Are you someone who has always considered starting an online business but never got to it? Are you still looking for ideas to begin your digital venture from scratch? Now is the right time to start it.
With the freedom to work and make money from any part of the world, many entrepreneurs are embracing the digital wave and setting up their online businesses. With less investment and more flexibility, starting a digital venture can help you make huge profits. Whether you want to start a side hustle or a full-time online business, you need the right idea for it. Dive right in to find out some profitable online business ideas with minimal startup cost.
While starting an online business may look easy, it sure has its set of challenges. You need to choose the right business idea and model to make it successful. Here are five online businesses you can start from scratch:
1. Offer consultancy services
Do you consider yourself an expert in your specific field and can easily guide people about it? You can use your knowledge and expertise to become a consultant and earn from it. To become a good consultant, all you need is sufficient experience or knowledge of a particular field or industry and a platform to connect to potential users. You can set up a low-cost website offering information about your consultancy services, contact details, cost, and even client testimonials. The clients can get in touch with you through the website, and you can either guide them online or set up a meeting to discuss their issues. You can also post blogs to showcase your credibility in the field and gain the audience’s trust.
Whether it is educational, career, job, finance, marketing, or even relationship, people seek professional consultants’ help. People can use their wisdom and experience to earn good money from your consultancy company. However, if you already have a dormant company, you can start your consultancy services under that but may have to file dormant company accounts normally and seek help for it.
2. Become an affiliate marketer
Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to earn money in today’s world. If you are new to this concept, an affiliate earns a commission by promoting a product produced by someone else. To start with affiliate marketing, you can recommend a product or service by posting on your blog, social media, email list, website, or other channels like eBay. Each time someone converts through your unique referral link or code, you can earn a commission on it.
You can start by researching different affiliate marketing programs and selecting one that suits your interests and target audience. While Amazon and Shopify have their affiliate programs, you can also check out FlexOffers, ShareASale, or Affiliate Future.
After signing up, start promoting the products or services. You can create blogs, social media posts, emails, or even videos. Don’t spam the audience. Before you begin with it, make sure you have the basic knowledge of copywriting and SEO to help you get more sales.
3. Start a blog
Are you good with words and love to write? You can start your blog and even monetize it. While blogging simply started as a virtual journey, it has undoubtedly come a long way. You can even use it for marketing and a monetization tool. The key to a successful blog is building an engaged as well as a loyal audience. You must adopt a customer-centric approach to cultivate a community of readers who trust you. Once you develop that, start earning from it.
In today’s time, capturing the audience’s attention and keeping them engaged is a significant asset. If you have that, a majority of companies will be willing to pay you for it. There are numerous ways to earn – sponsored posts, sell your products or host third-party ads. You can find a hosted platform to start your blog. Create engaging content regularly and keep posting it on the forum. Then promote it through social media platforms like Facebook and even Instagram.
4. Set up an online store
When it comes to online businesses, you can find an audience for almost everything. From anything as basic as jewelry to as niche as organic dog food, you can sell everything online. If you have the knack for creating something, set up an online store to sell your products. It can include art, clothes, jewelry, décor items, and even food. You can set up your website to display your catalog there and add a shopping cart feature to help the users buy your products.
Suppose you’re worried about the shipping part, partner with vendors who will ship your products to the consumers on your behalf. It will help you reduce the amount of inventory you need to keep. You can also set up your online store on a hosted website, which will help reduce your work and simplify the entire process.
5. Become a YouTuber
If you look at the most popular websites, you will certainly find YouTube at the very top of this list. The website gets over 30 million active users every day, giving you access to an extensive audience base. While YouTube started as an entertainment platform, it is also used for educational purposes. In the last ten years, thousands of independent users have created their own YouTube channel to post content regularly and earn from it.
If you have quirky and refreshing ideas along with the confidence to face the camera, you can start your channel. Once the channel has sufficient subscribers and watch-time, you can even begin to monetize it. All you need is a good camera, lighting, and video editing skills to get started with your journey of becoming a successful YouTuber.
Final Thoughts
In the digital world, there is no limit on who can become an entrepreneur and how they do it. There are innumerable ways of starting a digital business with minimum means and earning well from it. If you plan to start your own online business, now is the right time to make it a reality.
Guest post courtesy of Kimberly Clark