Online Business Ideas: 15 of the Best Ways to Make Money Online in 2023

Launch Your Online Business in Just 7 Days

Rapid technological advancements have made it possible for anyone to escape the dreaded 9-5 rat race.


Regardless of where your interests and skillsets lie, there’s an online business opportunity for everyone willing to take the leap.


With our list of the top 15 online business ideas, you’re bound to find one that’ll tickle your fancy.


Plus, in this post, you’ll also learn about a tool that’ll help make your business ideas a reality.


Shall we get started?

1. The best online business ideas

Whether you’re looking for a full-time online venture or perhaps a side hustle, our list has you covered.


These are the top online business ideas for 2023:

1. Blogging

2. Selling online

3. Affiliate marketing

4. Dropshipping

5. Online teaching

6. Social media management

7. SEO consulting

8. Freelance writing

9. App development

10. Website development

11. Virtual assistant

12. Influencer

13. Coaching

14. Podcasts

15. Graphic design

Let’s explore each one in some more depth.

1.1. Start a blog

Blogging is a great business idea — in fact, it can support any of these online business opportunities.


It’s not only perfect for increasing your online presence in your specific business niche, but it can also drive the revenue you’re looking for.


Here are some of the ways that you can monetize your blog:

  • Publish sponsored posts
  • Host third-party ads
  • Sell your own digital (courses, ebooks, or webinars) or physical products, or expand into affiliate marketing

You don’t even necessarily need a large audience to make money, for example, Ana Skye’s blog, The She Approach is fairly small with:

  • Under 30,000 views/month
  • Just over 10,000 newsletter subscribers

Yet, her income report shows how she hit $100,000 from blogging since starting in 2016!


43% of this ($48,892) was from affiliate commissions, and the rest she earned from selling ebooks and online courses.


Not only is having a very specific niche important to your success as a blogger, but the trust you build with your target audience is crucial.


You’ll want to ensure that you:

  • Post content regularly
  • Consistently offer high-quality content that delivers value to your audience
  • Maximize your reach by implementing SEO strategies that’ll help you rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs)
  • Engage with your audience regularly on your posts

If writing is in your blood, get started with systeme.io today.


With our Forever Free plan, it’ll cost you nothing!


A tool like systeme.io helps you build your very own website and blog in a matter of minutes with our simple drag-and-drop editor:

 systeme.io’s drag-and-drop editor

systeme.io’s drag-and-drop editor

For more on creating a profitable blogging business, click here.

1.2. Create an ecommerce store

Selling online is far easier (and cheaper) than opening up a traditional brick-and-mortar store.


Getting your ecommerce site up and running is the easy part — it’s marketing your business that’ll require the most effort.


You won’t sell anything if you fail to get in front of your potential customers.


Besides marketing, there’s one more thing that can directly impact your sales — your website.


Today, you can create a website with zero coding or design skills and, in some instances, for free with a platform like systeme.io.


Having a poorly designed website will do a great job of destroying your reputation and your sales, and it’s completely avoidable!


Create a professional website that your customers will enjoy, by using our templates or create your own from scratch with drag-and-drop ease.


A tool like systeme.io not only lets you create your own online store but our platform is also equipped with all the marketing tools that you need:

  • Create sales funnels equipped with order forms, upsells, downsells, etc. to guide your customers through the entire sales journey
  • Build your email list, and send email marketing campaigns and newsletters to your contacts
  • Create evergreen webinars to grow your audience and make more sales

And more!


Whether you’ll be selling your services online, or if you’ll be selling physical or digital products, the list of opportunities is endless.

1.3. Become an affiliate marketer

Become an affiliate marketer

Promoting other businesses can prove to be the only lucrative business idea you need.


Not only does affiliate marketing offer you a means of earning a passive income, but as with blogging, it’ll also cost you nothing.


You’ll receive all the marketing materials you need — simply promote the product or service to your audience, and earn a cut on all the sales.


Bloggers such as Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and Adam Enfroy make over $100,000/month, with most of it coming from affiliate marketing.


Adam’s income went from $0 to $281,773 with most of his affiliate commissions coming from recommending SaaS products.


SaaS platforms, like systeme.io, usually offer commission rates as high as 20%-60%, plus there are recurring commissions to be earned.


For example, systeme.io’s affiliates earn a 60% lifetime commission on all subscription and course sales made through their affiliate ID.

 systeme.io’s marketplace of affiliate offers

systeme.io’s marketplace of affiliate offers

With systeme.io, you can either join our affiliates, or you can create your very own affiliate program to get an army of affiliates to sell for you.


To learn everything you need to know to succeed in affiliate marketing, click here.

1.4. Become a drop shipper

Become a drop shipper

As with affiliate marketing, dropshipping allows you to make money selling other people’s products.


You don’t need to create the products or deal with the inventory and shipping yourself, the wholesaler will take care of it.


This is how a dropshipping business works:

1. You display the merchants’ products on your online store.

2. The customer places an order (at retail price).

3. You order it from the merchant (at wholesale price).

4. It gets shipped directly to the customer (who thinks it’s coming from you).

5. You make a profit on the sale.

As a drop shipper, you’ll be marketing for the supplier, so your main tasks are to:

  • Create an online store
  • Advertise your products
  • Answer customer questions

You’ll generate the sales and place the orders, and the third party will handle the rest.


To get started, you’ll want to:

  • Do market research to identify products in high demand
  • Browse dropshipping marketplaces on sites like Amazon, or directly contact manufacturers and importers
  • Look at your competitor’s prices to see how much you’d need to charge, and what your profit would be

If you’re interested in starting your own dropshipping business, you can learn more here.

1.5. Sell online courses

Is online teaching your secret calling?


Selling online courses is a fantastic business idea because it’s easy to do, and it’ll cost you nothing but your time and effort.


You don’t even need to be an expert to teach online — you just need to know a bit more than the next person.


Plus, it’s a very good passive income opportunity!


When your online course is done, you can continue selling it for months or even years afterward (and on autopilot with tools like systeme.io!).


Maybe you’re passionate about a specific topic, and you know a fair amount, but the idea of being in front of a camera turns your knees to jelly.


Well, we’ve got good news for you — you don’t even need to show yourself on camera.


All you need to do is get a screencasting app that’ll record your screen and voice while you walk your students through your tutorial.


The scope of online teaching is endless — you can teach literally anything, from web development to personal finance management — you name it.


Sharing your knowledge and skills online has never been as easy as it is today.


For an in-depth guide on how to create an online course, click here.

1.6. Become a social media manager

Social media marketing is crucial for any business, and yet some businesses don’t realize it.


Through social media platforms, companies can tap into a massive audience of 4.48 billion people.


As a social media manager, you’ll help other businesses manage their social media accounts to help increase their brand awareness, engagement, and sales.


Your job would consist of:

  • Creating on-brand content
  • Exploring posting schedules
  • Responding to their customers
  • Determining the best tactics depending on the end goal
  • Analyzing the performance of your content with likes, comments, clicks, retweets, etc.

Most large businesses are already utilizing the power of social media marketing.


Usually, it’s the smaller companies that may not know the importance of it, or they might just simply need assistance — that’s where you come in.


The median salary for a social media manager is $41,900/year (1-5 years experience) — and $80,000/year for those with 6-14 years of experience.


Mastering this could lead to you offering your social media consulting services, where you could earn around $50-$500/hour!


To learn more about how much you should charge for your services, click here.

1.7. Become an SEO expert

Whether you’re an expert or not, knowing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial to the success of any online business.


Optimizing website content to ensure the website ranks highly on search engines will increase organic traffic to the site and boost sales.


This is why SEO has a direct impact on a business's bottom line — which is also why SEO experts are in high demand.


SEO experts make on average $47,000-$72,000 a year — Upwork reports that the median hourly rate is $15-$35.


You can start by helping small businesses learn the importance of SEO and help them transform their website to increase their conversion rates.


To be successful and to remain relevant, you’ll need to stay on top of the ever-changing search engine algorithms.


To learn more about SEO, you can read our guide here.

1.8. Become a freelance writer

Writers are always in huge demand!


And when it comes to being a freelance writer, all you need is a keyboard, an internet connection, and an imagination.


As a writer, here are some of the many things you could get paid to compose:

  • Website copy
  • Blog posts
  • Sales pages
  • Email newsletters
  • Ebooks
  • Resumes
  • Cover letters
  • Business plans

You’re bound to find an application that gets your creativity flowing.


There’s also demand in researching, editing, or proofreading content — you can find ample freelance opportunities on:

Freelance writers make, on average, $30/hour ($63,213/year), but you could earn up to $150,000/year.


You can definitely turn your creative flair into a bustling business!

1.9. Become an app developer

Mobile apps are popular, there’s one for everything and anything!


And with a global mobile app industry worth over $106 billion annually, there’s definitely money to be made in app development!


If you know software design and some of the popular programming languages, you can:

  • Develop your own apps
  • Help businesses build specific apps
  • Help fix or improve existing apps

If you’re wanting to bring an app idea of yours to fruition, you’ll want to start by:

1. Doing ample research to determine whether or not there’s a demand for your app idea.

2. Look into similar apps (their marketing strategies, reviews, descriptions, cover art, etc.).

Developing an app takes a lot of time and effort, so make sure that there’s demand and that people will be willing to pay for it.


And as with any business idea, marketing is crucial.


You need downloads, and plenty of them — so you’ll want to invest in app store optimization (ASO) and other marketing efforts.


On top of the downloads, you’ll want to consider adding paid features or subscription options to generate a more steady passive income.


You’ll also need to consistently produce content, regularly add new features, and attend to any bugs.


If you don’t have the skills, there are ample free courses and resources to help you become a skilled app developer:

These courses and resources can also help you develop the skills you need to become a web developer.

1.10. Become a web developer

Web development services are in huge demand because businesses need functional, user-friendly, and attractive websites to thrive.


As a web developer, you’ll work on creating and maintaining websites to help business owners take their online presence to the next level.


You’ll need to ensure that the website’s interface performs as intended and that it’s visually attractive.


Something as small as how long it takes to load the website can have a huge impact on a business’s bottom line.


Although there are plenty of website builders, there’s no shortage of clients looking for someone who knows what they’re doing.


Especially for startups and small business owners, they simply can’t afford to have their website look untrustworthy.


As a freelance web developer, you’ll want to focus on:

  • Building a professional portfolio (you can even start by developing websites for your friends and family)
  • Offer competitive prices on websites like Upwork until you’ve got a solid portfolio
  • Work on gaining several positive reviews

Web developers generally fall into 3 main specializations:

1. Front-end Developer

2. Back-end Developer

3. Full-Stack Developer

How much you earn as a web developer depends on your specialization, experience, and location.


But on average you’d be looking at anything from $20,000-$155,000/year.


As with app development, you need to be very familiar with working with some of the common coding languages to be a web developer.


If you haven’t got the skills, head over to some of the free courses and resources to get started.

1.11. Become a virtual assistant

If you’ve got outstanding organizational skills, then perhaps you’d be interested in putting them to good use.


As a virtual assistant (VA), you’ll be paid to help entrepreneurs and businesses keep their personal and professional lives organized.


VA’s are high in demand, but this is typically a lower-paying business idea, with the average hourly rate being $19.37/hour.


What you’ll do will depend on your skills (and most importantly, what you’d like to do), but some of the common tasks that VA’s perform include:

  • Data entry
  • Customer management
  • Scheduling
  • Basic marketing management
  • Research

And everything in between!


These are tasks that businesses will happily outsource, as it’s more appealing than hiring permanent employees or doing it themselves.


To find jobs as a VA, TaskRabbit and Zirtual are good places to start — simply sign up for the tasks you’re keen on doing.


You can also grow your business (and your profits), by hiring a network of VA’s to help you.

1.12. Become an influencer

Influencers, put simply, help to influence people’s buying decisions.


And influencer marketing is where a company will form a partnership with someone that has a decent following on social media.


This is a popular marketing technique that’s used in almost every industry — it helps businesses reach a wider audience and boosts their sales.


Consumers tend to turn toward influencers for advice on products before they decide whether or not they want to purchase them.


In fact, 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations.


High levels of engagement and trust are vital to making sales.


That’s why micro-influencers (influencers with smaller communities and higher engagement rates) are in high demand.


Follower count matters little — so have you got what it takes to be an influencer?


To get started you’ll want to:

1. Choose a niche (it can be anything — make it something you’re passionate about that you’ll have no issue creating content for).

2. Find what social media platforms your audience spends most of their time on.

3. Build your following by posting relevant, useful, and interesting content for your audience.

4. Find products that fit your audience’s needs, contact the company, and start promoting the products.

Being an influencer isn’t as easy as it may look.


You’ll need to know how to market effectively — while focusing on helping, not selling.


By having your audience’s needs front and center at all times, and by being authentic, you’ll inevitably sell more.

1.13. Start a 1-on-1 coaching business

Coaching can be a very profitable business opportunity — and of course, can learn how to scale an online coaching business and get far by sharing their knowledge to paying customers (even over the phone).


As a coach, your job will be to advise and offer your customers your support — allowing your client to find the solution to their problem themselves.


Here’s the earning potential of some of the most common coaching niches:

1. Life Coaching — $32.28/hour

2. Career Coaching — $24.80/hour

3. Wellness Coaching — $19.19/hour

4. Financial Coaching — $20.03/hour

5. Business Coaching — $40.07/hour

Initially, you’ll want to:

1. Pick a niche.

2. Define your goals (what is it that you want to help your customers achieve?).

3. Build a website for your business.

4. Develop a marketing strategy.

Once you’ve got your website up and running, you should consider building your email list.


To build your list, you can use a tool like systeme.io to:

1. Create a squeeze page.

2. Add opt-in forms and a pop-up on your blog or website.

In exchange for your customer's email address, you can offer them a free lead magnet — for more on lead magnets, read this.


Email communication allows you to discover your audience’s deepest struggles, and with this, you’ll learn how best to help them.


As a beginner coach, you can start by offering free consultations where you can help your client:

1. Determine what their biggest problem is.

2. Establish their goals.

3. Pinpoint any potential hiccups that may arise along the way.

Then, if you feel you can help them, you can end the call by proposing how your coaching program could help them achieve their goals.


But there’s absolutely no rush to sell. The more you do this, the more your confidence will grow.


If you focus on helping, you’ll have no problem selling!

1.14. Launch a podcast

Have you got a burning passion or knowledge on a particular subject that you can happily discuss frequently?


Podcasting may be perfect for you! In our fast-paced world, podcasts are a solution for consuming information on the go.


Today, the podcasting industry is estimated to be worth around $1 billion — it’s a fantastic business idea that’s set to continue growing.


More than 60% of US adults listen to podcasts, having increased from only 22% in 2006 — need we say more?


You can discuss literally anything — as long as you’re authentic and provide entertaining and informative content, you can run a podcast.


But with over 2 million podcasts in existence, you’ll need to make sure your content stands out — and again marketing is also super important.


To get started you’ll want to:

1. Decide what software and equipment you want to use.

2. Plan your podcast episodes.

3. Sign up for podcast hosting on podcast networks like iTunes, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, BuzzSprout, and Podbean, to name a few.

You can even start a podcast with just your phone, but ideally, to make this a serious business, you’ll want to ensure that you have:

  • A distraction-free recording space
  • A laptop or desktop computer
  • Microphone
  • Podcast camera (optional)
  • Noise-canceling headphones
  • Podcast recording software

When it comes to marketing your podcast, you should consider:

  • Inviting prominent figures in your niche as guests on your show
  • Encourage your listeners to leave reviews and share your podcast
  • Upload your podcast content to various podcast apps
  • Market your business through email marketing and on social media

Starting a podcasting business requires a lot of patience — it’ll take some time to build your following and to start seeing a return.


For more on getting started and advice on what gear to get, click here.

1.15. Become a graphic designer

The graphic design market is worth a whopping $13 billion in the US alone!


94% of consumers will leave a website with poor graphic design, which is why companies are constantly looking for creative designers to help them.


As a graphic designer, the scope of possibilities is massive.


Here are some of the many avenues that you can explore:

1. Company brand developmentLogo design, color schemes, etc.

2. Layout and print design — For magazines, newspapers, and other physical or printed publications.

3. Marketing and advertising-related design — Banners, posters, etc.

4. Packaging — The designs of packaging and product labels.

5. Motion graphics — For videos, animations, etc.

6. Website graphics — Images and designs for web and mobile development.

The average salary for a freelance Graphic Designer is $58,903 — with varying hourly rates ranging from $12-$55.


Do you have what it takes to help companies with their visuals?


If you haven’t got the skills but you’ve got the passion and creative spirit — fear not.


As with all of these online business ideas, you can start learning today — there are countless free courses and resources to help you on your way.


As a beginner Graphic Designer, you’ll want to:

  • Learn software such as Adobe InDesign and Photoshop
  • Build a portfolio website of your work
  • Develop a strong social media presence to find new business opportunities

2. Other online business ideas

Our list has just covered 15 of the best online business ideas, but there are so many others, such as:

1. Webinars

2. Legal services

3. Photography

4. Translating

5. Fitness trainer

6. Internet domain selling

7. Accounting or bookkeeping

8. Telemarketing

9. Currency trading

10. Online therapy

11. Recruiting

12. Becoming a YouTuber

13. Selling stock videos

14. Selling subscription services

15. Music or voiceover services

Let’s get into the best all-in-one tool to help you run any of these online business ideas (without the hefty startup costs).

3. Bring your online business idea to life with systeme.io

Systeme.io logo

systeme.io logo

When it comes to turning any of these ideas into a bustling business, there’s no better platform to use than systeme.io.


Our all-in-one business-building platform offers everything you need without the clunky integrations and costly subscriptions!


Starting your own online business couldn’t be any easier.

3.1. Systeme.io’s features

When we say that we’re an all-in-one platform, we really mean it.


You’ll have no issue launching, growing, or scaling your online business with these powerful features:

  • Email marketing — Build and segment your email list, create campaigns and newsletters, and automate your marketing
  • Funnel builder — Create sales funnels with an incredibly simple editor, and automatically trigger your funnel steps
  • Affiliate marketing — Build an army of affiliates to sell for you, and easily track your affiliates and their payouts all in one place
  • Ecommerce — Sell online with order bumps, coupon codes, upsells, downsells, and PayPal and Stripe integration
  • Website builder — Build your own website in a matter of minutes with our simple drag-and-drop editor and templates
  • Blogging — Create a blog to increase traffic to your site, and have no limits on the number of posts that you can publish
  • Online courses — Build online courses with ease, and manage your students, course access, sales, and marketing all in one place
  • Business automation — Save time and energy by growing your business on autopilot

What more could you possibly need to run a successful online business?


You may be thinking that this will cost you an absolute fortune — this couldn’t be further from the truth.


Let’s get into how much these tools will cost you.

3.2. Systeme.io’s pricing

These are our 4 pricing plans:

 systeme.io’s pricing

systeme.io’s pricing

For a new online business or any small business owner, pricey software to help run and grow a business is a concern, and often, a big risk.


With systeme.io, we eliminate all of the risks and concerns with our Forever Free plan.


No credit card details are required, and with our Free plan, you’ll get:

  • Unlimited email sends for a list of up to 2,000 contacts
  • 3 sales funnels with 10 funnel steps
  • A blog with unlimited blog posts
  • A membership site with unlimited members
  • Affiliate marketing
  • 1 custom domain
  • Unlimited file storage space

Plus, you’ll get what you need to start selling online too, with 1:

  • Order bump
  • 1-click upsell
  • Coupon code

And PayPal and Stripe integration support.


Our paid plans offer you more of everything — and our Enterprise plan has no limits, for just $97/month you get unlimited everything.


Our plans give an affordable solution to every entrepreneur, with scaling options that won’t cost you hundreds of dollars.


For more on what each of our plans has to offer, click here.

4. Tips for starting your online business

Tips for starting your online business

Ready to start your own online business? Here are 4 tips to kickstart your success.

4.1. Choose a profitable niche

When it comes to choosing a niche for your business, you’ll want to:

  • Consider which niches offer the most opportunity in terms of profitability, but also ensure you choose a niche that you’ll enjoy
  • Try to avoid oversaturated markets, but don’t avoid competition — competition shows that there’s a demand for the product/service
  • Know specifically who your ideal customer is (it can’t be everyone!)
  • Research your target audience to discover what it is they want, and how you can help them

For more on choosing a niche, click here.

4.2. Focus on the benefits

Every communication attempt with your customers needs to have a strong focus on how they’ll benefit from your product or service.


Whether it’s in your content, copy, or any other means of communication, you need to focus on the benefits of what you provide.


Like how focusing on selling can kill your sales, focusing on features can do the same — people don’t buy features, they buy benefits.


How can your product or service improve the lives of your customers?

4.3. Don’t forget SEO

Many online businesses fail because they don’t realize just how important SEO is for their business.


Regardless of the business, SEO needs to be a huge part of your marketing strategy!


By implementing SEO strategies, you ensure that your potential customers find you when they type in keywords related to your niche.


With more than 3.5 billion Google searches occurring every day, can you really afford to have your content rank on page 5?


A solid SEO strategy will boost your conversions because it’ll boost your search engine visibility and your traffic.

4.4. Use tools to your advantage

Starting any business can be hard work, but it doesn’t have to be.


Nowadays there are many platforms built specifically to help people launch their businesses with minimal effort.


Take advantage of tools at your disposal to make running and growing your business much, much easier.


Usually, it’s tough to find a platform that’s worth the price tag.


But we’ve given you an all-in-one tool that’s geared to help you succeed, for free.


With paid plans that are incredibly competitive and hard to beat.

5. Conclusion

When it comes to finding a profitable online business idea, you’re most certainly not limited with options.


All of these business ideas can be done from home, with little to no startup costs — especially with tools like systeme.io at your disposal.


You can start an online business for free — have everything you need to launch, grow, and scale your online business, all in one neat tool.


Well, what are you waiting for? Start your own business for free today!

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