Parker Davis — June 11, 2017 
More and more people are getting into the online business.
And it makes sense – when you work online, you control your time, your income potential, and your location.
In essence, you can achieve complete freedom in your life with a successful online business.
The question is, how can you get started? Well thankfully, you have plenty of options. And you can start earning a livable income through most online businesses within six months – that is, if you’re willing to hustle and put in the work necessary.
Today, we’ll give you 5 great ideas to get started.
- Self-Publish a Book on Amazon
We mentioned this briefly in our recent article about potential new revenue streams for your business. But even if you don’t have an online store yet, self-publishing a book can be an excellent way to start.
It helps you get your name out there, establishes your authority, and creates a passive income stream.
But don’t just write a book and expect it to sell well. Take time to validate the idea (you can do so with Facebook ads – spend $ 5 split-testing titles, and try driving people to email sign-up forms). Then, once you write it, make sure you prepare a solid launch.
The best strategy is to start it at 99 cents for a week and run different promos on sites like BuckBooks and Robin Reads. Then at the end of the week, raise the price incrementally $ 1-$ 2 at a time until your sales start to slow – then, lower it by a $ 1 and this should be your optimal book price.
- Create an Online Course
Do you have an expertise – something you know more about than the average person? Well, that could be a significant opportunity for you to teach that knowledge in the form of an online course.
There are plenty of platforms like Teachable and Udemy that make it easy to create your online course. But again, like with self-publishing, take the time to validate your online course idea before you spend weeks or even months building it.
A good plan could be first to write a book on the subject, and once the book is successful, create an online course based on the book.
Learn Copywriting
Copywriting is the art of selling with written words and content.
Copywriters specialize in things like email marketing, blogging, sales pages, ad creation, and more.
If you’ve always had a knack for writing, this could be the best way to get started in online business. Not only is a valuable skill that people are willing to pay good money for, but it also is the foundation of just about any business.
And so, this skill will continue to pay dividends well into the future, no matter what time of online businesses you go on to start.
- Become a Web Developer
Web developers build websites, have a thorough understanding of HTML and CSS as well as other programming languages, build apps, and more.
The demand for web developers continues to grow. If you can learn this skill, you won’t have much trouble finding high-paying online gigs.
And, as with copywriting, it’s a valuable skill that you can use to build and improve any future online businesses that you create.
There are plenty of ways to learn web development as well – and you can start with this in-depth article.
Dropshipping
Ever thought of having your own online store, but don’t have a ton of resources (or the risk tolerance) to invest in a ton of inventory up-front? Well, with drop shipping you don’t have to.
Here’s how a drop shipping store works: you don’t actually own any of the inventory. You set up an online store, then when a customer purchases a product, the store purchases the item from a third-party and ships it directly to the client.
To do this, you need to have an agreement with the third-party retailer beforehand. But once you get this agreement and set up a nice-looking online store, you can watch the sales roll in.
Conclusion
With a successful online business, you can gain the freedom to travel the world, control your time, and unlock your income potential.
If you’ve considered starting an online business before, there’s no better time to start than now. There are tons of opportunities, and people are starting successful online businesses every day.
However, if this might be too much work for you, consider outsourcing certain departments to save you time and money.
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