These days online businesses are getting at a new pace. In this article find out business ideas that you can start with zero investment or with very little investment. Get details of 5 online business ideas to start with their pros and cons listed for you.
1. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a popular online business choice for upcoming entrepreneurs. It is a form of e-commerce that involves you forwarding order for a product from a customer to a third-party manufacturer or supplier and keeping a percentage of the transaction amount. This is a low-risk business model as it does not require you to have a warehouse for storing products. The products are directly shipped by the supplier to the customer. What you have to do is market the products, acquire customers and initiate the sale.
Things that you need to remember in this business are:
You will be in charge of marketing the products. If you do not conduct a robust marketing campaign, you will not be able to drive leads and initiate transactions.
You should try to sell the products on your own website rather than an e-commerce platform like Amazon in order to cut off the commission that they charge.
As this business requires no investment, there is a lot of competition present. It is not easy to make quick money through drop shipping. You need to spend some time in the market and extensively market your products in order to start making profits.
You might not be able to grab an exclusive deal with your supplier which means, your competitors may be selling the exact same product as you at a different price.
Be careful while choosing a supplier as it is common for suppliers to illegally use trademarks and logos of other companies. This can get you into trouble as you will be the one to drive the sales.
Do not choose to sell a product that has little competition as it is an indication that such products do not have a demand in the market.
It is best to pick a niche for the products that you would sell as this would lead to you getting established as a trusted and go-to seller of such products.
Pros:
· Low-risk is involved as you won’t be stocking up a warehouse with products that will not sell.
· You need not worry about the shipment of the products.
· You buy the product from the supplier only when the sale has been made.
Cons:
· If some issues arise with the quality of the product, you will be blamed.
· You will be accused of untimely delivery of the product.
· Profit margins are low for individual products.
2. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is somewhat similar to the dropshipping business model. Just like drop shipping, affiliate marketing does not involve you maintaining a warehouse of products. Also, you do not need to take care of product shipment. The key difference lies in the fact that affiliate marketing is a more hands-off business model.
In affiliate marketing, all you need to do is market the products and drive leads. Unlike drop shipping, you do not need to initiate the sale. You will just be posting the product for sale and once customers click on the product, they will be redirected to the shopping cart of the supplier.
Points that you should keep in mind for this business are:
· The supplier will provide you with links for each product that you will be using to drive leads. Once prospects click on the links, it will track the sale and you will earn a commission from each sale.
· You can include these links in your social media posts and on your website.
· You will be in charge of marketing the products.
Pros:
· No initial investment is required.
· It is a hands-off business model.
· It can be a great source of passive income.
Cons:
· You will be in charge of driving traffic to the affiliate link.
· You may be required to spend money on marketing for the products.
3. Blogging
Blogging is a profession with limitless opportunities. Blogging allows you to turn your passion into a source of income. It allows you to freely express yourself to your audience and make a living out of it. And blogging is here to stay.
Blogging involves publishing content on your site from time to time. The content is such that it provides information and solutions to readers. However, blogging is a profession that requires perseverance. Here are some points that you should keep in mind while starting out as a blogger:
· When you start out blogging, you will not be able to see returns right away. It takes 6 to 12 months of consistent blogging before you start making an income from your blog. After that, you will continue to grow even if you reduce the volume of your blogs.
· As a blogger, it is important to pick a niche. You can’t choose to write about anything and everything that comes to your mind. That way, you will be inviting unnecessary competition. Having a niche will also establish you as a go-to expert for that topic.
· You need to post articles consistently if you want to be a professional blogger. You need not post a high volume of blogs. But have a routine for posting your blogs. This way, your readers will know when to expect a new publication from you and will keep visiting your blog from time to time.
· You should consider sending e-mails to your readers informing them whenever you post a new article. You can do this by asking them to sign up for e-mail newsletters.
· In order to make your blog stand out from the competition, you should include infographics and images in your blogs. No one likes to go through plain walls of text while browsing for information. Including images and graphics will be pleasing to the eye and draw more readers.
· Make sure to include SEO in all your blogs. This is an essential part of the blogging process. This will allow you to reach out to a larger target audience as you will be ranked higher on search engines. As such, your readership will grow.
· Once you have acquired a substantial amount of readers, you can monetize your blog by including advertisements and promoting content from other bloggers.
Pros:
· After the initial 6 to 12 months, you need not worry about growth as you will continue to drive traffic even if you do not post much.
· Blogging allows you to have an income by writing about your passion.
· The initial cost of setting up a blog lies only in building a website and spending on tools that would help you to grow as a blogger. Hence, it does not require much investment.
Cons:
· It takes time before you start making money from your blog.
· Blogging presents a huge competition.
· You need to conduct extensive research before you start writing down your blog.
4. Selling information products
When you set up an e-commerce site, you do not necessarily need to sell physical products. There are plenty of digital products that have a high demand in the market. These products provide valuable information to the customers and solve their problems. Some of these products are:
· Audio recordings- a recorded teleconference, interview, course, podcast, or any other form of spoken-word product.
· Videos- Recorded webinars, how-to videos, interviews
· Text- e-books, guides on various topics, information booklets, or travel guides.
Points that you should remember if you consider selling information products are:
· These products are not present in a substantial amount on the internet. You will need to conduct in-depth research to find such products.
· You can customize the products to make them more user-friendly.
· The content that you sell needs to be engaging and contain useful information that will provide solutions to the user.
Pros:
· Possesses the ability to help you earn money quickly.
· Provides passive income.
Cons:
· You may be required to create many of the products by yourself.
· Creating products is time-consuming and requires strenuous work.
· You may need to invest some amount of money while starting out.
5. Sell online courses
Selling online courses can be a great way to earn money by monetizing your pre-existing skills. There are online courses and training available that range over a wide field. From cooking to photography and from digital marketing to copywriting. Online courses are really popular as people do not find the time to enroll in physical classes to work on the desired skill. Therefore, online courses are very much in demand.
If you have mastery over any particular skill, you can create and sell an online course educating people about it. Here are some points that you need to keep in mind while selling online courses:
· You can create an online course about anything that you are an expert at.
· If you have more than one skill, you can create multiple online courses.
· It is better if you have certain certifications that back up your credibility as an expert in the skill you wish to teach. Post these certificates on your website and social media accounts to create a trustworthy image for prospects.
· It is advisable to take a limited amount of students for each course. This will enable you to focus on every individual assiduously and ensure that they learn what you teach properly. This, in turn, will lead to your students becoming ambassadors of your course and spreading the word about how your course helped them.
Pros:
· It lets you turn a passion or hobby into an income source.
· It advertises your skills and expertise.
· It involves only a little investment required for marketing purposes.
Cons:
· It may take some time before you start seeing enough enrollment.
· You will have to market your course extensively.
· Educating is a time-consuming process and will take several hours of your day.
Conclusion
To sum up, there are plenty of online business options that involve zero to only a little amount of investment. In this article, we talked about 5 of the best such options that will provide you with a substantial income. These businesses are quite easy to set up. However, as these business options require no investment, there is a huge competition that you might be facing. Therefore, it will take your time to grow in these businesses. But if you keep working consistently and assiduously, you will surely achieve success in these businesses. I hope this article helped you to choose an online business that requires little to no investment.
