The internet provides the holy-grail of opportunities when it comes to business. We have dozens of legitimate online business ideas at our disposal in this day and age.
Starting a profitable online business has never been easier and many people are discovering bootstrapping.
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What is bootstrapping?
It’s basically when you start a business when you’re broke. Something that was very difficult to do less than twenty years ago.
The internet has reached a state of maturity that makes it ultra-ripe for conducting business. How? Because the barrier of entry has gotten lower. You don’t even need technical skills to start and run an online business.
We have things like email autoresponders, automated marketing funnels and websites that can be built by pressing a few buttons.
This user-friendly nature simplifies many of the complex tasks that were previously associated with running a business online.
Why Should I Start An Online Business?
Because it beats traditional business in pretty much every single way.
How?
- It’s cheaper to run – Online business doesn’t have many of the overheads that a traditional business has. No worries about renting out office space, staff or stock supplies.
- You have location freedom – Most online businesses have customers from all over the world. You’re free to work from any location which allows us to live super flexible lifestyles.
- You’re the boss – Being told what to do sucks. If you’re an entrepreneur at heart, you can’t take this for too long. There’s something really special about working for yourself and being self-sufficient. That first paycheck you created yourself is always the sweetest!
Must Read – How to Turn Your Ecommerce Venture Into a Multichannel Empire
Here are four online business ideas that can be started with next to no money:
#1) Buying & Selling Domains
Otherwise known as “domain flipping“. Domains can be picked up for next to nothing and sold on for a profit. This can be a pretty lucrative if you know your stuff about website metrics and domain purchasing processes.
There are thousands of domains that expire every single day, many of these websites don’t get picked up by anyone and can be bought at registration price then sold at auction for a sizable profit. The trick is to find these domains. They’re like little nuggets of gold hidden amongst the dusty gray stones.
This is something you can literally start today. You don’t need expert knowledge or any sort of qualifications, just a willingness to learn the tricks of the trade.
One thing it will take is time. Like with anything, there will be a learning curve and you’ll have to take on things that are alien to you. But if you stick with the process this can become a very profitable little business.
Performing a google search for “buying and selling domains” brings up a whole host of useful guides that you can start digesting.
Related – How to Start an SEO Business & Make Money Working From Home
#2) Online Tutoring
Most people haven’t realized how powerful social media is yet. We have the ability to reach thousands of people and even target specific types of people for a few bucks.
Plenty of people are looking for one-to-one learning and online tutoring is a great way of delivering on this need. This type of online business is a form of consultancy.
Providing a service in exchange for money.
If you’re an expert on any particular subject, you can teach it to people for money. What better way than to do this online with the freedom and flexibility that the internet allows.
This is great because you don’t need to invest any money in training if you’re already an expert at something (obviously). It could be as simple as knowing another language and teaching that to people through Skype for an hourly fee.
How to get started?
This type of consulting business is very easy to setup, you don’t even need to have a fancy website. There are three simple steps to starting a consulting business:
- Crafting an offer.
- Putting that offer in front of prospects.
- Converting those prospects into clients.
You could create a Facebook business page and start marketing using their paid platform. This will allow you to put your offer in front of people that are interested in your service.
Before you start advertising, you can create a marketing funnel that will pre-qualify the leads you get and guide them to book appointments with you to find out more about your service.
#3) Fulfillment By Amazon
Ever heard of price arbitrage? This is when you buy an item for a certain price and sell it on for a profit somewhere else. Price arbitrage exists as a direct result of market inefficiencies.
Would you believe that people have created six-figure incomes from taking advantage of market inefficiencies?
Also Read – Amazon Affiliate Program Review – How to Make Money Online
This is the type of business that can start really small and grow into something big and beautiful.
Fulfillment by Amazon provides a service where they fulfill product orders on your behalf. Say you go to Walgreens and buy a whole bunch of clearance items they have. You would ship it to an Amazon fulfillment center. When someone purchases that product from Amazon they will ship it to the customer for you. Amazon takes their cut and you make a profit.
Jessica and Cliff Larew started a business doing just this after Jessica was laid off from her office job shortly after the 2008 recession. They recently grossed over $300,000 a year by spending part-time hours running this Amazon fulfillment business.
#4) Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is essentially a form of referral marketing where someone promotes a product on behalf of a company. They’re financially rewarded in the form of commissions whenever they make a sale.
Affiliate marketing is great for a number of reasons:
- It costs almost nothing to get started.
- You don’t need to create your own products.
- Versatile range of products and services to promote.
- Work from anywhere.
One of the most amazing things about this business model is the third bullet point mentioned.
Versatility
The sheer variety of products and services you can promote enables you to shape and mold a profitable business around something you love.
For example, say you’re passionate about surfing, so you start a blog that teaches people about all things surfing. Your blog becomes popular and you start attracting a high amount of traffic to it every month.
You can now use affiliate marketing to monetize this blog by offering products and services related to surfing on your blog.
This could be anything from surfing lessons to surfboards and other accessories. The possibilities are endless when it comes to affiliate marketing.
We hope you found this article useful and informative as always. Do leave your valuable comments below and don’t forget to share this article with your friends.
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