15 Lucrative Online Business Ideas You Can Start on the Side

Are you looking at 2022 to be the year where you will create a successful online business?

You would have thought about this every year and gone over countless ideas in your head. You might have imagined how it would feel to generate money from the internet on the side and create a comfortable lifestyle for yourself.

But, you usually spend a little time considering those ideas, run them in your head a few hundred times, and resort back to your comfort zone.

Starting an online business on the side sounds a little intimidating. You have to give up your consistent schedule, search for profitable ideas, and start everything from scratch. But, once you land on that perfect business idea, things start to look easier.

2022 is your year to start your own online business on the side. There are more opportunities than ever, and you should take advantage of them.

The internet has made it easier to start a business with zero investment. But what should you start? You can discover the right business to start with our definite list of lucrative online business ideas. Go through each one of them, figure out which one you connect with, and start doing your research.

Lucrative Online Business Ideas You Can Start on the Side

1. Best Online Business Idea: Start a High-End Blog

Starting a blog is one of the best online business ideas that do not require any investment. It has become easier to set up a blog than ever, and make it a significant potential source of income, once you know how to monetize it.

Justin Hall created the first blog on the internet in 1994. Fast forward to 2021, there are over 600 million blog posts uploaded on the internet. Blogging has changed from a hobby where you get to share your thoughts online, to a fully-fledged business, with people making millions out of it every year.

More than 3.5 billion searches are done on Google every day. Out of them, over 77% of internet users read and interact with blog posts.

However, it would be best to remember that the money will not start rolling in the minute you post your first blog on the website. There is a good chance that you will hardly make $50 for the first three months.

You need to create content consistently. Additionally, your content should capture the interest of your audience in some way. Depending on your website's niche, you can educate your audience, inform them, or entertain them. In the long haul creating a high-end blog can be highly profitable.

Most Profitable Blog Niches in 2022

If you are starting with your blog with the aspiration of growing it into a business, then you need to select your blog niche intelligently. It would help if you choose a niche with enough money on the table to be worth your time and effort.

While most people prefer being a lifestyle blogger and writing blogs about hundreds of things at once, this is most probably not the way you should head down. When you pick a specific niche, you can narrow your focus to your target audience.

You also get a chance to become an expert on your niche. The more content you produce in that space, the more authoritative you become in the eyes of Google and your readers. You need to create a balance between narrowing down your focus and having enough of an audience in your space to make money out of it.

If you want to select a blog niche that will make you money on the side, this list of niche ideas would be the perfect place to start your brainstorming session.

1. Personal Finance

When you are thinking about making money out of your blog, then writing about it makes sense. Most people don't like to talk about how much they make in a year, but they like reading about it.

With the current pandemic and recession, people are more interested than ever in managing their finances and investing their money in a suitable space to grow. Investing and budgeting are top topics that gather people's attention all year round.

Additionally, the advertising rates for the finance section are higher than in other categories. So, you will be able to educate your audience into managing their finances while turning your blog into an excellent money-making side business.

2. Education

No matter which country you target, creating a blog about education can be profitable. Education is a necessity for most people, and it is generally costly. It means that you can get good ad returns for your blog.

There are a few different sub-niches that you can look into and create a high-end blog website with two or three of them. You can create blogs about homeschooling, online-only education, or college advice as well.

Targeting the newer generation is always beneficial, as they highly rely on the internet to get all the information they need.

3. Business and Marketing

The business and marketing niche is another profitable one. There are so many people, just like yourself, who are always looking to learn more about how they can take advantage of themselves from the internet. More than 50% of active internet users want to start an online business and love reading about them.

When you talk about business and marketing, there are a few sub-niches that you can cater to, like entrepreneurship, affiliate marketing, or SEO and marketing best practices. This niche is ever-growing and has a vast audience base that likes to indulge in conversations.

If you have a blog in the business and marketing section, you can target advertisers with high-paying display ads. Business advertisers are more than willing to pay a premium price for advertising on the right blog.

4. Parenting

While parenting is more of a lifestyle blog, this space has always been a popular blog topic. It makes sense because new parents are always looking for advice and to connect with a community that understands them.

Your parenting blog can help your audience manage the hectic yet wonderful responsibility of being a parent and do it exceptionally well. This niche is more flexible than others, and your readers would be more invested in your blogs and connect with your content in a better manner.

Parenting is a pretty big category, and you can target smaller micro niches to focus on and build up your community. You can write about pregnancy, healthy cooking for families, stay-at-home work opportunities, create guides for new parents, or discuss traveling with your kids.

With this niche, you can target well-paying display ads as well as sponsored posts. However, it would help to write about parenting if you already have kids. You will be able to share your experience with your readers and connect with them on a personal level.

How to Monetize Your High-End Blog?

Creating and managing a blog can be pretty challenging. But, monetizing it is even more complicated. However, if you focus your strategies towards monetizing from day one, you probably would not have much difficulty driving traffic to your website and making money out of it.

You should never forget that your audience is the key to making your blog profitable. The better content you offer, the more knowledgeable the audience will be visiting your website, and the more visitors will engage with your blog. Once you have a trusted, high-quality, engaged audience, turning your website into a fully-fledged business is easier.

Here are a few ways to monetize your blog and earn a healthy income from your efforts.

1. Advertisements

Adding pay-per-click advertisements to your blog website is a great way to make money from your blogs. Most niches start paying you a good income once you have around 10,000 visitors per month.

However, suppose you have built a loyal and engaging audience. In that case, you can directly contact private advertisers and get them to sponsor specific ads related to your niche on your website. This direct advertising will pay you more than the standard pay-per-click ads.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your blog posts. You can earn an affiliate commission every time you promote a company’s products or services and drive a sale. Many successful bloggers attribute half of their blog earnings to affiliate marketing.

This is an easy way of marketing, as you need to recommend products that you have used and vouch for their usefulness. Affiliate marketing is a great passive income resource. Every time a blog visitor clicks your link and uses it to buy products, you get a commission.

To earn more commission through this monetization technique, you should drive more targeted traffic to your website and increase your sales conversion rate. You can also sign up for affiliate programs with a longer cookie duration. Finding affiliate programs that offer recurring commission is another great way to monetize your blog.

3. Sell Ebooks

People are always looking to improve their skills and enhance their knowledge. You no longer need to publish a physical book in the digital age. Instead, you can self-publish your book online as an ebook and sell it through your blog website. Selling ebooks on your website is relatively easy and is priced adequately enough that most visitors can buy.

While promoting your ebook through your blog post, you should remember to offer your readers knowledge and advice instead of blatantly promoting your book. You can provide your blog readers with valuable tips and then point them towards your ebook.

2. Offer Freelancing and Consulting Services

Freelancing is a great way to offer your services to clients worldwide. The future of work has undergone a massive shift in the past two years. People now focus more on leading a fulfilling life than a work-filled one.

Freelancing and consulting services are currently contributing over $1.4 trillion to the US economy. It is now estimated to become one of the favorite online business ideas for the majority of the US workforce.

With freelancing and consulting services, you get a zillion opportunities to make money with the internet. You can start this business on the side and slowly grow to make up to a six-digit income in the next few years. There are multiple freelancing and consulting platforms where you can offer your services to clients worldwide.

To kickstart your career in 2022, we have a few popular freelancing business ideas that you can choose from. Remember, you need to find a profitable and less competitive category. Once you know your skills and what you want to offer your client, it becomes easier to find the right balance between profitability and low competition.

Most Popular Freelancing and Consulting Business Ideas in 2022

While freelancing and consulting services come with their challenges, we usually overshadow the freedom these businesses provide. You are not only your boss, but you can decide your working hours and choose the projects you want to work on.

1. Content Marketing Specialist

If you have a knack for writing, you can provide incredible value to small and large business owners. With the internet changing the game for marketing, only valuable content can help businesses reach their target audience.

Content marketing or inbound marketing costs 62% less than the traditional methods and generates more than three times the leads.

If you are a creative, problem-solving individual who can create an optimal content strategy, you can make a good income by freelancing as a content marketing specialist. You need to decide what type of content the audience will interact with the most, like a vlog, blog post, infographics, or live video, and create the content on time.

2. Brand Identity Designer

With the age of social media and rapid digitization, brands are more visible than ever to their customers. They need to consistently promote themselves and their businesses while maintaining their brand image across all platforms.

If you have a knack for designing and storytelling, you can be a perfect brand identity designer either for a small business or a large enterprise. Or, you can also act as a consultant for them, giving them advice on presenting their company in front of their target audience.

With your creativity, you can help brands make a solid online presence. You will need to ensure all aspects of branding, including the color scheme, logo, fonts, and graphics. You need to work with the brand to create and portray a cohesive story that the brand wants to portray.

Toptal and 99designs are some of the best platforms to work as a brand identity designer or a consultant.

3. Facebook Ad Campaign Manager

Facebook has more than 2.8 billion active users and is one of the largest advertising platforms in the industry. It has grown by three folds in five years and has more than 10 million active advertisers on the planner spending $11 billion every quarter.

Number of active advertisers on Facebook from 1st quarter 2016 to 3rd quarter 2020 (in millions)

If you know how to target the right audience with the right budget, you can work as a Facebook ad campaign manager. You can do pretty well in this industry even with the basic insight of click-through rates and cost per action. With a bit of creativity, you’ll be able to market your client’s products and services efficiently.

4. Analytics Expert

Data science and artificial intelligence have grown over the past two decades. It has and will change the way we live and work. Analytics has become an essential tool for businesses to find, target, and retarget their audience. Small and large enterprises are always looking for freelancers to improve their marketing practices.

If you know how to read and analyze the data from Google analytics, social media, and email service providers, you can be a valuable resource for companies. You can market yourself as a data scientist on multiple social media platforms like LinkedIn and grow your network. The more people you add to your list, the more are the chances you will be able to publicize yourself better.

5. Digital Illustrator

Digital illustrators create original, one-of-a-kind artwork for brands and businesses. With your artistic skills, you can help brands stand out from the competition and give them a unique way to connect with their audience.

Digital illustrators have gained popularity in the United States in the past five years. The total compensation for digital artists is 49% greater than the US average. You can make anywhere between $10,000 to $288,000.

You can make your account on Upwork and Toptal or upload your artwork on Behance to create a portfolio for your prospective clients.

3. Create and Sell Online Courses

Online courses are a great way to educate people online while sitting in the comfort of your home. This sector has seen significant growth recently and is expected to reach around $375 billion by 2026.

What makes online courses so attractive to learners is the high cost of education. The student loan debt in the United States has crossed over $1.56 trillion in 2020. This high cost of education has motivated students worldwide to look for alternatives.

Digital courses are one of the best alternatives to physical learning. According to a recent study, more than 33% of college students enroll in at least one e-learning course. Online courses are not only cost-effective, but they also teach students five times more than a traditional class in college.

Creating and selling online courses is a fully-fledged business model. You get a chance to connect with learners from all over the world, offer them upgrades, provide them with more advanced courses, and make a passive income source for yourself. Once your course is ready you can either offer them on online course platforms or promote them on your own website.

Best Niches For Creating an Online Course

To make your online business idea successful, you must find a niche that you are interested in, know about, and is profitable at the same time. Most beginners mistake choosing a general category for their online courses. By doing this, there is a chance that you’ll be lost in the crowd.

Instead, you can choose a more specific topic in a general category. This approach will narrow down your audience and your competition. You should not create a course for anyone and everyone. Instead, you should think about whom you can serve the best, and you should tailor your course specifically to your target audience.

To help you discover the most profitable online course idea, we have a few best niches you can start with as a beginner.

1. Business and Entrepreneurship

In today’s age, more and more people are looking to learn how to make money off their hobbies or start a business independently. If you create courses around business and hobbies, there is a huge market out there waiting for you.

With the continued rise in freelancers and startups, there is a good chance that your course will be bought by beginners wanting to learn more about businesses and entrepreneurship.

You can create an online course about e-commerce, affiliate marketing, digital marketing, dropshipping, or branding your business.

2. Computers and Technology

In this age of the internet, there is always a new technology developing every month. It enhances our day-to-day tasks and gives a chance to new businesses to scale up and make money in the market.

If you keep yourself updated with the new technological developments, you can create a beginner’s to advanced course related to these technologies on the internet. You will get ahead of your competitors, by marketing it the right way.

You can create online courses about building websites, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber security, software programming, or robotics.

However, you need to make sure that you offer your students new knowledge or explain the topic more thoroughly. Even though there is much competition in this arena, you will be able to stand out with your unique teaching method.

3. Health

The health industry is continually growing, with more and more people becoming health-conscious. It means that much health-centric information and media are available on the internet. People are always on the lookout for more details or liable sources of information.

You can create online meal planning, diet, nutrition, aromatherapy, acupressure, meditation, or vegan cooking courses.

However, people with professional knowledge have a better chance of succeeding in this field. It means that if you are a licensed nutritionist, you can create a course about healthy living and meal planning, and there is a good possibility for your audience to buy your course if looking to improve their lifestyle.

4. Personal Development

Personal development has become a highly engaging topic in the recent era. With the fast pace of today’s society, many people are struggling to do better with themselves.

Creating personal development online courses can help individuals address their day-to-day challenges, lower their stress levels, motivate them, and guide them about the importance of learning new skills for a better life.

You can create online courses on organization, self-esteem, anxiety management, time management, emotional intelligence, or body language.

If you are a psychologist or have studied human behavior, you have a better chance of succeeding with this online course.

How to Market Your Online Course

Before creating a course, you need to build up a plan to market and promote it. Here are a few strategies you can implement before preparing your online course.

1. Survey Your Audience Before Creating the Course

Before you create your course, it is essential to analyze whether people are willing to take up your course. You should always create a course that your audience wants and not what you want.

If you already have a dedicated audience from a podcast, email list, or social media, you can send them a survey and ask about what topics they will be interested to know about.

However, if you are a beginner, you can do a little research on the industry. If people are creating courses or related content similar to your idea, of course, then it most probably has an audience.

Once you have surveyed your audience, you should then create a representation of the ideal student for your course. This representation will help you create a course based on the questions of your ideal student.

2. Create a Course Title Based on Keyword Research

If you want to promote your course organically, you need to do proper keyword research before creating your course. For instance, if your customer needs information about design logos on Adobe Photoshop, then they would most likely search “How to design logos using Photoshop.” This targeted search is called the target keyword phrase.

You can use tools such as Google's Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to identify the most popular keyword and phrases related to your topic. This keyword research will help you position your course precisely as a potential student wants.

3. Promote Your Course with a Blog or Youtube Channel

Getting organic traffic to your course may take up a few months. The best way to get your course seen by your target audience is to market it subtly with blogs or youtube channels.

If you already have a blog website, that would be a great place to promote your course. Your blog readers trust you on your information and look forward to your online course. You can promote your course at the top bar of your website and at the end of each blog post.

You can also promote your course with a Youtube channel. Youtube is the second most visited search engine in the world. You can create a short promo video about your course and post it on your platform or casually talk about it in your videos.

4. Launch Your Own Podcasting Show

Creating content through a podcast show makes it easier for your audience to consume it. Podcast awareness and listening continue to rise in the United States, with 41% of Americans listening to these audio channels.

Podcasts are portable, cost-effective, and can help you engage better with your target audience than written content. When you are running a podcast channel, earning the trust of your listeners is vital. Unless your listeners trust you, they won't buy the products or services you promote.

Unique Ideas For Your Podcast Channel

A podcast niche is a narrowly defined topic that will interest only a specific group of people. Most beginners try to target a general topic as they aspire to access a wider audience group. However, it's the complete opposite when it comes to podcasts. Most podcast listeners prefer listening to audio channels specific to their interests.

For instance, ‘history' is a category. Creating a podcast channel of history will be too broad and confusing for your listeners. Instead, “history of jazz music” can be a good podcast niche since it would have a much narrower scope.

Before you decide on an idea or niche for your podcast channel, you can research the industry a little and study how other successful podcast websites are communicating their brand value to their audience.

You need to select the right topic for your new podcast, depending upon your area of interest and the profitability of the niche. Analyzing whether you have an audience for your niche or not is quite necessary to ensure you can make money out of this online business idea.

Here are a few popular and unique ideas for your podcast channel.

1. Celebrity Interviews

Interviews with Instagram influencers or movie stars can make a great podcast show. People are always interested to know more about celebrities, making your podcast a big hit.

Try contacting local celebrities or Instagram influencers with a few thousand followers when you start. In this way, they will promote the show to their followers, and you might gain more listeners on your channel.

2. Technology

With the advancement of the internet, there is always new technology entering the market. If you like to stay aware of the latest societal developments, you can start a podcast show based on technological advancements.

Here you can talk about the latest technology news and explain them thoroughly to your listeners. You can also create programs about gaming, videography, or photography.

3. Beauty and Fashion

The beauty and fashion niche is an evergreen one. You can talk about all the latest trends, how fashion has grown over the years, or start your version of breaking the beauty trends. This niche has many listeners but is also highly competitive.

If you already have a fashion blog or a good social media following, then there is a good chance you can gather your loyal listeners. Depending upon your content, you can target an audience of different age groups. You should create content that is more relevant to the 20 to 30 age group, as they will spend money on your recommendations.

4. Short Stories

People love reading and listening to either fictional or non-fictional stories. Starting a short story podcast is a great way to gather your audience and make money from your program if you are a writer.

Most people get hooked to stories quickly and listen to them with commitment, from beginning to end. However, it would help if you made sure that you always leave your story to a point where your audience will be hooked and wait eagerly for your next podcast premier.

5. Cryptocurrency

Everyone is talking about cryptocurrency these days, and the interest in the topic will rise over the years. Starting a podcast on crypto where you help people understand what it is and how it works can help you make an evergreen show.

You can also talk about your personal experiences with crypto, investment strategies, the latest news in that area, and the risks of investing in this platform. You need to make sure that you make your audience understand the investment strategies rather than just advising them bluntly.

How To Make Money With Your Podcast

Whether you are just starting your podcast channel or have a base of loyal listeners, there are different ways of making money with your podcast channel. Here are a few ways you can earn with your podcast channel.

1. Sponsors and Advertising

Advertising and sponsors are the first things you think of when looking for ways to monetize your podcast. Different companies can help you gather sponsors for your channel. They search the advertisers for you, negotiate your rate, and create a script for your channel.

However, you do need around 5000 listeners on your podcast platform before you can start making a good income from advertising. Some of the largest ad networks are Authentic and Midroll.

If you have a specific niche and a smaller audience, you can directly contact multiple ad agencies and negotiate your advertising rates.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you get a commission for referring to a company's services or products. You earn money when someone purchases your recommendation. This marketing works the best when you are already familiar with the product. This way, you can promote products authentically.

You can create your ‘ad spot' to promote an affiliate offer by naturally mentioning a product or service as you deliver your regular content.

Different affiliate programs are available in the market that offer different commission rates. Amazon is one of the most popular affiliate programs, where you can find other products to promote based on the category of your podcast channel.

You can also sign up with ShareASale, where you can search and apply to join multiple affiliate programs.

Most podcast channel owners prefer creating their website on WordPress to link all their sponsored or recommended products. This website makes it easier for their audience to search for a product they might like.

3. Offer Services

There are different podcast categories where you can offer a service to your listeners. For instance, you have a podcast show about data analytics and marketing. Your listeners have developed a liking towards you and trust you as an expert in the field. Now you can offer your marketing services to your clients.

By creating a podcast channel, you are essentially promoting yourself and your skills. You can use them to your benefit and earn money indirectly with your podcast channel, making it easier for you to get new clients.

5. Become an Influencer on Youtube or Instagram

Influencers have become quite popular in the past two decades and have taken the entire marketing industry by storm. Earlier businesses would approach big-name celebrities to market or promote their products. However, today Instagram and Youtube influencers are marketing products to their dedicated audience on social media.

The influencer marketing industry grew to approximately $13.8 billion in 2021. More than 90% of companies believe that marketing their products on social media through influencers is effective.

As an influencer, you will have a unique opportunity of making money just by being yourself. It's an enticing online business idea that you can start without the need for any investment.

Social media influencing, be it Youtube or Instagram, is all about marketing. You need to market yourself to your audience and build a loyal following. Only then will you get brand deals and market products for companies.

It's a perfect online business idea you can start on the side. You have complete creative control over your content, you can decide how many hours you want to put in to build your business, and you can accept the brand deals that you really connect with and can promote authentically. It is one of the best ways to earn money on Instagram.

How To Promote Yourself as an Instagram or Youtube Influencer

Influencer marketing is all about branding yourself and building your audience. You need to find the right strategy that will work for you. Copying what a famous influencer has done in the past might not always work for you and your audience.

Here are a few basic strategies that you can use to promote yourself as an Instagram or Youtube influencer.

1. Find Your Place

Before you can start marketing yourself on a social media platform, you need to understand how you want to present yourself in front of your audience. Additionally, you need to figure out your exact goal.

For instance, if you are trying to build your own business by being an influencer, you might want to connect with like-minded professionals. On the other hand, if you're going to build your audience in a specific niche and take up brand deals, you need to connect with an audience that trusts you.

Finding your place among billions of active users on social media can sound a little overwhelming. But once you have decided on your goals, it becomes easier to work towards them.

2. Post Content Regularly

Once you have chosen the niche and decided on your target audience, you need to create and post your content regularly. The best way to organically promote yourself as an influencer is to post every day.

However, you should remember to keep your voice consistent across all social media channels. This consistency would help your audience understand you in a better manner. Depending upon your niche, you can choose to be humorous, professional, or conversational.

We will recommend that you choose a conversational tone with your followers. It helps them connect with you at a deeper level as they start trusting you.

You can also create a schedule for posting on your social media channels. This will help keep you organized. When you regularly put out new information in your industry, people will remember you and trust what you say.

3. Interact With Your Followers

The best way to gain the trust of your followers is to interact with them. You can use your posts as conversation starters and encourage your audience to interact with you and ask questions. It not only improves your engagement rate but also helps you in building a loyal following.

By interacting with your audience, you also get to know what they are eager to learn, helping you generate content ideas. Keeping your profile public will allow your followers to share your posts on their feed or stories. This brings new people to your social media profile, improves your outreach, and helps you market yourself in a better manner.

6. Sell Products In Your Online Store

Opening up an e-commerce store is a great way to quickly start making money on the side. Whether you decide to source the products yourself or opt for dropshipping, an e-commerce store is the perfect online business idea in 2022.

More and more people have got hooked to online shopping during the pandemic. More than 263 million people in the United States had shopped online in 2021. The industry has seen a steady increase of digital buyers by 4.4% every year.

Number of digital buyers in the United States from 2017 to 2025(in millions)

If you are a beginner, we suggest setting up a dropshipping store and then moving on to source products yourself. Dropshipping makes running the store more accessible. You sell other people’s products online. This means you do not have to worry about manufacturing or shipping products to your customers.

However, a significant downside to dropshipping is the quality of the product. It becomes difficult to judge and maintain the product quality when you dropship the products to your customers. This means that there is a good chance that your customer will be left unsatisfied.

To reduce this, you can select manufacturers with an excellent overall rating or connect your e-commerce store to a premium drop shipping platform like Spocket or CJdropshipping.

Once you set up your online store, you can establish your brand eventually and start sourcing your best-selling products yourself.

Your products are the key to the success of your online store. You need to find a product that solves your customer’s problems and has a good profit margin.

How to Find Best Selling Products For Your Online Store

If you are new to e-commerce, you might find it a little difficult to choose products for your online store. With so many categories and niches, it does get a little overwhelming. Here are a few strategies you can use to find the bestselling products for your store that you can sell for a good margin.

1. Find Trending Products

Trending products can be a great addition to your e-commerce store. When you are confused about what products you should add to your online store, you should search for the products that your audience is on the lookout for.

If you can source these trending products, you can take advantage of the low marketing fees and establish your store as a leader in that industry. To find the current trending products or the ones that can see an upward trend in the future, you can visit websites like Wish, Kickstarter, and even Google Trends.

You need to study all the trending products and then create a rough strategy to market them. However, it would be best always to remember to choose only those products that offer you a good profit margin.

2. Target a Niche Product

With the ever-growing competition, it might get a little difficult for you to sell general products like nail polishes or blankets. However, if you choose a niche market for your online store, you will generate good revenue out of it.

You can use Google Trends to do a quick research on the niches that have potential. This could help you gain a competitive edge in the e-commerce industry. Alternatively, you can also choose a seasonal niche like inflatable toys, which are likely to sell well in the summer season.

When you target a niche product, you will have much less competition, which will reduce your marketing budget. You will be able to reach your target audience easily. However, it would be best to consider those niche products with a smaller audience range. This means that you need to market your product creatively and influence your customer to buy it.

3. Do a Thorough Competitor Product Research

Before you add any product to your e-commerce store, you must research and analyze your competitors. It would also help you decide on the pricing of the product. If you are selling a product at a much higher rate than your competitors, then there is a good chance that customers will not buy from your store.

You can also get some good product ideas by looking at your competitors. You can search for their best-selling products and then look for a way to source them at a lower price and sell it to your customers.

Popular Niche Ideas For Your Online Store

A niche product is popular amongst a segment of customers within a large audience. Selecting a popular yet reliable niche for your online store would easily help you get ahead of your competition and book profits. A niche online store is one of the best online business ideas you can start on the side.

1. Space Saving house Furnishings

With the concept of minimalism growing every year, people are always on the lookout for home furnishing that helps them save space in their house. This niche does not have a lot of competition, and by selecting the right products and selling them at an affordable price, you can guarantee the success of your online store.

You can build your online store around space-saving furnishings or select a sub-niche, like furnishings for tiny houses.

2. Wireless Charging

All the phones now being introduced in the market provide wireless charging options. Since more and more people now have access to this convenient method of charging their devices, there is a good chance that the niche will blow up pretty soon.

You can create an online store for wireless charging products for your mobile, headphones, smartwatches, or earbuds.

3. Home Gym Equipment

With the Covid pandemic hitting new peaks every few months, people have now started considering setting up a small gym space in their own house. The demand and search for these products have skyrocketed in the past year.

You can create an online store and sell different home gym equipment. The best part about this niche is you can sell cheap products like gym belts to high-end products like treadmills. This will give you an option to book more profit from your sales.

4. Organic Products

With climate change at its peak, more people are becoming environmentally conscious. They are looking for solutions to limit their use of plastic and adopt a more organic product. Products like organic cotton rounds, bamboo toothbrushes, bamboo or paper straws, or glass tumblers are becoming popular day by day.

You can create your online store based on organic products from different categories. The category has less competition and a growing market, making it the perfect niche for your e-commerce store in 2022.

7. Start a Monthly Box Subscription Service

A monthly box subscription service is a profitable online business idea. It is much easier to set up this service than a dropshipping store. This is because you do not have to settle on a single product and depend upon whether your audience would like it or not.

Instead, a subscription box is a curated theme. Your customers pay you for your ability to pick products they will like. Additionally, you do not have to manufacture products. Most subscription box services pick different products from multiple retailers and pack them into one box for their customers.

The key to profit from this business idea is to source products at a discounted price. When more people subscribe to your service, you will source products wholesale, thus increasing your profit margin.

When you start a monthly box subscription service, you need to find an audience with similar tastes and can relate to your personality. Only then can you send the products that they will like and appreciate.

To make your business successful, you need to select a cohesive theme that people want. It would be best to use your imagination to curate boxes for profitable and high in-demand niches.

Profitable Monthly Subscription Box Ideas

Subscription box services are a great way to get repeat business from your customers. People like subscription boxes as they offer an exciting combination of mystery and adventure at an affordable price. However, to succeed in this industry, you need to pick a niche for your business.

It would be best if you found an area which is not too crowded and is profitable.

Here are a few profitable monthly subscription ideas you can adopt in 2022.

1. Novels

Book lovers have always been fascinated with monthly subscription services. In this way, they get to read different genres and explore other authors' writing. Starting a book subscription service is a category you can explore.

Every month, you can send out your subscription box to your subscribers and let them choose from different genres like fiction, thriller, steamy romance, drama, or inspiration. Once you market your service to the right audience, there is a good chance that you can make money with the novel subscription business model.

2. Coffee

More than 150 million Americans start their day with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Creating a coffee subscription box service is a great way to serve your clients. You can add a few different roasted beans, so your clients can have a taste of all your selections. A box delivering coffee right to their doorstep is one gesture coffee lovers will appreciate.

However, you need to make sure that you have a good knowledge of beans, their roast, and the flavor they offer. Additionally, you can give your subscribers the option to choose their flavor profile and favorite brewing method. You can send them coffee beans accordingly.

3. Kids Toys

A toy subscription box service is a great online business idea that can significantly help working parents. Parents need to juggle multiple responsibilities at once, which can get quite overwhelming.

You can launch a toy subscription plan where parents can choose the age and the interests of their kids. You can then send them a toy every month based on their interests.

This subscription box can make you thousands of dollars in profit. The industry has low competition and high demand, making it one of the most lucrative online business ideas.

4. Wine and Beer

More than 60% of Americans enjoy drinking alcohol once in a while. Creating a wine and beer subscription box service is a great idea, where you can pick out different flavors of wine or beer every month and ship them to your subscriber's doorstep.

This will give your customers a chance to taste different wines and beer varieties every month. You can also add a pairing guide to your subscription box.

However, you need to ensure that your state or your customer's state does not have any restrictions on the shipping of alcoholic beverages.

5. Jewelry

Jewelry is another niche that has a vast audience base. You can add multiple accessories to your monthly jewelry subscription box, from exquisite jewelry pieces to handmade ornaments. You can also select a jewelry niche like rings, toe rings, pendants, or bracelets.

However, jewelry has quite a fierce competition for subscription boxes. You need to make sure that you offer good quality jewelry pieces with unique designs every month.

You can also select a particular style of jewelry, like pet jewelry. This would lower your competition and increase your chances of standing out of the crowd.

6. Gardening

Gardening is another interesting niche for subscription box services. Around 35% of families in the United States grow their vegetables, and thousands of them like to plant flowers in their backyard.

As gardening is a common hobby among Americans, you can start a subscription box service, helping Americans improve their gardens. You can include gardening tools, new seeds, or manure.

Gardening is a pretty broad niche, and there are a lot of chances for specialization. For instance, you can choose to offer fruit and vegetable seeds every month or a flower seed subscription service.

8. Start a Membership Site

A membership site is a gated platform that includes member-only content. This website can only be accessed by members and provides additional value. You can create an exclusive membership site and make a good income on the side.

People are always looking for new resources and do not mind paying a premium price. If you have a good source of knowledge and can create exciting content for your subscribers, then starting a membership site is a great online business model.

The best part of a membership site is the monthly recurring revenue, which grows with every new member on your site.

Every member on your website has a unique username and password that grants them access to the website. You can add blogs, screencasts, listicles, videos, or webinars to your member-only site. It is a way to make money from your content, but not through advertising. Instead, people pay for your content as they respect your knowledge and want to learn more from you.

To run a successful membership site, you need to have a genuine love for and dedication to your topic.

Proven and Profitable Membership Site Ideas

To make a concrete plan for your membership site, you must first figure out a profitable niche. You should select a niche that interests you, and you have the knowledge to impart to your subscribers. It would be best to find the perfect combination of interest and profitability while selecting an idea for your membership site.

Here are a few proven and profitable membership ideas that you might like.

1. Template and Stock Membership Sites

Creating a template membership site can be quite profitable if you design and market them to the right audience. It is a popular and high-performing model. There are two different ways you can create a template and stock membership site.

You can allow users to sign up for free and explore your website. However, all the products and services on the website will be paid for. Themeforest.net follows this type of business model.

On the other hand, Rawpixel requires users to subscribe to a monthly subscription plan to access their vast library of stock photos and website templates.

As long as you target the right audience and market your website perfectly, it does not matter which business model you use. There are plenty of sites that you can create in this format, like plugins and add-ons, stock photos or illustrations, 3D characters, legal contract templates, or business plan templates.

2. Cooking Membership Sites

Recipe and cooking membership sites are popular among people of all ages. Whether you are a college student trying to learn cooking for the first time or a grandmother of two looking to spice up your recipes, this membership site idea is a huge hit.

Cooking is a huge part of life for families worldwide, and they usually turn to the internet to look for their next recipe. Cooking membership sites offer users video libraries, weekly meal plans, and shopping lists.

You can make a lot of money out of this membership site if you are a passionate cook or have your mom or grandmother help you revamp old recipes.

3. Auction Membership Sites

Are you a collector and interested in the history of art or technology? Well, auction membership sites might be the perfect option for you. You can create a secure platform where buyers and sellers can interact with each other and finalize the sale of their antique items.

You can choose a sub-niche for your auction membership website. If you are into art and have good knowledge of paintings, you can create an auction membership site for your sellers that revolves around art. However, if you are more into technology, you can create a member-only website for buyers and sellers looking to sell their websites or domain names.

4. News Membership Sites

If you are a freelance journalist and are thinking of creating your membership website, then it is a great idea to make money on the side. Like other magazines and newspapers where you have to pay to read their articles, you can also create a news membership website with this business model.

However, you need to offer free content to your audience initially. It would be best to put forward your personality before signing up for the subscription service. It would help if you made your readers trust you enough to pay a few dollars for the service.

Show your readers that your opinions matter before promoting your membership plans.

9. Run Paid and Free Webinars

With the world moving to a digital phase of education and work, webinars have seen a resurgence in popularity and usage globally. It has become a staple tool for educating students and potential customers, captivating a large audience, and generating leads.

A webinar is a live online educational presentation where the participating viewers can submit their comments and questions. You can hold events, workshops, training sessions, seminars, or classroom lectures through a webinar.

Tutors are in high demand, whether it is online or offline. If you are proficient in your area of expertise and are willing to give a few hours every week to educate your audience, then you can make a good side income out of these webinars.

While most people prefer setting up paid webinars, it is not the best option to step into this space. Instead, you can set free webinars welcoming everyone and offering them knowledge about a particular topic.

You can take up sponsorships for your webinar sessions, promote your online course or a product through affiliate marketing, and make money from free webinar sessions.

To make your webinar session successful and effective, you need to carry out a two-way form of communication. This means that you need to keep your audience engaged by asking them questions and holding a Q&A round during the online presentation.

Webinar Engagement Based on Duration

The timing of your webinar is key to keeping your audience engaged. Your sessions should not be longer than 35 or 40 minutes.

You would also need reliable webinar platforms to host your webinar and increase the chances of lead conversion and customer interaction.

Creative Formats to Help Your Webinar Stand Out

Webinars are not the most innovative content format. Listening to someone speak for straight 60 minutes or sitting in front of a presentation full of graphs and pie charts can be boring for your audience. It would help if you found creative formats to spice up your webinars and keep your audience engaged at all times.

Here are a few creative formats you can adopt for your webinar to make them more engaging and interactive.

1. Do a Live Makeover

Everyone loves to see a before and after picture. They get too engrossed in the makeover session and find these pictures irresistible. The same format holds for webinars as well. It drives above-average registrations, as your audience is excited to see the process behind the makeover.

For instance, if you are a photoshop expert, you can hold a webinar where you will sit live with your audience and edit a picture before them while explaining the basics of photoshop. In this way, your audience will attain knowledge and engage with your webinar at all times.

This type of format can be great if you sell your service or product to help your audience achieve the transformation they just witnessed.

2. Host an Ask Me Anything

This format was popularized by the social media site Reddit, where the audience could ask the moderator any question they liked. This strategy would work well with a webinar as well.

You can invite celebrities or influencers in your target area and give your audience a chance to ask them anything they like. For instance, if you have a webinar program on entrepreneurship, you can invite the CEO of Binance or any successful startup and give your audience a chance to clear out their questions about entrepreneurship and success.

To make this process a little smoother, you can collect questions from your audience in advance. You can do this by adding a question field to the registration form, where your participants can enter their queries.

Depending upon the celebrity you are inviting to your event, you can decide to keep your webinar paid or free.

3. Host an Online Panel

Almost all virtual conferences host a panel discussion, where a group of experts comes together to discuss and share their views on a common topic. This type of format does not require a ton of preparation.

All you have to do is to invite a few experts to your webinar and get a list of questions or industry trends to talk about. You can also source these questions from your audience, which will keep your participants more engaged.

However, as a moderator of the webinar, you need to ensure that everyone on the panel has an equal opportunity to contribute. It would be best if you were quick enough to ask relevant follow-up questions from experts.

You can make this online panel an excellent way to promote your sponsored products. You can ask questions about a service or product you seek to earn commission from. When your audience gets multiple positive feedbacks about the service, they are more likely to buy them.

In this way, you can hold a free webinar, attract a large audience, and manage to make money out of it.

10. Launch an Affiliate Marketing Blog

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest online business models to set up and make money online quickly. It is the process of earning a commission by promoting someone else’s product on your blog. The best part about this business model is you do not have to manufacture or handle the shipping of the products. You have to market them to your audience and redirect them to the company’s website.

You can market digital products like e-books or online courses and physical products like coffee machines or electrical equipment. This model is a success among beginners because it does not matter how many viewers or readers visit your blog. Even if you have 1000 people reading your blogs, and 10 of them decide to buy the product, you can make a good commission income out of it.

Additionally, affiliate marketing blogs are evergreen. This means that even if someone buys the suggested product 2 years later, you will still get your commission percentage.

According to a report published by Statista, the U.S. affiliate marketing spend is expected to grow by 10% and reach a whopping $8.2 billion by 2022.

Different affiliate programs have different commission rates. Depending upon your blog category, you need to choose an affiliate program that has a comparatively higher commission rate so that you can earn more profit at the end of each month. For instance, subscription plans have a higher commission rate than promoting electrical equipment.

Most Profitable Niches for Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an attractive revenue stream for people looking for profitable online business ideas. The business model has a low entry cost and a potentially lucrative return on investment. However, your success depends on finding a profitable niche for your blog.

Tuning into the mindset of your customers is the key to finding the most profitable niches in the industry. Here are a few profitable niches for affiliate marketing that have plenty of opportunity for growth this year.

1. Lifestyle and Wellness

People want to live a longer and healthier life and are willing to spend money. The global health and wellness market value is estimated to reach around $6 trillion by 2025.

Value of the health and wellness market worldwide in 2019 and 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Global health concerns consumed the past two years, and people are now focussing on their wellness. Covid 19 has changed how we work, live, and interact with each other. Understanding your audience and then looking for opportunities to sell them the right product is the key to the success of your wellness affiliate blog.

You should pick a specific niche in this category and narrow down your audience. This will help you connect with your target audience, address their particular problems, and educate them about the solutions.

Once you have developed enough trust with your audience and offered them the solution they were looking for, you can then move forward and offer them a bonus wellness product to help them achieve their health goals.

The lifestyle and wellness industry has different sub-niches, including diet and nutrition, exercise products and services, skincare, health supplements, and many more.

2. Technology

Technology is an ever-growing industry with good opportunities for affiliate marketing. This industry has high commission rates and a wide variety of sub-niches to choose from, depending upon your interests.

Digital entertainment revenue is expected to grow by $2.5 trillion by 2024. The last two years have impacted this sector for good. People stay home, consume digital media, and use technology for entertainment and remote working.

To succeed in this niche, you need to figure out the interest of your target audience. Are they early adopters eager to learn about new things, or are they late adopters who need a step-by-step explainer guide and plenty of reassurance?

Depending upon your target audience, you can curate content accordingly. It would be best to always look for opportunities to help people stay connected and organized. You can even take advantage of the growing ‘Work from Home’ trend.

To make a good income from your affiliate marketing blog, you need to educate your audience and match them with products or services they will find helpful.

3. Personal Finance

Personal finance is another growing industry where you can educate your readers and promote products and services that will help them invest their money safely and offer them good annual returns.

Affiliate marketing in the financial technology sector has an estimated value of $12 billion. People are always looking for more options to access, grow, and share their money. The personal finance niche includes cryptocurrencies, investments, peer-to-peer payments, data security, and banking innovations.

Depending upon your target audience, you can delve into a sub-niche and educate your audience while promoting affiliate or sponsored products. Most consumers enjoy the ease and convenience offered by these technologies.

When you are promoting affiliate products in this niche, make sure that you consider the income and age of your audience. If you have an audience in their early or late twenties, cryptocurrency might sound like a better alternative.

However, if you have an older audience with a high income, you can consider other investment services or products.

For creating a successful affiliate marketing blog in the personal finance niche, you need to understand and address the desires and fears of people. People want the products to be safe, simple to use while offering them financial security and growth at the same time.

You can curate content that educates your customers while offering them the tools they need to make intelligent financial decisions.

4. Pet Care

As more people have started working from their home offices, they are now considering adopting or fostering a pet at their home. The annual expenditure on pets in the United States is approaching $100 billion. Additionally, almost 40% of pet parents prefer shopping for pet products online.

The pet care industry includes specialty pet foods, grooming products, pet clothing, and housing equipment. The best thing about this industry is mixing and matching multiple sub-niches while catering to your audience.

While suggesting products or services to pet parents, remember to offer ample product information by using explainer videos or infographics. You should always recommend a product that you trust or are familiar with. Making the buying process easier for your customers is another way to guarantee an affiliate sale.

You should also mention a few alternatives to give your buyers a choice and the option to compare between multiple products. This will make them feel they are in control of their choices. Additionally, just suggesting products won’t help you gain the trust of your customers. You need to offer them more information and education with your content, like pet care guides or tips to keep your pet happy.

When your customers feel that you are genuinely concerned about the health and well-being of their pets, they will trust you and your suggested products.

11. Start an Amazon FBA Business

Starting an Amazon FBA business is a profitable online business idea, where you can sell customized products without having to worry about storage or shipping. The FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon, where the platform allows third-party sellers to automate their order fulfillment and shipping process.

The net sales of Amazon have grown by 260% in the last five years. There are over 100 million Amazon Prime members, and thousands of orders are placed on their website every day.

The largest e-commerce store in the world would let you list your products on their website, and whenever an order is placed, the platform will do all the hard work of preparing the product and delivering it to your customer. It works on a simple concept – sellers sell, Amazon ships.

The Amazon FBA business is better than drop shipping or starting your e-commerce store as you do not have to worry about fulfilling your order. Additionally, you get access to a powerful distribution network of Amazon and its vast customer base.

Even though the platform charges small fees from their customers, it is much more worth the price. You get access to Amazon’s 24/7 customer service, and you do not have to pay any shipping or fulfillment costs to the platform.

To make your online business idea successful, all you have to do is find a profitable product and market it to your customer base.

What to Sell on Amazon FBA in 2022?

You can add multiple products on Amazon without caring about any niche or category. You can add a few evergreen products that would sell throughout the year and a few seasonal or holiday products that may see a rush of sales during the holiday season.

The success of your Amazon FBA business depends upon how easy it is to source your product, how much profit you can make with every sale, and how popular the product is. Here are a few evergreen products you can sell as a part of your Amazon FBA business in 2022.

1. Fitness Equipment

Fitness equipment is an evergreen product and will always make you profit. According to a recent Jungle Scout’s Consumer Trend report, 104% of consumers are more likely to shop online than in-store for fitness products and exercise equipment.

You can sell anything from a skipping rope to a treadmill, depending on your budget. At the start of the year, more and more people have decided to take up fitness as their new year’s resolution. There is always a spike in search results in the first quarter of every year.

However, this category can be pretty competitive. So you either need to search for trending and new products and market them well through sponsored posts on Amazon. Or, you can resell a product from your local store. Reselling a product will help you price the product affordably and still book a good profit margin.

2. Self-Care and Beauty Products

With the Covid 19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions worldwide, consumers have developed more self-care and beauty routines to boost their mental health and personal wellness.

Influencers on multiple social media platforms have started marketing beauty products as an integral part of their self-care routine. This has caused a spike in demand for such products.

Once you are an approved seller in the beauty category of Amazon, you can add multiple products to your business page. You can start your brand and make handmade products or source them from a reputed beauty and skincare company.

The best way to get more sales in this category is to bundle your products together and sell them as a combo to help complete a skincare regime.

However, you should ensure that you use and sell trusted products to your customers. Repeating customers is the key to the success of your business model. If you are preparing these self-care products yourself, you should mention all the ingredients clearly in your product packaging and the description.

3. Fitness Apparel and Shoes

Fitness apparel and shoes are other popular categories on Amazon that receive sales all around the year. When people buy fitness equipment, they are also searching for new and affordable fitness apparel to wear to their gym or for a run around town.

It is also easier to launch your fitness apparel brand with Amazon. You can market your apparel through Instagram, Facebook, or Tik-Tok and redirect your customers to Amazon. Do you remember the leggings that became popular on Tik-Tok? Well, the creator has sold thousands of pieces to date just with the power of social media.

If you can launch a unique product with a new marketing strategy, you can use social media platforms to boost your Amazon sales.

4. Books

Books have always been popular with Amazon customers. Amazon started as an online bookstore selling books to its customers. The popularity of this category has continued to grow over the years. Selling books can be a profitable niche for your Amazon business store.

It all depends upon how you source your product. If you can get a bundle of books for $1 from your local reseller stores, then you can clean and sell them on Amazon at their original price. This leaves you with a considerable profit margin.

However, it would be best to source your books at the right time, like during the box clearance sale. If your goal is to maximize the revenue of your business, then books deserve a solid corner on your Amazon business seller account.

12. Buy and Sell Domain Names

Buying and selling domain names is another popular online business idea that you can execute with a very low investment. Also known as domain flipping, this business model is based upon searching for creative and high-value domain names, buying them for a low price, and then reselling them for a profit.

Around 100,000 domain names are registered every day throughout the world. There are different extensions when it comes to domains. You can buy a .com, .net, .io, .co or other country-specific extensions. The value of your domain name varies based on its extension.

The .com domain extension is undoubtedly the most popular and resells for top dollar.

Most popular top-level domains worldwide as of January 2022

There are different platforms where you can buy a domain on their retail value and, at times, a little lower than that. Before you decide to buy a domain name, you should compare its price on the best domain registrars such as Namecheap or GoDaddy.

Figuring out what domains would get you profit can be a difficult task. You need to figure out the categories people are interested in buying. For this, you can search a few auction platforms like Sedo, Flippa, or NamePros.

Before you can start selling a domain name for profit, you need to find a creative name to register for yourself. While buying a domain name, you should remember that not all industries can make you profit.

There are a few industries where people are dying to score good domains. Finding such profitable industries can help you make a good income by buying and selling domain names.

Profitable Domain Investing Niches

Domain investing or buying a domain and waiting for the correct time to sell it for a profit is a pretty small yet diverse industry. A few niches will make you money in the coming years. By studying the future trends, you will be able to invest in domain names that will surely make you profit.

Here are a few domain investing niches where you can start searching for a creative and short domain name.

1. Brandables

Buying domain names that can be sold as a name for a brand is a pretty profitable niche. There are tons of domain flippers who have made thousands of dollars in profit by selling brand domain names.

However, this is a creative niche, and you would need to brainstorm thousands of names before you can land upon one good one, which is still available. But it is all worth the effort and price.

The best thing about the brandable niche is, the domain names are cheaper, and you can easily score one within $5 or $10.

2. New Generic Top Level Domains

The .com extension has established itself as the highest level domain, and people are paying top dollar to buy these domain names. There is always a debate whether any other extension would make it to the list.

However, investing in a few new generic top-level domain extensions like .net or .io is always good. They are related to the technology field, which has been booming for the past ten years and will continue to grow.

If you are a bit of a risk-taker, you can also invest in crypto extension domains, like .eth. While they are a little more expensive than the traditional domain names, people believe they have a bright future.

3. Technology

Technology is one such industry that has seen tremendous growth over the years and is expected to grow by another 13% by 2030. Virtual reality, augmented reality, and cloud computing are three such technology categories that people have invested in and have gained a massive profit by flipping their domains.

You can study future technology trends like blockchain or metaverse and buy domain names in that area. You will be able to flip them for far more value than you originally bought them.

4. Geo Domains

Geographical domain names have always been popular in the industry. You can buy a domain with a state or city name and add another noun. For instance, NewYorkhomes.com was sold for a few hundred dollars by the owner of NamePros.

You can search for such similar geo domains and invest in them. You can instantly put them out on auction on popular sites like Sedo or Flippa.

5. Keywords

Buying domain names of keywords with pretty good traffic on Google is a great idea to make money. The right keywords in the domain name can improve the search engine ranking of the entire website.

Finding and researching for keywords is a little easier than searching for domains in other niches. You can log into Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest and search for a random category. These platforms will let you know the most popular keywords in that category.

Additionally, you can use Google Trends to spot all the trending categories and then search for high-volume keywords.

13. Develop Niche WordPress Plugins

Plugins are a powerful tool that helps improve the functionality of WordPress. They cut out the extra time spent on coding and give customers a more personalized experience while using the platform.

WordPress is the world's most popular and widely used content management system that now powers over 55% of all the websites on the internet. More than 500 sites are created every day using the WordPress platform.

WordPress plugins are essential for websites, and developing them is a great online business idea. It is also a scalable business model. Since the software can be licensed to many WordPress users, you can earn a good passive income from your one-time effort.

There are a few different ways you can make money by developing plugins. You can either create freemium plugins for the WordPress repository. This means that the basic version of your plugin will be available for free to WordPress users. However, if they want to unlock all the premium features, they must pay a monthly subscription.

You can also develop premium plugins for third-party marketplaces. Unlike websites that require client meetings, contracts, continual coding, and development, plugins are a sort of one-and-done kind of business. Once you have developed a plugin, you can watch it sell on third-party marketplaces like CodeCanyon and generate a passive income out of them.

You can also choose to sell premium plugins on your website. When you market and sell your product on your own, you have complete control over how your product is marketed and for what price it is sold. You can also get a good insight into your audience's likes and develop future plugins accordingly.

Best WordPress Plugins Development Tool

You can create simple WordPress plugins like blocking spam comments or a complex plugin for SEO analysis. You can use a few interesting solutions to develop plugins more efficiently, no matter which type of development you choose.

1. The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate

When we talk about developing WordPress plugins, they all use a similar base structure, whether you want to create a simple or a complex one. The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate offers you a standardized foundation to use and build your custom plugins.

This platform saves you a lot of time while developing plugins for generating passive income. You can set up dedicated directories and files to reuse for all your projects. This way, you can get straight to work on your code.

2. Hookr.io

Hooks are the foundation of WordPress development. They are codes that enable you to use functions built into the core of WordPress. They help expand the platform's foundation without changing the core software.

Hookr.io contains an index of all the hook options at your disposal. The software also has a plugin for WordPress, which lets you inspect all the hooks used by your plugin. It helps you dissect how they work and improve your customized plugins.

3. PHPUnit

WordPress is powered using PHP. This means that you will do most of your plugin coding with this language. You can use PHPUnit as a framework to test your PHP code. The software helps you make sure that your plugin is bug-free and run it through some hoops before deploying it on a WordPress website.

14. Build an Online Business Around Software as a Service

Developing and selling software as a service is a profitable online business idea that you can start in 2022. This is because it generates monthly recurring revenue instead of a one-licensed fee. Selling software as a service is an excellent option for generating a passive income.

The global software as a Service (SaaS) market is predicted to be worth around $172 billion by 2022. The increased automation and agility are seen to fuel this market’s growth.

Market for SaaS Solutions

All the applications you use in your daily life, like Dropbox, Google Apps, or Leadpages, are all software sold to their customers as a service. In simple words, SaaS is online software that you pay to get access to.

To do a business out of selling software you developed, you first need to find an online service that people are willing to pay for on an ongoing basis. You can start by identifying a problem that your customer faces daily. Creating software to solve that problem is the best way to get your idea out in the market.

Just make sure that your target audience is big enough to make a good profit. Additionally, you need to ensure that your software solves a problem continuously so that you can sell it on a monthly subscription. This will help you scale up your business.

Best Software as a Service Product Ideas for 2022

Large enterprises, including Google, Apple, Adobe, and small companies or startups, have adopted the software as a service model. However, it would be best to find the perfect software idea to ensure that you make your online business a success.

While developing your software, you must remember two factors – market need and investment. If the market does not need your software to ease out their daily lives, your effort is a waste of time. When building software, you think about scaling it up and raising new capital. Your software should be able to make a profit for its investors. Here are a few SaaS product ideas.

1. Marketing Automation

The reason why innovative startup ideas fail is poor marketing. Even with all the growth in technology, fewer marketing technology solutions can help businesses target the right audience automatically.

You can use this to your benefit and develop software that facilitates different marketing and brand advocacy aspects. Your software should streamline the marketing workflow and measure the results of promoting campaigns.

Your marketing automation software should include multiple aspects of marketing, including emails, social media management, and SMS. You can start by selling your software to small companies and startups and working on the errors. Once you have developed your software and made it bug-free, you can raise capital and sell it to large enterprises.

2. Telehealthcare

Healthcare is an ever-growing market, and introducing new software in this industry can never fail you. With the recent pandemic, people were stuck in their homes and were forced to use messaging apps to consult their doctors. A telehealthcare software would allow doctors to consult their patients online.

The global telemedicine market size will reach $185.66 billion by 2026. This makes this industry a suitable category for a profitable SaaS application idea.

Your software should bring convenience and accessibility to both patients and doctors.

You can include healthcare features like remote patient monitoring, mobile health, and live and stored video conferencing. Another essential feature for this software will be data security to protect the confidential health records of your customers.

3. Social Media Management

People are hooked to their social media accounts. On average, an active internet user spends around 2 hours and 24 minutes daily scrolling their social media profiles. This is why both small and large enterprises have started using social media to market their products to their target audience.

Social media is an excellent way of getting a cost-effective promotion by interacting with their audience. You can create a social media management software that will streamline the marketing workflow for your clients. You can do it by covering multiple social media channels in one place.

An ideal social media management software should offer scheduling features to deliver the client's content to the audience timely.

4. Video Rendering and Editing

Today's world is driven by technology, and digital marketing is seeing a significant rise in the industry. Companies can generate more traffic and conversions by digitally marketing their products and services.

Today video content is the most prominent traffic booster and can generate 175% more organic traffic. Videos can also retain customers on the website for a longer time. 88% of visitors spend more time on a website that contains video content.

For boosting businesses' online presence, real-time rendering is a great option. While the field is not as widespread yet, this software would be considered one of the best technology solutions for startups in the next few years.

Rendering videos in real-time is one of the most resource-demanding computer processes. Many non-professional video editors might find rendering media with high-end, professional solutions challenging. Thus, you can create a video editing and rendering solution that is easy to use by both professionals and non-professionals.

5. Appointment Management

Meetings are a significant part of running any business. They also help to leave and maintain a long-lasting impression on your clients. An appointment management software is aimed to optimize the meetings and schedules for your clients.

According to recent market research by GlobeNewswire, the appointment scheduling software market is predicted to reach $546.31 billion by 2026. This market will continue dominating and growing as businesses scale up and adopt new technologies.

You can create an appointment management software for businesses that helps organize customer and staff scheduling. Including calendar management within the software would be a great feature. This software can help improve the workflow of a company.

You should make sure that your software aims at making the working process more flexible and efficient.

15. Sell Your Artworks and Handicrafts via Online Marketplaces

Most artists and creative people dream of turning their passion into a business. With the growth of technology, this is now easier than ever. With the help of social media, artists can connect with people from all over the world and form their communities.

Creating a profitable business by selling your arts and handicrafts is now possible. No matter what genre you choose, art is always in demand. You can always find a group of people who will appreciate your hard work and creativity and will be willing to pay the price for your effort.

Doing a business out of selling your artworks and handicrafts is a profitable online business idea, given that you can market yourself well. It helps you build a portfolio your fans can follow. Additionally, the more you sell, the more natural exposure your work gets.

Selling your art online is a scalable business as well. Suppose you are a digital artist or an illustrator. You are not limited to just one sale. This means that you can sell as many copies as you want of your artwork and generate an excellent passive income out of it.

Best Online Marketplaces to Sell Your Artwork and Handicrafts

When you want to create an online business by selling your arts and crafts, you need to find the correct online marketplace. The platform should be trusted by your customers and charge a low commission so that you can make the most profit out of your artwork.

Here are a few best online marketplaces where you can sell your art and craft.

• Etsy is the most popular website in the United States for selling and buying arts and crafts. You can sell everything on this platform, from digital paintings to handmade furniture pieces. The platform has a low commission rate and is thus preferred by artists from all over the world.
• Society6 is another popular website that sells artworks. As an artist, you can sell your digital artwork as prints, iPhone and Android cases, t-shirts, or pillow covers. If your customers like your artwork, they have an option of receiving your artwork in a variety of forms.
• Printify is a print-on-demand platform where you can create digital art and sell it through a wide range of products, including t-shirts, mugs, bags, stickers, decor, or hoodies. This platform also helps you market your custom-designed products to your customers. Printify also ships your items directly to your customers without your involvement.
• Amazon is a great marketplace to sell your digital and physical products or handicrafts. Millions of people visit the platform every day, allowing you to market your products on the platform organically. You can sell a variety of products including paintings, jewelry, accessories, or decor items. The commission charged by Amazon is also lower than other online platforms.
• CollegeArtOnline is a place for students to sell their artworks online. The platform offers lower commission charges for sellers and affordable prices for buyers. Additionally, a percentage of the cost also supports a budding artist.
• Threadless is another unique platform where you can sell your digital art. However, not every artist gets to list their art pieces on their website. Instead, you have to submit your art, which is then carefully reviewed by the experts at Threadless. Your design will be printed on their merchandise if your art is approved. You will get a fixed commission every time one of their merchandise is sold.
• Inprint is another popular online marketplace for artists where you can sell your digital art. You need to sign up on their website and submit three pieces of artwork. The experts then review your art at Inprint. Once your artwork is approved, you will be eligible to sell your pieces through their website.
• Vango is an online marketplace where you can sell physical art pieces. The platform has high standards for the quality of the art. Your art should be unique and original, easy to hang, and not be created digitally. To sell your art through their platform, you need to sign up on their website and list your artworks. You will need to pay a 20% commission to the platform and keep 80% of the profits. However, you have to manage shipping on your own. Vango would email you shipping labels to make the process a little easier and faster.

How to Choose the Right Online Business Idea to Start?

Whether you are starting an online business on the side or are leaving your current job and going all in, choosing the right idea is the key to your success. Without a proper market and competition analysis, your business can turn out to be a blunder.

If you are going to dedicate your time to your business, you want your effort and time to pay off eventually. A good business idea and a proper plan to execute it are the foundation for your success.

Establishing an online business idea requires dedication, time, patience, and a lot of commitment. No matter how brilliant your idea is, without a proper plan, it will fail.

Here are a few factors you should consider while choosing an online business idea.

Analyzing Your Startup Investment

All businesses require investments of money and time to be successful. You need to ask yourself how much are you willing to put up for your business. It would help if you remembered not to compromise your basic needs and responsibilities while determining the amount of money you can put into your business.

Putting up a minimum amount and working towards an idea is better than investing all your savings and watching it fail. It would be best to settle on a business idea depending on your investment amount.

There are multiple online business ideas that you can start without any investment or with minimal monetary investments.

Focus on Your Skills

Before you can start working towards any online business idea, you need to identify your skills. For instance, if you are creative and good at organizing things, you can start a freelancing career as a project manager. On the other hand, if you like to paint and create handmade art, you can start by selling them on a third-party platform.

What business idea you should implement should match your skills and interest. You don’t need to be an expert right away, but by leveraging your skills and experience over the years, you will increase your chances of success.

Starting a business requires passion and a lot of commitment. If you are not interested in what you are doing, then it might get challenging to pursue your business in the long run.

Evaluate Your Business-Lifestyle Fit

Starting a business on the side means taking time off from your family and friends and investing it into your business. It would be best to determine how much time you are willing to give every week and choose a business idea accordingly.

For instance, if you are willing to give 20 hours a week to your side business, you can take up freelancing. This online business idea allows you to manage your hours and choose your clients. However, in 20 hours a week, you won’t be able to run and market a successful online store.

Analyze the Profitability

Different business ideas offer a different profit margin. Not all ideas would generate as much profit as you want them to. You need to analyze and test your idea before turning it into a legit business.

By doing proper market research, you will be able to analyze how much competition you will be facing and how much profit you can make monthly. You can also analyze competitor websites to get a rough idea about the profit.

For instance, starting a high-end blog can help generate more profit for you rather than a podcast show. This is because more people prefer reading blogs to listening to podcasts.

Analyzing Competition

Before you decide on any business idea, you need to research the market and the competition. You do not want to get into an industry with big players and is already saturated. Instead, you want a sector that welcomes new businesses and has a chance of growth.

You also need to ensure that you do not choose a business idea with zero competition. This would make it difficult for your business to succeed. Starting a business idea that nobody wants is like setting sail with a big gaping hole in your boat.

You need to select an idea that is a combination of low or fair competition and have an audience to cater to.

You can also select a niche online business idea if you think the competition is too high. For instance, if you start a blog on health and wellness, there is a chance that you might get lost in the crowd. However, if you create a blog on veganism, then there is a chance you can stand out from the crowd with your unique experiences and ideas.

Online Business Ideas FAQ

Ready to Turn Those Online Business Ideas into a Money Making Machine?

Which businesses you want to pursue would depend upon your skills and whether you wish to pursue a full-time or a part-time job.

• You can take up high-paying freelancing jobs if you have a professional degree. You can also create and sell your online courses, and run paid or free webinars.
• If you have the technical knowledge and are familiar with front-end and back-end coding, you can develop niche WordPress plugins or create and sell software as a service.
• If you want to put your marketing skills to use, you can buy and sell domain names, create an online store to sell products, start an Amazon FBA business, or start a monthly box subscription service.
• If you are looking for a more creative online side business idea, then you can sell your artworks or handcrafts via online platforms, launch your podcast show, or become an influencer on Youtube or Instagram.
• If you have the consistency to write blogs and market them consistently, then you can start your high-end blog website, a membership site, or promote products and services through an affiliate marketing blog.

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