Online businesses are easy to scale and often cheap to set up, making them the perfect venture for first-time entrepreneurs. You’ll find many success stories of people with 9-to-5 jobs who have turned their small investment into a successful online brand. This article features the best online business ideas to help you get started.
1. Starting a Monetized Blog
Why start this business: Creating a blog is one of the simplest online business ideas you can start. Setting up a simple website and writing a draft for your first blog post can take no more than a few hours. You can write about anything you choose, and decide how light or serious or casual or technical you’d like your blog to be. Once things are up and running, you can make money from your blog via affiliate marketing, selling products (including information products like e-books), or creating paid membership tiers that give readers access to special content and other perks.
- Compound annual growth rate (CAGR): 14.75% from 2024–2029
- Average cost to start: $0 to around $5 per month for self-hosted blogs or free domains and SSL
- Estimated revenue: $500–$2,000 per month within the first year
- Pros:
- Easy to start; relatively simple to maintain
- You have full control over the blog’s appearance and direction
- Cons:
- Difficult to make your blog stand out among others
- It could take a long time to make significant profits
2. Digital Marketing
Why start this business: Digital marketing works well as an online business because it’s so flexible—you can do it from anywhere as long as you have a laptop and an internet connection. Working as an individual or freelancer, you’ll be getting lots of firsthand experience that’ll improve your marketing skills and make you more valuable to clients. You can also take free online marketing courses, or learn from more experienced co-workers.
If you decide to set up a digital marketing agency, you’ll always have potential clients everywhere; businesses of all types and sizes need people with skills in marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and lead generation.
For more advice on effective digital marketing, see our list of creative digital marketing tips for small businesses.
- CAGR: 13.6% from 2024–2033
- Average cost to start: From around $300 for a basic laptop; around $75 for an internet connection
- Estimated revenue: Over $87,000 per year for an agency
- Pros:
- High industry demand
- Flexible; works well as an online business that you can run from anywhere
- Cons:
- Market may be saturated
- You’ll have to juggle multiple clients and their different needs and preferences
3. Podcasting
Why start this business: While not quite as prolific as blogs, podcasts are still a very popular form of entertainment, insight, and education for listeners. As with a blog, you can monetize a podcast by giving sponsorships, running ads, doing affiliate sales, and subscription memberships. You may need to invest in some additional equipment like microphones, but you can start with basic tools until you’re sure you have a strong audience.
- CAGR: 7.76% from 2024–2027
- Average cost to start: From around $100 for a microphone; approximately $6 for software
- Estimated revenue: From $300 per 10,000 podcast views (if fully monetized)
- Pros:
- Can be done from home
- You have full control over the podcast’s development and direction
- Cons:
- Market may be saturated
- High-end equipment can be expensive
4. Voice Talent Services
Why start this business: Offering voice talent services is a fun, low-barrier-to-entry way to start making money online. To begin with, you’ll need little more than a microphone setup and your own distinctive voice. This is one of the most versatile ideas for online business as well: you can provide voice acting for audiobooks, e-learning, entertainment media, and more. You’ll do best if you carve out a specific niche in which you can stand out, to help you sidestep the large amounts of competition in the voice talent industry.
If you can invest in a decent microphone and find a particular niche to serve, voice acting can be an interesting and lucrative business idea.
- CAGR: 5.9% through 2030
- Average cost to start: From around $100 for a microphone
- Estimated revenue: Over $8,000 per month for an experienced voice actor
- Pros:
- Can be done from home
- Versatile business idea with lots of potential applications
- Cons:
- Lots of competition
- You may need to invest in higher-end equipment eventually
5. Selling Handcrafted Items
Why start this business: While not always as quickly scalable as ecommerce, creating and selling handcrafted items can be an enjoyable and fulfilling way to earn some extra income. The handmade nature of the items themselves has the potential to draw many buyers, and you can choose to make custom items for customers who make requests. It may take a while to build your brand’s credibility, but over time you should be able to gain greater levels of customer trust.
Selling handmade items is one way to make money via Amazon. Learn about other options in our list of Amazon business ideas to try.
- CAGR: 4.7% from 2023–2030
- Average cost to start: Depends on the materials you need to create your products
- Estimated revenue: $40–$60 per order; $1,000–$25,000 per month for selling on Amazon Handmade
- Pros:
- Freedom to make or customize any item you want
- Easier to find and serve a niche
- Cons:
- Slower production and scaling compared to regular ecommerce
- You’ll need to purchase raw materials constantly
6. Virtual Assistant Services
Why start this business: If you’d like something closer to traditional corporate work, but still something you can do online or remotely, try becoming a virtual assistant.
While it’s useful to have formal training or education before you try this line of work, it’s more important to have real-world experience, good communication skills, good time management, and the ability to coordinate well with busy and demanding clients. If you choose to start a virtual assistant business and hire your own employees, you stand to make greater profits.
Working as a virtual assistant can be challenging, but you’ll quickly learn useful skills and grow your network, opening up more opportunities in the future.
- CAGR: 25.1% from 2022–2030
- Average cost to start: From around $300 for a basic laptop
- Estimated revenue: From $50,000 per year for an agency owner
- Pros:
- Experience and adaptability matter more than education and training
- If you perform well, you’ll get lots of new client referrals
- Cons:
- The work can be nonstop and demanding
- Requires a lot of self-discipline and time management
7. Freelance Writing, Editing & Design
Why start this business: If you have some writing or design experience but don’t want to work as a full-time employee for one company or client, you can take the freelance route. Depending on your experience, the portfolio you set up, the services you offer, and your clients’ needs, you could end up working on anything—marketing copy, technical writing, reviews, editing, design, and more. As you become more experienced, you might choose to specialize in a few key areas and continue to build your reputation there.
- CAGR:
- 5.5% from 2024–2031 (Content writing)
- 7.86% from 2023–2027 (Content editing)
- 4.5% from 2024–2030 (Graphic design)
- Average cost to start: From around $300 for a basic laptop
- Estimated revenue:
- Around $4,000 per month (Content writing)
- Around $5,400 per month (Freelance editing)
- Around $6,000 per month (Freelance graphic design)
- Pros:
- Exposure to a wide variety of topics and clients
- You can choose the areas in which to specialize and develop your skills
- Cons:
- Lots of unpredictability (schedules, deadlines, client needs)
- Coordinating with clients can be difficult; visions and priorities may be unclear or not aligned
8. Online Tutoring
Why start this business: Tutoring might seem like an odd choice for a list of the best online business ideas, but it can work quite well. You don’t need any special qualifications or certifications—after all, you’re just offering some extra tutoring lessons and not an entire official curriculum of learning—and you don’t even have to be physically in front of the person you are tutoring. Although you won’t need any formal certifications, it’ll be good to have experience in teaching the subject you have on offer; or even better, possess a degree in it.
- CAGR: 14.9% from 2023–2030
- Average cost to start: From around $300 for a basic laptop; around $75 for an internet connection
- Estimated revenue: $3,725 per month
- Pros:
- Easy to do remotely or online
- Formal education or training is helpful, but not necessary
- Cons:
- Reliable or steady income isn’t guaranteed
- You’ll need to have a flexible schedule and be willing to adapt to client needs
9. Website Development
Why start this business: Website development combines the advantages of online or remote work with the experience you’ll gain by working directly with clients. You can create custom websites by coding (for which you can find many learning resources online), and as with freelance writing or being a virtual assistant, your real-world experience and previous work will likely matter more to clients than any formal training or education you possess. Initial costs for this online business will include a good computer, plus any software programs you need to support website development, such as Wix, Weebly, and WordPress.
An experienced website developer can command an impressive income, and the skills you pick up along the way will be useful for almost any type of business.
- CAGR: 8.03% from 2021–2027
- Average cost to start: From around $600 for a mid-level laptop
- Estimated revenue: Over $5,000 per month
- Pros:
- Can be done from anywhere; good for introverts who like to focus and work alone
- Experienced developers can make good incomes
- Cons:
- Initial costs for hardware and software may be high
- Becoming proficient in coding may take some time
10. Dropshipping
Why start this business: A classic choice for budding entrepreneurs, dropshipping has remained popular for those wanting to start a simple business that can be run from anywhere. With dropshipping, you have the advantage of not needing to maintain any inventory yourself, which reduces both the physical space and the financial resources you’ll need. The popularity of dropshipping means that you’ll need to deal with quite a bit of competition, but most dropshippers are able to become profitable within six months.
Learn more about what dropshipping is, as well as how to start a dropshipping business.
- Compound annual growth rate CAGR: 23.4% from 2023-2030
- Average cost to start: From around $600 for a mid-level laptop; $100–$500 for platform fees and marketing
- Estimated revenue: From $1,000 per month
- Pros:
- Low barrier to entry, low initial costs, simple business model
- Popular choice for an online businesses; many dropshippers become profitable
- Cons:
- Lots of competition; you’ll need to stand out or offer great deals to attract customers
- Lots of coordinating with suppliers, delivery, marketing, products, and more
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Click through the sections below to learn more about the most common questions people ask about ideas for online businesses.
There are tons of options available, but the easiest or fastest online businesses to start are blogging, digital marketing, working as a voice actor, being a virtual assistant, and online tutoring.
Like any business, it’s hard to predict exactly what your profits will be like, especially as you are starting out. In our list, the online business opportunities with the highest compound annual growth rate is being a virtual assistant, with a CAGR of 25.1%.
It depends on the business. Digital marketing, working as a virtual assistant, and freelance writing are good online business ideas for beginners, as they require only a laptop, which you can get for around $300–$600 dollars. Podcasting, voice talent work, and selling handcrafted items will carry higher costs for equipment and materials.
Bottom Line
Now that you are familiar with some of the best online business ideas for beginners, it’s time to dust off your old creative ideas and make something out of them. Take advantage of the internet tools available to you and turn your passion into a lucrative business venture you can be proud of.
