This article has been contributed by Ravinder.

One of the best ways to start your own business these days is to do it online. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars and sleepless nights to setup an online business. It can be up and running sooner than you think and for a fraction of a cost!

Starting a business is easy, running it is the hard part especially in the online space, where the competition is huge. You need to drive customers to your site and engage them in a manner to ensure they keep coming back. You can use some of these online business ideas to get your foot inside the proverbial internet marketing door.

Consultant Services for Social Media

While big businesses have the money to hire top notch social marketing consultants, the small ones have a budget and have to do this all by themselves. These business owners are already doing so much on their own that a little outside help that is reasonably priced will be welcomed. You can act as their consultant and give them business tactics to connect with their target audience. As they gain success, so will you!

Ben Matthews has used his exceptional marketing skills to offer his services as a consultant to companies looking for social media engagement.

Affiliate Marketing

If you write a lot of customer reviews like on Amazon then you don’t have to do it for free anymore. There are still a lot of people who go by what the previous customers have to say about the product and the companies don’t mind paying for a little word of mouth advertising. You can start your own personal website and once it gains a sizeable amount of followers you can easily start affiliate marketing to make money. All you need to do is sell products of other companies on your website and you will be paid commission for every sale that you make. One idea is to sell phones online on websites such as sellmyphone.co.uk.

Yaro Starak is one such story who used the power of affiliate marketing to generate millions of dollars and do1ing so at convenient hours!

Seller of Handmade Crafts

The most famous platforms like Etsy and Artfire allow the artisans to sell their products online. The setup cost is very low hence anyone can be part of it. If you have good products then you would be able to turn orders around quickly and the profits will soon start flowing in.

Camille Storch, one of the famous sellers on Etsy who uses this platform to showcase her art and also make sizeable income on the side.

Development of Apps

Believe it or not, there are many people who have made themselves small fortunes by building apps. Mobile applications are at an all time high and people are willing to pay top dollar if the app is useful to them. If you have an app idea then start with a simple Google keyword search. The results will give you an idea about the competition so that you can build your app around the things that your competition does not offer. This is a great way to get something new into the market and make sure that it works.

Dong Nguyen, creator of Flappy Bird is a great example of someone making innovative apps for mobile phone users.

eBook Writer

If you enjoy writing, you can become an eBook writer and self-publish your book online. All you need is the right network and marketing tools and you can publish books on any subject you choose.

Lise Cartwright who makes over a $1000 each month from writing ebooks provides some valuable advice to budding ebook writers.

Become a freelancer

There are many companies these days that are looking for ad-hoc arrangements to fill the skill gaps in their organization. This is especially true for people with web based skills such as web designing, graphic designing, content writing etc. You can start all of these businesses from home and with virtually no setup cost. If you are good at what you do, finding work will not be that difficult!

Carol Tice used her penchant for writing and became one of the top 10 blogs for writers. She enjoys great recognition for her contributions to the writer’s community online. More than 12000 subscribers strong, this award winning freelancer makes enough to sustain her hobby and her lifestyle.

Web Designer

Many companies need attractive and functional websites so if you gain knowledge of HTML and also have a creative side then this can be a good business for you, though it does require more upfront skills. Start with small freelance jobs and scale it up as you gain steady business.

Chris Howard has been using his technical expertise in web designing to create new and interesting websites for many of his clients. He has been in this for over a decade and has good number of clients to give him continued business.

Have any further online business ideas that have worked for you?