For all those who dream of starting their own business, the internet is an exceptional playground. It is now possible for anyone to launch their business online, thanks to their computer, and with little or no investment at all!
Do you dream of becoming financially independent, but you don’t know where to start? Then you have come to the right place! Today, I decided to unveil some of the best profitable business ideas for 2021. There are tons of ways to make money online that will allow you to be your own boss and work at your own pace while growing your income on your own.
But beware: even if some entrepreneurs manage to generate significant income from these activities, this does not mean that everyone will have the same results. Yes, it will depend above all on your involvement, your motivation and the strategies you are going to adopt. Come on; let’s not wait any longer to discover them!
Profitable Business Idea #1 – Sell training courses on the Internet
If you are wondering about the training courses, selling them online and how does it all works? Let’s get in. It’s very simple: let’s imagine that you are an English teacher and that you give private lessons. Are you there? In this context, you can teach this language to 5 or 6 people per day. However, you will always be limited by your time. Yes, it will be impossible for you to give lessons to 50 or 100 students in one day.
But with the Internet, it’s another story, because if you offer English lessons online, you can teach it to as many people as possible. This can allow you to generate much more income.
So this is just one example among many, but you see where I am going with this. In addition, be aware that it is possible to start selling online training in different sectors such as:
- Sports
- Languages
- Web
- Crafts, etc.
Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight and you will have to work hard to achieve your goal. The key is to show patience, perseverance, and above all, to employ the right strategies.
Profitable Business Idea #2 – Offer your services as a Freelancer
If you have skills in a specific area like video editing, writing, coding, graphic design, Web Design, etc., you can consider offering your services to businesses as a freelance. In fact, if you work in a business, your income will always be capped. It’s still possible to make a good living, but that’s not the only problem. You are also forced to stay in one place all the time. But as a freelancer, you can travel while working, and that’s cool!
For example, if you have a minimum of writing talent (no need to be a journalist) and you like to write on one or more subjects in particular, the web writing activity as a micro-entrepreneur is for you!
Starting your online business as a freelance will necessarily require a little promotion (for example by creating your own showcase site where prospects can contact you) and networking to find your customers.
Starting on popular platforms like Fiverr will allow you to ensure some visibility at the start. But ultimately, once you’ve proven yourself worthy of the task and worked on your reputation, the best way to earn more is to work directly with your clients and businesses.
Profitable Business Idea #3 – Dropshipping
Among the dozens or even hundreds of opportunities that exist to launch your business online, dropshipping is certainly one of the most interesting. Doing “dropshipping” means that you sell on your site without a product to manage yourself the stock, but asking the supplier to ship orders directly to the customer.
Even if the margin is smaller than if you managed the stocks yourself, the advantages are bound to be very attractive: no need for warehouses or logistics – you can manage your business directly from your computer!
Once you’ve found your products and supplier, all you need to do is create an online storefront on a platform like Shopify, list your products there, and you’re ready to ship! An ideal solution to earn money, even while sleeping.
You can also place through eBay to set up your dropshipping store, which is often easier for beginners to learn than a Shopify store.
I will recommend, however, being careful to remain ethical in this model. It is not a question of buying products of questionable quality abroad to resell them on the Internet with huge margins. The main goal is to find interesting quality products for your niche.
Profitable Business Idea #4 – SEO Consultant
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for anyone who has a website, or more broadly an online business. This is the art of optimizing your site and your content so that it appears as high as possible when people search on search engines like Google.
Once trained, you can offer consulting and strategy services or focus on operations and work on your clients’ SEO yourself. You can also support them from time to time when they have specific needs, such as when redesigning a website.
Profitable Business Idea #5 – Create Websites
With the many online course platforms available and all the resources that can be found on the internet, you no longer need to take formal training to learn how to design websites.
Many CMS or other site builders like WordPress or Shopify make it possible to create content or commerce sites that are both powerful and easy to manage. If you lack the technical side, on the other hand, take the time to improve your website design and building skills.
You will then be able to find clients (such as SMEs or freelancers) who need to create their website but have neither the time nor the knowledge to do it themselves.
Profitable Business Idea #6 – Reselling Blogs
It’s a bit like the “House for Sale” of websites: buying a blog already online but that its creator wants to sell and then rework it, improve it, generate regular traffic … and resell it for a (good) ) greater profit. This allows you to earn money without having to constantly maintain your own blog. There are tons of sites where you can buy and sell blogs, but arguably one of the most popular is Flippa.
Profitable Business Idea #7 – Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the principle by which a site selling products or services offers partners to promote their products in exchange for a commission.
For example, if you have a blog or an active social media presence, you can link to the product of the company you are partnering with. Depending on the pay method, you then earn money every time someone clicks on your link and purchases that product/service.
This is a simple, fun online business idea that offers the potential for passive income, or almost (as long as you already have some visibility or plan to build it).
However, to hope to trigger sales, you have to know how to attract traffic to your site. To do this, following an SEO approach is an ideal solution. If you don’t have any skills in this area, you may consider, once again, delegating this task to a knowledgeable web editor who can get you to the first page of Google on multiple queries.
Profitable Business Idea #8 – Brand Strategy Consultant
The Brand Strategist’s mission is to help businesses understand what consumers want and promote the brand accordingly. Because even with the exceptional showcase that the internet offers, there are still tons of small business managers who have no idea how to sell themselves.
Of course, to be successful with branding, you will need some expertise in advertising or marketing as well as some knowledge of project management.
Profitable Business Idea #9 – Create Software and offer it as a monthly subscription
There are many who have succeeded in creating software and becoming a multimillionaire. In fact, most of them were inspired by the United States and adopted some of their ideas in the French market. I am thinking in particular of auto-responders which allow e-mails to be sent automatically.
So now let’s say you sell this type of software for $100 per month and sell it to 500 customers. This means that you will receive $50,000 per month in recurring income. In addition, over time, the number of customers can only increase, especially if the product offered is efficient.
Profitable Business Idea #10 – Create a translation service
If you are bilingual (or better yet), you can use your language skills to create your own online translation and/or interpretation business. There is a demand for almost every possible language imaginable, but some languages may be more profitable than others (like Japanese or Chinese, for example).
Profitable Business Idea #11 – Become a seller on Amazon
It involves buying a stock of products and delivering it in containers to Amazon warehouses. Then, the company will take care of selling and distributing your products for you. Does that surprise you? Yet this profitable business has enabled many entrepreneurs to become multimillionaires.
So, know that requires an initial investment of between $5,000 and $15,000. This will allow you to buy your first stock in particular. In addition, it is important to write quality product sheets and take beautiful photos. Place the products in the top search results on Amazon because that is what will allow you to sell in large quantities.
Profitable Business Idea #12 – Become a book publisher on Amazon
Do you have a literary soul? In this case, you can offer books or e-books on Amazon. This business can allow you to earn a big chunk on every sale. If you don’t have any writing skills, you may want to consider delegating this task to a good web writer.
Another possibility is to translate books into English or Russian that has already been published. Again, if your language skills leave something to be desired, there is nothing to prevent you from hiring a competent translator.
Of course, this cannot be done just any old way! By that I mean that it is necessary to obtain the right to translate the works in question. Also be aware that this is a time consuming and expensive job (unless you do it yourself).
Profitable Business Idea #13 – Community Manager
Now almost all businesses need to have a social media presence. Whether it is to improve their image, communicate with customers, promote their products or ensure quality customer service, social media is becoming more and more essential for brands.
If you have a knack for creating inspiring or engaging content on networks and federating online communities, this online business idea might appeal to you.
You can also find plenty of opportunities on sites like Fiverr and then build your reputation for ultimately working directly with your clients.
Profitable Business Idea #14 – Getting started in Blogging
No, blogging is not dead, far from it! To be honest, Google is still the first search engine before YouTube. Of course, video takes a big place, but yet not all of us like to consume the same content. The best thing to do is to create a blog and a YouTube channel, so that everyone can find their account.
Blogging is one thing, but again, you have to adopt the right strategies in order to have a regular income. First, take the time to choose your niche. So you can monetize it through affiliate marketing, digital product sales and more.
Once your blog is online, you can start writing articles with high added value. In this context, mastering SEO is a considerable advantage, because it will allow you to attract quality traffic.
Note: Blogging is time consuming, but it can be profitable. So think about embarking on a theme that fascinates you, otherwise you risk giving up along the way.
Profitable Business Idea #15 – Start a CV writing service
Are you particularly proud of your curriculum vitae, which have won you many interviews? Do you have the art of highlighting others and bringing out everyone’s potential? Consider marketing your resume writing service and/or cover letter, or more broadly job search support.
Most of this online business will revolve around writing, editing, designing and proofreading CVs or online profiles like LinkedIn. So you will need a few supplies apart from your computer and basic design software to get started.
Profitable Business Idea #16 – Graphic designer
You don’t need a graphic design degree to start your online business in this area, although you will of course need to be trained in this job.
Graphic design skills are required for all types of projects: advertising displays, Pinterest images, illustrations for a website or flyers for an event…
Here again, you will find many opportunities on sites such as Fiverr, SEOClerks or Freelancer. As your business grows, don’t hesitate to create an online portfolio to promote your designs and gain popularity.
Profitable Business Idea #17 – Online Advertising Manager
Many small, local businesses don’t know how to grow their business with online advertising, and many large businesses don’t have the time to do it themselves.
By offering online advertising creation services (Facebook or Twitter Ads, Google Ads…), you allow your customers to gain visibility on the internet and achieve their sales goals more easily. And you can easily create your own brand to turn your business into a real online business.
Profitable Business Idea #18 – Personal/Virtual Assistant
Becoming a virtual assistant for companies or individuals is a great way to start an online business quickly and without big investments.
The role of a personal assistant is to cover various tasks like answering calls, scheduling meetings, sending emails or communications on behalf of your client, etc. or to manage customer support if you work for a company.
You could easily work to become THE benchmark for business support and grow your reputation so that even the biggest clients can fight for you.
Profitable Business Idea #19 – Sell “stock photos”
If you enjoy photography (and know the basics), selling your photos online can be a great way to turn your talent into a real online business.
Many companies, bloggers and others constantly need new photographs to accompany their content. There are some quite popular sites like Getty Images, Shutterstock or Adobe Stock where you can submit your photos and get paid for each download.
To ensure sales, you will need to take photographs that are of interest to the wider world, adding your personal touch to differentiate yourself from the competition. It’s also a good way to build a portfolio of your photography work by highlighting your most popular images.
Profitable Business Idea #20 – Become a coach
If you are passionate about personal or professional development and dream of helping others develop their potential, consider selling your services as a coach!
To do this, you just need a computer, an internet connection and you’re good to go! So whether or not you’re halfway around the world, it doesn’t matter. Everything is done online via Skype or others. Ah, the magic of the Internet!
In the article, I took you through 20 online business ideas to create in 2021, all ideal for those who dream of working from home. And whether you want to launch your full-time activity or gradually develop it in parallel with your work as an employee.
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