’s important to remember that the stock can go the other way and you can lose just as much.
Meaning it’s way riskier than the other business models and you should never risk money you can’t afford to lose.
Day trading also requires a crazy amount of mental and psychological awareness.
Learning the charts and understanding the direction of a trade is relatively simple, but not allowing your emotions of greed and fear to get in the way is the hardest part.
It’s the reason 95% of traders quit within their first year!
12) Create an Online store
We’ve touched on creating an online store already with dropshipping and Amazon FBA, but there are many different ways you can create an e-commerce business.
You may have noticed that tons of fashion and fitness influencers end up creating their own clothing line and are selling their products directly from their website.
It’s an extremely powerful way to advertise as they are effectively getting free visitors to their store.
You can create an online store via Shopify or you can always use platforms such as Woocommerce, or even WordPress if you’re techy!
13) Web Designer
Another great online business idea is becoming a website designer and selling your services to those who need them.
The web design industry is extremely lucrative, as big companies will pay tens of thousands of dollars for their website to look just right.
Even new and small business owners will be willing to spend a fair amount to get their website up and running.
As so much business is conducted on the internet these days, there are an endless amount of customers out there who will need a web developer at some point for their business.
Most web developers will often try and get their clients on a monthly retainer, in return for constantly keeping their website up to date.
Which brings a passive income side to the business!
14) Blog Writer
If you need to make money right away and have a passion for writing, then becoming a blog writer is the perfect business idea for you.
Businesses are always outsourcing work like this as it’s time-consuming and they would rather be doing something else.
Even I’ve outsourced blogs in the past as I’ve been too busy to write them!
Writers can charge a decent amount as well, especially if they are talented and understand SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
A 2,500-word article can cost a business owner anything from $100-$300.
If you look at this from a writer’s perspective and can manage to write a blog post or 2 a day for a company, that’s not bad money!
Sure, it’s not a passive income, however it’s super flexible and gives total geographical freedom.
I’m currently typing this from Bali and I’ve met lots of people out here who are blog writers full-time for multiple different clients.
The best way to find work as a beginner is on sites such as Fiverr or Upwork.
15) Market Research Analyst
Virtually every successful online business will analyze its competitors to a high level.
Following their moves, finding out how they obtain customers, lose customers, price their products, marketing strategies, etc etc.
But this takes up a lot of time, so similar to blog writing, businesses will outsource to market research analysts who can source all of the information for them.
If you’re good at researching, understanding numbers and metrics then this could be your calling.
A great way to start getting work in the beginning is by heading over to freelancer websites such as Fiverr and Upwork, or start building relationships on social media platforms such as Linkedin and Twitter.
How To Create A Successful Online Business?
Ok so let’s dive into the nitty-gritty.
Everyone wants to have a successful and highly profitable online business, however, very few people are willing to actually work for it.
Sure in the early stages it looks very exciting, all of the options I’ve mentioned can produce 6,7 or even 8-figure businesses.
Creating more money than most could even dream of.
But to get to that stage it’s important to understand it’s going to take time, effort, determination and consistency above anything else.
When I started my affiliate marketing business back in 2018, I remember seeing affiliates in the same community that I joined who were crushing it.
Earning $50,000+ a month and living ‘the dream’.
It motivated me so much!
But after a few months of hard work, learning new skills, struggling to build a website, and figuring out my niche I hadn’t made a single sale.
It’s about that stage that most people will quit.
Between 60-90 days in.
Simply because the novelty and ‘shiny object syndrome’ starts to wear off.
And it’s at this stage where it starts to become very real that this is much harder than it might look.
Which is when your mind will do everything it can to bring you back to your comfort zone.
It’ll tell you things like:
- Why am I wasting my time on this?
- I’ve not made any money and I’ve spent loads
- I’m not meant to be a business owner
- I’ve never succeeded before, why will I this time?
And for most people, they will give up.
How Can I Succeed?
Well of course I can never guarantee you’ll succeed with the business models above.
But let’s flip the picture.
There are thousands of people who have had incredible success with the business models above.
So why can’t you?
The answer is, yes you can, however, you have to be willing to work just as hard as them.
You’ve got to find a true purpose and reason why you’re doing this, money isn’t good enough.
- Why do you want the money?
- What will the money do for you?
- Why do you need the change so much?
If you’re just looking to create a business for something to do, with a half-hearted attitude, don’t even bother starting.
My reason was simple: I wanted to work on something I was passionate about, and to be able to wake up every single day excited about the life I had created for myself. As well as being able to completely remove the stress of money so my girlfriend and I could live our best lives with total time and financial freedom.
It took me time to come up with my why, so before you dive into a business model above.
Figure out your why and creating a profitable online business is inevitable.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article and it’s given you a few online business ideas to get started with.
As always, if you have any questions feel free to pop them below.
