40 Internet Business Ideas You Can Start at Home

Who would not believe that there’s money on the Internet? Perhaps, 10 years ago, many people will not believe that they can make decent money online. But with the multibillion dollar Internet companies, like Google, Inc. and Facebook that have once started in a garage and in a dormitory room, who would not be convinced that there are golden nuggets online? Aside from those now giant companies, the population of online money makers, ranging from bloggers to Internet marketers, is already growing. Perhaps, one of your friends today is cashing out his or her earnings from the Internet.

The best thing about making money online is that you can work on it right at your home or even anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. Moreover, you can also do it part-time and while keeping your daytime job. There are many ways to generate income online. You have to choose the best way that you think you will truly flourish. To start your journey on making money online, here are 40 Internet business ideas you can start at home or anywhere with an Internet connection.

1. Blogging. Create a blog, attract massive traffic by continuously publishing quality and useful blog posts, and you will surely make profit out of that traffic through PPC advertising, direct advertising and many other monetization schemes. You may read our post on how to make money online through blogging.

2. Search engine optimization (SEO). Help companies to increase their web traffic and conversion by optimizing their websites or blogs to rank higher in the search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Bing. SEO usually involves link building and on-page optimization.

3. Social media marketing (SMM). Help companies promote their brand or website on the social media, like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Google+. This may involve creating engaging Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, Youtube channels, and Google+ pages.

4. Online reputation management. Monitor the Internet reputation of your client’s name, brand or business, and protect them from negative mentions or reviews that are visible online.

5. Business consulting. Help small and medium enterprises achieve their specific business goals. This may require experience and expertise in the business and entrepreneurship field.

6. Marketing consultancy. Help companies create marketing campaigns and strategies to deliver and sell their particular products to targeted consumers. This type of service may also include both SEO and SMM.

7. Domaining. A few years ago, buying and selling domain names can be a profitable venture online. However, with the rise of the new domain name extensions, like country TLDs and custom corporate TLDs, domain trading is facing a significant decline. Thus, I suggest that you may instead consider #8.

8. Website Flipping. Instead of just buying and speculating for the increase in the market value of domain names, develop them into full websites. Developing a number of websites and selling them for profit can be a profitable business model. You may check Flippa to observe the business of buying and selling websites. You may also read our post on how to make money online through website flipping.

9. Webhost reselling. Be a web hosting reseller by purchasing a reseller account from reliable webhosting companies and reselling your packages at mark-up prices. Please read our post on how to make money online from webhost reselling.

10. Content writing. Provide writing services to clients, who need content to their websites, blogs, or marketing materials. You may offer article writing, blog writing, press release writing, rewriting, or even essay writing services. Here, you need to have a good writing skill and a sample of writing portfolio, which you can use to attract clients. An expertise in your topic may also be required.

11. Editing. Proofread, edit and refine your clients’ web contents, business documents, presentations, and manuscripts. Clients usually require editors to have a college degree in communications, English or journalism.

12. Affiliate marketing. Make profits by referring a product, service or website of a company. You can promote affiliate products on your own website or blog, on your social media profiles, or on your emails. You may take a look at various affiliate sites, like Amazon, Clickbank, CommissionJunction or CPALead. Affiliate programs will usually pay you a commission income per lead or per action.

13. Website design and development. Help companies bring their business online by creating their company website.

14. Digital advertising. Create a network of websites or blogs and run your own digital advertising services. Here, you need to connect with several companies that will advertise in your network. You may invite other website or blog owners to join your network and get a percentage of their advertising income.

15. eBook writing. If you are an expert on something, you can write an eBook to share your knowledge and earn from it. You can also promote your eBook on your website or blog.

16. Photography. Showcase and make your photos or images available for sale or for use at a fee online.

17. Interpreter. Teach foreigners learn how to speak and understand your local language.

18. Website auditing. Perform client’s website audit and analysis to determine how it can be improved in terms of search engine and social media visibility, Internet security, and profitability.

19. Web apps development. Develop Facebook apps for businesses or for marketing purposes.

20. Web programming. There are many business opportunities waiting for you if you are a web programmer who knows PHP, HTML, XHTML, HTML5, Java, or CSS. You can also code and develop premium blog (WordPress, Drupal, etc.,) themes, plugins and other web based scripts and sell them for instant download to customers.

21. Online customer support. Handle your clients’ customer support online, which may involve communicating with their customers through email and chat.

22. Virtual assistance. Be a virtual assistant (VA) to a number of clients. Be their office assistant online who provides professional, administrative and technical services right at your home office.

23. Online recruitment. Help employers find the right employees to hire. You may also build a job portal website where employees can submit their resumes online and where employers can post their job hiring.

24. Video editing. Help companies create effective and viral video marketing campaigns.

25. Youtube marketing. Create a Youtube channel, create viral Youtube videos, promote them anywhere in the social media, keep the views coming, put Google ads on your videos, and earn from them.

26. Squidoo lenses. Squidoo allows you to create lenses where you can write useful articles, share photos and share how-to videos. Unlike having your own website or blog, where you spend money on domain name registration and monthly webhosting fee, creating lenses on Squidoo is free. You can earn by placing ads or affiliate links on your lenses. Another alternative for Squidoo is Hubpages.com.

27. Logo and graphic design. Create corporate logos and other graphic needs of your clients. Help them improve their brand in the eyes of people.

28. Life coaching. Help people how to develop themselves and reach their full potentials.

29. Creating a website directory. Create a business directory or yellow pages and charge businesses per listing.

30. Creating an online forum. Create an Internet forum website and charge VIP members to access your VIP forum threads. You can also place ads and earn from adverting on your forum website.

31. Creating a classified ads website. Create your own Craiglist.com or Sulit.com.ph.

32. Creating an auction site. Create your own eBay.com website.

33. Creating a membership site. Create a membership site where you will charge membership or subscription fees to members to access your content, trainings, webinars, and other materials.

34. Creating a review site. Create a website or a blog on which you can post a review about a business, product, service or a website. You can charge a client per post.

35. Infographic design. Help businesses and their marketers communicate and present their product, business, or content effectively through infographics.

36. Selling on eBay. List your own stuff and other products for auction on eBay.

37. Selling on your own online store. Create your own ecommerce website or online store for products you are passionate about.

38. Online payment services. Help people pay their bills online and keep them away from waiting in line. You can also add cellphone e-loading services as an add-on service.

39. Accounting and bookkeeping. If you are an accounting technician, you may offer your services online to businesses who want to outsource their accounting and bookkeeping tasks.

40. Fiverr. Fiverr is the world’s largest marketplace for small services starting $5, as stated on their website. People can be hired there to do things for $5 from promoting your website on social networking sites to doing bizarre things, like wearing a clown costume while giving your website a positive video testimonial. The reason I put Fiverr at #40 is because it is a place where you can get a bunch of Internet business ideas.  There are serious business ideas that you may find there, which are categorized into business, graphics, technology, programming, advertising, writing, advice, social marketing, and others.

Let this list of ideas guide you on your journey to doing business on the Internet and making money online. If you have any other Internet business ideas to share aside from the ones listed above, please don’t hesitate to share them with us by making a comment below.

For more business ideas and opportunities, read this list of 100 business ideas for 2013.