Drea Knufken
Avoid cubicle farms and bosses breathing down your neck by starting an online business that you can run from home. Once you start making real money, you might never turn back. You’ll want to think through online business impact community as well. Here are 50 online businesses you start and run from home:
Virtual assistant
Help clients out by providing secretarial, technical, or creative support from your home office.
Providing content
Blogs, websites, even magazines need content to stay fresh and relevant. Put your writing, photography, or other artistic skills to work for pay.
Freelance programmer
Everyone needs a programmer. You’re especially relevant and valuable if you can program mobile apps.
Affiliate marketing
Drive traffic to big sites like Amazon and eBay, or even to smaller sites via online ads and your website, then get a commission in return.
Reselling products
Buy a bunch of products at one price, set up a website, and resell them to interested buyers for profit.
Ebooks
Ebooks in every topic are a hot commodity. You could either get them written and sell them via your website, or write them yourself.
Home study courses
Learning a new skill is as easy as getting online, and if you have a specialty, it’s a good time to turn it into a home study course that you can sell for profit.
Reports
Research a topic that people just can’t find a solution to, package it into a report, then sell each report for money.
Educational videos
From fixing dishwashers to understanding myopia, people are hungry to learn online. Help them with your educational videos.
Selling software
From Internet security to marketing support, everyone with a computer is looking for some kind of software. Help them find it by selling it on your site.
Day trading
If you’re willing to rise early, study markets, and put in winning bets, this three-hour-a-day job could be for you.
Google AdSense websites
Create one or more blogs or websites, and make money by showing Google AdSense ads.
Selling ad space
Build a website, increase traffic to it, and advertisers will be knocking on your door to pay you for ad space.
Flipping domains
See a potentially hot domain name that hasn’t been taken yet? Buy it up and flip it for profit.
Online auctions
Yes, buying up someone else’s junk at garage sales, then selling it for a premium on eBay still does work.
Data entry
Everyone needs data entry, but few are willing to do it. If you’re one of those few, you can find contract jobs online.
Paid online surveys
Marketers will pay as much as $300 per day for in-person surveys. Online surveys will net you less, but if you do enough of them, you can make yourself a handsome little nest egg.
Network marketing
Proven products always need more sellers. Find a niche you like, put up a small amount of money upfront, make lots of phone calls and online inquiries, and watch the profits roll in.
Selling your handiwork or crafts
If you consider yourself an artsy-craftsy person, add the fruits of your labor to Etsy.com and transform them into dollars.
Flipping websites
Take someone’s flailing website off their hands, polish it up, and find a buyer who wants it.
Naming domains
If you’re good at naming things, try your hand at domain naming for profit at PickyDomains.com.
Writing software reviews
If you geek out on new apps, programs, and other software, writing reviews on SoftwareJudge.com can make you money.
Writing Google AdWords ads
Everyone wants good AdWords ads, but not everyone can write them well, as any Google search will demonstrate. Prettifying AdWords ads can make you a profit.
Write sponsored posts on your blog
Companies everywhere are dying for social media exposure. Get enough user traction on your blog, and make moola writing paid posts through an agency like PayPerPost.com.
Social media expert
If you have a real aptitude for gaining a following on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, outsource those skills to companies as a social media expert.
Write an ezine with a paid subscription
If you have valuable content to offer, consider writing an ezine, then charging users to read it. This is an especially promising strategy as the age of the tablet rears its head.
Online research
Lots of people and companies need research done, but not everyone has the time to do it. Pimp your skills as a researcher-for-pay.
Flipping blogs
See a potentially huge blog that’s been neglected by its owner? Snap it up, fix it up, increase traffic, and flip it to a buyer for a profit.
Transcribing
Transcribing audio content can be a slow, time-consuming process, and the truth is, there’s just not that much good transcribing software out there. This could be your niche.
Recruiting
Becoming a freelance recruiter can offer handsome benefits, especially if you do it at the executive level.
Consulting
Pitch yourself as an expert in your field and harness your connections to consult for a living.
Life coach
Do you like to motivate people? Got business acumen? If so, exchange your skills for cash as an online life coach.
Online travel agent
Although lots of travel planning is now automated, you can still make money as a specialized travel agent, either for a travel portal or on a consulting basis.
Selling products
If you have something to sell, there’s a place for you to sell it, from Craigslist to eBay to Amazon to all kinds of specialty sites.
Dropshipping
Be the middleman between a customer and a wholesaler by shipping goods that a customer orders from said wholesaler–and marking them up in the process.
Graphic design
Put your artistic skills to use by designing posters, ads, business cards, and more.
Web design
Outsource your skills to the legions of companies and individuals looking for a new or improved website.
Selling used books
Selling used books on sites like Amazon.com and, if you sell the right books, quite lucrative.
Internet marketing
From blog guest posts to Facebook to newsletters, Internet marketing requires know-how, but you get paid bucks in return.
Accounting
If you’re a CPA, jump online to bring in more business.
SEO
What use is a website if a search engine can’t find it? Put your search maestro skills to use by becoming an SEO expert.
Apartment/roommate locator
Use your real estate acumen to find people the perfect apartment or home to rent, or even hook them up with a roommate.
Bookkeeping
Record financial transactions for clients, or work in billing.
Collections
Work as a bill collector from home.
Make how-to videos
Make quality how-to videos and sell them for profit.
Payroll services
Take care of payroll administration for businesses that can’t do it in-house.
Cartridge refill
Have people mail you their empty ink cartridges, refill them at home, and mail them back.
Software beta testing
Become a beta tester for the many software companies putting out new products.
Vitamin sales
Tinctures, creams, and anything with the word anti-aging on it has a hot market. Gear up a site to sell these products online.
Medical claims billing
There are a lot of medical claims that need to be billed–and everyone outsources. Get trained and jump on this for guaranteed bucks.
Reviewed by Ryan Hammill
