If you are passionate about online business and enjoying to work from home or from anywhere you want, anytime like I do, you gotta love these online business ideas that I think have a good chance to be turned into successful online business ventures that don’t require you plenty of startup capital (some of the ideas below can even be started with no money.)
Top 10 online business ideas for 2012
1. Copywriting
2011 is the year of Google Panda updates. As many big sites were hit by the updates, a website’s content quality is now even more important than ever. Freelance writers and copywriting companies are now on demand, despite the competition. In 2012, writers play even bigger roles in providing online businesses with fresh, quality content that actually pleases the search engines.
2. Social media management
Social media marketing is important, but social media management is very important today. Businesses seem to have a difficult time in managing their social media profiles. This is a huge gap in the market – you can start pitching businesses running multiple social media accounts to offer them your service in managing theirs, including updating and engaging friends and followers.
3. Search engine optimization/link building
The old, reliable service: SEO/link building services. As more businesses acknowledge the importance of web presence, there will be near-unlimited supply of websites that need your SEO/link building services to get them ranked well on search engines. You can offer vast array of SEO/link building services, such as social bookmarking, directory submissions, press release submissions, article submissions, link wheel creations, link exchanging, etc. – the list can go on and on; big opportunities.
4. Online/social reputation management
Did you know that businesses are now seeking partners and potential employees via their social media profiles? You need to get your social media profiles in shape – otherwise, you are missing big opportunities. In another case, your business was hit by an unhappy employee or customer who rants online, damaging your brand reputation. Those are the examples of how important managing your online/social reputation is today. Starting an online business offering services to manage clients’ online/social reputation would potentially achieve a big success.
5. Buy and sell websites
Buying old, abandoned sites and then redesign and rework to be sold later; starts a website, grows it and sells it for profits; both are the typical activities of buying and selling websites. It’s a classic, lucrative market, indeed.
6. Mobile apps marketing services
There are more than 500,000 mobile apps in Apple store alone; Android app counts are catching up – competition among apps is inevitable. That being said, there’s a huge opportunity for budding entrepreneurs in mobile apps marketing, offering app marketing and promotion services, such as press release services, blog posting, forum posting, and all other app promotion activities done online.
7. Video marketing services
Did you know that YouTube and other video sites get huge traffic and will be major sources of traffic in the near future? Video marketing is undeniably crucial in business marketing strategy. Video creation and promotion services are well sought after services – grab the opportunity today, not tomorrow!
8. Online talent search
Facebook, YouTube and other social sites is the place to discover new talents – Justin Bieber’s popularity today starts from his YouTube video. There are so many other talented people showcasing their skills on YouTube, DeviantArt, and other general and niche online communities. Filling in the gap by offering online talent search service can only mean profits.
9. Crowdsourcing/crowdfunding
Outsourcing is no longer that effective; enter crowdsourcing (and its powerful sister, crowdfunding.) Need a logo for your startup? You can get design ideas on 99Designs.com, a design crowdsourcing site; need capital to launch your product? Try KickStarter, a popular crowdfunding site that can get people fund your project starting from $1; and many more examples. Starting a crowdsourcing site can be very lucrative, making money via membership fees or commissions.
10. Online brokerage
The Internet supposedly eliminates intermediaries/middlemen; but the facts today show the otherwise. With the exponential growth of new products and services online, businesses need someone/a company to recommend them what they need from the seemingly unlimited number of apps and solutions – thus born a new breed of intermediaries or brokerages. If a business need the right cloud services for them, just go to a cloud brokerage company and everything will be taken care of; need the right advertising partner? Just go to an ad brokerage agency to take care of your need. The opportunities are huge.
So, there you go – Noobpreneur.com’s top 10 online business ideas for 2012. Do you have more unique and/or lucrative ideas to share? Please do so by leaving a comment on this post.
Ivan Widjaya
Lucrative online business ideas for 2012
Image: Rob Pearce/Flickr