1.Launch a dropshipping store
Think you need a warehouse full of inventory to run your own business? Think again! Dropshipping is a great way to start a business on a budget. You can hit the ground running by sourcing a pre-existing product from a supplier and having them take care of things like packaging and fulfillment.
This process lets you skip over a lot of obstacles that might be standing in the way of you starting your own business. More importantly, it eliminates the risk of finding out there’s no market for your product after placing a huge order with a manufacturer or supplier.
2.Start a Blog and Monetize it
A really simple idea that would only take up to 1 hour of your time a week and about $20 in costs. Over time it could make you quite a bit of money.
Sites like Viralnova.com and Fukarf.com create compelling content by finding funny, emotional and inspirational stories on Reddit, Facebook and Imgur, rewriting the content, adding some more detail and publishing the content on their own site.
Just to give you an idea on how successful these types of sites are, ViralNova was set up buy one guy who hired a couple of writers to rewrite successful content that was published on other sites around the web. This site sold for $100 MILLION!!! Before that, ViralNova was making $400k+ per month in ad revenue.
With a bit of promotion on sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Reddit and eventually organic traffic, within 12 months you should be pulling in 30K to 50K unique visits a month. Monetize the site with Adsense to get some revenue in to cover costs of your hosting and domain name costs.
Ok, you’ll be making peanuts to start with( $10 to $50 a month), but as the traffic grows, this figure could grow to $1000 + a month. Then potentially you could flip the site for 30 times the monthly revenue. I know people who do this all the time and flip sites after 8 months for $10,000 + !
3.Get Started With Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is basically the process of earning a commission by promoting somebody else’s product.
There are two main ways most people do affiliate marketing:
- Information products. You promote products like ebooks, membership sites, video series, etc. This type of affiliate marketing can earn you up to 50% or more in commission, has relatively low barriers to entry, and it’s easy to find products to promote.
- Amazon partners. Many affiliate marketers have success with Amazon. There are literally millions of products to choose from, and it can be quite profitable. For more information, you can check out the Amazon Associates Program.
Quick side note: Before you start affiliate marketing, it helps to have at least a basic knowledge of SEO and copywriting (more on each of these later).
That being said, you can read a few copywriting books and look through the beginners guide to SEO from Moz to help you get started.
4.Information Products
When you have an internet business, it doesn’t have to be about selling physical products. In fact, digital information products are one of the easiest and quickest ways to make money.
There’s no shortage of ways to create information products, but the most popular formats include:
- Audio: a recorded teleconference, interview, course, or some other spoken-word product
- Video: a recorded webinar, a how-to, an interview
- Text: an ebook, an instruction booklet of some sort, a travel guide
In each of these categories, you can really get creative and make any type and format of content, as long as it’s engaging and useful.
No matter which way you do it, it’s passive income—money you earn while you sleep because you put these products up for sale on your website and a customer can buy and download them any time of day or night, automatically. All you have to do is check the sales periodically to see what topics or types of products are selling best so you can make more of those.
5.Create a Digital Product or Course
Creating a digital product or course is similar to writing an ebook. You’re monetizing your expertise by teaching it to the others.
That being said, you don’t have the benefit of Amazon promoting your course. You have to do the promoting yourself through your own website, your email lists, and possibly through affiliate partnerships. You also need to create a compelling sales page that will convince visitors to buy from you.
If you don’t already have an audience, it might be better to self-publish on Amazon first. That way, you can validate your course idea, grow your email list (just make sure to have an email opt-in at the front and back of the book), and more or less create a rough draft of the course (since it will probably be similar to the book).
Here are some additional resources to help you with an online course creation:
- TheRiseToTheTop.com – David Siteman Garland’s website that’s helped thousands of entrepreneurs launch profitable online courses.
- Monetize Your Expertise Podcast – Helpful episodes by online course expert Grant Weherley to help you start your fist online course.
6.Build apps and websites
If you’re tech savvy, acquire some coding skills and start building. Whether it’s mobile apps, Shopify apps, or websites, you can create digital products for purchase or as a service provider.
For example, you can create a custom Shopify theme template and sell it to merchants looking for an affordable DIY approach to designing their website. Or work with clients directly to build websites and apps tailored to their specific needs.
Why build apps and websites?
- Technology isn’t going anywhere, and the demand for the technical skills necessary to build apps and websites will only continue to grow.
- There’s an endless number of platforms and systems out there. If you get bored of one, learn and transition to another.
7.Self-Publish a Book on Amazon
Have you ever thought of writing a book, but didn’t know where to get started? All the publishing nonsense, editing, and formatting, marketing, etc.?
With Amazon, you can self-publish a book fairly easily, and really make money from it. There are some simple and inexpensive guides to help you write your book AND have it generate consistent income.
Here’s the secret sauce: If you can launch your book and get a few hundred sales in the first week, Amazon will take over and start promoting it for you. This way you can make some real money from it. It’s actually easier than it sounds, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Here are a few tips for writing a book:
- Validate the book by giving a survey to friends, an email list, and/or survey sites like PickFu. By validating your idea before you write the book, you’ll improve the odds of people willing to buy your book (and you’re not wasting your time by writing it.)
- Create an outline and stick to it if possible.
- Set aside at least 30 minutes to an hour each day to write.
- Format the book according to Amazon’s standards.
Once the book is written and formatted, you can head over to KDP.amazon.com. Log in with your Amazon account, then under “Create a New Title”, select “Kindle eBook.”
8.Buy and Flip Domains
You’ve probably heard of people who buy and “flip” real estate, right? They buy a house for a relatively good price, fix it up a little bit, and then resell it for a nice profit.
It’s the same idea for buying and flipping domains. Whether it’s your own domain, or whether you’re looking to buy somebody else’s site and flip it, this can be a good source of online income.
9.Remote tech support
Many small businesses don’t have room in their budgets to hire a full-time IT employee, so when their systems go on the fritz, they usually call a computer-savvy friend or family member. If you are tech savvy and have experience working on computers and networks, you can eliminate their need to call in a favor by offering immediate remote technical assistance.
Although some businesses may prefer you to have a technical degree, many will look to your experience and knowledge instead. You can start to build your remote tech support business by reaching out to friends, family and local business owners about their tech support needs. You can also find freelance tech support gigs on job boards like Upwork.
10.Niche market e-commerce retailer
There’s an audience for everything, even if it’s as specific as dollhouse furniture or organic dog food. With a niche e-commerce site, you can reach customers who seek your specific products. Building a business in a niche market can help you differentiate yourself from other brands and build your credibility and expertise. Look to social media or your own consumer needs to come up with a product to sell on your online store.
To get your e-commerce business up and running, all you need is a web hosting service with an integrated shopping cart feature or e-commerce software. To simplify the shipping process, you can work with vendors to ship products to customers on your behalf. This can reduce the amount of inventory you need to keep onsite
11.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.
