For most people out there, making money online is something that is very complicated. And something, that requires a lot of money to get started.

The truth is that yes, every online business involves hard work. However, not every business model also requires much cash. There are plenty of online business ideas that almost everyone can start and that only require very little investment.

Check out the following ideas and get inspired to start your own digital business.

1. Blogging

For over 20 years now people used blogs to make a living. This is mainly done by offering actionable, informative, entertaining, educational, and free content on topics of interest to an audience. The great thing about blogs is that you can launch a blog about practically anything, like nutrition, travel, pet care, food, and any other topic of interest you might have.

How Much Money Is Needed?

All you really need is hosting from Bluehost (starting at 4$ per month), a domain name (around $12 per year), and WordPress (free). In time you can invest more. Check out this article to see how much a new blog should cost at a maximum.

How Do You Make Money With Blogging?

A blog can be monetized in various ways, like selling something, ads (Google AdSense), affiliate marketing, and advertorials.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Blogging?

This varies from one blog to the next and is based on various factors. However, you can easily end up making a full-time salary or a lot more. Thousands of dollars can be made, as you can see here.

2. Vlogging

Vlogging literally took the world by storm. A vlog is defined as:

“A personal website or social media account where a person regularly posts short videos.”

As you can easily imagine, most vlogs are uploaded to YouTube. Practically, you create videos and you add them to your YouTube channel. Sounds easy, right? That’s because it is as you start out. However, if you want to turn this into a true business, you need to evolve and improve.

How Much Money Is Needed?

Uploading clips to YouTube is completely free. However, in order to create great clips and vlogs, you need some equipment. This includes a good camera and microphone. Prices vary but you just need a few hundred of dollars.

How Do You Make Money With Vlogging?

If you upload videos to YouTube, Google pays you. The rate varies but you can expect between $0.5 and $1 for 1,000 views. Besides this, successful vloggers make money through affiliate marketing, gaining a commission for every purchase from a referral, and even merchandise sales. Even product placement deals are possible, with companies looking for vloggers to promote their brands.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Vlogging?

The most successful vloggers, also referred to as YouTubers, make millions of dollars every single year. Even moderately successful bloggers can make hundreds of dollars per month. Usually, vlogging is combined with blogging or social media, leading to an even higher income.

3. Dropshipping

Contrary to what seems natural to us, you do not need to have a warehouse that is filled with inventory in order to sell something online. Dropshipping helps you to start an online business with a really limited budget. You use pre-existing products coming from other suppliers. They take care of almost everything for you, including shipping, packaging, and fulfillment.

A dropshipping business can be started in many different ways, with Shopify being highly preferred by people from all around the world.

How Much Money Is Needed?

A Shopify store can be started with just $29 per month. Besides this, you only need to make a time investment. As time passes, you want to invest more, of course.

How Do You Make Money With Dropshipping?

You build an online store and you list products from a third-party supplier. Basically, the store is filled with products and you make money on every single sale, while someone else takes care of actually delivering products to buyers.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Dropshipping?

You decide how much the product is sold. For every single product, you get as much money as you decide to put on top. You can make anything from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands every month.

Do you want to find out how one of my former clients made 70,000 USD a month with dropshipping? Check out the linked article and learn the strategy!

4. Freelancing

Corporations from all around the world want to hire freelancers. This is much more convenient for them than having someone on staff on a full schedule. There are opportunities for freelancers of practically all skills, ranging from writing to web design. If you can do the work from a remote location, it is possible to get a remote job.

How Much Money Is Needed?

All you really need is an internet connection and time. Making money online through freelancing requires basically no investment since you already use the internet and it is the only thing you need, besides your computer and the programs needed to get the job done, of course.

How Do You Make Money With Freelancing?

You are hired for a job and you get paid for it.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Freelancing?

If you charge $15 per hour, this is how much you make. If you charge more, you can make more. Obviously, everything revolves around how much time you work and what projects you land. Also, some industries pay better than others, just like different clients.

Read more on how to find high-paying clients in less than 2 weeks and check out FlexJobs, a website where you can legit online jobs.

5. Consulting

Any knowledge you now have as an expert in an industry, like social media, online marketing, or even nutrition, can be turned into a consulting job online. There are numerous companies and individuals that need advice from professionals. Such advice is never cheap.

How Much Money Is Needed?

This depends on how you will find your clients. If you use freelancing websites like Upwork, no investment is needed. If you build your own site to showcase your work, you need an investment that is similar to what you need for blogging.

How Do You Make Money With Consulting?

Consulting jobs are usually paid on an hourly basis. Because of the fact that you are an expert, you can expect to be paid a lot more than when a freelancer is hired to do work. Most industry experts want to be paid over $20 per hour, sometimes even more.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Consulting?

Similarly, with freelancing, you can make much more than you initially thought but the truth is that most consultant jobs are short-term. This means that you should have another job as you also offer consulting services on the side. You can only turn this into a full-time income when your entire business is based on this, like when you are hired for presentations at conventions and you move from one company to the next to offer long-term consulting.

6. Writing Ebooks

Also referred to as online book publishing, the idea is that you can make money by writing ebooks and then selling them on the internet. Most people think that it is really difficult to be published but thanks to the online world, it is easier than it ever was.

People buy ebooks of many different kinds. This means that you can sell novels, marketing guides, picture stories, or whatever you might like to create. What you write can be independently released or it can be published through the Amazon Kindle Store. You can even use some in-demand printing services.

The big advantage of self-publishing books is that businesses take care of the entire process in an automatic way. This includes everything from storage to delivery. The writer creates the ebook and chooses where to sell it.

How Much Money Is Needed?

All you need is the tools necessary for ebook creation.

How Do You Make Money With Writing Ebooks?

Every single time someone buys a book you wrote, you are paid. Obviously, the publisher, like Kindle, takes a percentage of the sale. However, because you sell an ebook as opposed to a regular book, your cut for every sale is higher.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Writing Ebooks?

Results drastically vary from one writer to the next. For instance, Steve Gillman made $2,000 from one ebook but Nathan Barry made $12,000 in just one day.

7. Publish Online Courses

Creating and then selling courses online is a wonderful way to make money on the internet. You usually need to create video tutorials where you teach people things about something you know really well. After the videos are created, they can be hosted on your site or sold through a platform specialized in online courses, like Udemy.

Keep in mind that creating online courses that are popular is not that easy. This is truly a challenging way to make money online. However, if you manage to succeed, you can be quite successful.

How Much Money Is Needed?

The initial investment you need is similar to that of vlogging. Because of this, you might consider doing both to make more money.

How Do You Make Money With Online Courses?

You get paid every single time a person buys the online course you create. When using a platform like Udemy, you pay a percentage to the site.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Online Courses?

Unfortunately, if you do not know how to promote your online courses, you will not make much. However, if you take the time needed to learn, you can make thousands of dollars.

8. Website/Domain Flipping

This way of making money online involves you buying a site, rebranding it, improving it, and then selling it at a profit. The process is similar to real estate flipping. Alternatively, you can also flip domain names as opposed to full websites. You can buy cheap ones at websites like Namecheap.com.

While there are many that use this method to make money online, it is not at all easy to do. Also, there is the disadvantage that you might end up owning what you bought for a long time until you actually flip the website/domain.

How Much Money Is Needed?

This is based on what you buy, just as in the real estate market. There are sites that sell for a very low amount and sites that are very expensive to buy. Because of this, it can be said that you can start with a low budget but you will need to reinvest and keep growing the business for the best possible results.

How Do You Make Money With Website/Domain Flipping?

You buy at a price and you resell at a higher price. The difference is your profit.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Website/Domain Flipping?

With knowledge and a bit of luck, you can even make thousands of dollars in profit for one flip. However, even a profit of a few hundred of dollars can be enough to grow the business, buy new websites/domains and make even more. There are no real limitations about how much or how little you can earn.

9. Selling On eBay

Usually, selling on eBay is seen as a way to make some extra money, as you sell things that you have around your home and you no longer need. However, this can also be a full-time business if you take the time to do it right.

On eBay, you can sell practically anything. For instance, there are numerous people that buy from flea markets or look for cheap deals where they live. Then, they sell on eBay at a higher price. This is just like having a brick-and-mortar store but everything is done through eBay.

How Much Money Is Needed?

You need the money to buy your inventory. As opposed to dropshipping, you are responsible for inventory.

How Do You Make Money With eBay?

Just like with a regular store, you get the money that the buyer pays, minus a small fee taken by eBay.

How Much Money Can Be Made With eBay?

Usually, people make a few hundred, the amount that they get from selling items they no longer need. However, this can also be turned into a full-time online business. There are reports of people making thousands of dollars per month with eBay.

10. Designing And Selling T-Shirts/Mugs

If you have some design experience and you are creative, you can make money online by designing and then selling t-shirts, mugs, or practically anything that can be printed. There are websites like TeeSpring and Printify that help you out with that. Did you ever create a design that you think would look great on a t-shirt? You can now sell that t-shirt.

How Much Money Is Needed?

You can start with a zero investment if you choose a platform that does everything for you.

How Do You Make Money With Designing And Selling T-Shirts?

You create the design and then choose what products they are available for. The platform you choose lists them and whenever a purchase is made, you get a part of the money. The platform takes out manufacturing costs and a small fee. What remains is your profit.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Designing And Selling T-Shirts?

This varies, as with most other selling-related methods. However, earning potential can be really high. For instance, Benny Hsu made a profit of $100,000 in 5 months through TeeSpring selling.

11. Social Media

The idea of using social media and making money in the process might seem like a dream to you but it is a reality for more people than you imagine. Being really popular on social media allows you to make money in various different ways. This is especially the case with highly visual platforms, like Instagram. If you have many followers, there is a possibility that you can make money.

How Much Money Is Needed?

You do not need money when you start. However, as you get more and more popular, you want to make investments so you improve your business since it is a business.

How Do You Make Money With Social Media?

Taking Instagram as an example, you make money as brands pay you to collaborate with them. You can also make more through affiliate marketing or through the link you establish with your website.

How Much Money Can Be Made With Social Media?

Brands can pay thousands of dollars when you promote something for them on the social network. There are brands with influencer marketing budgets of over $1 million. The most popular social media influencers can even be paid over $100,000 for one campaign.

12. Virtual Assistant

There are countless important but time-consuming tasks marketers want someone else to do in order for them to get more time than they would use for other vital business tasks. This is exactly why the virtual assistant is so important these days. Many of the tasks are taken care of by hired virtual assistants. Examples of tasks include:

• Making travel arrangements
• Link building
• Social media marketing
• Calendar management
• Blog posting
• Editing
• Transcribing

If a task can be done by someone else and is not vital for profit generation, a virtual assistant can take care of it.

How Much Money Is Needed?

You do not need anything except your computer, a microphone, and a headset.

How Do You Make Money As A Virtual Assistant?

You are paid to take care of tasks, usually at an hourly rate. Based on the tasks done and the expertise needed, hourly rates can vary.

How Much Money Can Be Made As A Virtual Assistant?

You can safely make a full-time income if you find enough clients. To find out how much you should charge your clients per hour or project, check out the linked article.

These Business Ideas Can Make You Rich with Little Investment

Making money online has never been easier. The 12 options mentioned here can easily be divided into more opportunities and you can actually make thousands of dollars. However, this is only possible in the event that you put in the work needed to make the business a success. You need knowledge and time. Also, whenever possible, try to re-invest your profits for growth purposes.