I’m super pumped to be writing this list of exciting online businesses to start. Smart Income Today is all about helping aspiring entrepreneurs build an online business that gets them excited, so this aligns well. Before I talk about the different online businesses that get me excited, let’s get a few things out of the way for those new to the space.
Not sure what online business to start? Here are 10 exciting online businesses to start! #entrepreneur #onlinebusiness #makemoneyonline Click To Tweet

What is an online business?

An online business is the selling of any products or services over the internet. Instead of walking into the store to grab a pair of shoes, an online business allows you to open up a browser and buy something online instead.

It’s an exciting time to be starting an online business as more and more people are spending time online to shop, consume content, and more. In fact, 1.78 billion people shopped online last year. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you know what I’m talking about.

And if that didn’t impress you, global ecommerce sales are expected to reach 4.8 trillion by 2021. Now, what if you could just take 0.0001% ($5M) of that? Are you excited now?

Many people start online businesses because they can manage it anywhere. They can keep tabs on it on their vacation in Osaka, Japan or when they’re having a beer at their friends on a Saturday night. 

Now, that’s all good an all, but…

What does it cost to start an online business?

It depends on what type of business you start. With some businesses, you could get started for free and some you may find yourself having to pay for some equipment before getting started. In most cases however, you can get started with less than $100.

However, with that being said, if you’re looking to get serious with building an online business and even potentially replacing your 9-5 job, you shouldn’t be scared of investing in your business.  

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What gets you excited? 

Before you go down the list and decide which business is right for you, I want you to think of a few things first. First and foremost, when I talk about each of these online businesses, I’m super excited. However, don’t mistake my excitement for ease. Starting a business is f****** hard and requires lots of hard work. 

Also, I want you to keep the following in mind as you read through. If you need, write these down so that you can refer to this as you go!

  1. What are your passions and what gets you excited?
  2. What kind of problems do you want to solve?
  3. Can you do this every day for the next 6 months? (and more?)
  4. Are you comfortable doing sales, getting on the phone to call a client? Or do you enjoy working behind the scenes?

Alright, that’s it! Now here’s what you’ve been waiting for!

Exciting Online Business Idea #1: Podcasting

Podcasting is a massively growing space and is definitely an exciting time to be a podcaster. Every year more and more people are consuming audio content. 

If you look at Google Trends, every year there are more people searching for podcasts. As it is becoming easier to listen to content (smartphone, car apps, Alexa, Google Home), more people are looking for the podcasts that are right for them.

google trends

In fact, 165 million people in the US (51% of the population!) have listened to a podcast and 32% of Americans are monthly podcast listeners. That’s approximately 150 million people every month listening to a podcast.

Podcasting can be a lucrative business for various reasons. The most exciting reason is that podcasts attract wealthier and more educated listeners – they have a 45% likelihood of having a net household income of over $250,000. This is great news for you as a podcaster because when you promote a product, your listeners are more likely to buy from you as they have more disposable income.

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Want some inspiration? Here’s a list of some top podcasters:

  • The Smart Passive Income Podcast, by Pat Flynn
  • Side Hustle School Podcast, by Chris Guillebeau
  • The Tim Ferris Show, by Tim Ferris

Is podcasting for you? 

Podcasting requires you to broadcast your voice to the world in order to build a brand and following. One worry you may have is that you’re not comfortable with recording and showcasing your voice. Maybe you think that you sound funny.
'Nothing truly great ever came from a comfort zone' #onlinebusiness #podcasting #entrepreneur #motivation Click To Tweet
But remember, nothing amazing ever came from only doing things you were comfortable with. It may be hard at first and you might even stutter a few times, but as you record more, you’ll get more and more comfortable speaking a lot and hearing your own voice.

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Exciting Online Business Idea #2: Online Store

With the ecommerce boom, it’s becoming easier and easier to set up an online store and get things rolling. When it comes to setting up a store, you have several options. 

If you’re selling multiple products (more than 3), then you’re going to want to go with Shopify to set things up. There are other options, but Shopify is the most efficient and seamless for business owners – after all, Shopify is built specifically for online merchants. Once you go with Shopify, you won’t want to go with anyone else.

Shopify also has a 14-day free trial if you want to give it a whirl, and then after that it’s $29/month.

shopify

On the other hand, if you’re only selling 1-2 products, you may want to look towards ClickFunnels ($97/month). Clickfunnels is a drag-and-drop landing-page builder with the focus of helping you create funnels that convert and drive you sales. ClickFunnels is super helpful for online business owners because they provide you with templated landing pages that are proven to convert, they allow you to integrate with your email marketing tools, your payment provider, and more.

If you want to learn about setting up a solid funnel, check out Russel Brunson’s Funnel Builder Secrets.

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Dropshipping on Shopify

At this point, you may have thought that setting up an online store is still a lot of hassle. You might be thinking, “Sure, I don’t have to pay thousands in rent for a store because of Shopify or ClickFunnels, but I still have to deal with inventory, shipping, etc. That stuff is a nightmare!”

What if I told you that you could set up an online store without ever touching your product? Does that change the game a little? With dropshipping, you only pay for products that you sell. Here’s a video explaining dropshipping.

Check out this list of tools to use when starting your own Shopify dropshipping store.

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Exciting Online Business Idea #3: Becoming a YouTuber

There are an incredible amount of people spending incredible amounts of time on YouTube every day. If you’re a nerd like me, then you’re re-watching scenes from Infinity War, End Game, or The Dark Knight.

But did you know, when I said “incredible amounts”, I meant… every month more than 1 billion people watch more than 6 billion hours of YouTube video? And this number is continuing to grow every year.
Every month more than 1 billion people watch more than 6 billion hours of YouTube videos #opportunity #entrepreneur #youtuber Click To Tweet
So, what does that mean for a YouTuber? It means that you have the opportunity to reach a lot of people and potentially make a lot of money 🙂  

What does being a YouTuber really mean?

Being a YouTuber means spending a lot of time filming, editing, and planning. You’re going to have to pump out video after video and slowly build up an audience. YouTube is no overnight success unless you’re able to hit the goldmine and get that viral video. However, even then, you’re going to need to consistently product quality content so that people stay subscribed. 

Naturally, there are going to be different things you can do here to really grow your subscriber base, but it does take time.

YouTubers make money in a variety of different ways. When most people think about YouTubers making money, they think about the ads. Yes, YouTubers can make quite a bit from having ads on their videos, but to make serious cash you’ll need millions of views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers. 

An alternative way to building a business with YouTube is through affiliate programs. This is essentially promoting products from other businesses and making a commission on the sale. With affiliate programs, you’re able to make serious cash without needing a massive audience base.

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Exciting Online Business Idea #4: Lead Generation

First, what is a lead? A lead is a potential customer to a business. For a dentist, a lead is someone who needs their teeth cleaned. For a realtor, a lead is someone who is interested in buying a home. Every business needs leads. 

As an online business, lead generation is helping other businesses get more leads. You can help businesses do this in a variety of different ways such as running Facebook Ads and Google Ads. 

You can get paid in a number of different ways. You can get paid per lead which means that your client gives you a fixed amount (ie. $5/lead). You can get paid on a commission of sales (ie. you helped drive $100 in sales and you make 10% of that). And finally, my favourite, is being paid on a retainer model (ie. paid a flat $1000/month to manage and optimize the ads).

What are the hard parts of the business?

It depends since everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I find the sales part to be the hardest because I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy reaching out doing cold calls or cold emails and facing rejection after rejection. 

However, for some, the rejections don’t faze them at all. On the other hand, they may find the technical portion of it more challenging. Whether it’s setting up a funnel, ensuring that you’re tracking everything, or creating the ads, it can be a strange area for some.

Is lead generation going to be a thing in 5-10 years? Is the market too saturated?

How about we ask this instead: Is a realtor going to need more potential home buyers in 5-10 years? The answer is a solid yes! Find me a realtor who doesn’t want to make more money. Now, the way in which you do lead generation may change over time (ie. instead of Facebook ads, you need to start running LinkedIn Ads), but businesses will always need leads

And no, the market isn’t too saturated. There are 30.2 million small businesses in the US alone who can always benefit from having more leads. So it’s safe to say that the market isn’t too saturated with lead generation businesses 🙂 

Interested in learning more? Check out my lead generation course where I share what I spent $5000 to learn at a fraction of the cost. It’s currently rated 4.5/5 stars and SIT readers get a massive discount.

lead-generation-course

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Exciting Online Business Idea #5: Courses, Coaching, Consultant

Are you an expert in something? Why not get paid doing it? With the vast amount of tools available on the internet, you can easily set up your own online business selling courses or your expertise through 1-1 coaching/consultant work. 

Let’s start with the online courses side of things. Online courses, or e-learning, is a massively growing industry that doesn’t show any sign of stopping. In fact, in 2025 it’s projected to be a $325 billion industry. Now is as good a time as ever to start selling courses.  

How can you set up your own courses? 

The good part about setting up an online course is that there’s practically no barrier to entry. You just need to know something and teach it. To film your videos, you can just use your laptop/phone and to edit the videos you can simply use your default editing software on your computer (iMovie or Windows Movie Maker). That’s 80% of the work! 

The other 20% is putting your video lessons online onto a platform online so that you can set up a curriculum, store your videos, and make it into an actual online business. There are a number of different tools out there, but if you’re looking to seriously build a business as an instructor, the one I recommend is Thinkific’s $79/month Pro Plan.

thinkific

With the Thinkific Pro Plan, you get so many amazing features that make this plan entirely worth it. You’ll get access to their advanced course pricing options (free, one-time, payment plans, etc), membership payments (recurring revenue from customers), and also upsells that help you make more for every student that enrolls. They also let you easily customize your design to make it fit your specific brand. 

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Exciting Online Business Idea #6: Membership Sites

What is a membership site? Think Amazon Prime or Netflix. Amazon Prime gives you free and fast shipping on many of their products. If you’re a regular shopper on Amazon, it only makes money-sense. Netflix gives you access to over a hundred different TV shows and movies that are always changing. No commercial breaks, no advertisements, nada. 

Personally, I find membership sites super exciting and a space that I will want to get into myself once I get more free time. Once you have a product that people need and will use regularly, you have a customer base of people paying you regularly. Every month/year, that revenue will come in.

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netflix_pricing

However, the challenging piece can be finding or building a product that people truly value and will continue to pay for in the first place. The good news is that you don’t have to be a coder and create something like Amazon or Netflix. 

A simpler online business idea would be to create a membership site on your blog where you charge monthly for exclusive content. There would be the free articles and the paid content where you give out exclusive products. Or maybe you charge monthly for your members to get 1-on-1 access to you. This ties closely with the previous online business idea with life coaching. 

There are different tools to create membership sites. ClickFunnels allows you to create a membership site with exclusive content. However, if you’re just starting out I would recommend starting a blog and building your membership service there. You can download plugins such as Memberpress to easily get set up.

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Exciting Online Business Idea #7: Selling eBooks

Personally, I love having a physical book to read, however, not everyone is like me. In fact, more and more people are enjoying their books digitally.

With Amazon continuing to push and grow their ebooks business, there is a growing demand for ebooks. To complement this demand, Amazon has made it incredibly easy for authors to publish their ebooks. With a few clicks, you’ll be able to start selling your ebook to billions of people who shop on Amazon every month!
You can build an online business selling ebooks without writing a single word yourself! #entrepreneur #onlinebusiness #ebooks Click To Tweet
Want to hear the interesting part? Even if you’re not a writer or just simply hate writing, you can still make money on Amazon selling ebooks without writing a single word. You can hire what are called ghostwriters to write books for you and sell as your own.

Selling ebooks can be a good source of passive income because your book will always be on the Amazon store and potentially drive sales every month. As you launch more and more books, your monthly income can continue to grow. There are entrepreneurs who build an entire online business from this by hiring teams to continually write books and market them on Amazon.

kmoneymastery

If you’re interested in building an online business selling ebooks, check out my review on Stefan James’ course where he teaches you how you can do just that.

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Exciting Online Business Idea #8: Blogging (My Favourite!)

If you’re interested in passive income, I would recommend my favorite: Blogging! I love blogging for so many reasons.
3 reasons for blogging! Low-cost, low barrier to entry. Content is king. Write about your passions. #followyourpassions #onlinebusiness #blogging Click To Tweet
First, blogging is a low-cost low barrier to entry business. You can get started with just $3.95/month and have your own blog up-and-running in 20 minutes. That’s cheaper (and quicker) than most of the online business options listed here. 

Secondly, I truly believe that content is king, especially content on search engines like Google. Google won’t be going anywhere anytime soon and that means that all the content that you create will be around for the foreseeable future. So long as you follow Google’s best-practices and produce high-quality content, you’ll be continuously getting traffic and monetizing it to bring in a monthly income. 

Lastly, blogging gives you the option to write about what you’re passionate about. This is definitely a major reason that I blog as I’m able to enjoy writing the content I publish. I get to learn more as I write new articles and also share my research and learnings with the world.

If you’re wondering, bloggers can make serious money! There are bloggers who are making $100,000/month, so it’s definitely no joke. 

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However, all of this isn’t to say that blogging is easy. You’ll have to put in a lot of time in writing posts, creating new products for your blog, designing, and more. But then again, no pain no gain!

Check out my free in-depth guide on starting a blog for your online business. Also join my Facebook Blogging Group of like-minded individuals.

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