Growing List of Online Business Models

Starting a business today takes less than a few hours.

Provided you know the product, market, demographics.

It just takes a website, payment processor, and an email address to get in the business. Not even that if you are selling on platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and others.

But what if you have no idea about the market, demographics and the product you want to launch.

Well, you need to research (duh..)

Even though the barriers to launching your business are lower than ever before.

Still, you need to have a product(digital or physical) that solves your customers' problems.

Best way to guarantee a successful business is to find and solve the problem in a market no one is giving a damn about.

Just look in your neighborhood, office and you will find issues to solve.

A successful product doesn't have to be physical. It could be a digital product like an ebook, video, membership website, designs, and whole lot others.

Following is a list of growing online business models::

• Listing your product on Amazon.

• Listing your product on Etsy. Etsy is a marketplace for artists and designers. Products sold here are handmade with care.

• Creating a digital product based on your knowledge of a particular skill like sewing, photography, gardening, can be anything. A digital product can be sold in the form of a simple PDF document, set of videos, audio podcast, membership website with a forum for discussion, facebook private group, coaching calls via skype, google hangout, webinars, full-fledged online course.

• Launching a consultant business. But not a generic consultant. Again take your existing skillset and become a consultant for designing, architecture, software applications, etc.

• Dropshipping products from suppliers all around the world. For this business, you need to know your product market well and have a good relationship with your suppliers.

• Selling designs on mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases, shoes, etc. Also known as Print On Demand.
  Platforms like Teespring, Printful take your designs and print them on a variety of merchandise. You need to share the specific URL of the product to your customers. It can be done via Facebook ads, sharing on forums, blogs you are a part of, Google ads, and other advertising networks.

• Selling private label products. In this business, you find a great product and tell the manufacturer to produce it on your behalf and put a label of your company. Then you just stack those products at your end and sell on Amazon or on your website.

• Sell photographs on Shutterstock and other sites. Every time your snap gets a sale you get a royalty.

• Become a content writer. Each 1000 words article ranges anywhere from $7 to $1000. Depending on the quality of content.

• Promoting products/offers. Also known as affiliate marketing. There are numerous offers to promote on networks like Maxbounty, Peerfly, CJ and many others. Example: Offers are of e-commerce stores, website hostings, etc. It could be commissioned based or fixed pay. Promotion can be done via blogs, forums, sharing on social media, using Facebook ads and other advertising platforms.

• Building websites focus on a niche market. Providing information via articles, images, videos and helping your visitors by a giving valuable resource. Monetization can be done via affiliate marketing, using advertising networks to show ads to your visitors.

• Blogging. Again your skillset and experiences come in handy. Blogging is a way to connect with other like-minded people on the internet. By sharing your knowledge and giving value, you enrich your blog with great articles. Which in time becomes a great resource for that topic.

• Become a website domain name trader. Buy website domain names and sell them at maturity. Not easy as it sounds. A whole lot of research goes into finding good domain names.

• Getting an existing offline business online. Examples: wedding dress designer, small motel owner, flower shop, salons, etc.

Launching a business today is all based on personalization and giving value. As customers want more personalized products and offers, you need to cater to them from that viewpoint.

P.S.
I have first-hand experience in all of the above-mentioned business models.
Please comment below if you have any addition to this list or have any questions for me.