Nowadays, Internet startups and businesses leveraging the power of technology are more successful than ever before. There is a big reason for that – the customers – which are more and more present online. From search engines to social networks, there are plenty of brands online and the majority of them are successfully taking advantage of the Internet.

The reasons behind that are rather obvious. Firstly, the Internet allows every startup to work 24/7 and reach any audience online. Secondly, there are none to minimal costs of maintaining a digital presence. And most importantly, running an Internet startup business can be done by anywhere, allowing maximum flexibility on the side of the business owner.

If you are thinking of launching your own Internet startup but don’t have a clue which industry to target, we are listing each one of the best Internet business ideas for 2018 below.

1.) Start A Dropshipping Business With Shopify

If you haven’t heard of dropshipping, it is basically a practice that allows you to sell anything online. As a retail fulfillment method, you won’t keep any products in stock. Instead, you will be able to sell the products from a third party and have them shipped directly to the end customer. The goal here is to put a bigger price tag than the original one (by the supplier) and earn on the difference.

Since you are not keeping any inventory or having any transportation costs, dropshipping only requires an online shop from your side (as well as ways to get traffic to it). There are so many people who have built real fortunes from dropshipping and took advantage of the trend while connecting great products to paying customers.

If you want to learn more about dropshipping, make sure to check out our guide to dropshipping with Shopify, where we explain how to set up your own website and put your dropshipping business on autopilot.

2. Start An Amazon FBA Business

Amazon FBA, also known as Fulfillment by Amazon, is a program that lets you send inventory to Amazon warehouses where they can store your products and sell them for you. Basically, the teams at Amazon handle your inventory and can handle all customer service issues for you. Your products will be directly sold on Amazon and each time a customer chooses your product, Amazon will ship it to your customer while paying you the full amount minus some commission on their end.

The beauty of this program is obvious – you don’t need a warehouse in order to work with shipping products and you don’t need to work out shipping plans. Everything is done by Amazon. You should only care for the products and make sure that they are in demand and the ones that will potentially sell.

As for inventory, you can place it from thrift stores, used book stores, garage/yard sales or even get products on discount from major retail stores.  Check out our guide on researching the best products to sell online.

3. Build An Affiliate Marketing Website

The beauty of affiliate marketing is really simple – you get paid for referring people to a service or a product that they have bought. Nowadays, there are many affiliate marketing programs which are popular online. They are easy to use and give you access to various data, with big commissions paid on your end for each sale made (and even more for repetitive or more sales).

Some of the best ones include Clickbank, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Linkshare & Amazon Affiliate program – all of which popular and among the oldest affiliate partner networks where you can sign up, create your profile and start picking the best digital and physical products to sell, The good thing is that there will always be people looking for such digital products – and all of these networks have mastered the way of giving the best type of content to the potential customers.

Once you’ve signed up to an affiliate network, you can then start building a website.  You can use Wix or build a Worpdress blog and insert your affiliate links into your website and if someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase from the website your affiliated with, you’ll earn a commission.  If you want us to build you an affiliate website, get in contact with us and we will build a fully responsive website and create affiliate links into your website ready for you to start an affiliate website.

4. Start An SEO Services Agency

We are living in a world that is heavily influenced by the online media – and one where everyone turns to search engines for a quick dose of information. In such world, every brand wants to become more and more visible.

In case you haven’t heard about it before, search engine optimization (SEO) is a process that eventually ranks a website higher in the search engine, after following a variety of principles in order to do so. From another perspective, SEO is a costly process with a lot of agencies and teams working on it.

However, the importance of SEO is always on the rise which means that there is no business owner who couldn’t or wouldn’t benefit from it. That being said, outsourcing SEO services can be a great way to make money online. All you need to do is find a reliable SEO firm, copy their services on your website and set measurable targets.

As soon as you get yourself a solid price difference, you should start looking for clients and market everything in the right way. Even though you are outsourcing SEO, you still need to report regularly and present yourself as a reputable agency.  A great place to outsource SEO services is to look on Fiverr.  You’ll find lots of freelancers on there, which you can resell their services.

5. Sell Resume/CV Writing Services

Believe it or not, resume writing is one of the best online startup business ideas in 2018. The reason for that is simple – there are more and more people who don’t know how to write their resumes and need professional CV writing for landing jobs in their field.

A standout resume can land someone a job and make them look more professional in front of a respectable person. It can also shift their career or represent their experience in the best way possible, which is why resume writing is not anymore a privilege, but a common need.

If you don’t know how to pull this off, you can always look at some courses and see which are the best things to look out for when writing a resume. Over time (and with practice), you will eventually learn the elements that make a candidate more professional and will be able to successfully apply them.  Take a look at our recruitment website design service which you can advertise your cv writing services aswell as other recruitment related services such as charging recruitment agencies to advertise their jobs on your website.  Also checkout our tutorial on how to start a recruitment agency.

6. Teaching Languages Online

Becoming an online language teacher has made a lot of individuals successful – but most of all – gave a lot of people the chance to travel the world and work remotely. There are so many language platforms nowadays that allow you to work online as a language teacher and offer private or group language classes. The community of language learners is also big which means that there are a lot of opportunities in this market.

If you are speaking a native language other than English, you can start teaching it online and make most of your born skill. Some of the best places you can apply for a role like this include Italki, Tandem, Fluent In 3 Months, Myngle etc.

The good thing here is that you get to work with people and get to earn money from reputable language learning companies that go above and beyond their employees’ expectations. All you need is an Internet connection and Skype, no matter where you are!

7. Freelance As A Remote Technical Support/Customer Service Specialist

Full-time IT employees are nowadays a cost to many small businesses – but also big brands who would rather outsource and hire virtual workers. The truth is, remote customer specialists and technical support specialists have been a trend for companies of all sizes. They allow them to cut costs on office space, salary and other privileges – all while paying workers hourly and having customer support agents in every time zone.

If you have experience working on computers and networks and solving technical problems remotely, you can apply for a remote technical support agent. And if you don’t have experience, don’t worry – there are many customer service jobs that come with free 2-week or 1-month training so that you pick up the skill before being able to provide immediate remote assistance.

One of the best things about these jobs is that you get to organize your own time – and in a lot of cases – work whenever you are free. This can begin as your side gig in 2018 and eventually grow to your primary source of income.  You can signup with Upwork as a freelancer and apply for any type of project depending on what skills you have and work the hours you want.

8. Selling Your Handmade Crafts On Etsy

Etsy and ArtFire are among the biggest online sites dedicated to helping sellers promote their crafts and connecting them to customers from all around the world. From crocheted blankets to unique painted glassware, rings or accessories – the opportunities for selling your own handmade crafts are endless.

Whether you start as simple as designing bracelets or as complicated as establishing your unique brand and having a line of different products, there are so many customers looking for online crafts who will probably buy from you. The good thing about this Internet startup business idea in 2018 is the word-of-mouth marketing – which spreads like wildfire once someone notices your work.

Eventually, you can turn your store into a full-time gig and devote on your crafts fully. However, selling your handmade crafts on Etsy can certainly start as a side gig with low to no startup costs at all.  Once your established you can then start your own website and sell your products online using Shopify.

9. Renting Your Room On Airbnb

It is safe to say that Airbnb made a real revolution over the past decade – connecting travelers to hosts and making them see the actual difference of staying in a place where they can feel like a local. This is everything that Airbnb tries to promote – and what helped many people to make money online by renting their rooms, spare apartments or weekend houses to complete strangers.

If you are wondering how this works, just head to Airbnb and you will see the variety of properties in your town. All you need to do to list yours is sign up to the platform, list your space and start earning the moment you have new reservations.

For many, Airbnb is the source of main and regular income. As you grow your business, you will likely have the budget to rent another space and rent it to Airbnb travelers too. Entire homes can go for hefty prices which can reach up to £1000 per night which means that there is a solid price arbitrage that you can benefit from and take your Airbnb business to the next level. Alternatively, you can start a short-term rental agency and manage numerous properties with the same goal.

10.Become a Virtual Assistant/Task Manager

Last but not the least is the role of a virtual assistant (VA) or task manager. If you pride yourself on your impeccable organizational skills, you can certainly benefit from this role and put them to good use by becoming a virtual assistant.

Nowadays, there are a lot of people who practically work as online assistants to business owners, companies and teams remotely. Some of the most popular websites where you can apply for virtual assistant and task manager jobs include TaskRabbit or Zirtual – both of which great places where you can sign up for tasks that you want to complete such as data research etc.

Eventually, you can take your virtual assistant expertise to the next level and specialize in one task – becoming a professional business assistant or a business coach. Over time, you can begin building clientele and see your business grow.

A Final Word
In the end, dreaming of opening your own business begins with doing something proactive. The list above can be a great start of your successful journey and a great way to sum up your ideas and see what you can do in order to make money online in 2018 and set up your Internet business in place with little to no cost.

By focusing on your strengths, you will be able to polish your skills and get your online business started. So, all you need to do now is start researching! Good luck!