There are several online business ideas that new entrepreneurs can use to make money online that are easy to do, profitable, and require low start-up costs.
Are you looking for the easiest, quickest, and most affordable way to start an online business from home, as a full-time gig, or even build as a side hustle to make some extra cash?
There are many great online business ideas that you can start at home and turn into a successful and lucrative business.
Starting your own business has great advantages, and there are simple ways to make it a successful and sustainable one.
Some advantages of running an online business are:
- You get to work from home
- Freedom and flexibility to set your own schedule
- More free time to spend with family and friends
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, building an online business and working from is becoming more popular.
So, I’ve put together this list with some of the best online small business ideas that anyone can do from home.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links. If you click on any such links within this post and purchase or sign up for something, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you, this helps me to maintain this site. Please know that I will only promote products and services that I know/think will greatly benefit you.
Below you’ll find ideas that are:
- Easy To Start
- Low-Cost
- Popular And Profitable
- Ideal For Teens And Adults
7 Easy To Start Online Business Ideas For Beginners
1. Sell Stock Photos
A great way to earn extra money is by becoming a stock photographer, it is a very easy and low-cost online business idea.
As a stock photographer, you can take photos and sell them through stock photo agencies.
When one of your photos is purchased or downloaded through the agency, you earn a small commission.
You also have the option of creating a website and selling your photos there.
There are many individuals who would be willing to pay you for the right to use the photos in their website’s content.
The profit you’d make selling from a website of your own would be higher than going through the agency.
2. Create a PLR store
PLR stands for private label rights, this is also an easy and very inexpensive online business idea.
PLRs are digital products in the form of PDFs, video courses, eBooks, and other formats.
Private label rights products are free to produce. It only involves you having a passion for writing or creating, and finding the time to do them.
You can create a membership site where people pay a recurring fee to access the products. You would have to have fresh content coming in on a consistent basis.
Optionally, you can have just a regular site and sell them for a one-time fee. Personally, I think it’s less work this way.
3. Become A YouTuber
Starting a youtube channel has huge income potential. It is free to start and all you need is a phone or camera and an idea, which means low start-up cost.
Building a YouTube channel is also a great way to drive traffic to your existing website.
The key to making money from a youtube channel is finding a good niche and creating high-quality and valuable videos on a consistent and regular basis.
Once you hit 1,000 subscribers you can apply to have sponsored ads placed on your videos. Unfortunately, getting to 1,000 subscribers requires a lot of hard work and time.
But, if you’ve got the time, and love the spotlight, do it! This is a perfect idea for a teen or college student.
4. Become An Influencer
Being a social media influencer is also a good idea, especially, if you have a lot of followers on your social media accounts.
You can get followers by posting content regularly and engaging with your audience.
The income potential that comes from being an influencer is great as companies are willing to pay you to have their brands advertised on your social media channels.
I think this is also another great idea for teens and college students; this is perfect for the beauty, hair, and fashion niche.
5. Proofreading
Another great online business idea is proofreading. Proofreaders are in high demand as many blog owners and authors are constantly in need of people to give their documents the final check.
So, if you have an eye for spotting typos, punctuations, spelling, and grammatical errors, as well as sentence structure, then this is a business you should consider pursuing.
The best part about this business idea is that it is very low-cost and profitable. If you don’t know much about proofreading you can learn.
There is no shortage of jobs in this line of business and there are many platforms you can go, to find proofreading jobs.
I enjoy optimizing and proofreading content, it is my area of expertise. If you’re ever in the market for a proofreader or optimizer check out my services.
6. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a very easy online business idea to start.
With affiliate marketing, you earn a commission by promoting products, and services for someone else or a company. You can be an affiliate for more than one company or person at the same time.
The most work that you will have to do to make money as an affiliate, is to find ways to promote the products or services.
There are many affiliate networks and marketplaces where you can find things to promote. For example, Clickbank has tons of digital products and services for you to promote, while Amazon has physical products.
The only problem is, some affiliate programs are hard to get accepted into, especially, as a beginner with little or no traffic.
Affiliate marketing is undoubtedly one of the top ways internet marketers make money online.
7. Build A Membership Site
Creating membership sites is another easy business idea.
You can make money selling subscriptions and granting access to content, resources, and even services.
There are tons of software available to help you easily build a membership website and generate passive income online.
One of the things to keep in mind though is that membership sites require regular content updates and maintenance.
5 Low-Investment Business Ideas
1. Shopify Or Etsy Store
You can create a Shopify or Etsy store and sell your own products.
These stores are great for selling your own craft, designs, and unique products.
So if you have hand-made crafts, then you can skip selling affiliate products and sell your own craft for a higher profit margin.
You can also incorporate your own products, as well as affiliate products in your store.
Shopify gives a 14-day free trial, you can check it out if this is an idea you love.
2. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is an online business idea that is easy to start and has extremely low start-up costs.
With dropshipping, you create and run an online store, but you don’t physically handle the products. Shipping and handling will be done by another company.
Your main job is to market the products and drive customers to your online shop. In return, you’ll receive a small commission on products sold.
You can sell multiple products from multiple companies at the same time.
3. Virtual Assistant
Many businesses are seeking individuals to assist them with their growing business.
As a VA you make money by completing administrative tasks for businesses. You are not limited to just one individual or business but can choose as many as you can handle.
You decide which task or services you can do effectively and efficiently so as to provide the best customer experience for your clients.
There are tons of platforms where you can find work as a VA.
Additionally, you can reach out to entrepreneurs and brands to see if they are interested in hiring help.
4. Freelancing
As a freelancer, you take the skills, talents, and experience you have and market them online.
There are many companies and solopreneurs that are looking for skilled workers and assistants to do various online business-related jobs for them.
I’m also a freelancer because I provide proofreading and optimizing services for clients.
5. Create An Online Job Board
People are always looking for jobs and you can be the middle man or woman that connects the two.
By creating a job board you can make money online, charging a small fee each month or per listing, whenever someone lists their job openings on your board.
You can build a job board website and use job board plugins to easily run your business.
10 Popular And Profitable Online Venture Ideas
1. Start A Blog
Blogs make money. Starting a blog is one of the easiest and most profitable online business ideas for a beginner. You can create a website and have your blog up and running in less than 1 hour.
It is easy to start a blog and turn it into a successful online business, however, it will take some work. You will have to create high-quality content regularly.
There are lots of places where you can get blog post ideas for your content.
There are many ways to make money from a blog, some of which include creating and selling courses, displaying sponsored ads, or selling your services. Those are just a few ways to monetize your blog.
2. Create Online Courses
Another popular online business idea is creating and selling online courses.
Do you have a specialty or expertise in a particular field? You can turn your knowledge of it into a course and make money from it.
There are platforms that will allow you to create courses, and they provide tools to easily manage your course contents, classes, students, and payments.
Some great course creation platforms are Thinkific, Kajabi, and Teachables.
For a detailed review of these platforms, check out this post by Adam Enfroy.
3. Social Media Management
Are you a social fanatic? If you are then social media management is a fantastic business idea for you.
You can make money by creating and sharing funny, engaging, and educational content to your client’s fans, and followers.
It is a very lucrative business, every business needs or should have a social media presence.
You can target clients through mailing lists or create a website for your business and secure your clients through your social media pages.
4. Website Designing
If you are good at coding and have a passion for building and designing websites, then this is a great online business idea for you to pursue.
Online business owners are always looking for good developers and designers who can upgrade or improve the look and functionality of their sites.
You can create theme templates and sell them on one of the many platforms on the web that deals with website development.
Web development and design is a very lucrative market.
5. SEO Consulting
Search Engine Optimization Consulting is an in-demand and lucrative online business.
If you understand a searcher’s intent and have a talent for finding keywords and know how to get websites to rank on Google, then this is an idea you’ll love.
You can create a website and run a successful SEO consulting business and help companies and individuals get their websites ranked on Google’s search engine results page (SERP).
6. Ads Manager
Facebook and Google ads are great ways to drive traffic to a business, the only problem is most business owners don’t know how to do it, nor do they have the time to learn.
That’s a problem for them, but a golden business opportunity for you.
Unfortunately, it is not so easy to do but, if you have the time to learn how to run ads and do it effectively, you can make a ton of cash.
You can start it as a side hustle and then eventually do it as a full-time work-from-home job.
7. Copywriter
Being a copywriter is another lucrative business idea, copywriters are in high demand.
As a writer, you can create landing pages, sales pages, newsletters, and high-quality article content for clients.
The income potential for you as a copywriter is huge, especially if you can create persuasive, engaging, and easy-to-understand copy.
With copywriting, you have the freedom and flexibility to set your own schedule and work remotely all while earning an income online.
8. SaaS And App Business
If you have a passion for coding or building software then starting a SaaS business is a good idea. You make money by selling subscriptions.
There is a growing demand for app developers, as businesses are looking for developers to create apps for them.
Even if you don’t know how to create an app or software, there are tons of sites that you can go to have one created then sell, or better yet offer it for free.
Free attracts users and you can make money by having ads placed on your app or charge for access to some advanced features on your app.
9. Build An E-commerce Store
Setting up an e-commerce store is one of the best ways to earn an income online. They are easy and very cheap to start.
Ecommerce websites have become increasingly popular and are very profitable. You can easily build an e-commerce site on platforms like Shopify, Wix, among others.
You should pick a niche and do some research before you begin building your e-commerce site.
10. Online Tutoring
There is a lot of money to be made online as a tutor.
If you are passionate about a particular topic, subject, or language then being an online tutor is a great way for you to make money online fast.
Online Business Ideas For Teens And Adults
Starting a business online is an excellent idea.
There are ideas that can be done by teens as well as adults.
Anyone can start and run a successful, and profitable online business, they just have to come up with good, smart, and in-demand online business ideas.
Whether you’re building an e-commerce website or just a small business, there are many different types of easy online business ventures to choose from.
This list of ideas has something for everyone, if you don’t see one for you, then use this list to find some inspiration as to what you can do.
Thanks for spending a few minutes with me, I’d love to hear from you, drop your thoughts in the comments below.
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