Best 11 Online Businesses to Start (most profitable and popular)

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In today’s digital age, the possibilities for starting a successful online business are endless. I started my first online business when my older son was born. Over time, I’ve evolved and created several different forms of online income.

Whether you’re looking to escape the 9-to-5 grind, pursue your passion, or simply explore new ways to make money online, there are many opportunities for you to tap into. From e-commerce to blogging to freelancing gigs, the internet has made entrepreneurship more accessible than ever before.

In this guide, we’ll explore the 11 best online businesses to start your next business venture. Each of these business ideas has the potential to not only generate income but also provide you with the flexibility and freedom that come with being your own boss.

1. Start a Profitable Blog

A blog is a great way to share your passion with the world and earn some income on the side. You can start a blog on just about any topic, from personal finance to fashion to gardening or food. You’ll need a domain name, hosting, and a website to get started. You can build your website with Showit.co or if you’re looking for an all-in-one sales and marketing platform, go with High Level.

You can make your blog niche profitable by monetizing it through coaching, consulting, affiliate marketing, ads, digital products, sponsored posts, or your own products like online courses.

Read my complete guide if you want to learn how to start a blog and make money.

2. Create an Online Store

Setting up your own online store is a viable way to make money from home. You can easily launch your own e-commerce business and begin selling products from the comfort of your home. You can sell anything from specialty coffee, loose-leaf tea, food, jewelry, pets, plants, skincare, art supplies, and much more.

You’ll first need to decide what type of products you want to sell, as well as where you plan on sourcing them from. Consider dropshipping if you want to start selling without needing to worry about stocking items.

Then, you’ll need to create and design your own website, build a shopping cart, and set up payment methods. You can also use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest as an additional way of advertising your products and driving traffic to your store.

Once you have your online store running, the key to making money is to focus on marketing and sales. Make sure you’re actively promoting your business through various channels, such as email campaigns, search engine optimization (SEO), google ads, and social media ads.

Having a good understanding of how digital marketing works will be crucial for your success.

Additionally, it’s also important to stay on top of customer service and ensure that customers are satisfied with their purchased products. Attention to detail can go a long way when it comes to online stores.

With the right strategy and dedication, you can make money from home by launching an online store. Setting up a shop may require some upfront work, but the long-term profits can be well worth it.

As your store grows, you may even think about expanding and selling on additional platforms such as Amazon or Etsy.

Read my full guide on how to start an e-commerce business.

3. Become a Freelance Writer

If you enjoy writing and you’re good at it, freelancing writing can be a great online business to start.

It makes sense to choose a topic or specific area to focus on. For example, will you write b2b business to business, b2c business to consumer, copywriting, technical writing, or will you focus on a specific topic such as travel, real estate, software, finance, hobbies, fitness, parenting, etc..

You don’t have to have experience in the topic as long as you’re passionate about it and have an engaging writing style.

To get started, you’ll want to create a website or blog with samples of your work.

There are many freelance writing websites like Fiverr where you can create a profile, find clients, and get paid for your work. You can expect to make anywhere from $10 to $70 or more per hour, depending on your skill level and demand.

4. Start a Coaching Business

Coaching is a fast-growing $2.85 billion worldwide industry. If you want to share your expertise and knowledge with others, a coaching and consulting business could be the right move. Starting a coaching business will require dedication and hard work, but with the right mindset and attitude, you can do it.

Whether you’re a financial advisor, social media expert, health coach, SEO consultant, personal development coach, or performance coach, there are people out there who would be happy to pay for your knowledge and advice. You could also start a mastermind group to grow your coaching business and income.

5. Sell on Amazon

It’s no secret that selling on Amazon can be lucrative if you find the right product. You’ll need to find products that have high demand and low competition.

It’s important to do your research before choosing a product. You can use tools such as JungleScout to help you determine what products people are looking for on the Amazon platform.

Start by choosing a niche, finding a product, and then set up a seller account and creating an amazon storefront. You’ll choose how you’ll ship your products. You can send products to Amazon and have them fulfilled by Amazon (Amazon FBA) or by fulfill them yourself (fulfilled by merchant).

You can also make money reviewing Amazon products or on Amazon KDP.

Read my full guide on how to make money on Amazon.

6. Start a Booking Keeping Business

Are you a whiz with numbers? Consider starting an accounting or bookkeeping business. With the digital finance transformation, you can offer your services to individuals or businesses, and all you need is a computer and some basic accounting software.

Companies hire bookkeepers to help them maintain accounting reports and financial records. You’ll engage in activities such as documenting and categorizing transactions such as income and expenses. Manage a company’s finances with business accounting software such as QuickBooks and prepare financial statements such as balance sheets and profit and loss statements.

7. Start a Podcast

Starting a podcast can be fun and lucrative, and it’s not going anywhere. In addition to being another revenue stream, a podcast builds credibility and positions you as an expert in your industry or niche.

You can make money with a podcast through sponsored ads, affiliate links, promoting your own services or merchandise, direct support, including premium content, and advertising networks.

There are five basic steps to starting a podcast.
1. Define your niche/topic and research the competition.
2. Define your audience.
3. Choose your format (solo, group, interviews) and publishing schedule.
4. Build your online presence and brand.
5. Choose your hosting site, recording equipment, and software.
6. Record and edit your first podcast.
7. Promote your podcast.

8. Start a YouTube Channel (Vlog)

If you love the idea of filming certain parts of your life or talking to the camera, start a Vlog. Video is becoming more and more popular every day with YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

You can monetize your vlog with YouTube’s partner program, affiliate marketing, paid ads, sponsored posts, or your own services, courses, or merchandise.

9. Graphic Design

A graphic design business is a fun and exciting business to start. Graphic designers create imagery, concepts, and visual text. Many graphic designers work by hand or use computer software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Canva to inspire, communicate ideas and captivate consumers.

To stand out from the competition, it’s important to find a niche that you not only enjoy but can excel in. This will help you make money from your skills.

Graphic design can be a profitable business and easy to start. You can work from anywhere and be your own boss. There are opportunities in almost every professional sector. You can work on projects for a small business, a large corporation, the government, or an international brand.

Graphic designers develop the overall production and layout design. They can design advertisements, websites, a logo for a business, a cover pages for a book, greeting cards, brochures or catalogs, corporate reports, teach graphic design, newsletters, or email marketing templates and brochures.

You can start your own agency, sell print-on-demand products on Redbubble, create your own website and go that route or start freelancing on platforms such as Fiverr.

Graphic design makes things look good and helps deliver an impactful message. It’s meant to inspire, inform, and attract customers, which is crucial for a business. It has become a well-sought-after money-making skill.

10. Affiliate Marketing

An affiliate marketing business is where an affiliate marketer earns money promoting someone else’s product or service online through an affiliate link. Typically, this is done through marketing platforms with content creation such as a website, blog post, podcast, YouTube video, social media post, or email. You’ll need to read the rules and regulations for each affiliate program to understand where they allow you to use your affiliate link.

Affiliate marketing is a very low-risk business. It doesn’t cost anything to join an affiliate program, keeping your initial upfront investment low.

To make money with affiliate marketing, an affiliate marketer would promote a product or service, the customer would click the affiliate link and make a purchase, and then you would get paid a commission.

Commission rates for affiliates vary depending on the company, product, and agreement. Some affiliate programs offer a percentage of the sale, some offer a one-time fee, and others offer an ongoing commission on subscriptions as long as that customer continues to subscribe every month.

To stay true to your reader, you should only promote products you use or have used and would recommend. It’s important to recommend products and services that can actually help your reader, so they get the results they are looking for. Remember, it does take time!

Once you choose a niche, you’ll want to look for the best high-paying affiliate programs.

11. Social Media Consultant

There are 4.9 billion people around the globe using social media as of 2024. With such a large potential audience, companies need to use social media to reach their audience and customers. Small companies with limited resources often outsource social media to social media consultants to grow their traffic and increase their social media presence.

As a social media consultant, you’ll act on behalf of your client across a variety of social media platforms to grow an audience.

To get started, you’ll want to choose a niche you’d like to work in and build a portfolio of case studies so clients can see the work you’ve done. Publish your own social media marketing content to show your expertise in the field. To generate leads for your business, you’ll want to spend time networking and creating engaging content on social media. Word of mouth and referrals will be critical for your long-term success.