15+ Online Business Ideas (That Work)

Looking for online business ideas? You’re in the right place.

For the longest time, it was my dream for years to become my own boss, and be allowed to work from the comfort of home, coffee beside my laptop.

Now that I’ve turned this dream into a reality, I’ve seen the trends of online jobs and virtual income opportunities and have many ideas that you can become an online entrepreneur too.

So, let’s jump in – online business ideas that you can start right now.

15+ Online Business Ideas That Actually Work

There are many ways out there to make money online. These ides below are safe from AI, especially if you’re good at them, willing to put in the effort to do good work and meet deadlines

1. Virtual Assistant

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a B2B business, meaning that your clients are other online business owners. Being a VA can be a salaried position, but its usually a self-empoyed, freelance work. 

Business owners are often looking for someone to help them with simple, time-consuming tasks so that they can channel more of their energy into bigger business-growing tasks.

I see virtual assistants doing a variety of tasks right now:

• Managing and posting to business social media pages
• Being an admin in Facebook groups
• Answering emails 
• Updating website or blog articles
• Drafting and writing

To become a virtual assistant, it helps to hang out in places where your clients would hang out (Facebook groups, etc) and have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile. A huge bonus would be a social media page describing your qualifications, talents, relevant experience and pricing.

There is a great need for virtual assistants; I have two working for me right now (and sometimes wish I had more help!)

To find businesses looking for virtual assistants, you need to do some (or all) of the following:

• Set up a business, which can include a website, or social media page(s)
• Get good at some of the tasks that clients would need from you (it can include social media, graphic creation, video editing, answering emails, and many other tasks)
• Market yourself. Hang out where your clients would hang out and tell them you’re available for work

2. Social Media Manager

Social media management (another B2B business) can go hand in hand with virtual assistance, especially if you specialize on a particular platform.

A digital marketing background is often favourable, but you don’t need it to be a Social Media Manager (SMM.) I worked as one, with no experience, simply from taking an online course. Read my post on how to become a social media manager.

3. E-commerce

E-commerce is a fancy way to say ‘selling things online.’ It can be reselling items for a profit, or it could be selling your own products (digital or physical products.)

Here are some examples of e-commerce, and how to start an online business from it:

• Shopify -You can start your own e-commerce store on Shopify and sell anything from handmade, vintage, printables, digital items, etc.
• Amazon Click here to see steps on setting up your own store on Amazon.
• Facebook Marketplace. I run a shop on Facebook Marketplace, and I treat it as a business by offering decent customer service. (I only sell used items that we no longer want in our home.) But, some people make a side income off of finding cheap or free deals, and reselling them for a profit on an e-commerce site.

4. Dropshipper

Dropshipping is similar to e-commerce; the difference is that with dropshipping, you don’t personally produce the products that are being sold.

Instead, as a dropshipper, you’re the middleman (and the salesperson) between the buyer and the producer.

Dropshippers set up an online store via Shopify or Amazon, or another program. They price, sell items of their choosing. Often, your store can have a theme such as pet supplies, toys, sports and outdoor gear, or whatever you want! Dropshippers also create their own return policy.

Here are some of the many dropshipping suppliers to consider signing up with. Read more about them + getting started with dropshipping here:

• Collective connects you with vetted Shopify brands
• DropCommerce
• Syncee
• Al Dropship
• DSers connects Shopify stores to AliExpress suppliers

So basically, you sign up with a dropship supplier, and then you sell the products that the supplier supplies to you. You price items so that you earn a profit off of them – and then bam, you have your business.

Once you have your store, you can market it however you want – on social media, your email signature, etc.

5. YouTuber

Becoming a paid ‘YouTuber’ is possible, and something you can absolutely do from your kitchen (both my husband and I have done it.) It generates a passive income that you can keep growing.

If you have a skill or a hobby to teach or show people, then you can qualify for monetization after having a certain number of subscribers and watch hours.

To be successful as a YouTuber, you need to:

• Create decent videos (I use Canva) The longer the videos are, the better. But quality is more important than quantity – they should be engaging with decent production value.
• Get at least 1,000 subscribers and a certain number of watch hours. This is the trickest part to monetization, and can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to reach this threshold, depending on how in-demand your content is, how much competition you have, how skilled you are, and how many videos you post.

When I say ‘high production value,’ I don’t mean that you need to have a special studio space or anything fancy. You don’t need any fancy equipment to make money from YouTube. Just a phone, a laptop, a voice app (if you want to do voiceovers) and an ability to make decent videos that people want to watch.

6. Paid videogame player

There are a lot of different ways to monetize an interest, talent, or knowledge about video games.

• Twitch – You can set up a business as a videogame player which earns you ad revenue, and tips. Some people build careers off of this. To build a business on Twitch, you need to be entertaining so that people want to watch you play the game (usually, people that are successful are good at games, funny, quirky or even attractive)
• Content creation (YouTube) People have set up YouTube channels teaching people how to play games, as well as cheats and other set-ups.

7. Blogger

Blogging as a full-time career has become more challenging, but it’s still possible – especially for those who naturally love writing.

You need to be getting a few thousand people to your site each month before you can start seeing money.  Once you do, here are the two main ways to make money from blogging:

• Display ads. I make the equivalent of my teacher’s salary just off of ads now. But, to be accepted to these high-paying ad networks, you need to reach a certain traffic threshold. The highest paying ad networks are Mediavine and Raptive (formerly Adthrive), and they require tens of thousands of monthly visitors. There are smaller ad networks that pay less but have lower traffic requirements.

• Affiliate marketing. You sign up for affiliate programs with companies like Amazon, Booking, Viator, Travel Payouts. Links on your site, when clicked on by people that result in purchases being made, means commission for you. I earn thousands every month off of affiliate links on my travel blog

My recommendation is to start writing and publishing for free, and apply to one of the smaller ad networks once you qualify to start making a side income. Once you reach the larger traffic thresholds, then apply to Mediavine or Raptive.

In my case, with my travel blog, it took about a year to start pulling in $3-4k per month. If you decide to go the blog route, do it because you love to write and not just fot the money. Its so much easier when its fueled by genuine passion and interest in your topic and niche. 

8. Tutor or teacher

You can set up a business as a tutor, or a teacher from the comfort of your home. You can choose to either:

• Apply to tutor or teach on platforms (there are homeschooling platforms that look for teachers, or even ESL tutoring platforms where you can teach English as a Second Language)
• Work freelance; set up your own website, market yourself, and do meetings via whichever platform you want (such as Zoom, or Google Meets)

If being an online teacher interests you, I recommend starting off with the first one, while you slowly build up towards the second. You can earn more money working independently rather than for a platform.

9. Therapist/counsellor/life coach

As a qualified and licenced therapist, you can offer virtual sessions for therapy, counselling. There are counsellors and therapists that work 100% remotely as digital nomads.

If you’re not qualified as a therapist, but want to help or coach people, you could also consider starting up a business as a life coach. This is something I sometimes consider.

10. Product and/or Beta Tester

Many companies hire product testers and beta testers. They post the jobs on a product or beta testing website, and you as a tester apply for the jobs.

As you gain credibility on a platform by providing good feedback, you can be offered more and more gigs for product and beta testing.

Beta testers often test virtual products like apps and websites, while as a product testers, you often have products shipped to you.

Here are some platforms to start a side business doing one or the other:

11. Accountant or bookkeeper

If you’re good with numbers and enjoy keeping track of finances, then you may be able to set up a business as a virtual bookkeeper or an accountant (if you’re qualified.)

To be clear, accountants need to be qualified, but bookkeepers do not. Read this guide on how to become a virtual bookkeeper.

12. Become a voiceover or narrator

If you have a great speaking voice, you can offer services doing voice-overs and narrations for things like videos, podcasts and audiobooks.

To be successful and make real money from this, you need to put the time into building a reputation, which would help bring business.

To get started, create a profile on ACX. From there, you can audition for audiobook narration roles and other voiceovers.

Join the i n d i e ACX narrators group on Facebook, full of people who are already working as voiceovers and narrators

13. Selling digital products

If you enjoy being creative, then you can create digital products and sell them through many different avenues.

Examples of digital products you can make are:

• Birthday invitations
• Greeting cards
• Quizzes
• How-to guides
• Worksheets for school or homeschoolers

There are many different places to sell digital products, depending on your niche and topic. For example, Etsy is a good place to sell invitations, and gift or celebration-related items.

If you create learning productds like worksheets, then they can be sold on Teachers Pay Teachers.

14. Start a podcast

If there’s a topic that you’re passionate about; something you could talk endlessly about – then why not consider starting a podcast?

Similar to bloggers and other content creators, podcasts earn money from advertising, sponsorships, selling merchandise, and affiliate marketing.

Many successful podcasters earn a six-figure income – how much you make depends on how good you are at it, how in-demand your niche is, and your audience size.

To be successful as a podcast owner, it helps to:

• Publish consistently. Whether it’s once a week, or biweekly – staying consistent is needed, so that your audience knows wh
• Market your podcast – Don’t be afraid to get the word out, and market your podcast

15. Write a book

For those that love writing, writing books is a fun and rewarding online business idea.

There are many types of books to consider writing – memoirs, fiction, children’s books, photography and travel guides, cookbooks and many more.

I personally know someone who earns a six-figure salary from her indie self-published dark romance book series.

When you publish a book, you need to choose between self-publishing vs traditional publishing.

The first one anyone can do to get started as an author, but the second one requires you to:

• Write a query and be accepted by a literary agency
• Work with a publisher

Disclaimer about Making Money Online

It’s an incredible thing to be able to live at a time when extra money and business opportunties are available just through a phone or laptop in your living room.

However, there are some important things to keep in mind. Here are two important things to keep in mind when it comes to earning money online:

1. There are a lot of scams. There are so many scammers who want to take advantage of people who are just trying to earn a side income. I see many of these scams on Facebook, where people ask you to “DM them for opportunities,” after describing something that sounds a bit too good to be true.
2. Money Mindset. How well you do at making money online isn’t just tied to the job(s) you pick or how proficient you are at it – but your own money mindset. Money mindset can cause you to undercharge for your services, not value your services enough to charge enough for them, or even fall pray to scams out of desperation. So, I recommend spending some time reading on money mindset and developing a healthy relationship with money that will help you make (and keep) more of it.

Is it possible to earn six figures from working for yourself at home? Absolutely. I do it. But, I see many people out there promising to teach a skill to people like you (and me, when I was a single mom teacher trying desperately to find a side hustle)

Here are some ways to determine if you’re being scammed:

Here are some tips for looking into the company or individual who is offering you a job, to make sure its legitinamte.

1. Check the personal social media profiles of the person offering you the job.
   • What date did they join facebook? A new profile can be a red flag
   • Does the profile photo match with who you feel like you’re talking to? For example, I felt uneasy about one person who was trying to get me to pay for a service that I could apparently get really rich off of. Their profile photo was a wealthy looking older white lady. The English was quite broken, and something didn’t add up about it.
   • Keep in mind that stolen Facebook accounts are a thing. When people are sent links that they click on, their profile can be stolen. Those solen profiles can be used to scam people because now they have a completely legitimate looking social media profile, with hundreds of friends and a Facebook join date of 10+ years ago.
   • It can be hard to tell if the profile is stolen. Check to see if their online behaviour matches with the profile they seem to have. I noticed for example, that they change their gender, but I see old photos of who the profile may used to belong to

However, make sure you protect yourself from scammers who are just trying to profit off of people’s desires for freedom, and enough wealth to have the freedom they seek.