Top 5 Profitable Online Business Ideas For 2020
With the world in upheaval over the coronavirus pandemic, people have taken to the internet to find new sources of income. And much to their surprise, they realized that it’s more than possible to make a sustainable living on the web.
What’s more, it became obvious that you can run a profitable online business from the comfort of your home. Before you do that, however, you’ll need a website to call your own. Otherwise, you won’t garner any attention for your business. In all fairness, Instagram gigs don’t really require a website and can make you some money. But they’re not nearly as profitable as running a fully independent business.
Naturally, with the website comes the need for web hosting. Your site needs an actual physical server to run it, and that’s what hosting providers do for you. With a reliable offshore host such as AbeloHost at your side, you can rest assured your data is secure and stored on cutting-edge servers.
So what could you do? There are many prospective business ideas, but none of them match the current industry leaders that are hosting reselling, video and music streaming services, content platforms, and copywriting.
Top 5 Online Businesses This Year
We’ll go over each of the five online businesses and explain why they are a good choice for future webmasters.
1. Hosting Reselling
First of all, we have to clear up what hosting reselling is and how you can get started in this line of online business.
Hosting companies can opt to rent their hard drive space and bandwidth to medium size businesses that wish to offer web hosting alongside their primary service. That way, businesses can say they provide their customers with a full package of services, while in reality, it’s the hosting company that takes care of the servers.
Here’s what you need to get started:
- Find a hosting provider that offers reseller packages
- Purchase a package suited to the needs of your website
- Brand the package to target your specific audience
- Set the price of the package
- Sell hosting packages and make a profit
Your clients will never know who the real hosting provider is. You can use your own brand and act as the host. The web hosting company you choose will take care of everything else: server maintenance, infrastructure, hardware setup, connectivity, etc.
When your business expands enough, you’ll be able to purchase additional (and even larger) reseller packages to suit your needs. Then you get to increase the price of the packages you resell and make some serious cash.
Of course, since the hosting company will take care of most of the work, you need to choose your reseller partner carefully. Take a look at its uptime guarantee (accept no less than 99.99% uptime), cPanel and site builder choice, managed server options, and customer support.
2. Video Streaming
Video streaming is going to comprise about 82% of all internet traffic by 2022, according to Cisco. But you probably didn’t need some company to tell you how prevalent video streaming is nowadays. An average internet user can probably name at least five major streaming services without having to look anything up.
And while the subscription-based video streaming market is dominated by giants such as Netflix, the ad-based space is ripe for the taking. That should definitely entice you to start your own video streaming website. Before you do that, however, think about what niche you’d be most interested in and also what kind of content you’d like to show.
You could go the path of YouTube and just have a platform where users can share the content for free. Or, there’s the Netflix way of charging subscriptions to gain access to a vast library of TV shows and movies. Depending on your approach, you’ll also get to monetize your website in different ways. Usually, the choice boils down to ad revenue, subscription-based model, and the pay-per-view model.
In any case, the process is largely the same:
- Get a domain name
- Find a reliable hosting provider
- Get WordPress
- Purchase a theme
- Customize it
- Profit
You’ll need to figure out where to get content for your new website. The more expensive, but entirely legal option is to buy the rights for the content you want to show. If you’d like to “sail the high seas,” you have to go offshore and get a host that will ignore the swarm of DMCA claims you’re going to receive.
Source: Image from Creazilla.com
3. Music Streaming
Music streaming revenue is expected to reach $16,39 million by the end of 2020. After that, it’s likely to keep growing, so make sure to take your place next to the industry giants such as Spotify and Apple Music.
Starting a music streaming service is in many respects similar to running a video streaming service, and the same goes for monetization options. The difference is that music streaming is cheaper to get into, mostly since you don’t have to worry about TV shows and movie windowing.
You will need a domain, hosting, and a WordPress theme that’s easy to set up. Just like in the case of video streaming, you need to figure out how to provide the content. Will you allow each user to upload their own content, or have total control over what music people will be able to listen to?
4. Content Platforms
Content platforms allow you to create a hub for like-minded individuals to enjoy. In the age of oversaturation of information, it’s more difficult than ever to find exactly what you need. What’s more, it’s extremely difficult to find content that’s presented in such a way that’s easy to consume.
To achieve that, you’ll need to create a website that’s unique, has valuable content, and easy navigation. Think about how Yelp managed to gather the users around a simple platform that allows them to see restaurant reviews. It makes it highly convenient to find a place to eat, which is exactly what a hungry person will be looking for. “This can be a combination of what you are currently interested in while attempting to fill a hole that hasn’t already been filled. Find a niche that has an audience (hopefully growing), measure the current content that is provided, and see whether you could add value to that audience by providing new, fresh content,” stated Ben Tejes, Co-Founder and CEO of Ascend.
Think about what you can do for a specific audience, and reel them in with the ease of access, quality of information, and concise data.
And while content platforms don’t require very high content output, they do come with fairly high marketing costs. Prepare to finance a marketing campaign, as you’ll be in constant need of new customers.
5. Copywriting
The last one on this list is the most common online business in 2020. Copywriting involves, as the name suggests, writing of a sales copy with the goal of promoting a product and increasing brand awareness. Just like every website needs content, so does every product need someone to promote it and make it stand out.
For that very reason, starting your own copywriting service can be quite a lucrative venture. First of all, you should decide if you’d prefer to have an in-house team of writers that you can count on, or outsource copywriting to freelancers online.
In any case, you should create a loyal and hard-working writer base that you can call upon for their writing services. Long-term relationships are crucial in this line of work, and you’d do well to look for writers who recognize that.
When you have a ready team of writers, set the pricing of your services. Make sure to divide the service into several tiers, making it accessible to clients with smaller projects. After that, it’s all about finding clients and improving upon the service you provide.
Conclusion
Starting an online business is quite easy these days, and also quite cheap at that. There’s no reason not to try running your own website — it could be the best thing you’ve ever done.
If you have an idea and want to make it a reality, get a website to call your own and find someone to host it. The rest is up to you!
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