20 Trending Online Business Ideas That Actually works

We are living in the online world. Our day starts with the online activities of checking what is happening around us. There are many ways you can earn online with very little money. In this article, we will discuss online business ideas that actually work. Lots of people are earning money online.

When you dream of opening your own business, you might envision four white walls and a big table with a computer on it. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. With today’s technology, you can start and run a business online that too with little money. This will help you to have a second source of income.

You just need little technical skills and an internet connection to start a business from the comfort of your home. Internet connection is nowadays very cheap and easily available. These online business ideas will not require big money to start with and also doesn’t require an office address.

The best business ideas are the simple that aims to solve the real problem or fill a need. Uber, Zomato, Swiggy etc. are such online business ideas which were started from scratch but are at the top business list in India.

Find out such gaps and ask your self how to fix this problem? or how this can be better? Think out of the box and you will definitely find one such idea which id doable for you.

19 Online Business Ideas

1: Blogging

Blogging is one idea that requires very low money to start with. You can start your blog for free with WordPress. Once you are established blogger, you can think of adding few services/features which helps you to earn money from it. There are many bloggers who are making money for their living from their blog.

blog

Find your interest, share useful content to the readers and you will surely make good money from your blog. Earning money from the blog takes time so it is better that you start this activity as a part time/side business and continue with your core job/business until you are established blogger.

There are various ways to earn money through a blog, like an advertisement through Adsense or any other network. Selling product/service through your blog. Affiliate marketing is also another way of making money through a blog.

2: Virtual Assistant

In today’s world, you can hire a virtual assistant to do anything for your business. The virtual assistant will help you run your business by helping you do day to day job for you so that you can focus on the more important things which take your business to the next level.

virtual assistant
image credit – shutterstocks

For example, you hire a virtual assistant to take care of your customer service that takes about 3 hours of your daily routine. By having a virtual assistant, now you have these 3 hours free which you can invest in your business for further expansion.

There are portals like Fiverr which helps you to find a job as a virtual assistant. Get your profile created on Fiverr and start offering your service at your convenience.

3: Social Media Manager

Social Media has become an integral part of our daily routine. Our day starts and ends with social media. Moreover, these social media influence our purchase decision in a big way. There are many company whose product is successful due to social media marketing.

social media

Skills require to become a social media manager

As a social media manager, you need to:

  • Develop a social media strategy and set goals to increase brand awareness and user engagement
  • Manage all social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin
  • write engaging blog post and articles
  • Create and run ad campaigns that promote your brand
  • Create engaging multimedia content like videos, podcast, blog post
  • Create a relationship with social media influencers
  • Respond to the queries raised by the users on the social media platforms
  • Monitor social media performance through various reports and softwares

4: SEO Consultant

Do you know more than 450+ million Indians are using internet? Out of that 60% people are using internet through mobile. This is just a beginning, more and more people will join internet in India.

Just imagine what these people will do on the internet. They are making new friends on Facebook and Instagram, learning new things, searching for jobs and shopping online.

seo

Companies are tapping this opportunity and taking digital marketing seriously. Digital marketing is different from traditional marketing, it is a marketing platform via mobile, computer and tablets. These companies required digital marketing consultant to help them tap this huge market.

Search engine optimization is a technique for optimizing the business website and app pages so that they can appear higher in SERP (Search Engine Result Pages).
When your business website and apps pages will appear higher then you will get a maximum number of new customers daily.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is skills which help the company to be on the top of the search results on the search engine. Which in turn will bring more business and revenue to the company

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Pay Per Click
  • Email Marketing
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Content Marketing

Search engine optimization is the freeway to get new customers, buyers, users from the internet without any cost.

Advantages of SEO

  • SEO is the free way to gain new customers and users from search engine regularly.
  • SEO saves money in long run.
  • SEO improves brand reputation.
  • SEO keeps your business and its related services at the top in organic results.

What Results to Expect from an SEO expert?

You should expect these things from your SEO expert:-

  • Improvement in the ranking of the selected right keyword.
  • Improvement in organic traffic website.
  • Expect to get leads, sales, and queries after 3 months, 6 months, after 1 year according to your business competition online.

Fiverr is the portal where you can get the SEO related projects. These projects could be short-term or long-term based on the client requirement. You can charge on an hourly basis or on the project basis whichever is suitable for your client and you.

5: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can be a quite profitable business if done the right way. It is not something that you fake and then watches the money roll in. The idea is you promote an sell other people’s products and services through affiliate network and on each successful sale of the product you will get a commission.

affiliate marketing
image credit – shutterstocks

It is a revenue sharing model through which you can offer promoters a financial incentive through an affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, first you need to review products in your niche.

This can be done through a Youtube channel or a blog. You need to collect emails of the users/subscribers of your channel of blog. so that you can be in touch with them and can offer the product you want to sell them later on.

It is like reviewing the product and then ask people to buy it through your channel or blog. You will then get a commission on successful sale from the company.

6: Sell Photos Online

If you are a creative person and know how to click a good photo, you can make good money out of it. There are portals that sells your photos and pass a share of profit with you. There is a high demand of the good quality photos in every field.

sell photos online

Whether you want to sell digital or physical prints of your artistic images or sell licenses for more commercial images as stock photography, it is now easier than ever before to do so.

Create a photo gallery of your collection and when someone is browsing your gallery, give them a chance to buy that photograph right from your website. As the internet is expanding, more and more people are publishing content by them self. So the demand of the stock photos has grown. There are a number of sites out there to provide affordable images to designers, authors, and bloggers.

Stock photos can be used in website design, blog article, posters, flyers, newsletters and other use you can think of. Because the demand is high, it can generate a decent side income for you over a period of time.

Try to find the trending images which are most downloaded, this will give you an idea about what type of images are in demand. So you need to focus on these type of images. Other generic business images are always in demand, you can try that as well.

The easiest way to make your photographs available as stock images 
for sale is by using a third-party microstock website such as iStockPhotoDreamstimeShutterstock123RF, or Getty Images via Flickr.

Selling your photos through a stock agency and portals like this are quick and easy. They do all the marketing for you and thousands of people search for images on these sites every day. Initially, you will have to pay a huge portion of your earning as a commission to these portals. But that’s ok as it will give you a large platform. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for you to sell a single photo by your own.

Consider pricing of the photos as the main factor to sell your images. Stay competitive with other stock photography site. You can maximize your earnings by selling images together in a bundle or collection based on a theme.

7: Online Tutor

Due to the fast and busy lifestyle people nowadays prefer online coaching. The growth of the technology and internet bandwidth has made the experience of online coaching extremely easy and realistic. As a result, the demand of online tutors is growing fast. So if you have some specific skills in a specific field, you like helping others to learn, online tutoring could be the money making machine for you.

online tutor

Online tutor is suitable for the people who love to leach and have a gift of imparting knowledge. Obviously, there are some specific skills require for that :

  • Expertise in any particular subject like, maths, science, computer programming, investing etc
  • Basic degree on the subject you wish to teach
  • Some basic knowledge of computer and internet/website/webinar

How To Get Started:

The first and the best way is to enroll with the online tutoring sites, these sites will assign you a student based on your profile and schedule.

Udemy is one such popular site wherein you can create and upload your online course. Interested people will then browse your online course by paying a fee for it. You will get a part of the revenue through this portal.

Alternatively, you can create your own youtube channel through which you can impart your knowledge to the interested people. You will get revenue through the ad displayed on your channel.

8: Freelance Writer

As per the definition mentioned on Wikipedia, “a freelancer or freelance worker is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer for long-term.”

Usually, a person use this term to describe what they technically do for example:

  • A freelance designer
  • A freelance marketer
  • A freelance developer
  • A freelance writer, and so on.

A freelance writer is like “rent a writer” that is what you want to be perceived. A writer is a person who generates content for the company to publish on their website as a blog post, or on the social media platforms.

writer

As a freelance writer you are expected to deliver:

  • Interesting blog post
  • Make product videos
  • Newsletters
  • Business reports
  • Infographics

And other tons of interesting materials. Your goal should deliver value to the people that follow the company. This is just a rough outline. Possibilities are endless.

Fiverr is the place where you will get lots of job in freelance writing. The pay would be on the per article basis. You can manage multiple clients at the same time. You just need to understand the requirement of your client and create content around that.

9: Financial Consultant

A financial consultant is a person who advise individuals, businesses, banks, and other institutions on how to borrow money, invest it and make the best out of it.

For becoming a financial consultant, you need to acquire a good amount of knowledge and get yourself a certificate from the reputed institution.

financial consultant

Get yourself registered with SEBI as a financial advisor. You will then be able to provide financial advice to individuals and companies. You need to develop huge networking to get good business.

There are various types of the financial consultants i.e. Fee only financial consultant, Fee based financial consultant, Certified financial planner and so on.

There is a difference between fee only and fee-based financial consultant. Fee-only means a person will give you financial advice against the fee, but will not indulge into any other commission like mutual fund investment, brokerage or any other commission.

There are many online blogs who offers financial advisory. Many of them are certified, financial planners.

Here is the list of other online business ideas.

10: Youtube Channel

You can create and run your own youtube channel on the topic of your choice and expertise. post useful content related to the topic you have chosen. Once you have certain subscribers, you will be able to display ads on your channel. Youtube will pay you a commission on the advertisement.

If you think that Indians can’t earn much from the Youtube as scope of earning through Youtube for Indians is very less. Then you are highly mistaken.

Because Indian YouTubers are also making huge money like Bollywood film stars. I know one such YouTuber BB ki Vines who has 12M subscribers on YouTube.

because Indian YouTubers (like Tanmay Bhat) are making money from youtube and are equally famous like any other celebrity in India.

AIB (All India Backchodhas made a position in Forbes list of richest Indians along with Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and was ahead of superstar Rajinikanth, actor Irrfan Khan, and director Anurag Kashyap.

I am not giving you any false promise that you will become a youtube celebrity overnight but if you start the channel, you are definitely on the path of earning good money at least. And who knows you can become a celebrity one day.

11: E Commerce Store

You can plan your won e-commerce store through which you can sell products. There could be a specific niche store which is rarely available online. For example, a e-commerce store selling bear and vodka. There is still a huge scope for certain niche to be available online for sell. Another good example is the online store for all handicraft article.

12: Proofreader

A proofreader is a knowledgable person about language and grammar. He is the person who act as an editor for client who wants to send work online. He helps the client in generating error free content in the desirable language.

13: Resume writer

Resume writer is the person who helps to create a professional resume to his client. As a resume writer, you need to create a professional looking resume for your client. You also have to help your client for designing cover letter.

14: Virtual Tech Support

Virtual tech support is the person who will help you in solving technical problems. These technicians are well trained about the product or service for which they are going to give online assistance. You can earn a lot via virtual tech support. You also have the flexibility on the working hours.

15: Graphic Designer

Graphic design is one of the most important aspects of the business because it is something that catches our attention towards products and services the company offers.

Due to the rise of the internet and technology, the demand of the graphics has become crucial to many businesses. You can leverage this opportunity and earn good money online by designing graphics for the company/client.

graphic designer

If you are an artist, designer this is a good opportunity for you. Some of the skill require here is :

  • Creativity and imagination
  • Ability to design and convince client
  • Understanding of latest trends and styles
  • Ability to manage time and budget
  • Knowledge of design related software i.e. photoshop

16: Domain Flipping

In domain flipping you need to buy a domain name online and sell it to the people who want it at a higher price. You need to do a good amount of research before buying domain name. There are many websites that provide a domain flipping facility.

17: Website Theme Design

If you know some amount of coding, you can design a website theme template for blogger and WordPress. There are plenty of platform where you can submit your theme for sell. You will get a certain amount of share on each sell through that portal.

18: Sell on Facebook

You can sell any product on Facebook via the facebook page. You just need to create a Facebook page and get a few followers. You can put affiliate links on the Facebook page and if any follower clicks on that link and buy the product, you will get a commission from the company.

facebook marketing

When you want to sell something on Facebook, a well-defined audience which engages with your content is much more important than just having a large number of followers in a group. Amount of engagement is all that matters.

A well engaged 10K followers are much better than idle 500K followers.

Focus on audience

When you start with a Facebook group or page, keep a particular theme in mind of what should be your group like. If you are focusing on fitness, your group members must be relates to health and fitness.

Focusing on the audience helps you to serve relevant ads to the right people which is more fruitful and you will get more sells.

Keep an engaged audience.

There are hundreds of groups/pages which have>100K followers but when you see the post engagement, it is very low. So don’t let the follower count fool you. Remember, a 100M multiplied by zero is also zero.

Post content which is in line with the theme of the group/page. You also need to make sure that the quality of the posts are consistent and don’t let people spam your group.

Post Frequently

People nowadays have very short memories as there is a lot of content out there. So there are followers who are following but not remembering about your group.

You need to post consistently to keep your audience engaged and interested in your group. Usually, you should post daily preferably 2-3 times a day.

Trade secret, when you post something on Facebook, only 5–10% of your friends/followers are shown the post.


Once you have well-engaged followers on a regular basis, you can then pitch them a product or services through affiliate marketing. These people are highly engaged so the chances of converting them into a customer very high.

19: Web Designer

As a web designer, you will have to create a website/portals for your clients. Nowadays almost everyone is on the internet, so it is imperative to have an online presence for the company. There are many small and medium scale company who are in a need for web developers.

web design

If you are having knowledge about web designing, you can help people building their online presence. There is good money earning an opportunity in this business.

You need a perfect portfolio of your work to display. Check Github for displaying your portfolio. Secondly, you need to register your self on the various freelance websites like:

You also need to do some local networking group on Facebook.

I like the Udemy course Start and Run a Successful Web Design Business from Home

20: Video Ad Creator

Nowadays, all companies are going online and promoting their business. It is imperative to have a video ad for any company’s product. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are the platform where these short video ad can be run and companies are getting good business and brand building through a video ad.

video ad

If you have a creative mind, then making a good video is not hard for you. There are many online platforms available through which you can create a beautiful ad for any product or brand.

Here are the points you need to keep in your mind while creating a quality video.

  • An effective video always tells a story
  • Create standout introduction
  • Creating an appealing title
  • Make sure your video is mobile friendly
  • Don’t be boring
  • Optimize for SEO
  • Include your brand or website URL in the video
  • Include a call to action
  • Have a set of tutorial videos
  • Use a professional voice
  • Create a high definition video
  • Add some fun into the video

List of the websites for Video ad creation

  • Filmora
  • Renderforest
  • Motionden
  • Animaker
  • Adlaunch
  • Biteable
  • The Facebook video ad creator
  • iMovie
  • Vidlab

Conclusion

So here are the 19 online business ideas that actually works in today’s world. Find out the best suitable for you as per your convenient and start working on it. I am sure you will get some amount of success by putting your passion in to action for making money.

Share your experience with me in a comment below. I feel happy if this would help you.

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