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15 Online Business Ideas for Beginners that Cannot Go Wrong

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Ideas to start an online business right now!

Are you looking for online business ideas? Excellent! We got a list of 15 best online business ideas for beginners. To start any of these online businesses, all you need is:

  • a computer,
  • an internet connection,
  • a couple of hours a day,
  • and $200 (optional)

Sit back and relax, I’ll give you a list of the best online business ideas that any beginner can start. Also, we will discuss the easiest and cheapest ways to start an online business too. Let’s have a look.

The best online business ideas for beginners

Here is our list of the top 15 online business ideas for beginners. Check it out.

  1. Start an online phone case business
  2. Sell pet toys online
  3. Sell jewelry online
  4. Start an online t-shirt business
  5. Start an online sock store
  6. Start an online cosmetic store
  7. Sell print-on-demand products
  8. Start an online sportswear shop
  9. Sell posture correctors online
  10. Start selling homemade candles
  11. Sell homemade bath bombs and soaps
  12. Start selling crafts and DIYs
  13. Sell online courses, eBooks, and tutorials
  14. Sell photos and videos online
  15. Start selling graphic designs online

Are you interested in starting any of the above online business ideas? Then, let’s learn how to set up an online business to start making money from those ideas.

You can start any of those online business ideas with less than $200 in hand

Here we are discussing ideas to start a successful online business in the cheapest way possible. So, this $200 includes the cost of starting a website and marketing.

In some countries, you might need to obtain a business registration to run an online business or to accept online payments. If that applies to where you live, you will have to check with the local authorities to see how much that would cost.

Can you start an online business for free?

Is it possible to start an online business without any money? The honest answer is “No”. No, you can’t start an online business without any money. There are some dodgy websites, which tell such things as you can start a business for free. But, I have been running online businesses for almost 8 years now, and I never came across any online business idea that you can start with no money.

Apparently, spending $200 to start an online business is a worthy investment. If you do not have $200, there are many ways to make money online for free by doing online jobs. Also, you can try some successful side hustle ideas to generate the initial budget to start an online business.

What makes any business idea a “Good Online Business Idea” for a beginner

Not every online business idea works well. There is a huge competition out there, and many beginners do not know how to manage digital marketing to bring in customers. So, here is the secret to overcome these challenges and to pick the best online business idea as a beginner.

Pick an online business idea to target social media users

Let us think that you need to buy a t-shirt online. What would you do? Probably you’ll check up on Amazon for a t-shirt. This will be the same for anything that you want to buy online. So, how can a small online business owner sell their products?

Obviously, they can’t compete with Amazon or any of those juggernauts when it comes to selling things online. So, there is no point in trying to compete with the eCommerce giants to win the customers who are “ready to buy.”  That ship has already sailed!

Therefore, you need to find a way to show your products to those people who don’t have any purchase intent and convert them into paying customers.

In simple terms, you need to show your t-shirts to those who are not thinking of buying a t-shirt and influence them to buy from you.

So, how can you do that? Well, let’s have a look!

Being “social media ready” is the main ingredient of a successful online business idea

So, the best place to find people to show your products is social media. But, people do not hang out on Facebook or Instagram for shopping. They are there to connect with their friends, see memes, watch exciting videos, etc. Basically, people spend time on social media to consume content (photos, videos, stories, etc.)

This means your new online business idea should be capable of creating content that can intrigue potential customers at first sight.

So, go through our list of the best online business ideas for beginners again. Now, you would see that all those online business ideas are capable of creating content that can attract potential customers. Here are some examples.

  • Selling pet toys– Creat videos with dogs playing with toys
  • Sell jewelry – Create photos featuring models for Instagram
  • Sell posture correctors – Create OMG videos
  • Sell affiliate DIY products – Create DIY videos

What else to consider when selecting an online business idea?

Now we know that your business idea should have intriguing products. But there are a few other considerations as well.

The product size

Can it fit into a shoebox? If so, your shipping costs will be lower, and you can offer competitive prices.

The product price

Sell things that cost less than $50. So, your customers won’t be skeptical about paying you money before getting the product.

Popular products

Make sure your niche is trending. So, you won’t go out of business.

No branded products

Unless you are trying affiliate marketing, never sell branded products with dropshipping. You will probably get knock-offs and will get sued.

Easy to find suppliers

Make sure that you can find enough suppliers to get competitive prices.

Check this guide on how to find the best niche for dropshipping. There we have discussed all the above considerations in detail.

Starting an online business idea with dropshipping

Dropshipping is a simple and efficient way to deliver the products that you sold to your customers. When you dropship, your supplier will directly ship the products to your customers. So, you don’t have to worry about maintaining a stock of the products, or shipping.

So, literally, you can run an online business with dropshipping by sitting in front of a computer. Isn’t it a perfect online business idea for beginners?

One thing we love about dropshipping as a business idea is that it enables you to start an online business without costing a fortune. Since you do not have to buy an inventory first, nothing goes out of your pocket until you make your first sale.

One other thing we love about dropshipping as a business idea is that it enables you to start an online business without costing a fortune. Since you do not have to buy an inventory first, nothing goes out of your pocket until you make your first sale. So, start by learning how to start a dropshipping business to realise your online business idea.


This sample site is built on Shopify

Create an online store for your online business idea

Creating an online store is easier than you may think. Now with online store building platforms like Shopify, you can even create an online store without any technical knowledge.

And, you can try Shopify for free to see how it works. So, follow this guide on how to create an online store to learn the steps, and register on Shopify to start your free trial.

Try Shopify for FREE!

What else you should know about online business ideas with dropshipping for beginners?

Starting an online dropshipping business is not a complicated process. However, many startups go out of business within just a few months!!!

Then, how come dropshipping is an excellent online business idea for beginners?

Well, starting an online dropshipping store is easy. So, anyone can start dropshipping. However, most of them think that they will start getting sales magically right after going online. Unfortunately, it won’t work that way.

There is no point in having the world’s best online business idea unless you know how to market it. The internet is filled with noises. So, without a proper marketing strategy, no one will ever know about your online business. That is why most of the dropshipping startups fail within the first few months.

However, if you follow the right marketing strategies, an online dropshipping store can be a gold mine. For example, both of my dropshipping stores are run by virtual assistants, and I make profits without even having to lift a finger. (BTW, my life was not that easy when I first started! I woke up at 3.00 AM for almost every single day for more than two years to make them successful).

My point is, once done, an online dropshipping store can help you to create a reliable extra income. So, it is definitely an excellent online business idea for beginners. And, we will also talk about marketing strategies for online business ideas in a bit.

Online business ideas with affiliate marketing for beginners

Do you like to learn about another online business idea, which is a lot cheaper and easier than dropshipping? Try affiliate marketing.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning commissions by promoting other’s products (or services). For example, if you check my wealth-building book store, you will see that I have handpicked the #1 bestsellers on wealth building and listed them on my website. So, if you guys purchase any of these books, I get a commission from Amazon for selling that book. And, that’s how affiliate marketing works.

Why affiliate marketing is one of the best online business ideas for beginners

Apparently, you are selling ‘kind of’ virtual products with affiliate marketing. I mean they can be real products, but your business scope is just to drive sales to some online product listing. So, you don’t have to worry about maintaining an inventory, packing, shipping, and even customer care. Wouldn’t you count that as a great online business idea?

Here is how you can start an online business with affiliate marketing

Now you know that the basic idea of affiliate marketing is to drive sales (or traffic) to someone else’s product listing. To do this, you need to have a good source of traffic too. This means you need to have an audience to promote those affiliated products. Below I have added the basic steps to start an online business with affiliate marketing. Check it out.

Step 1: Decide your niche

Every online business idea should be wrapped around a niche. And, with affiliate marketing, your main objective is to build an audience around this niche. So, to build an audience, you would need to create content regularly. Therefore, when you select a niche, you have to make sure that you are comfortable with creating content around that niche.

For example, I run this blog because I have hands-on experience in doing online businesses. Therefore I can write articles without much effort.

Btw, if you are not good at writing, you can always purchase content from professional content creators under $10. So, that can save a ton of your time, and let you focus on more important aspects of your business.

Step 2: Build an audience

Building an audience is not an easy task. But it is totally doable. You can build an audience around a Facebook page, an Instagram account, a Blog, or a YouTube channel.  Those are the most common places to build audiences for your new online business.

The first step of audience building is that you need to identify your target audience and start creating content to please that audience. For example, if your online business idea is to sell affiliated DIY kits, you need to create either videos or blog posts targeting DIY hobbits.

Audience building is the most important part of starting a successful affiliate marketing online business. If you don’t have enough content or a significant audience, you won’t be able to make much from affiliate marketing. So, you will get discouraged and give up on this amazing online business idea. Don’t let that happen. Build a substantial audience before getting started.

Step 3: Apply for affiliate marketing programs

Once you have a significant amount of followership, you can start looking for the affiliate marketing programs to partner with. Here we have a list of the 8 best affiliate programs for you to try.

Step 4: Make money from your audience

Once you got selected for any of those affiliate programs, you can monetize your audience through this amazing online business idea. Check below examples of how others sell affiliated products on their channels.

thisiswhyiambroke.com is one of the most popular affiliate marketing sites. They run it as an eCommerce store.

Wirecutter is another popular product review site. While they create content by reviewing products, they promote affiliate products to make money.

You have selected an online business idea; What’s next?

The next step is to get traffic to your channel. It doesn’t matter which channel you use. It can be an eCommerce store, a product listing, a niche blog, a YouTube channel, or even a Facebook page, but you need a way to bring in more traffic to your business. That is the only way to make more money from your online business.

There are two basic ways to build traffic to your online business channel. Those are called paid traffic and organic traffic. Of course, in the beginning, you will have to rely a lot on paid ads to bring in more traffic to your site. However, in the long run, you also have to develop your organic reach strategies.

Paid marketing strategies for an online business

If you are have started a brand new online business, the most effective way to find customers is through paid advertisements. So, you can try running ads on Google and on Facebook ads.

Organic marketing strategies for an online business

Building a strong Facebook marketing strategy and trying to sell on Instagram are the two most effective organic and short-term traffic building strategies for an online business idea. Also, you can work on build a content marketing strategy to bring in traffic from Google as well.

What about building organic reach? – Let’s grow together

EB blog is a fairly new site, and we don’t get much traffic too. By now, we are getting only around 1600 unique visitors a day from Google organic search (We don’t run paid ads). Therefore, we are extensively researching and trying out new ways to build organic traffic. And, we frequently update our followers about our strategies too. So, if you have decided which online business idea to select, maybe it is a good idea to follow us on Facebook and stay in touch with our process.

The best online business ideas for beginners – Find out more

We have written some insightful articles about different online business ideas for beginners. You can access all these business guides by searching through our business ideas category. There you will find plenty of online business ideas for beginners that match your interests.

Starting an online business as a beginner can be an intimidating process. There are so many things that you need to learn and understand. So, while you are searching for the best online business ideas for beginners, make sure to start learning a bit about digital marketing as well. Sometimes, having a better understanding of digital marketing might help you to find the best online business ideas for beginners too.

Discover more online business ideas for beginners