Online Business Ideas you can Pick Up.

The internet has made so many things possible making life easier and one of these things is the possibility of doing business online.

Starting an online money-making business nowadays is as easy as ABC. Anyone with a computer, smart-phone, and data/ internet can start a money-generating online business.

The good thing about online business, you don’t really need any technical experience before-hand. There are so many online tools available to help you take care of the technical stuff without any sweat.

Unlike the traditional way of starting a brick and motor business, you don’t need the ‘back-breaking’ capital to kick your business off the ground. Depending on the type of business you want to run, all you need is little or no money at all to start and some time to spare.

At the comfort of anywhere- the house, the park, the bus, on the beach – you can run your business with no one micro-managing you.

You can work any time you want – long hours if you want or a few hours is you want, you choose. Again, it depends on the type of business you are doing online and the length of time you want your business to take until its success.

As you know, in an online business you are your own boss.

There are so many things you can do online to make money and all you need to do is find out which one works for you in the online space.

It’s more beneficial to assess your skills, hobbies, and areas of interest as you think of starting an online business other than starting whatever everyone else is doing.

Blogging/Vlogging.

This is a no brainier for so many creatives in the world of content creation.

If you have a creative side and interested in content creation, consider starting a Blog or Vlog. These two have earned people money and can do the same for you.

Write about subjects in your areas of interest such as Fashion, Careers, Food, Travel, Real Estate, Motherhood, College Life, etc.

Vlogging – video blogging – can be an option for you if you are interested in the video side of content. Start a Travel vlog, a food vlog, a fashion vlog, etc. depending on your area of intrest.

With time you can consider partnering with brands and feature them in your blog or vlog in exchange for money. For instance, partnering with a hair company to review and help promote/ endorse their products to your audience.

This might need some extra work in getting and maintaining your audience.

But with consistency, being genuine, patient, and having interesting and engaging content, it will payback.  

With blogging and vlogging, you get paid through affiliate marketing, Google-AdSense, and blog Ad Networks.

Become an Online Consultant/Expert/ Coach/Tutor.

Do you have a skill that you are so good at and you can turn it into a money-making skill online by being a consultant?

There are so many professionals out there using their skills to offer consultant services for companies and individuals.

For example, if you are in the Legal industry and you are really good at it, consider offering legal advisory services online as a consultant.  If you are good in the world of business management, be a business management consultant or coach.

Are you interested in human wellness and you have the experience, why not think of becoming a life coach?

You can try online tutoring if you are an expert in a subject or a topic and teach students from different areas of the world online.

Selling Digital Information Products.

Can you create digital information products or acquire the products from somewhere else and sell them online?  

When we talk of digital information, think of any product that can provide information in digital format – audio, visual, and text. They probably exist in a hard copy but you need to deliver them in a digital way – electronically.

You can create and sell e-books, audiobooks, magazines, graphic design templates, videos, interviews, webinars, or websites.  

All you need is time, a computer, and some mental energy to come up with these products. And anyway, if the business doesn’t pick quickly, you won’t have lost money as you have not invested crazy amounts of money producing them.   

Sell artistic stuff.

Do you have an eye on the artistic side of life? Or do you have an artistic mind or artistic hands that can create a piece of art – it doesn’t have to be a drawing or a painting.

There is so much artistic stuff that you can create and sell online on an online marketplace like Etsy, Amazon, etc. You can even have people miles away buy your product and you can send the piece in soft copy or ship to them in hard copy.

You can make and sell DIY Crafts – home décor products such as wall art, wall prints, candles, and flower vases. Or jewelry products, hair accessories, gift cards, customized stationery, or apparel.

Drop-shipping.

This is a ‘new’ online business that many people have been getting into the last couple of years and making money out of it.

In drop-shipping, a store sells a product but gets a third party to ship or deliver the product to the customer instead of doing the delivery and shipping process themselves.

With this, you don’t need to have a warehouse full of products or even keep inventory. You have a store and the same time, ‘you don’t have a store.’

This is how drop-shipping takes place:

• List a product for purchase on your e-commerce store e.g. on amazon, Jumia, etc.
• And, when a customer makes a purchase, as the seller, you make the purchase from a third party – a wholesaler, a drop-shipper, or a manufacturer – at a way lower price (wholesale/manufacturer price) than the price stated on your page.
• After you make the purchase, the third-party (drop-shipper) delivers the purchase to your customer.

Therefore, you make money through the difference between the product price you have listed on your site – the price the customer has paid and the price you have purchased the product from the third-party – the wholesale price.

However, before you get into drop-shipping, you need to understand the pros and cons of this business. So, do yourself some diligence and research about drop-shipping online.

Affiliate marketing.

You have definitely heard about affiliate marketing along the way as a by the way or intentionally.

Affiliate marketing is somehow similar to the drop-shipping aspect.

As an affiliate marketer, you are somehow in a ‘partnership’ with a store or a company.

All you do is put up a product for sale on your blog or your e-commerce store. You then receive a commission from your partner store/company on each product bought through the affiliate link on your blog or e-commerce store. The commissions vary from one affiliate partner to another, some are on the high side others are a good average.

There is no much risk associated with affiliated marketing as all you need to do is just invest in marketing and advertising to get prospective customers to buy – drive traffic and generate sales. The rest – billing, delivery, etc. – is up-to-the affiliate partner you are working with.

Conclusion.

Some of these online businesses need a little more effort and consistency. Something has to give anyway – especially your time and consistency habits.

For example, in affiliate marketing, blogging, vlogging and drop-shipping, you need to place yourself in the market and get partners and brands to work with so as to get much from the business. The more partners or brands you work with, the better for you.

These 6 ideas are just a few among many other ideas like freelancing and remote working you can turn into an online business. There is probably an idea you have and we have not mentioned.

In conclusion, choose the one that works for you and one that you have a passion to keep going so as to get more money and satisfaction from.