Why Online?
1. Social media consultant – Larger firms can hire an agency or full-time staff member to run their Facebook and Twitter accounts, but small businesses often have to handle their own social media marketing. With so many other responsibilities, business owners are often too busy or overwhelmed to spend time developing and implementing a great social media strategy. As a consultant, you can help them determine the best tactics, posting schedules and content for their target audience. As their follower count grows, so will your business
2. Web design – Have you ever been turned off by a business’s generic-looking website layout? If you know some HTML and have a good eye for design, you can launch a service to create attractive, easy-to-use websites for small businesses. You can put your skills to good use for business owners who want to take their online presence to the next level. Build up a portfolio of work with smaller freelance jobs, then create your own website to show it off and bring in a steady stream of clients.
3. Specialized retailer – An online store lets you reach customers all over that world and that means you can afford to specialize. Whether it’s dollhouse furniture or organic dog food, there’s an audience for everything. Using a web hosting service with an integrated shopping cart or e-commerce sofware, your business will be operational in no time. Many vendors will even ship products to customers on your behalf, which means you don’t need to own a lot of inventory.
4. Professional freelancer – You might not think of freelancing as a business, but with more and more companies turning to part-time contract workers to fill their skill gaps, it’s not hard to imagine making a living providing businesses with a variety of freelance services. Depending on your skill sets, you could work for multiple companies in a variety of fields, offering flexibility and a refreshing change of pace. According to the freelance job listing website Freelancer.com, tech services, content creation and web design are popular fields for contract work.
5. Affiliate marketing – If you’re a person that loves leaving customer reviews on sites like Amazon, stop doing it for free. Word-of-mouth advertising is still a huge lead generator for many companies, and a lot of businesses are willing to share a portion of their profits with persuasive individuals who will promote their products to the public. If you have a personal website with a large following, this might be easier to accomplish (PR reps are always seeking out brand advocates they can send free samples to). Smart Passive Income breaks down three types of affiliate marketing and explains which one is most profitable.
6. eBay: One of the largest online marketplaces makes it a piece of cake to get your own business going. You can open an account and start making money within hours on eBay!
While I dislike that whole “sell your garbage on eBay” thing, there is some validity to it as many people get their start on eBay by selling items from their garage or attic that pre-eBay would have been thrown out. This approach is fine, but where is the business once you run out of those items? If you want to create an eBay business that doesn’t require tons of time and effort, you need to leverage products that can be sold over and over again.
This is one of the reasons I’m not a fan of the “eBay seller for hire” kinds of opportunities, where you sell things on eBay for other people. You get access to stuff people want to sell, but because each item is unique you have to work to list each and every one. There’s no leverage there!
Take a look at some of the largest eBay PowerSellers and notice how they specialize in very specific products (iPods, cell phones, dog grooming kits, etc.). This allows them to leverage their efforts. A listing is created once, and money is collected over and over again.
Unlike information marketing, this business requires the handling of physical goods, but even that can be automated, so it shouldn’t prevent you from considering this idea
7. Blogging: This online business is best suited for folks who enjoy communicating about a particular subject. Think of blogs as journals of sorts. Although you can have a personal blog, writing about a particular topic will have a higher chance for financial success.
The range of topics is virtually endless–photography, sports cars, parenting, dieting, star gazing, the latest gadgets, Hollywood gossip–you name it, as there are blogs on just about everything you can imagine. Don’t worry about competition. Folks who read one blog are apt to read others on a topic they’re passionate about, as long as you have something interesting to say.
Once your blog starts getting traffic, you can make money passively with things like AdSense (Google’s ad revenue sharing plan) or actively by doing a little bit of affiliate marketing. You can see both types of moneymaking strategies at SparkleCat.com, which is a blog about a person’s cat. What makes it interesting is that it’s written from the cat’s perspective and often refers to her “human.” At the top of the page are Google AdSense ads, and sprinkled throughout are suggestions for things like cat furniture and premium cat food, which are tied to an affiliate program. Pretty cool, no?