If you’re looking to make money online, you’re probably being faced with a hard problem right about now. Which online business to start? You probably have done a lot of research on how to make money online, or you might not know what to do. If you know what you could do, you might be afraid. The biggest fear when making money online, is that you’re going to try something and that it won’t work. It can happen in this world of short attention spans, fickle consumers, and bots. That’s why I wrote this article. I want to help people choose their online business effectively, so that it suits both their financial and lifestyle ambitions. Here’s how you do it.
How old are you?
Your age will affect what you can do and what makes sense. When you’re young, you can have a smaller business and still live a great life. When you’re older, you’re going to want to accumulate more assets. If you want to start a skill-based, bootstrappable business, the best time is when you’re young. If you start doing something like writing, music, or information technology when you’re young, you might be able to get a job entirely through self-directed learning. If you’re older, you want something more surefire and less risky. On the positive front, if you’re older you know more and likely have more capital. Go into something stable, like Ecommerce involving bespoke and handmade goods. So, when thinking of an online business, you want to take your age and experience into account. You want to outperform those around you and get slightly ahead of where you were. Think carefully about your age and your desired lifestyle. Your responsibilities should also play a big role in your decision-making here.
How much capital do you have?
This is really what will make or break what you do. I come from a poor country. This means that pretty much anything that do that earns $USD is a great success, relative to what I could have done in my home country. But on the flipside, it means that I can’t take a lot of risks and that I don’t have a lot of money to waste. I can’t automate tasks the same way my North American counterparts can, and I can’t think as big as they can afford to. The good thing about this, is that I’ve become quite shrewd in identifying demand, and I know how to get a lot for my money. Basically, I’m quite an effective worker. If you don’t have any capital, I think you should get a job and do content creation on the side, until you can get to a point where you can pay for a tertiary education if you need one. I’m a big believer in tertiary education and it’s benefits, you just need to be a good shopper.
What are your skills?
You want to start a business that you’ll actually be able to run. This is why most people need to wait in order to become entrepreneurs. They have no skills and no capital. If they try to get into business, they will end up underperforming most people badly. Know what you’re good at before you get into business. You’re looking for the most fun and interesting thing that you’re good at and pays well. It’s actually very tricky once you set about the task of trying to win. Good skills to learn are hard to learn, scalable, and always in use. Lawyers, farmers, and doctors are good examples of people who will always be needed in society. Do something that’s either in demand, or that you really believe in. Anything else is too big a risk.
Where are you located and are you willing to move?
Basically, if you’re in a country where the people are wealthy, you’re going to have a bit more difficulty creating an online business that sustains you. If you’re struggling in a wealthy country, it’s likely that the safest way out is by getting a reliable 9-5, starting a locally-based side hustle, and making wise investments. Simply starting a random online business is really unlikely to yield good results, due to the globalized nature of making money online. You can’t survive on $750 per month. I might be able to afford a house and a car on that income. What you want to do if you’re in a wealthy country, is start a business that you could imagine operating solely in your hometown and use the internet to get more customers than you otherwise would have gotten. That, or use you extra capital to invest in up-and-coming businesses in poor countries. This way, you won’t be stuck in the influencer grind, earning the global median salary of about $1,000 per month. Things are different if you’re from a poor country, where even as little as $1,000 per month can be a massive blessing. If you’re in a poor country, you want to get well educated and take advantage of ecommerce. You don’t need to make a lot to be ahead of the curve. Where I’m from, about $2,000 per month puts you in the upper-middle class, solidly ahead of the game. Ecommerce is hard to learn, but it doesn’t take a lot of capital. A few years of focus and you should be well off.
How to do your research and make a decision.
Doing your research is what’s going to separate the winners from the losers. People who know what they’re doing are always more likely to succeed than those who don’t. This is because they make better decisions and use their time more efficiently. Do research on which businesses are growing, and where. Figure out which new technology is being invested in and try to hedge your bets against that.
What kinds of online businesses can I actually start?
All businesses sell either a product or a service. Most content creators think they’re selling a product (their content), but in reality, they’re selling a service (advertising space and an audience). You need to figure out whether you’re going to sell a product, a service or both. You’re also going to need to figure out how you’re going to get traffic. If you have money, you can buy ads and hire influencers to promote your business or create your business’ content. If not, you’re going to have to grind it out and get some free traffic. When it comes to terminology, here are the specific types of businesses you can start:
- Content Businesses
- Content businesses are the most common ones that people try to start. Most people are lazy, low on capital, and don’t know where to find mentors. So, they try to become artists, influencers, or YouTubers. Livestreamers seem to be making the most, as far as content creators go. Content businesses can be lucrative, but they’re extremely hard work, and winner take all. There’s no such thing as being unskilled or inconsistent when it comes to content creation. It’s a grind. Which is why most content creators only do it part time or use their content as a lead magnet for other businesses. There are really four types of content businesses: blogs, YouTube Channels, livestreams, streaming musicians, and podcasts. Blogs are the most dependable and livestreams are the most lucrative. It’s easiest to make YouTube videos and podcasts. Music offers a ton of opportunity, but it’s hard to monetize on its own. Overall, content is the lifeblood of the internet, but creating content can feel like slavery. Be aware of this.
- Subscription Content Business
- These are your Substack and Locals productions. Basically, if you’re selling content to an audience that pays you a monthly fee, you’re running a subscription content business. These are hard to get traffic for but pay a lot of money if you get it right. Earning recurring revenue for content can get pretty crazy. Imagine 1,000 people paying you $20 per month for a remote job? Pretty sweet, right? Just remember these are really hard to get off the ground.
- Affiliate Marketing
- This is a very specific type of content business. The sole purpose of this business is to promote other products. You can be pretty ruthless about this, because a valid sale is a valid sale. Affiliate marketers get their traffic however they can get it, whether it be through free or paid methods. Sometimes this involves building an audience, other times it involves scammy ads. It all depends on the marketer.
- Ecommerce Store
- Ecommerce stores are one of the most lucrative businesses to own. Basically, you use the scale of the internet to sell products online, and you make a lot of money relative to what you could have if the internet didn’t exist. The big issue with ecommerce is that nobody is going to hold your hand through the process. But if you learn how to sell products online, you can get rich. The math behind this statement should be obvious. There are 8 billion people on earth, and all of them have the ability to log onto the web.
- Freelancing
- You can use the internet and social media to get jobs. Whatever profession you may be involved in, you can probably do it online if it has white-collar potential. This is obviously not applicable to blue collar work, unless it involves mimicry (think classes and webinars). Freelancing online works well for people living in 3rd world countries, but it’s a bit rougher if you live in a high cost of living area. It can be pretty uncertain in terms of cash flow. This is a job, and not really a business. But it does lead to my next endeavor.
- DropServicing
- Dropservicing is kind of like freelancing, except you manage remote workers instead of doing the job yourself. Dropservicing is very competitive, but it’s definitely very lucrative if you can set it up. Businesses that can do dropservicing include law firms, accounting firms, and marketing agencies. Dropservicing is more of a business process than a business model.
- Software
- This is exactly what is sounds like. Make and sell software. If you can make and sell the right type of software, then you’re going to be able to make a ton of money. Most people can’t make very good software. Even fewer people can maintain very good software. Software development is very expensive, and so if you can make something that’s used by a lot of people for a while, you should either be getting a monthly fee, or charging an arm and a leg. Either way, the downside is that everyone wants to sit at home and code their way to a million dollars.
- Digital products and courses
- A pretty overrated way to make money, from what I can tell. Digital products certainly make money, but I think a lot of that comes in the form of video game purchases and ringtones, that’s just a hunch. Most people who have something to teach you are at major universities, or applying their knowledge in the field. Basically, if someone is selling you digital products online, they’re either retired, living in a cheaper country, or doing it as a side hustle. It just isn’t a fantastic way for true experts to make money, because universities are funded by billionaires and the government. This doesn’t apply to new-age or informal fields such as blogging or electronic music production however, so you shouldn’t fear all digital products. Just know who you’re buying from, and be ethical in selling yours.
- Plugins and Extensions
- Plugins and extensions peices of software the connect to other peices of software in order to enhance the overall user experience. AdBlock, the extension which blocks ads on Google Chrome, is a great example of an extension. Business software such as Salesforce and AWS offers extensions and plugins that professionals can use to simplify tasks. If you’ve ever produced music, VSTs are also great examples of extensions. If your extension solves a valuable problem, it can be lucrative. The big problem with extensions is that they’re hard to come up with and market, and other programmers will often try to erase your hard work with patches.
- Combination of the above
- The internet allows you to be creative. There are absolutely no rules, and you only need to show ID when you’re creating a bank account. You are allowed to use whatever traffic sources you want to promote your business. If it’s legal and makes money, you’re good. This means you can combine the above businesses to create a personal or faceless brand, and make as much money as you want, how you want.
Understand the difference between B2C and B2B, and know what you’re getting into
B2B means “business to business” and B2C means “business to consumer”. B2B companies sell to businesses, the B2C businesses sell to regular people. I chose B2C because I didn’t want to have to deal with suits. I would rather work hard and help people change their lives. It’s clear that the money’s there if you do it right, and that’s what I’m passionate about. if you’re a professional and forthright person, B2B can be extremely lucrative with no bullshit involved. Business owners are always more rational than consumers. Which brings me to my next point.
Solve a problem
If you can fix people’s pain points, they will pay you. It’s that simple. People pay a lot of money for the stuff that they perceive as valuable. This means that if it seems like you’re solving someone’s problem, you’re going to get paid.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel
Do something that’s tried and true. I saw that blogs existed, and that they were fairly stable, and I started writing. Right now, there are a lot of issues with Google, but there are a lot of different ways of getting blog traffic, and other search engines can also bring you a lot of eyeballs and money. The industry has changed, but writing online still works. You want to do something that’s going to still work in the future. The wealthiest people in the world own timeless business that everybody depends on. Even fashion houses were born out of necessity. They just make clothes, but fancier.
Figure out your traffic source
Generally speaking, search engines, followed by YouTube and Facebook get the most traffic. X and Threads are honorable mentions. You’re also allowed to cold email Americans for some reason. Medium allows you to host your articles and grow a social media audience, but monetization is a bit tricky, because you can’t take individual subscribers.
Write a business plan and execute
Basically, once you have expenses, you need at least a spreadsheet that keeps track of what goes in, and what goes out. The smaller your business is, the more important this becomes. You don’t want to work and lose money as a result of your efforts, do you? If all you’re doing is posting content, try to keep track of your hours, but you’ll know whether or not you’re succeed. It’s simply a question of becoming profitable.
Starting an online business is the best way to get freedom in life. You’ll make money in your sleep and understand the world far better than most people. You won’t worry too much about getting fired from your job, and if you’re frugal and smart, you won’t worry too much about bills in due time. I’m on the cusp of having online business bring me to the upper middle class. I won’t be a millionaire, but I’ll be wealthier than the average American, as the citizen of a 3rd world country who graduated a year late from high school. It’s not a crazy achievement, but I’m happy with where I am, and I have a lot more business ideas for the future. My financial future is looking bright, and I’ve learned a lot from my experiences. If you follow the methodology outlined in this article and are creative.
Thanks for paying attention.
