Choosing the right online business model is crucial, particularly for beginners and or for those of us with limited funds. I know because I’ve been there. There are so many options and so many ads with “Gurus” hawking their latest and greatest online business course.
How do you sort through the BS, or worse the SCAMS, to find what are real and legitimate online business opportunities? I mean there’s everything from ecommerce, dropshipping, affiliate marketing, freelancing, YouTube, and on and on.
I’ve reviewed hundreds of these so-called opportunities and wasted a lot of money on some. Follow along and I’ll share with you my experiences and opininons.
And, we’ll take a look at what I think are some of the best legitimate opportunities for beginners to start an online business.
My online business journey started over 5 years ago and I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the online business world.
You can learn from my mistakes, and my successes, so you can avoid the mistakes and get started creating your own successful online business.
I’ll even hook you up with a no-cost, no-obligation trial of the platform I use to build my online businesses so you can see if it would be a good fit for you and your business needs and goals.
You can learn any and all of the online businesses we will be discussing here within this awesome business-building platform Risk-FREE!Go ahead, and check it out, you literally have nothing to lose.
Choosing the Best Online Business Opportunities for Beginners
When choosing the best online business for you, It’s not just about picking the most popular one; it’s about finding the model that aligns with your skills, interests, time constraints, and budget. Other things to consider when choosing an online business are:
- Market Demand – If there is no demand then there is no business.
- How Complicated is it? Is it overly complicated and is it relatively easy to learn?
- What is the total amount of time and capital investment needed? Do you have the time and money to invest?
- And, of course, what is the profit potential of the business? Is there enough money in it for you?
An online business is just that, any business that you can run on the internet. This ranges from ecommerce, which includes dropshipping, print on demand, reselling, selling physical products, and selling services.
One of the most popular and lucrative online business opportunities is affiliate marketing where you promote other companies’ products and earn commissions when someone buys a product through your promotional efforts.
Other examples of great, and beginner-friendly, online business opportunities are content creation like blogging, social media marketing, or YouTube video marketing. And, of course, freelancing where you take your skills and offer them online as a service to others for a fee.
But, how do you determine which opportunity is right for you? Well, let’s take a more detailed look at the various business opportunities and the pros and cons of each. Then you can make an informed decision as to which one might be best for you and your business goals, skills, and budget.
E-Commerce Business for Beginners
One of the most accessible online business models for beginners is ecommerce. The easiest ecommerce business for beginners to start is dropshipping. This model’s beauty lies in its simplicity and potential for growth, making it a perfect starting point.
Dropshipping is a streamlined e-commerce method where you sell products without holding inventory. Your supplier handles storage, packaging, and shipping directly to your customers. This business model takes very little capital investment to start.
You may have to deal with returns, and if you are dropshipping from China or other overseas suppliers, you could be stuck with them. You will need to set up a website or use one through an ecommerce platform like Shopify or the Woocommerce plugin for WordPress.
You can get step-by-step training on how to build your own ecommerce website at my #1 recommended online business platform, and they’ll let you check it out first for free. Plus you’ll have an awesome community of online entrepreneurs to help you succeed.
There are other ecommerce business models such as print-on-demand, where you sell designs that can be printed on shirts, cups, glasses, and more. Similar to dropshipping, you don’t have to purchase inventory.
Your printing company will print the products as you receive orders and then ship them directly to the customer. You handle billing and paying the printer and you keep the difference as profit. Other ecommerce opportunities include reselling and selling your own products or services.
As you can see, there are several ecommerce online business opportunities. You need to consider time availability as you will need to spend considerable time finding profitable products, creating product listings, monitoring sales and returns, and maintaining your online store (website).
Pros and Cons of Ecommerce for Beginners
Pros of Ecommerce
| Growing Business Model |
| Can be Low Cost to Start |
| Plenty of Platforms and Tools for Assistance |
| Dropshipping is Beginner Friendly |
Cons of Ecommerce
| Constant need to Research new Products |
| Must Monitor listings, deliveries, and Returns |
| Overseas Suppliers can be difficult for returns |
| Need a website or selling platform |
Content Creation Online Businesses for Beginners
If you’re passionate about a topic, interest, or hobby, and enjoy sharing your knowledge, content creation could be a great online business for you. Content creation can include several areas such as blogging, podcasting, YouTube videos, creating online courses, and more.
This business involves creating high-quality, relevant, and engaging content regularly. And, when it comes to monetizing your content, there are several options available: advertising revenue, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, memberships, and selling products or services.
Whichever route you choose, you will need to learn the ins and outs of both the content creation and the online platform you will be using to promote and monetize your content.
For any online business model, including content creation, you will need some tools, training, and support to maximize your chances of success.
Click the button below and get a no-risk, no-obligation trial of my #1 recommended online business platform where you can get everything you need to build a real, long-term, and profitable online business.
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular methods of making money online through content creation, and one of my personal favorites, and it is also one of the least expensive to start making it ideal for beginners and those with budget limitations.
It can be combined with advertising revenue, memberships, and selling products and services to create an online business with multiple streams of income. It can be labor intensive, you have to create content regularly to keep your audience interested and buying. Which means it takes work. 😉
Pros and Cons of Content Creation for Beginners
Pros of Content Creation
| If You have the skills it can be very profitable |
| Can be monetized in a variety of ways |
| Can be used in any niche market or industry |
| Useful in many online business models |
Cons of Content Creation
| Constant need to produce more quality content |
| Can take time to Learn the necessary skills |
Next, we’ll explore how to turn your skills and passions into a profitable freelancing career, expanding on the audience and reputation you’ve already built through content creation.
Freelancing Business for Beginners
If you are good at content creation or have talents for writing, proofreading, graphic design, videography, or photography for example, you can provide these talents and services to others for a fee on platforms such as fiverr.com, upwork.com, freelancer.com, and others.
These are all skills that businesses are looking to hire for on a project-to-project basis. Now, freelancing does come with the challenge of finding your own clients, but it also offers flexibility. You set your own hours, choose your clients, and decide your own pay rates.You essentially are acting as a private contractor.
Speaking of clients, let’s get into how to find them. Start with your network—people you’ve previously worked with or studied with. These connections are powerful. They already know you and your work ethic.
If you are creating content through a blog, YouTube, etc, connect with your followers and subscribers to help find clients. Ask for testimonials and referrals from clients to build credibility. When you do a great job, clients come back, and they bring friends.
As a freelancer, you will not only need to be good at the services you will be providing, but you will also need to be comfortable negotiating with clients and good at customer service. The entire business is you there is no one else to pass the buck to. ; )
You can be a freelancer and still operate other online businesses at the same time. If you check out my Best Recommended online business platform you will get a chance to talk with some very accomplished online freelancers and entrepreneurs. And, they are happy to help you along as you get started in your online business journey.
Pros and Cons of Freelancing for Beginners
Pros of Freelancing
| Set Your Own Hours and Pay Rate |
| Work From anywhere you get internet |
| Very low cost to start |
| Can be combined with other online businesses |
Cons of Freelancing
| Must market yourself to find customers |
| You are the entire business no Passing the Buck |
| Must be good at Customer Relations and Service |
Beginners Guide to Creating an Online Digital Products Business
How about creating digital products based on what you’re already doing and selling them? If you have experiences, knowledge, or talents that could be useful to your audience, you can create digital products like ebooks, guides, courses, how-to articles, etc.
You can write ebooks and sell them on Amazon Kindle. Or you can sell them on your own online website or Shopify store in a PDF or other downloadable format. And, the best part is, you only have to create your digital product once. The buyer simply downloads a copy of the original.
Creating an online business around digital products can be very lucrative, this is what most online “gurus” are doing, but it takes work and marketing to generate interest and sales. If you have a social media following or blog subscribers, they can be a built-in customer base for your digital products.
There are some amazing AI tools available now that can help you create your digital products. They can help with outlines, story ideas, scripts and even write entire ebooks for you.
If you are creative, and have valuable information or skills, creating digital products might be a great online business opportunity for you.
Keep in mind, you need a platform to host your digital products and you will need to market them to generate customers. But, if you hit a winner, you can make a significant income from the sales of digital products. I have a friend who has multiple best sellers on Amazon Kindle now and he learned how to do it at my #1 recommended online business platform.
Pros and Cons of Creating Digital Products for Beginners
Pros of Digital Products
| Very Profitable Create Once Sell Multiple Copies |
| Low start up costs |
| Highest Margins of all the Business Models |
| Can be combined with other business models |
Cons of Digital Products
| Requires significant marketing efforts |
| Takes time to Produce Quality Content |
| Requires more knowledge and Experience |
My # 1 Recommended Online Business for Beginners
We’ve covered a lot of territory and potential online business ideas for beginners. I know it can seem overwhelming, but don’t worry you can do this. My recommendation for the best online business for beginners is affiliate marketing. It’s also one of my personal favorites so I admit I may be a bit biased. 🙂
I like affiliate marketing for beginners because it is the least costly to start and for the huge amount of potential products and services available to promote for affiliate commissions. It doesn’t matter what niche or interest you decide on, there are affiliate products for it.
And, once you have a profitable affiliate marketing business, you can combine it with many of the others we’ve discussed here like content creation, digital product creation, ecommerce, and freelancing to build yourself multiple streams of income for your financial future.
If you are serious about getting started in the world of online business, you owe it to yourself to get your free trial of My #1 recommended online business platform Wealthy Affiliate. You will find everything you need there to build an online business around any or all of the ideas we’ve covered. And much more.
Plus, you have access to a very supportive and worldwide community of successful online entrepreneurs who are happy to help you become successful as well. Wealthy Affiliate is the highest-rated online business training platform with a Trustpilot rating of 4.9 out of 5. And you can try it before you commit.
Check out the video below, you have nothing to lose, and if you decide to take them up on their free trial, be sure to look me up when you get there. I’ll be glad to show you around the platform and help you in any way I can.
I’m Looking forward to working with you,
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Rex
P.S. Again, Wealthy Affiliate is COMPLETELY FREE to get started. No catch, no obligation, and no bait and switch. I will personally be in touch with you upon joining to offer my support and guidance to help you get up and running online.
P.P.S. If you have any questions or are unsure of anything, I am here and I promise I will get back to you on all of your questions and comments. Just leave them below in the comment section. Follow me on Twitter: @onlinebenjamin1, Instagram: dotcomdinero, and Facebook: Online Benjamins
I’m Rex, owner of Dotcom Dinero. And, being a self employed entrepreneur for nearly 30 years, I have learned a lot about business, being your own boss and how to make “dinero”. Follow me here and I’ll share with you my experiences, tips, and strategies for building a profitable online business. We’ll review the latest money making products and scams to help you navigate the sometimes “shady” world of making money “dinero” online.