In reality, online businesses have a ridiculously high success rate if you consider only external factors as reasons for failure.
Second, the idea of a “soul-crushing commute” every single day, for the rest of your life, should have been enough motivation to try and discover something new.
Let’s dive into the most feasible online business ideas of the 2020s!
Or selling banner ad spaces directly to advertisers.
02. Affiliate Marketing
You recommend/promote other people’s products on your website.
And you earn through a referral link.
03. Sponsored Content
Different from affiliates in that it usually pays per project, and has higher commissions.
The challenge here is finding the right partners. (You have to reach out to them manually).
04. Membership Programs
You offer exclusive content or services to members who pay a monthly or yearly fee.
This is a great way to build a loyal community and earn recurring revenue.
05. Sell Digital Products
Digital products like ebooks, software, and printables can be a great way to make money from your website.
They’re easy to create and can be sold directly to your audience.
When it comes to blogging, publishing high-quality content regularly is more important than publishing mediocre content every day.
2. E-commerce (Dropshipping)
The beauty of an eCommerce business🛍️ is that you don’t have to pay rent for a physical storefront, and don’t need as many employees.
@Author
Compared to traditional retail?
@Reader
Yes, and With Dropshipping, it even gets better!
You don’t need to hold any inventory or handle shipping.
You create an online store, and when a customer orders a product, you buy it from a third-party supplier, mostly (like Alibaba) who ships it directly to the customer.
(For example, Pet Toys and Beauty Products sell like hotcake).
Facebook & Amazon are goldmines for product ideas like that … Search terms like “free worldwide shipping” or “50% off” and filter by videos to see what products are being heavily promoted.
Step 2: Source Your Suppliers
Products and suppliers for your e-commerce business. The bread-and-butter.
Look for reliable and trustworthy suppliers that can provide you with high-quality products at competitive prices.
They’re both marketplaces, for digital items like fonts, wallpapers, and printables.
Marketplace giants such as Airbnb, and Uber show just how successful the marketplace platform model can be when executed well.
The business model is very clear as well, you as the marketplace charge fees to the sellers for listing their stuff or (often) take a cut of each sale.
Skills Needed
web-creation/development
Networking/people Skills
Lead Generation
Content Marketing
Business Automation
Online marketplaces have gotten insanely popular because hey, who doesn’t love shopping from their couch?
2024 and beyond we’re looking at around 6.3 trillion in e-com market volume.
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
And it’s an awesome way to build an audience and even make some cash from your content.
What kind of content thrives in podcasts?
Educational, entertaining, inspiring, or value-packed, actionable steps to achieve sth …
Compared to the blogsphere with over 600 million+ blogs, podcasting feels like a tiny little corner with only around 2 million+ shows in 2024.
The point is, there’s not a lot of competition here.
Where To Get Started?
Podcasting 101 Guide: What is Podcasting & How to Start – by Riverside Fm
How to start a podcast: The creator’s step-by-step guide – by Spotify
We learn best, by doing.
So, Decide on a topic, format, goals, and roughly how long you want episodes to be. Then record a test episode to get comfortable behind the mic and work out any kinks.
Try to do this in under 4 days, and congrats.
You are already a podcaster!
Turning your podcast into a brand, and building a landing page, and reputation should come later on once you’ve figured out the basics.
@Author
How do I market my podcast though?
@Reader
Tell your friends.
Social media (on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn) – wherever your target audience hangs out online.
Ask them to not just listen, but drop a review to help give you visibility and share episodes they enjoyed to expand your reach.
Get to know and collaborate with other podcasters in similar niches, and see if you can lock in some guest appearances on their shows to cross-promote to their audiences.
8. Lead Generation
A Lead: is basically someone who is at least somewhat familiar with what a company does and could realistically turn into an actual customer down the road if nurtured properly.
It starts with, understanding the ideal customer profile (ICP). If you understand that you know what to look for.
So as a lead generation agency, your job is to find people with the highest probability of becoming leads, AND TURN THEM IN TO LEADS.
Skills Needed
Research. To gather information about potential leads.
Sales. Effectively communicate the value proposition.
Negotiation. Favorable terms with clients.
You Have to Essentially “Be” Your Clients Better Than Your Clients.
@Reader
So if your clients have a website, you need to have a better one as well.
If your clients get traffic, you need to get more traffic.
The riches are in the nichesskills here.
Earning Potential?
Roughly an ROI of 4400%, for every dollar invested.
As for the average earnings, this can depend on the industry, the quality of the leads, the quantity of leads you can generate, and how effectively you can sell them.
9. Become An Influencer
Folks who can make you want to buy their outfit just by posting a selfie with it?
We’re talking about influencers, baby! 😎
An influencer📸 is an individual who has gained a significant following and credibility.
@Author
So why would someone pay an Influencer?
Like, instead of Paid Ads for example?
@Reader
Better ROI!
They have a LOYAL audience.
And not to mention, INTERESTED people, in that topic.
This means better leads, and it means a better return on marketing efforts.
So your goal is …?
@Author
To build a loyal audience.
@Reader
Bingo!
The basic formula is to find a way to consistently post new content on a specific topic.
Where? Social Media.
Most influencers hang out on Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube
But you can’t just keep posting into the void, you will need to jumpstart traffic to your page, by using a shoutout or a paid ad.
But as always I would recommend building your own network and serving your clients on your own website eventually.
You can offer your services on a one-time or ongoing subscription basis, depending on what works for you best.
12. Make A Website For Clients
Think about it, approximately 252,000 websites are created every day! 👀
Creating websites🖥️ for clients is a popular online business that requires technical skills and creativity.
But you don’t have to be a developer for this.
You can specialize in a platform, such as WordPress or Squarespace, or offer custom web design services.
Or go the coding route, if that’s your cup of tea.
Clients usually wanna see proof of experience though, so you wanna build a portfolio of your past work to showcase your skills.
You must have some design or coding expertise from free or personal projects (at minimum), which may be an excellent starting point.
Skills Needed
Web design and development
Proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (Optional)
Pro client communication
And don’t worry about becoming a jack-of-all-trades; once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be able to specialize in one of them, making you a T-shaped webmaster.
13. Become An Seo Expert
SEO is bigger than you think!
Search engine optimization🔎 (SEO) has one of the best ROIs next to cold emailing.
If you have a background in marketing or digital media, even better!
Keyword research, content optimization, link building, and analytics are just the tip of the iceberg.
Skills Needed
Strong writing background
Digital marketing experience (Is a plus)
Take an SEO Course on the Fundamentals
Understand the fundamentals of Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking. (And Algorithms).
You need to know about on-page and off-page optimization, content quality, relevance, and keyword research.
Understand important SEO metrics such as positioning, impressions, clicks, CTR, organic sessions, and conversion rate.
Investing in real estate is THE #1 way to generate maintain wealth and achieve financial stability.
@Reader
It involves purchasing properties to generate cash flow through rental income, capital appreciation, or both.
Real estate investments can take various forms, (such as residential, commercial, or industrial properties).
Research your local real estate market for properties that have the potential to appreciate.
What To Look For:
Location. Proximity to amenities, quality of schools, and employment opportunities.
Market conditions. Supply and demand, housing affordability, and flexibility.
Investment strategy.Buy-and-hold, fix-and-flip, or wholesaling.
Property management. Expertise in tenant relations, maintenance, and regulatory compliance.
Tools To Use:
Airbnb. A global rental and accommodation marketplace.
Stessa. Free AI-powered asset management software (tracking income and expenses, monitoring portfolios, and so on … )
DealMachine. For finding off-market properties and contacting owners with home purchase offers.
17. Drop Servicing
Drop servicing🛎️ involves offering services to clients by outsourcing the work.
Look out for trending tasks that are in high demand.
@Author
What do you mean by trending services?
@Reader
Here is what I mean:
AI Services. Prompt engineering, Image generation, AI Content Creation and Dev
Digital marketing services. Search engine optimization (SEO), social media management, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and content marketing.
Web development. Custom website design, e-commerce website development, and website maintenance.
Video production and editing. By partnering with experienced videographers and video editors who can create promotional videos and educational content.
Copywriting and content creation. services like blog writing, product descriptions, email marketing copy, and sales copy.
Voiceovers and background music. Youtube voiceovers, or beats and music production for content creators
Drop servicing, in a nutshell: Identify a Market 🡲 Source Providers 🡲 Create a Platform 🡲Promote Your Business Manage Orders 🡲 Manage Orders
Engagement is the lifeblood of a successful YouTube channel. Make it a habit to interact with your viewers by responding to their comments.
How Do You Make Money With Youtube?
YouTube’s business model primarily revolves around advertising, premium subscriptions, and creator revenue sharing.
Affiliate Marketing. Create engaging video content promoting the affiliate products, including affiliate links in your video descriptions, and earn a commission from the resulting sales.
YouTube Partner Program. Content creators can join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) to monetize their channels. YouTube shares ad revenue with these creators based on factors like the number of ad views and clicks.
Super Chat and Super Stickers. These are features available during live streams, allowing viewers to pay for highlighted messages or stickers that stand out in the chat.
Channel Memberships. Creators with a large enough following can offer channel memberships, where viewers pay a monthly fee to access exclusive content, badges, and other perks.
YouTube Shorts Fund. This is a fund created to incentivize creators to produce short-form video content (under 60 seconds).
19. Create And Sell Digital Products
Digital Products 💻 are awesome!
Software, Checklists, Ebooks, PDFs, Wallpapers, Templates, Program-specific assets, 3D Models, Music … so on.
Make once and sell forever …
Here is my favorite example: Easlo, a notion Digital Creator, who made over $100K in just over 4 months from selling only ONE type of digital product: Notion templates.
Entry barriers are lower for obvious reasons.
Which could be a bad or good thing.
The scalability though, is virtually unlimited:
Automate processes. Automate repetitive tasks such as order processing, customer support, and content delivery.
Infrastructure. Ensure your digital product delivery infrastructure can handle increasing traffic and downloads efficiently.
Offer upsells and cross-sells. Increase the value of each customer by offering complementary digital products or premium versions of your existing products.
Expand your product line. Diversify your digital product offerings to cater to different customer segments and increase your market reach. Variations, bundles, or complementary products.
@Author
But I need to build a website to host them … right?
@Reader
That is the best thing to do, but there are alternatives:
Reseller hosting allows you to sell hosting solutions as your own without the need for server setup.
The account owner (you) can use your allotted hard drive space and bandwidth to host websites on behalf of third parties.
Essentially, you purchase the host’s services wholesale and then sell them to customers for a profit.
This is a good option for those who want to start their own small hosting business, or for web developers and designers who want to add hosting as an additional service for their clients.
For VPS Hosting you need the hardware, but each site is given its own dedicated portion of the server’s resources.
Each VPS has its operating system, disk space, and bandwidth, and the user has superuser-level access to the operating system instance, allowing them to install almost any software that runs on that OS.
How Profitable Is Web Hosting?
Everyone needs hosting …
And Hosting is “Cheap”.
So the profit comes from having a lot of customers!
By 2028, the web hosting industry is expected to reach $267.10 billion.
But currently, For starters, the revenues of web hosting firms vary greatly, ranging from $500 to $10,000 a month.
21. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing💷 is a popular way to earn passive income by promoting other people’s products and earning a commission on each sale.
The mere concept of making money easily, around the clock, from wherever you are may send goosebumps down your spine!🤑
Again the business model can not get simpler: you, as the affiliate, take on the noble responsibility of marketing the products of another individual or company.
But even though the business model is easy, the business itself requires smart work.
So How Do I Do It?
Well, I’ll skip the obvious (for the scope of this guide) steps like Decide on a Niche, Choose a Domain Name, and Create a Website or a Channel bla bla … 🙄
And focus on the more important steps like:
Join an Affiliate Program. Networks like Partnerstack, Amazon, or Directly check the brand’s website.
Drive Traffic to Your Website/Channel. Without traffic or audience, there are no potential customers. Use SEO, social media, email marketing, and paid ads to attract targeted traffic.
Cloak Your Affiliate Links. This step is helpful but not always necessary. Link cloaking can make affiliate links more attractive and trackable.
Track Your Campaigns. Many affiliate programs provide their own tracking options, or you can use tools like Google Analytics.
22. Online Survey/ Research Platform
It’s basically developing a web-based application that allows users to create, distribute, and analyze surveys, questionnaires, and polls.
Could be for various purposes, such as market research, customer feedback, and academic studies.
And here is what I saw in a lot of survey/form websites …
Features To Include?
Customizable survey templates
Question types (multiple choice, text entry, Likert scale, etc.)
Logic branching and integrations
Data export options
I’ve also noticed that accessibility standards (like WCAG) really matter when it comes to these kinds of sites.
Monetization Methods
Subscription Model. Users pay a monthly or annual fee to use your platform. You can offer different tiers, with each tier offering more features.
Pay-Per-Use (Credits). Here, users buy credits they can spend on creating surveys or collecting responses.
Advertising: If your platform has a large user base, you could generate revenue through in-platform advertising. May detract from the user experience if not handled carefully.
Partnerships and Affiliates: Offer your users special deals on related services. You could earn a commission for each referral.
Data Analysis: With users’ consent you could analyze aggregated and anonymized survey data to provide industry benchmarks or trend reports.
You can price it with a Freemium model (basic free access with premium features), subscription plans based on the number of contacts or emails sent, pay-as-you-go plans, etc.
And you can include pro features like:
Segmentation tools
Email templates and scripts
A/B Testing
Automation and Analytics
24. Virtual Event Planner
Virtual events📆 have grown in popularity in the post-pandemic age.
Even zoom created Zoom Events, as people started metting online a lot!
So that’s what you’ll plan/manage here.
Things like celebrations, webinars or meetups, can be considered a virtual event.
@Author
Why would people wanna do that?
Instead of pysical meetups?
@Reader
Well it’s pretty simple.
Virtual events remove geographical limitations and allow attendees to participate from anywhere in the world.
They also eliminate costs related to venue hire, catering, speaker travel, and accommodations for attendees.
What Does A Virtual Event Planner Do?
Plan the content. Design the program, schedule, and activities for the event.
Send out invites. Using various channels like email, social media, and event marketing platforms.
Prepare for the event. Ensure that all technical aspects are in order, such as testing the virtual event platform, setting up the registration process, and preparing any necessary materials or presentations.
Engage your audience. Design interactive activities and encourage participation from attendees to keep them engaged and interested in the event.
Prepare to troubleshoot. Have backup plans in place for any technical difficulties that may arise during the event.
Send out post-event follow-ups. Provide attendees with access to event recordings and thank them for participating, which can also encourage them to join future events.
Debrief. After the event, evaluate its success, gather feedback, and use the insights to improve future virtual events.
25. Sell Handmade Crafts
Handcrafted Crafts🧶, believe it or not, is a thriving business!
People seem to enjoy the uniqueness and emotional significance that handcrafted items provide.
Platforms like Etsy and Shopify serve as launchpads, allowing crafters to set up online stores and market their creations to a global customer base.
Why Handmade?
Handmade products, as opposed to mass production, stand out from the crowd due to their originality and personal touch.
These variables allow sellers to charge greater prices for their goods.
Also, handcrafted items are sometimes perceived as a more environmentally responsible alternative, adding to their appeal.
Leverage Amazon’s fulfillment and shipping network to store, pack, and ship their products to customers.📦
@Author
The OG!
Wait why didn’t you include this around the top?
@Reader
Because it’s been talked about, over, and over, and over again.
Amazon FBA is not new, but it still deserves a spot on this list.
Amazon handles the warehousing, shipping, and customer service aspects of the business.
This allows you the seller, to focus on other aspects of your business.
You know … like, the actual product.
Fun fact: There are over 2.5 million+ active sellers on Amazon and over 300 million+ active customer accounts.
Skills Required:
Market Analysis
User Acquisition
Website Development
Data Security
How To Choose The Right Products?
What’s Trending Now? Just go to Amazon and browse as a regular user, filter products by sale, and look at the types of products that are featured.
Profitability Analysis. Product price – (Cost of goods + Amazon FBA fees + shipping and handling costs).
Seasonality. While seasonal products can be profitable, they often lead to inconsistent sales throughout the year. Ideally, look for products that have steady demand year-round.
Brandability. Products that can be privately labeled or branded have the potential for higher margins.
Competition. A product with thousands of identical listings might be harder to break into than a niche with fewer sellers.
Best Tools To Use:
Helium10. keyword research, product research, listing optimization, and more.
Jungle Scout. sales estimates, competitor analysis, and product opportunities.
The last mile of delivery is the critical final step 🚚.
From the fulfillment center to its ultimate destination, typically a personal residence or retail store.
Companies get nervous about it cause, customer expectations are spoiled by Amazon!
So the name of the game is …
@Author
Deliver fast.
@Reader
Yes.
Think of using something fast and cost-effective.
Like electric vehicles, bikes, or even drones.
Did you know that last-mile delivery accounts for up to 53% of a product’s total shipping cost? 👀
That’s your market right there …
What You Need
Establishing Partnerships. With e-commerce businesses, retail stores, shopping centers restaurants, or fulfillment centers.
WebApp. Efficient logistics management and the fastest route, to the destination.
Delivery Execution. Optimized delivery workflow.
Customer Rating System. (Build Reputation)
29. Buy An Online Business
Starting from scratch is overrated!😒
Figuring out your niche, setting up a website, building an email list, marketing, and the list goes on!
Sometimes, Buying an existing internet business can be more beneficial.
You sidestep debt faster and get your foot in the door without the stress of conjuring up a unique idea.
You’re acquiring a business that’s already generating revenue, has a customer base, and has established its web presence!
@Author
If a business is profitable,
Why would they wanna sell?
@Reader
Retirement, Burnout, New Opportunities …
Businesses get acquired more frequently than you think, even in large companies.
Who am I kiddin’ Worldwide online sales have already surpassed $6.5 trillion!
@Author
Hmm … 🤔
Now, where can I locate companies that are for sale?
@Reader
Flippa. Flippa specializes in online businesses, including blogs, e-commerce sites, and software companies.
Empire Flippers. A trusted marketplace for buying and selling online businesses. They have a rigorous vetting process.
AquireBase. A marketplace for buying and selling side projects & SaaS apps (with free options).
What Type Of Business Should I Buy?
This guide itself is a perfect list for you to choose the type of businesses that are best to buy!
Isn’t that ironic …
But here are some things to look out for:
01. Established Revenue. A proven track record, with official financial statements. 02. Strong Customer Base. Legit customers with a large and engaged audience. 03. Scalable Operations. Efficient automation and streamlined processes. 04. Trends and Demand. Will the products stay in demand in the coming years?
FAQs
•••
What is the most profitable online business?
The most profitable online business is affiliate marketing. Which can be highly related to having a website or blogging. Others like SaaS and Dropshipping also have an explosive nature.
What are some profitable e-commerce business ideas?
Whitelabel Dropshipping, Handmade Items, Subscription boxes, Digital products, Smart home appliances, Merch, Beauty or Fitness Accessories
How can I start my own online business?
To start an online business, follow these steps: come up with an idea, choose a business name and domain, create a business plan, register your business, set up a website, and market your business.
What are the top 5 most profitable businesses?
The top 5 most profitable businesses can vary depending on factors such as market demand, competition, and skills. Some popular profitable businesses include SaaS, Online courses, Affiliate marketing, Dropshipping, and Crypto trading.
Summary
I hope you like these online business ideas. But now it’s your turn.
Whether you love marketing, selling things online, creating content, or helping others with your expertise, there’s a perfect spot for you somewhere.
