If you've never started a business before, don't worry.
Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of ways to start making money online without a lot of specialized knowledge or skills.
Here are a few business ideas that are great for beginners with a tight budget:
1. Keyword-Optimized YouTube Channel
The reason I recommend you do a keyword-optimized YouTube channel is because it will be much easier to get discovered without spending money on ads.
One good example of a channel like this is a tech reviews channel like Marques Brownlee's.
These work really well because of a few factors:
- You never run out of products to review.
- Video titles won't have as much competition because they're for specific products that just came out.
- There's potential for millions of views. I mean, who's not interested in the latest tech?
- Advertisers will pay good money to put ads on your videos, because they'll be attracting a buyers audience.
Here's an example of a video by Marques Brownlee:
And this is just one example of a keyword-rich YouTube channel.
You could do this with gaming, tutorials, news, and much more!
Another channel that earn quite a bit of money by ranking videos for keywords is Boss Fight Database.
The person who runs that channel basically fights a video game boss in each video and titles the video after the name of that boss.
So, there's very little competition, they're helping people with certain parts of games, and making good money from it.
Here's an example of one of the videos from Boss Fight Database:
So, if you want to make a YouTube channel, just figure out what you're good at, find a niche, and figure out a way to rank for keywords to get discovered and make money.
No paid advertising necessary!
2. Print-On-Demand Merch
Another business you could start with no money as a beginner is a print-on-demand merch line.
The way it works is you basically come up with an original graphic design and you can sell it on physical products like t-shirts, coffee mugs, hoodies, towels, phone cases, etc.
And what's nice about print-on-demand is you don't have to get a huge order of products from a manufacturer before you've sold a single one.
Instead, the products aren't created until someone buys them.
For example, if someone buys your t-shirt design, a company like Teespring will print the product, pack, ship and collect the payment for you in exchange for a fee on every sale.
It makes things WAY easier!
Here are some ways to come up with merch ideas:
Once you have an idea, you just need to create it yourself or with the help of a graphic designer.
You can do it yourself using templates on Canva, create something from scratch with your own graphic design software, or hire people to compete for the best design on a site like 99designs.
Once you've created the design, companies like Teespring will host the buy page on their own website, so all you'll have to do is drive traffic to it.
To drive free traffic to your merch pages, you can use YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, a blog, etc.
And with YouTube, you can actually sell your merch directly under your videos.
3. Handy Work for Locals
If you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, you can do some work around the house for people in your area and get paid pretty well.
With a site like Handy, you can earn money doing tasks like cleaning, mounting, assembly, lawn care, etc.
They claim you can earn up to $22/hour/job for cleaning, $45/hour/job for handyman work, or $62/hour/job for lawn care.
And you can manage your schedule, payments, messaging with clients, etc. all with the app.
You can also check out TaskRabbit for almost the same exact work.
4. Social Media Sponsorships
If you're pretty good at making content for social media, you can make money from sponsorships as an influencer.
There are a few different types of sponsorships you could go for once you have around 10,000 or so followers on a platform like Instagram;
- Sponsored posts promoting a company or product
- Paid shoutouts promoting other profiles
With regular sponsored posts, you can earn money by partnering with brands and sharing a picture or video of you using their product.
For example, if you made a deal with Nike, you might get paid to share a photo of you working out while wearing Nike shoes.
With paid shoutouts, you could earn money by doing a collaboration or just shouting out another profile that might be trying to get more followers.
For example, if you have a fashion-focused profile with 50,000 followers on Instagram, a person with 5,000 followers might pay you to mention them in a post after posting a picture with both of you in it.
Either way, if you can get good at posting certain kinds of content on social media, you can create a nice business opportunity without having to invest any money!
Check out iFluenz if you want to partner with brands for sponsored posts.
Or, check out Shoutcart if you want to get paid to give shoutouts.
5. Freelance Sites
One of the best businesses you can start as a beginner without money to invest is a freelance business.
As a freelancer, you can sell your services, no matter what kind of skills you have.
You could be a freelance writer, video editor, programmer, marketing consultant, etc.
For selling most freelance services, I would recommend starting on a site like Fiverr.
With Fiverr, you create a profile with gigs that have predetermined prices.
People who need services related to what you offer can buy these gigs and then you just have to fulfill them, based on the customer's needs.
Payment collection, marketing, messaging with clients, and everything else is taken care of within the Fiverr website.
As you do more gigs, you get more reviews and your seller rank goes up.
More reviews means you'll usually become more popular and get more future gigs.
And increasing your seller rank means you'll be able to sell higher-prices gigs that could be $50-$200+ instead of $5-$15 each.
Once you're more of an established freelancer, you might try UpWork.
Upwork is one of the biggest freelance sites in the world and is full of people who charge $100s per hour.
I would recommend you kind of establish yourself first and then try Upwork later, but it's completely up to you.
Either way, you can sell just about any computer-related skill on these freelance sites and maybe even get your first gig the day you sign up.
