How to make money online as an entrepreneur with nothing or little investment?
What are the best-recommended profitable ways on how to make money online?
What business models should you choose to monetize your blog or website for a good profit?
What are the most common entrepreneurial profitable ways on how to make money online?
How to build an online business with little knowledge?
I am sure you can’t wait to hear the answer.
Stay with me …
I will shortly, reveal to you my top 7 recommended business models on how to make money online, and build a successful business from scratch with no prior business experience or knowledge.
#1: Affiliate Marketing
The king of the internet and is by far the quickest method on how to make money online for many bloggers and internet marketers.
If done right can be very lucrative and profitable.
It involves promoting other companies’ products or services by placing affiliate links on your website where you will have to drive traffic to the affiliate companies’ offers to attract buyers.
If a buyer purchases a product or service via your links you will be paid a commission.
It requires fewer startup costs as most of the work will be done by the affiliate companies you have signed up with such as products’ creation, delivery, customer service, and web hosting.
It is highly recommended creating your own website to promote your offers, as you will have full control of what affiliate links you want to promote as well as being able to brand yourself as an authority in your chosen niche.
Having said that, if you happen not to have a blog or a website, you will still be able to promote your offers using other means.
All you need is an audience and it doesn’t have to be a huge one.
Such as promoting your affiliate links on social media platforms like:
Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook groups, Podcasts, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube or via Email Marketing.
So long as you have an effective sales funnel and a good amount of traffic, you should be able to do well with this model.
Ensure whatever products or services you signed up for is related to your niche.
This is so when you make recommendations to your audience to make a purchase of something you are promoting, it does not look weird and spammy.
For example, if your business is in weight loss, you should recommend products relating to weight loss and not something that is unrelated to your niches like accounting or investments.
In addition to that, you must be aware of the FTC guidelines you need to follow when you place affiliate links on your site, via email marketing or other digital platforms.
To learn more about these guidelines, refer to Entrepreneur Friend’s Affiliate Disclaimer.
Affiliate marketing can be done full or part-time, it all depends on how much time and effort you want to dedicate to it.
Recommended Companies:
Wealthy Affiliate
Make money recommending Wealthy Affiliate products.
Genuine, authentic, affordable and offer the best training program and support community for online entrepreneurs I have ever come across. You really get value for your investment.
The owners of this company have created an invaluable program and it shows in the quality of training and ongoing support they provide for their students. 
They teach you everything, step by step and you will never feel like you are left out on your own to struggle.
If you are prepared to do the work, you will reap the rewards and can become very knowledgeable in ways you have never imagined.
Amazon Associates
Make money recommending products sold on Amazon.
You will need to sign-up for Amazon’s affiliate program based on your geographical location, for example, the US, Canada, UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, India, Japan or Australia.
Other Affiliate Networks/Programs
#2: Digital Products
Selling digital information products in the form of an e-book, video, amazon kindle, membership sites, e-courses, webinars, social media post templates, graphic designs, cheat sheets, stock photos, printables, and audiobooks.
This is one of the fastest, cheapest, easiest and best passive ways to make money online.
You can easily turn your hobby or passion into a profitable business.
If you have knowledge, expertise, experience in a particular area or an interesting story to share…
You can capitalize on it by productizing it into a digital product to satisfy the needs or solve the problems of your audience.
There are many niches where this business model can perform very well, you just need to go and find them.
Click here to learn how you can create your very own first e-course to teach and sell to your audience.
If you don’t fancy creating your own downloadable products to sell: you can always promote other people’s products as an affiliate and get commissions.
#3: Software Development
Most popular with the younger crowd of tech entrepreneurs.
If you have coding skills why not put them to good use and develop your app or software?
You will never know where your software could take you in the future.
Increasingly we spend so much of our time with our smartphones and other forms of digital devices.
The demand for good quality apps is on the increase.
Hence the need to innovate and develop amazing bugs free, ethical responsible high-quality applications and software that…
- Enhances and improves the lives and quality of people and societies in a positive way and/or
- Solve the problems and satisfy the needs of the general public, businesses and the masses.
If you don’t have the skills to do it your self but have some capital to spare, you can hire a developer or a group of developers to do it for you.
Just check out a list of freelancers from freelancing sites or google out reputable software companies.
If bootstrapping is not an option for you or don’t have any capital to spare, you could also consider:
- Getting a line of credit as a bank/family/friend loan
- Crowdfunding
- Joint venture or
- Go via the VC (venture capital) or Angel Investor route
- Etc
To help you raise the funds needed to develop your product or service.
This is often the traditional route for most tech companies and you may have to give a percentage of your company’s equity to the investors in exchange for the financial assistance and expertise you will be receiving from them.
You will then just have to focus on the marketing and promotion for your software, as well as providing excellent customer service to your end-users.
There is a lot more involved in developing software as products and/or SAAS (Software as a service).
Examples: (Facebook, Uber, Netflix, Slack, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Canva) etc.
Since this is just a general overview of online business models, I hope the brief info I have covered here, will suffice to inform you of what is possible out there…
To help you make the right decision and further your research when choosing your preferred business model(s).
#4: E-commerce
Selling physical products on e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, Teespring, Etsy, Shopify, Woocomerce or your own website.
May require some capital to start with as you have to buy or get your products manufactured from somewhere.
There is also a question of who will be doing the logistics side of things such as maintaining inventory, distribution, packaging, delivery, customer service, and refunds.
Depending on the platform you choose you may be able to avoid the distribution headaches by adopting Drop Shipping or Affiliate method where you will act as a middleman.
You will not have to touch the inventory nor deal with the customers directly.
Another route you could consider is to opt-in for FBA – Fulfilment by Amazon’s option. They will take care of the logistics for you, for a fee.
In recent times, I have seen a trend where smart internet marketers/developers developing third party software or WordPress plugins that allow:
Small business owners to import products from a number of well known traditional marketplaces such as:
Amazon, AliExpress, Spocket, Teespring, eBay or Clickbank, etc via
- an API (Application Programming Interface)
- a Spreadsheet upload or by or
- a print-on-demand service or
- manually uploading the product links
directly to their own beautifully designed niche-specific e-commerce stores.
The business owners can then sell these imported products as an affiliate or by adopting the Drop Shipping method.
With Drop Shipping, you, have the option to charge any price you want and make more profit out of it, however, you will need to place the order to the market-place’ site on behalf of the customer.
Whereas if you import the products to be sold as an affiliate, you will only get paid commissions by the market-place you have signed up with.
They control the prices but at least, you will not have the headache of having to place the order on behalf of the customer.
Your e-commerce store will just be like a gateway for the customer to purchase the products directly.
Instead of seeing Add to cart button and going through the checkout process, the customer will see buy now.. or something of that sort.
Whether you go for an Affiliate or Drop Shipping method, the market-place will take care of the inventory and the delivery of the products to the customer.
You don’t have to pay to source and list the products on your site nor pay for the delivery out of your own pocket as such, that is provided you receive the payments to your bank account before you place the order.
Depending on the payment processors you use on your online store, your funds may be held for a few days/weeks.
This is why, as part of being a good business owner, it’s a good practise to make sure you have sufficient cash flow to cover for any eventualities.
In the case of Drop Shipping, the customer will pay you, and you will then pay the market place.
For example:
If the market-place site is selling the product for $10, you may decide to charge the customer $25 and make a $15 profit.
In the case of an affiliate, you don’t have this option. You will get whatever commission has been decided and agreed by the affiliate companies.
To succeed in e-commerce, you will need to follow the following formula:
- Have a good product
- Have a platform to source and sell the product
- Have a method to deliver that product to your customers
- Have the means to drive traffic to your store (paid or organic)
If you can fulfil these 4 things, you could easily create for yourself a long-lasting profitable business.
You simply need to know what you are doing, know your numbers and follow a plan.
Cautious and due diligence is required.
Do your homework before embarking on this journey.
#5: Consulting, Coaching & Freelancing Services
Are you an expert in any particular field?
If you are…
Why not utilize your skills, knowledge, expertise and experience to provide essential service to other entrepreneurs and businesses?
This could include mentoring new and aspiring entrepreneurs, so they too can become knowledgeable in your craft and transform their lives and the lives of others.
It can be rewarding for you, and it will allow you to validate your skills, and at the same time provide you with an avenue to create an impact by shaping the minds of your students and see the outcome of their learning.
As well as mentoring other people, you can also consider offering …
A consulting or freelancing service of some sort that will help other business owners to free their valuable time and allow them to focus on other aspects of their businesses.
If you have a skill why not put it into good use and get paid for it?
It is about time you join the gig economy.
Typical examples of the kind of freelancing or consulting agency services you could offer include:
- Writer – blog posts, copywriting, sales pages, email sequences, e-books, books, press releases, e-commerce product descriptions, business plans, presentations, essays, reports, dissertations
- Social Media Manager – Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram, Tweeter, LinkedIn and Facebook page/groups
- Marketing Strategist
- Business Strategist
- Blogging Strategist
- Sales Strategist
- Events Planner & Organiser
- Email Marketing Specialist
- WordPress Manager/WebMaster
- Editorial Manager
- Proof Reader & Reviewer
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Specialist – blogs, e-commerce websites, videos, Pinterest
- UX/UI Designer – blog themes, social media templates, email templates, logos, brands, website designs and graphics
- Self Publishing & Promotion Manager
- Branding Expert
- Webinar Presenter
- E-commerce Expert
- Researcher
- Data Entry Clerk
- Software -Web/Developer/Engineer – apps, games, plugins, themes, software, websites
- Video Specialist -shooting, creating, editing, animating, optimizing, ranking
- Virtual Assistant
- Online Tutor/Trainer – languages, fitness, cooking, gardening, crafts, knitting, arts, breastfeeding, music, IT (information technology), dog training, DIY (do it yourself), any speciality or skill
- Help Desk Support/Customer Service
- Ads Manager – for local and online businesses
- Accountant – tax returns, company statements, VAT returns
- Investments & Trading – financial adviser, deal finder, cryptocurrency expert,
- Etc
These are all possible things you can do to make money, just beware that you need to be very smart with how you organize yourself and use your time wisely.
The last thing you want is to be overwhelmed with all the work coming your way and not being able to meet the needs of your clients.
You want to make sure you provide the best service for your clients as well as ensuring you have a business that is:
Profitable and manageable, which doesn’t leave you stressed, burned out or make you feel like you are selling your soul in the process.
#6: Blogging,Vlogging, Podcasting & Influencer Marketing
You can make good money blogging, vlogging, podcasting or becoming an influencer/micro-celebrity for a living.
There are top Bloggers, Podcasters, YouTubers and Instagram/Facebook influencers who are crushing it big, in the online space.
They have figured out the secrets and know what it takes to create and maintain successful profitable blogs, vlogs, podcasts and online content that is engaging and offers high value for their audience.
If you have a voice and strong helpful message to share with the world why keep it for yourself?
Find a passion or niche that interest you and start producing awesome content on the topic.
Blogging, Vlogging, Podcasting or Influencer Marketing has become one of the most popular ways to communicate with the audience on any subject.
It offers a great opportunity to express yourself and share information with other people.
The more you write the better writer you become.
The more videos, audio and online content you produce, the better marketer, influencer and communicator you will develop into.
Your newly acquired writing skills can also be used to write a book of your choice.
The more proficient you become at Blogging, Podcasting, YouTubing or Influencer marketing, the more diverse opportunities are likely to be opened for you.
Always aim to be authentic, genuine and give tons of value to your wider audience, readers, listeners and online viewers.
Figure out what you are ‘good at’ and are ‘comfortable doing’.
This is where ‘self-awareness’ comes to be an important skill-set to have, where you take time to examine your inner-self.
Gauge your strengths and weaknesses and decide what is your potential best option for you.
If writing copy is your thing then focus on this as I do.
If you love recording videos or producing audio and can make a success of it, then go for it.
If you are more like an influencer marketer and can attract a large audience and being able to engage with them on any of the social media platforms then pursue this instead.
I hear TikTok is the current trend for videoing and Podcasting is the thing to focus on, in online marketing.
The trends keep coming and going … go with the flow and what resonates with you.
Basically do what you love doing, have the potential to be really good at it and can connect with your audience.
If you do, your audience will keep coming back for more and more content.
The key is to be consistent in your content creation, by producing a lot of it to help you figure out what will work best for you and your ideal audience.
Just try to produce content that your audience will like and appreciate.
A side note: Remember the ultimate purpose of creating content and engaging with your audience on any of these platforms is to get attention and attract a following for your business by giving awesome free value.
Make sure to gain traction from these online platforms by extracting valuable data to help sell your products and services to your audience by building an email list or a social community that you can best serve and nurture to benefit all parties in a responsible ethical way.
#7: Online Advertising
Another model you could consider is online advertising where you rent Ad space from your site, youtube channel or podcast to companies such as Google via Adsense, Media.net, Mediavine, Thrive Ads, Amazon Ads or other Ad Networks to earn Ad revenue.
Whenever a unique visitor views a page, video or clicks on the Ad, you will earn commission usually paid per click or per a number of impressions in a few cents.
You will need lots of clicks, page views and/or subscribers to make good money out of it.
This method can be very profitable for you, especially when you know what you are doing and your online content is receiving a good amount of traffic on a daily basis.
If you do decide to take this route, you must beware of the following issues:
- You will need to drive a lot of traffic to your site/videos/podcasts/online profiles
- Your site speed could be reduced
- Your site performance could be affected
- The user experience for your readers and the online audience could be hampered.
Note: Having tried this model, I would advise new bloggers, vloggers, site owners, marketers, influencers to wait a bit until when your traffic grows and your online platform(s) become mature.
You can easily get distracted by not focusing on the most important aspects of your business, chasing traffic and become obsessed with little results to show for.
Once you have sufficient content and traffic, this model could work well for you.
Proceed with caution and try it out for your self and see if this is profitable and is worth it, despite the few negative aspects.
Take Home Message
You can choose one, two, three or all of the recommended business models on how to make money online.
As a new entrepreneur, you are more than likely to start with something easy like affiliate marketing, which will get you up and running quickly whilst you are learning and setting up a foundation for your business.
In the long term, it is better to incorporate many of the recommended models as you can for maximum profit.
Start with one thing, build on it and make a success of it.
Later on, you can learn to transition to other business models and do more interesting stuff.
You want to make sure you don’t put all your eggs in one basket by diversifying your income streams.
If one income stream dries up you will have others to rely on.
This could not be truer and relevant than what we are all experiencing now with the current COVID-19 pandemic globally.
There is not a single person or business: big or small who has not been directly or indirectly affected by the sudden change in the way we now have to live our lives, do business and work.
Hopefully, the setback is just temporary … only time will tell us in due time.
Therefore Adaptability is key, and adapt you MUST if you want to survive in these uncertain troubling times.
Fortunately for us, the online marketing model is still thriving despite the undesirable, current economic conditions.
If you are committed to growing your online business, you will be able to create a secure future for your self and loved ones.
If you wish…
You could consider creating your own physical products and services.
Have other people promote them on your behalf and you will pay them commissions just like how other networks do.
You can also make good money with your own digital products by selling them directly on your site(s) or other digital/teaching platforms.
Creating a sustainable long-lasting online business can be very rewarding for you.
It can open many doors for you and could provide you with great opportunities.
However, you must note that not all online business models may yield success at the same rate as others.
You have to put in the work, and show up every day.
There is no magic button you can push and the money will flow out just like that.
Select the right business model(s) that resonate well with you and are the best fit for your business and lifestyle.
How To Start a Successful Affiliate Business With a Trusted, Online Training Program & Lots of Friends To Support You Every Step of The Way. No Prior Business Knowledge & Experience Required.
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- Quick Guide On How To Start a Blog For Beginners Step By Step
- Essential Business Startup Tools & Resources
What are your views on the essential beginner’s guide on how to make money online? Do you have more business models to add to the list? Please leave me a comment below.
Please do not forget to share the article with your friends. Thank you.
Hey Jacqueline. Thank you for stopping by.
Yes you can definitely incorporate other streams of income into your Affiliate Marketing business.
We often hear the old saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, meaning where possible try your best to diversify your income. To truly scale your business and grow I believe this is a crucial part of it but you don’t have to do it straight away. You have to learn how to walk before you can run. It is a step by step approach.
For new and aspiring entrepreneurs I would recommend they stick with one form of affiliate marketing because it is crucial to get the foundation correct, test things out and get them working then think about introducing other forms of revenue. For example, once you see you get good results from your affiliates, you can re-invest your profits by introducing a digital product or service that solves the needs of your particular niche. By the time you reach this stage you would have had some experience and learnt valuable lessons and see how you can monetise it to make additional income.
A great list of ways to build an online business!
As an affiliate marketing do you think I can incorporate the other streams into my Affiliate Marketing business?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks
Jackie
These are brilliant ideas for making an income online Rabia. Too often I see poorly paid surveys and scams masquerading as ways to make income. You’ve shared solid suggestions that bring rewards with dedication.
Hey Lace
Thank you for stopping by and for your encouragements.
I am hoping my readers will be inspired and be better informed on the variety of good online businesses that are out there. And more importantly they make the right decision from the beginning especially for new and aspiring entrepreneurs.
If I had the knowledge I have now when I started my entrepreneurship journey I would have been in a much better position. In my early days I lost a lot of money on scams, software and companies that promised get rich quick schemes. When you are new you believe what you are told or hear. Not every one has the best interest for you. I guess failure is part of the learning process but it is better to avoid the costly mistakes. Hence it is important to educate others so they don’t have to repeat the mistakes we have made in our journey.
Great options Rabia to creating some online success.
I have had greatest success with Affiliate marketing. It requires dedication but is very rewarding.
I would advise visitor to go with with your #1 recommendation.
Hey Vince
Thank you for stopping by. Yes I agree with Affiliate Marketing. It is hard work especially at the beginning where you need to set the ground work. Once is done I guess every thing is automated for you. You just have to be creative in your marketing and drive traffic to your offers. I hope my readers will be guided to this choice. It the easiest and cheapest business model to start with.