18 Internet
Business Ideas To Make Money Online
Starting
up a business is by no means an easy task. If you want to learn how to make
money online, you need to have good business ideas, but you also need a great
marketing plan. The good news is with a domain and hosting, alongside some
basic skills, your ideas can become a reality. Each of the internet business
ideas below are competitive niches, so make sure you go in with all guns
blazing!
1. Become an
affiliate
Learning
how to earn money online as an affiliate isn’t easy. But there are lots of
people worldwide that are making over $1,000,000 a year doing it. Most will not
be a successful unless they have some formal help and training. Affiliate
stores are web stores where people purchase items on a site, but through a
third party.
Amazon
is one of the most popular affiliate programs in the world, but it really
shouldn’t be considering the commissions are so low! It’s not just Amazon that
you can affiliate with; there are 1,000 affiliate programs to choose from.
Although Amazon can be lucrative, there are some much better options out there,
allowing affiliates to earn up to 75% commission in some cases! Work in your
own time
Build multiple sites
Work in your own time
Focus on product niches that you have an
interest in!
Example
Affilorama
is a great resource for anyone looking at starting their journey in affiliate
marketing. The email marketer’s best friend is their email list; you have to
have an email list! I use Aweber to collect subscribers.
2. Start an
ecommerce store
At
the forefront of the internet revolution has been ecommerce stores. Nowadays
you can get an easy to use, fully functional ecommerce store design for as
little as £500; then you just need a domain and hosting. Of course, how much
you profit depends on your methods and effectiveness of marketing which might
include:
Print media
PPC (pay-per-click)
SEO (search engine optimization)
Networking
Event sponsorship
The list goes on…!
SaleHoo
is a great resource when it comes to finding suppliers and learning how to sell
online!
Example
– Zappos
You
might not have even heard of Zappos, an online shoe store. Well, that goes to
show how big the internet really is and how big your online business could be.
Maybe it might even come to close to the acquisition of Zappos by Amazon for a
reported $900,000,000.
3. Earn Cash
From Blogging
Starting
a blog isn’t as hard as you think. All you need is hosting and a domain. To
make money online from a blog you need to gain large amounts of traffic from a
specific niche. See how I do it here. You can earn cash using:
AdSense
Selling banner advertisements
Affiliating to sites such as Amazon &
eBay (see #2)
Offer premium services or member areas
Example
– TechCrunch
TechCrunch
is a popular Web 2.0 blog and makes a reported $200,000 per month. Originally
started by Michael Arrington, it was eventually acquired by AOL for a reported
$25,000,000. There is money to be made by blogging and it’s cheap one of the
cheap and easy home based businesses to get started with.
4. Sell on eBay
Selling
on eBay successfully is not easy. You need to be able to able to target a niche
where the profit margins are high and competition is low. If you pick the right
product (particularly unbranded products) you have a chance to import items and
make huge profit margins. SaleHoo is awesome for finding suppliers.
Example
– Linda’s Stuff
There
are some extremely large sellers on eBay. Take “Linda’s Stuff” as an example,
with around 150,000 items online and nearly 350,000 confirmed sales.
5. Train and
mentor
Perhaps
you have a specific skill set that you could teach. There are hundreds of
skills that can be taught over the internet, especially due to the fact that
services like Skype are free.
You
might have to offer a free service now and build a freemium model (offer free
accounts with limited features, then charge for upgrades) for the future in
order to make some large amounts of cash. It’s one of the good business ideas
for those with extensive amounts of knowledge. You could:
Teach a language
Offer marketing training
Help improve writing skills
And more!
Example – Code
Academy
Although
it is only in the early stages Code Academy is going to be one of those online
training centres that really stands out from the crowd. More than one investor
has seen the potential that is has with the Academy getting over $12.5m in
investment within the first 12 months, including investments from Richard Branson
and Yuri Milner.
6. Become a
drop shipper
Drop
shipping is fairly similar to running an affiliate store. You act as the
mediator without ever touching the product. The difference between a drop
shipper and affiliate is that the sale with drop shipping websites is not
completely managed. You might have to set up systems to automatically make a
purchase with your drop shipping company, in order for it to be sent directly
to the end consumer.
Example
– iPhoneStore
There
was a sale confirmed on Flippa a few years ago for iPhoneStore.com. It was
producing nearly $30,000 in revenue every month and sold for $90,000.
7. Paid
blogging
With
over 350,000,000 websites on the internet, there is a huge demand for content.
If you have experience or skills relating to writing, offering a blog posting
service could be for you. Lower paid projects might start at around £1 per 100
words, with quality focused projects being in the £2.50-10 per 100 words range.
Sites like People Per Hour and Elance are great for picking up paid writing
gigs, without actually having a website.
You
can get my 5 step guide to making $172,000 in 12 months for free here.
Example
– Vibe Tech Media
You’ll
notice my bio at the end of the article, as well as details on the
homepage. I make a full time income from
blogging for digital marketing agencies. I get leads thanks to my simple
landing page.
8. Become a
virtual assistant
A
virtual assistant is a great job to have if you want flexibility. You’ll be
able to maintain multiple clients at once which mean you can easily fill gaps
in your week or work overtime if you need to. A virtual assistant will
generally charge £15-20 depending on the specifics of their job role. Expect to
be assisting with tasks such as blogger outreach, product listings, research
and responding to emails.
Example
– HM Virtual Assistant
Check
out the story of a Mother that managed to fit her work around being a parent
here.
9. Offer web
design
Nearly
every company is now looking to build a website. In fact, even those companies
that have a website are looking to make sure that theirs looks bigger and
better than the competition. You can learn how to earn money from home with
practically no investment and this is certainly one of the best business ideas
for someone wanting huge amounts of flexibility.
You
can learn the basics of coding on CodeAcademy and do specific online web design
courses to build up your skill set. Sign up to freelance sites such as People
Per Hour and start building up your portfolio! This portfolio might even lead
you into a high paid job!
Example
– City College Brighton
Many
of the students from City College Brighton have gone on to be successful
freelance web designers, and you could do the same!
10. Deal in
domains
You’ve
heard of antique dealers and even car dealers, but what about dealing in
domains? Domains are internet real estate and like real estate they could be
considered as an investment. Don’t just buy any domains, spread your risk with
a portfolio and make sure you hold out for the highest price possible.
Learning
how to connect with the end consumer, rather than other domain dealers, will
enable you to get the highest price possible for your domains.
Example
– Domaining.com
If
you are not familiar with some of the prices that domains have been sold for,
then the all time list here is worth looking out. Checkout hotels.com, which
went for $9,500,000! One of the highest domain sales back in 2012 was
silver.com which sold for $875,000.
11. Outsource
How
about setting up a business that focuses on outsourcing? Most successful
service providers on the internet find that they need external help at some
point. They might have a blogging client that requires logo design. They might
have a guest posting service client that needs web design . Instead of actually
providing the services personally, you could outsource and take a profit margin
of your choice! Make sure you learn how to outsource first!
Example
– Copify.com
Copify
is an example of a company that uses outsourcing. They source writers and they
source clients. They connect the dots to create an online business deal and
take their profit margin.
12.
Trade currencies
Every
day, there is a huge fluctuation in FX markets. If you have a combination of
technical and fundamental analytical skills and some cash flow, you can become
an online currency trader. Places like www.forexfactory.com are great for
learning the basics. Remember, this is leveraged cash, so if you make the right
decisions, you have a chance to profit big! At the same time, the risks can be
high if you don’t have a money management strategy in place.
Example
– Bill Lipschutz
Bill
Lipschutz is considered to be one of the best FX investors of all time.
13. Build apps
Again,
CodeAcademy will give you good grounding in coding languages. Expect to train
for 12 months before being able to build apps that are going to achieve lots of
sales. There are a few options when it comes to building apps…
Bespoke basis for clients
Sell based on a fixed fee (multiple
licenses)
Charge a monthly fee
Example
– Summly
Looking
to hit the jackpot? Checkout this recent acquisition by Yahoo! to buyout Summly
for $30,000,000…from a 17 year old!
14. Offer telemarketing
Telemarketing
services are great for appointment setting as well as creating warm leads. More
and more companies are looking to outsource their marketing efforts and this is
where you could fit in. Telemarketers charge £15-30 per hour depending on the
size and type of operation.
Example
– DM Concepts
DM
Concepts is a telemarketing company that has managed to achieve some fantastic
statistics. The higher quality the service you offer, the more you are going to
be able to charge!
15. Create videos
UK
spend on online video has seen 13.5% year on year growth, and now exceeds spend
on TV advertising. (Price Water house Coopers) Hundreds of
statistics like this have meant that businesses have to produce videos. Well,
they don’t have to, but if they
don’t, they are going to be missing out. Video platforms are just another
avenue to acquire potential consumers. You can offer video packages from
£50-5,000 and beyond. Select your target market and market to them effectively.
Example
– Old Spice
If
you can couple video production with the ability to be creative, you can make
videos go viral. If you can do that, your £500 video is going to be worth
£5,000 or even £50,000 to a client. Checkout the results from the Old Spice
video campaign!
16. Manage
social media profiles
Social
media is an important part of any online business. The problem? Time! Most
business owners simply don’t have the time to be involved with Twitter,
LinkedIn, Face Book and other sites, in a pro-active way. That is where you can
help.
If
you can engage clients and build up attractive social media profiles, then you
will be able to attract clients, which makes this a service with value. Again,
these projects are posted on freelance sites such as People Per Hour and Elance
on a regular basis, so you can start building up clients straight away! Check
out these amazing statistics for LinkedIn!
Example
– Clorox Bleach
If
you can consistently provide companies with successful social media campaigns
and improve their profiles, they will pay. Clorox Bleach had some huge success
with one of their recent social media campaigns.
17.
Create valuable resources
The
sites that hold the most value on the web hold the most valuable content. Face
Book holds information about what hundreds of millions of users. YouTube
possess millions of funny, educational and controversial videos. If you can
create a website that focuses on offering valuable resources, then you just
might be onto a winner.
Remember,
you can offer the freemium model mentioned previously if there is no scope to
achieve high advertising revenue. You could even be teaching others how to make
money online, while doing exactly the same thing for yourself!
Example
– Shopify
Shopify
is a great example of the freemium model. By offering some applications for
free, they get exposure for their whole business. Since the company was founded
in 2004, they have acquired 30,000 customers, including Pixar and the Foo
Fighters. Their revolutionary “build-a-business” competitions in the past have
produced over $70,000,000 in revenue for over 14,000 entrants.
18.
Translate
There
are over 300,000 translators in the world for a reason; they are needed. In a
world where more and more companies are using outsourcing, those that speak
other languages are indispensable. Whether you are negotiating deals for an
import-export agent or replying to company emails, there is work out there.
There
are opportunities to work part time with small companies by networking on
freelance sites, or to set up professional translation services using remote
call centres and Skype.
Example
– Cloudwords
Cloudwords
is one of the many companies that is taking advantage of the $30billion that is
spent worldwide on translation related products or services. This is one of the
more complex work from home ideas out there, simply because from day 1, it’s
likely clients will be small to medium sized businesses trying to negotiate
deals abroad. The market it is there, now you just need to find your niche.
Jason
Jason
I'm
an internet Marketer with a love for online business. Get in touch if you need
a helping hand with Internet marketing, SEO or Business
