It seems that nowadays the rage is to start and grow an online business and truly work from anywhere and live the "Dream Life".
In fact in the last few days I've had 2 different people ask me the best way to start an online business, and so that inspired me to write this blog post and share with you 5 ways to start an online business for under $1,000. (Some are very inexpensive)
Start with Mindset and Realistic Expectations!
I think a lot of people think that they can just slap up a website, do a webinar, or sell products on Amazon and money will just magically flow into their bank accounts.
That is very seldom the case. It takes work, skills, and time to grow an online business. Just like any other type off-line business, you need leads and customers or you don't have a business.
Now can you make it big in a short period of time? Sure you can but only of you take massive action and produce massive results. It won't happen overnight tho.
1. Online MLM
A few short years ago, the term MLM was almost considered bad terminolgy. But over the last few years it has really become more and more popular to join a Multi-level Marketing company and build it online.
In my opinion if you are brand new to the online business world this will probably be your best option to get started with your online business.
The reason I say that is;
Cons: In order to make money you have to talk to people and get customers and recruit other teammates which takes sales and recruiting skills. Skills that can be learned and will probably benefit you the rest of your life!
2. Affiliate Marketing
This is very similar to MLM except you generally don't build a team of people. You get paid only on your own efforts.
Affiliate Marketing has been around in the online world for a quite a while. Amazon.com has one of the oldest affiliate programs out there.
You simply find a company that has great products or services and sign up for their affiliate program, and then you get a special link that let's you promote that company's products and anybody that purchases using your link, you'll earn a commission on.
Some of the benefits are;
Cons; You are on your own. There's no MLM team to leverage your time. You need online marketing skills to learn how to drive traffic to your links.
Affiliate Marketing is very popular when coupled with a blog and email marketing. A lot of people start their own blog, create a lead magnet to build their email list, and promote an affiliate product as their way of monetizing their blog.
Works great if you do it right!
3. eCommerce
This is where you start your own online store, or sell on eBay or Amazon. These could be products you invent, create, and sell. Or it could be via drop-shipping.
Drop-shipping is similar to affiliate marketing except you are controlling the website and have more responsibilities than you do with affiliate marketing or network marketing (MLM).
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Creating your own products and selling them via an online website like Woocommerce or Shopify can be very rewarding as well. (I recommend Woocommerce for the most flexibility and customizability)
Some of the befits are;
Cons: You need to learn how to get eyeballs on your offer. Whether you do SEO for your website or run ads, you need to figure out the best place to reach your ideal audience for the products you have to offer. Here's why you need more than a website to grow your business online.
4. Social Media Marketing
There's a lot of companies out there that would rather pay someone to take care of their Social Media and ads than to do it themselves. So if you are good at using Social Media you could start a Social Media agency.
Learn how to run Facebook ads, Google Ads, and drive traffic to a website, you could soon have your own Social Media agency.
Some of the benefits of having a Social Media agency would be;
Cons: This one takes skills that need to be learned, especially if you are going to run ads for other companies. Costs could be higher to in getting started, but the returns can be great! Neil Patel has one of the most successful Digital Advertising agencies out there. Make sure you check him out if you are interested in starting your own agency.
5. Your own Products or Services
Got any special skills that you can find a need for?
Turn it into an online business. Start offering your services to others whether it be other business owners or directly to end consumers.
That's what we did when we started Troyer Websites. I knew how to build websites and do SEO, so I started offering my services to others.
Take a deep look at what you are good at or enjoy doing and figure out a way to build a business around it!
Can you teach something others would pay to learn? Create an online course for it!
Digital products (like courses) have no limit to how many copies you can sell. Create them once, and sell them for as long as people buy them.
What do you do Jonas?
Glad you asked!
We actually do 3 of these 5. We are involved and actively building an MLM online via the ATM system. (A modern day system to build an MLM using Facebook)
Click here to learn about the ATM system for Network Marketing
We do some affiliate marketing. Which goes very well with this blog. The 2 main programs we like best are;
1. Elite Marketing Pro which teaches you how to attract people instead of chasing them for your Network Marketing business, as well as how to properly build an MLM online like a professional! Thank-you EMP! (They pay up to 70% commissions)
2. Aweber which is an email service provider for people that want to build an email list. They are one of the most advanced email service providers especially in the affordable price range. (They pay 30% recurring commissions and affiliate program is free to join) Click here to use our link to get Free 30 Day Trial of Aweber.
And we build websites/blogs for people that are ready to take their business online. As well as teaching Facebook Ads inside of a Facebook Group. (I didn't want to update a course every time Facebook makes a change)
So I guess you could say we have 4 streams of income. I do NOT recommend you trying to do more than 1 until you have that one established. Once you are successful with one type of business, you can add more.
Before that you are basically chasing bright shiny objects (distractions) and you probably won't get very far.
There you have it! 5 different types of businesses that you can build online and work from home or wherever you have an internet connection.
Wish you best of luck in your business endeavors and if there's anything I can do to help you, send me an email via the contact page on this blog.
Shares and comments are appreciated!