So, you’re looking for good online business ideas. Maybe you’re tired of the 9-to-5 grind, or maybe you’re just looking for a way to earn extra cash. Finding the right opportunity can be tough. This post explores several promising online business ventures, highlighting options you might not have considered.

Table of Contents:

Good Online Business Ideas for Every Skill Set

Let’s explore a mix of online business ideas, from creative pursuits to tech-savvy ventures. You can explore design services and remote work opportunities, starting with some top self-service business ideas.

Creative Ventures

Love to design or create? These business ideas could be a perfect fit.

Start an Etsy Shop

If you’re crafty or artistic, an Etsy shop offers a low-barrier entry into online selling. Create and sell handmade jewelry, art, clothing, or even vintage finds.

This gives you a way to reach customers worldwide and monetize your skills. Starting an Etsy Shop could even lead to creating your own small business in the future.

Sell Digital Art and Designs

Transform your digital artwork into merchandise using print-on-demand platforms like Printful or Society6. They handle printing, shipping, and customer service.

You create the art and focus on marketing and sales for a great online business. You could earn $0.10 to $8,100 per image, depending on licensing and distribution.

Tech-Driven Businesses

Feeling tech-savvy? Try your hand at some profitable tech business ventures.

Web Design and Development

As businesses increasingly move online, web developers are highly sought after. Businesses of all sizes require well-designed, functional websites, and learning SEO marketing can bring in potential clients.

This opens up opportunities for freelancers and agencies to offer web design services and web development and maintenance services.

App Development

With 78% of digital consumers preferring mobile apps over websites for shopping, app development is lucrative. You could earn around $61-$80 per hour.

The barrier to entry is lower now thanks to no-code development platforms. Consider B2B ecommerce business after looking at B2B ecommerce examples. Doing so also brings the ability to build your own membership website to further engage with clients.

Knowledge and Service-Based Businesses

Skilled in a certain area? Offering online services opens another avenue for good online business ideas. Potential customers can easily become repeat customers as you build out your small business.

Online Courses and Coaching

Share your knowledge and start an online business by creating and selling online courses. This is a way of content marketing, helping build up your potential clients.

These can generate substantial income with membership sites. Over $1 billion each year is generated on platforms such as MemberPress. These services also allow for potential clients to test products with a free trial, so make sure you advertise if you start free.

Virtual Assistant Services

Provide administrative, technical, or creative support to businesses remotely as a virtual assistant. This can include managing emails, scheduling meetings, and social media marketing.

You could also create content, handling social media accounts. Earn around $24/hour by using email marketing to reach potential customers.

Online Tutoring

Help students globally learn subjects you’re well-versed in, from math to music to essay writing. The average rate is about $15 per hour.

Platforms such as Skooli can help find students. Creating online workout programs can be added to the service you offer to a wider audience.

Low-Investment Business Ideas

Sometimes, good online business ideas require minimal investment. Starting a business business with marketing campaigns might bring more potential customers if you are seeking more than just one client. Try looking at profitable business and start dropshipping options as low-cost methods for creating successful online business models.

Freelance Writing

Freelance writers can create marketing materials, website copy, articles, or ghostwrite books.

It’s a field with ongoing demand as businesses expand their online presence. Writers can charge up to $30/hour.

Start a Blog or Podcast

A blog or podcast lets you pick a topic and generate content your audience wants.

Podcasts have more than 400 million listeners worldwide. Monetization comes through advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, or selling your products or services. You’ll be seen as more than just an average business owner with your target audience, increasing chances for more business start ups with new clients offering a good deal for business owners. Look at marketing agencies to grow your audience more than just from a marketing campaign. Find the right target audience with a marketing agency and watch your potential clients turn into actual paying customers. Media marketing on sites such as YouTube and third-party platforms, which could include creating workout programs, help reach wider audience members.

Having workout programs can also grow potential customers within the online fitness market if your business model also offers online fitness content.

Affiliate Marketing

With affiliate marketing, promote products or services through unique links on your blog or social media. You earn a commission on each sale made through your referral. Look for good online business ideas.

You don’t even create a product, handle fulfillment, or customer service. With content marketing, create targeted advertisements for specific content, bringing in even more potential customers. Starting an online business may require multiple third-party platforms, all based around potential customer wants and how clients offer them services or products. Having editing skills helps greatly when having a YouTube channel as it enhances production quality, increasing potential customer views, bringing even more paying customers. Using SEO consultant practices for marketing campaigns across search engine optimization will increase your overall brand and content reach.

Dropshipping

This business idea lets you run an online store without holding inventory. You act as a storefront.

Your profit comes from the price difference on your platform and the supplier’s cost. You might earn between $200 to $3,000 monthly, depending on sales and your target market.

Using Spocket costs about $39.99/month. Selling domain names is another passive income route, increasing the success of your profitable business with every successful purchase.

Subscription Boxes

Subscription box businesses ship curated product bundles to subscribers. This generates recurring income.

Research and select items consumers want. You may earn between $6,000 and $400,000+ monthly.

Subscription boxes are an expanding market, with sales growing from $31.4 billion in 2023 to $36.8 billion in 2024. Good online business ideas include those such as subscription boxes.

Finding the Right Business for You

FactorDescription
Skills and InterestsChoose a business you’re passionate about for motivation. Offer services with what you enjoy working on to make it more fulfilling, creating more opportunity to make great online business deals. Ideas include starting dropshipping and marketing automation business as low cost ventures for more small businesses to pick up and grow into a successful online business.
Market DemandVerify a paying customer base exists. Validate your business ideas. Market research helps assess competition. Doing this will help bring more clients offering work. You can learn how to start an online business and start online in order to start marketing campaign services or create your own graphic design business that will eventually become profitable. Graphic design and design services is a booming business sector where successful online businesses can start by working for local businesses before moving up towards bigger clients for graphic design services. A credit card and other payment methods may be a useful option to consider setting up for the purpose of keeping financial records straight.
Startup CostsEvaluate required capital and choose an affordable venture. While online businesses often require less capital than conventional ones, expenses like marketing and website upkeep matter. Some might require an initial investment for inventory or tools. Look for ideas that include starting online. Starting an online business also involves having a great online marketing campaign for both potential clients and potential customers, as those potential clients can bring in multiple additional potential customers with a good deal from a reputable business.
ScalabilityReflect on how growth potential relates to your objectives. Some business ideas, like online courses, scale smoothly, requiring mostly static upfront time for recurring revenue. Other models might demand your constant attention. If growth matters more than ease, prioritize an option you can build and hand over to another entity or individual. Having services such as graphic design services increases the potential for multiple other clients to ask you to start an online marketing campaign to increase their client’s chances of seeing their products and advertisements through successful online business and social media marketing.

Conclusion

Finding good online business ideas involves figuring out what motivates you. From selling creations on Etsy to offering virtual assistant services or creating educational content, there’s something for every skill level.

Take these insights and discover which model aligns with you. Being a business owner involves much more than just one type of job such as a marketer; being the owner, especially of an online business, means wearing many different hats, being not only just the marketer, but the accountant and web designer as well. Marketing and advertising through social media and search engines, you bring potential clients in along with potential customers, creating profitable business opportunities from even one singular business start.

Subscribe to my LEAN 360 newsletter to learn more about startup insights.

Author

Lomit is a marketing and growth leader with experience scaling hyper-growth startups like Tynker, Roku, TrustedID, Texture, and IMVU. He is also a renowned public speaker, advisor, Forbes and HackerNoon contributor, and author of "Lean AI," part of the bestselling "The Lean Startup" series by Eric Ries.

Write A Comment