106 Online Business Ideas You Can Start Today (Part I)

 

The internet makes it easy to start a business but what should you start? Discover the right business for you to start with our definitive list of the best online business ideas

In today’s tech-driven society, there’s no reason you can’t start a profitable business from the comfort of your living room. There’s no shortage of perks of remote working: fulltime parents can choose flexible hours; avid travellers can take their work on the go. Running an online business yourself requires all the hard work of setting up a physical business, but once set up, provides ample freedom.

 In terms of the business itself, choosing a digital business idea offers multiple benefits. Launching a company from your own home eliminates the huge overheads associated with investing in a brick-and-mortar office and physical supplies Minimal capital investment means less risk, allowing you to spend more money on advertising to grow your client base. Operating online also throws your business open to customers from all corners of the world, giving you scope for considerable growth.

The only barrier to starting an online money-maker is finding the right idea. We’ve compiled a list of over 100 online business ideas suited for all sorts of skillsets that you can get up and running straight away. Whether you’re looking for something to generate a passive income on the side or a million-pound enterprise, find your ideal earner, today.

1. Set up an eCommerce store

An eCommerce store allows consumers to buy goods and services online via their phone, tablet or computer through digital transactions.

The accessibility of eCommerce stores means the achievable global market reach has grown rapidly. Driving traffic to your site is your best chance at making big money: once the shop’s up and running, your focus needs to be on advertising and marketing. Shopify is a popular hosting platform for eCom providers and is in an easy way to get started.

A top tip is to offer fewer products but to aim for items with a significant markup. The success of an eCommerce store relies heavily on branding – focus on creating a strong brand with a niche target market.

2. Buy and sell websites

Buying and selling sites is the online equivalent to property. The concept is much the same: buying undervalued websites, improving them marginally and selling them on for a profit. Not only can you make money on the sale itself, but you can also make a monthly profit on top of that, making it one of the most lucrative online business options, if you get it right.

You can find websites to purchase either directly from buyers, or website brokers and marketplaces, such as FEinternational.com, Wesellyoursite.com, Flippa.com and WebsiteBroker.com, to name a few. Once you’ve bought your website, you can get to work building traffic and monetising your purchases to increase the monthly profit on them. Once you’ve maximised traffic, you can sell it – either yourself directly, or through one of the brokers mentioned.

There’s a lot of money to be made buying and selling websites. Learn to spot the pitfalls of a website to filter out the money drains – look for proof of revenue and traffic. If you’re unsure, many brokers offer a service to help you vet your potential purchases.

3. Write and publish an eBook

Getting published is notoriously tricky, and even the best authors have experienced countless rejections. But the digital book market has made becoming a published author and making money a far easier venture. Anyone can self-publish an eBook and sell them on websites as big as Amazon. The best part? It’s completely free.

The most significant investment for writing and selling an eBook is the time you spend writing it. The monetary startup costs, however, are minimal. Find your niche – the smaller the niche, the better as you’ll limit your competition.

The best thing you can do to boost your sales is to invest in making your book as professional as possible. Get a professional editor, or at the very least a professional proofreader, to check your work. Finding a professional to create good covering art and to format your book can also go a long way to boosting sales.

4. Start an online SaaS business

SaaS stands for software as a service. It’s a business model where customers purchase software solutions online on a subscription basis. The software is centrally hosted, meaning it is all stored and accessed on the cloud.

An online SaaS business is a fantastic option for those with knowledge of coding and building software. Similarly to membership sites, it’s a good idea to offer something for free. Usually, this is a free trial with an expiry date, or a limited version of the end product and serves as a taste or advertisement for your full, paid product. To make money from selling software, your service must run smoothly. In the beginning, you’ll dedicate a lot of your time to fixing bugs and troubleshooting. Once you’ve got a streamlined product, the business is relatively automated; the system will automatically push updates to purchasers.

SaaS is a great business model as customers are usually loyal. Once they rely on your software to run their business, they’re hooked in. A must-have for this business to succeed is a real in-depth knowledge of the industry.

5. Make money by affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketers work with brands to increase their sales. You can do this at home by generating traffic to a merchant’s website through an affiliate link: you’ll then receive a commission on all the sales generated through your link. Commission usually sits between 5% and 20%, to be negotiated per client.

It can be a risky trade as payment depends entirely on your marketing performance: how many sales you generate and how much resulting commission you make. On the positive side, however, the startup costs are next to none – you can post your affiliate link anywhere to generate sales. If your budget allows, you can reach more people by using paid advertising.

You can use networks such as Amway and Amazon Associates to generate traffic to your merchants as an affiliate. Amazon, in particular, has a massive audience. One of the most popular affiliate network sites is Clickbank, which specialises in digital products. These items offer much higher commission rates, sometimes up to 75%.

6. Offer a 3D printing service

Starting a 3D printing business is another example of a hobby-turned-profit-maker. If you already own and have mastered a 3D printer, it’s easy to turn this into a profitable business. Prospective clients contact you with a 3D model; you print the model and post it out to them and make a mean profit.

If you already own the 3D printer, then this model isn’t too expensive. You do need to factor in marketing – you’ll need a good ad campaign to reach customers. Marketing can be done cheaply, however, on Facebook, LinkedIn and by word of mouth. Targeting relevant tech companies is also an excellent place to start. Next, you need to factor in the storage of the product and posting. Alternatively, if you want to do less of the business side of things, websites like Treatstock match customers with printers, meaning you can avoid some of the negotiations and focus on the printing.

Make sure you’ve got insurance – you’ll be responsible for how these parts turn out, and you’ll also need to cover yourself if your machinery breaks down.

7. Create and sell handmade items

If you are the creative or artistic type, you can easily monetise your skills online. With sites such as Etsy or Not on the Highstreet, selling hand-made products has become considerably more accessible, even for absolute beginners. Other marketplaces worth considering are Artfire and Zazzle. Another option is to create a page on a social media platform and drive sales using various channels such as a Facebook group.

Start-up costs vary depending on the product you’re making. Making your products to order is slower, but prevents waste products and cuts down on initial costs.

8. Create a digital product store

What better way to profit from our technology-dependent society, than by starting a digital product store. This business runs entirely online, and the physical resources required are next to none. The biggest investment at the start will be your time.

Digital products are anything which you can download online. The lack of physical presence means minimal resources, no production costs, no storage costs. The most time-efficient and cost-efficient products you can sell are PDFs in various formats – templates, for example, offer lots of possibilities: templates for emails, CVs, cover letters, business cards, calendars. You can produce a template for almost anything and with very little information. A bit of creative flare here goes a long way – people will pay a lot of money for a professional look.

The advantage of digital products is that they can be sold relatively cheaply and are free to produce. Other examples include eBooks (recipes and ‘How to’ books are the most popular) as well as selling research and online papers. You can even sell audio files, music and videos on your store as well as fonts, logos, backgrounds. If you can download it, you can sell it!

This business model is one of the most varied and cost-effective options for making money online. Marketing needs to be your main expense – to make money your customers need to find you. After that, your products will sell themselves.

9. Create a killer app

Are you a tech wizard or coding expert? If you’ve got an extensive knowledge of coding, experience in app development and an innovative concept, you can make millions as an app developer. A quarter of iOS App developers earn over approx £3,000 a day.

An app developer’s biggest challenge is coming up with an innovative idea. There are more than two million apps available on Apple’s app store. To make big money on an app, you need to attract serious download volume. It needs to be eye-catching, peak consumer interest and be an ingenious concept. But downloads don’t always equate to money – you’ll then need to retain your customers by producing consistent content or regularly adding new features. Next, you’ll need to add paid features or subscription options, to generate money on top of the download amount.

Serious money in app development is reserved for viral apps. Market your app everywhere you can – social media is a great place to start. Make sure your users will want to share your content with others – funny or informative content is most popular. The more reposts and shares your content gets, the bigger your chances of going viral.

10. Work as a freelancer online

Working as a freelancer is one of the most flexible jobs you can have, made even more accessible with the internet. Freelancers work on a contractual basis or per hour or project, most work from home and for the hours and times they choose. If you’ve got the skills and the equipment, it’s an almost immediate way to start making money.

It’s a simple concept: capitalise on any specialist skill you may have and turn it into a commercial service. It can be anything from web design to business consultancy or translation. You can monetise almost any skill. Finding customers is also more accessible than ever with websites like Upwork and PeoplePerHour, where freelancers can advertise their services and their prices.

 

One downside is that work can be irregular, and your income might fluctuate from month to month. Build as big a network as possible – reach out to everyone you can. To boost your credibility, consider joining an association in your industry.

11. Start a YouTube channel

Popular YouTubers make massive amounts of money in ad revenue from viral videos. All you need is a camera and an idea – it’s entirely free to create an account and publish videos.

Although there’s serious money to be made on YouTube, for most vloggers, achieving YouTube fame takes years of hard work. Five hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. The best way to earn money is in ad revenue or paid partnerships with brands, which you’ll only secure by having a big following. Building a subscriber base requires consistent, regular and above all, innovative content.

The key to success on YouTube is to find your niche. With so many people doing it, you need to offer something different. Lifestyle, health, fitness and beauty are already very saturated markets – try and find something a little different to stand out.

12. Start a blog

For creatives, writers or anybody with a keen interest in a particular field, building a blog is for you. It’s a place where you can share valuable or entertaining information to attract a loyal readership.

Building a profitable blog requires the creation of regular, high-quality content to keep readers coming back. You’ll also need to decide on a niche – millions of blogs exist on the internet and to grow your reader-base you’ll need to narrow down your target audience. Choosing a niche is also critical for attracting advertising, which is where you can make good money from your blog. Creating a readership in a particular area will encourage relevant businesses to pay to advertise on your site.

The most commonly used free content management platforms for blogging are WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. Once you’ve built a loyal readership, you can consider adding extra content for subscribers and charging a small monthly subscription fee as an effective way to increase your blog’s revenue.

13. Create and sell stock photos

Creating stock photography consists of producing images that you can sell through a stock agency to individuals or businesses, who purchase the rights to use the content for their website or marketing.

This business is an excellent option for anyone with a passion for photography or a creative eye. Once the photos are online, you’ll earn a tiny amount of money every time the images are purchased or downloaded. However, it’s not without its risks – talented photographers have been known to upload high-quality content and receive very few sales.

A top tip is to keep an eye on social and business trends and respond to market demand. Brush up on your keywording to make sure you appear in as many searches as possible.

14. Buy and sell domain names

Buying and selling domain names can be a very lucrative online business. A domain name is a website’s address, for example, entrepreneurhandbook.co.uk. Companies are willing to pay considerable amounts of money for the domain they want.

The concept is simple: you buy domain names at a low price, wait for them to increase in value and then sell them on for a higher price. You can purchase domain names from domain registrars, such as Godaddy and Namecheap. When selling them on, you can either advertise on the domain itself that the web address is up for sale, or you can list your domains on specialist sites that potential buyers use to find web addresses, such as Sedo and Namejet.

Buying and selling domain names can be a lucrative business. The more generic the title, the better – go for geographic names, popular names and potential business names. You can buy domains for as little as a few pounds each, but if you’ve got a domain a business really wants, you can sell it on for hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

15. Create presentations

The demand for presentation creation is high. Companies use them to inform and educate their staff as well as to persuade an audience into purchasing goods and services.

Many businesses outsource presentation creation to freelance presentation designers to save time and expenditure.

To start a presentation design business, you will need knowledge in presentation design software such as Keynote, Google Slides and Canva, which are the most common formats requested by clients.

16. Market research

For any business to be successful, an understanding of their target audience, competitors and market is critical. Many companies lack the skills and resources to compile this essential market research and are happy to pay to outsource this service elsewhere. This is where you step in as a market research analyst.

Your role will be to collect and analyse data on everything to do with your client’s company. Specific projects may focus on a particular aspect of their niche market, such as customer demographics or the geographic location of interest to a client. To carry out research, you’ll need to formulate survey texts and questions in multiple formats (for example, textual, multiple choice, drop-down, Likert scale, ranking). You may have to integrate surveys into your client’s website, database or mail marketing service provider (e.g., Mail Chimp).

To start an online business as a market research analyst, you’ll need experience in market research as well as an understanding of the industry in which you want to work. Clients will also want reports on your findings, including analysis and action points.

17. Develop an online personal trainer platform

This business venture consists of providing clients with education and direction on achieving their personal fitness goals. Coaching is done entirely online through courses, one-to-one video calls or pre-built programs.

The advantage of becoming an online personal trainer is that you can take on far more clients and monitor progress far more effectively.

Many personal trainers use platforms such as Truecoach to monetise their training content because of the high potential client traffic. However, platforms like this do charge a subscription fee.

18. Give webinars

If you’re an expert in a particular field, consider starting a webinar business. These are live-streamed virtual seminars, where you’ll deliver educational or instructive content, allowing your consumers to interact with you from wherever they are. Webinars can be audio or visual communication-based. You can attract a considerable client base, as your attendees can be based anywhere in the world with just an internet connection.

 

Webinars are particularly popular in the fintech, technology and financial service sectors. To get going, you’ll need to decide on a specialist area and select appropriate webinar software. A good marketing strategy is essential to attract enough participants to your webinar.

You can further monetise your business by using your webinars to advertise affiliate products relevant to your field: video software, for example.

19. Become a copywriter

Copywriters create different types of marketing materials by writing sales copy to attract readers’ attention and sell brands, products or services. A copywriter’s portfolio typically includes sales brochures, web content, sales scripts, sales emails, demonstration scripts, product data sheets and white papers.

Copywriters are always in demand, and big brands will pay significant amounts of money for effective advertising campaigns. Persuasive, engaging and grammatically sound copy can earn you massive amounts of money. You can start your business at home with very few resources and enjoy all the flexibility and benefits associated with a career as a freelancer. You can use platforms such as PeoplePerHour and Fiverr to offer your services as a freelance copywriter and to find clients.

The more credible you are, the higher the rate you’ll achieve. Next to relevant background and experience, it’s important to have a sound portfolio to be able to show prospective clients. You can begin by offering your services for free or for a reduced rate to some reputable clients as a starting point.

20. Create and sell an online course

In many of these online business ideas, we’ve suggested completing an online course in the subject area to establish authority in your field. But where do these online courses come from?

If you’re a specialist in a particular area, you can produce an online course to take participants through training or education on a topic. Alongside expert knowledge on your subject matter, you’ll need to be adept at producing media that can deliver the training, in the form of videos, podcasts, websites or apps.

One main advantage of this business model is that once you’ve produced your educational content, you can sit back and relax. Your courses will generate passive income as they’ll exist on my platforms indefinitely.

As an online course provider, you may consider using platforms such as Udemy, Skillshare and Teachable to grow your sales and market your product.