6 Online Business Ideas to Make Money in 2018

Still struggling to make money online? Are you stomp on actualizing your online dreams?

How about if a digital entrepreneur and multi-millionaire, who has walked the path you’re about taking will take you by the hand and guide you on your journey?

Alright, in this post I want to share with you a video where Sarah, the video editor at Wholesale Ted and Mark Ling, a multi-millionaire and co-founder of SaleHoo reveal 6 online business ideas you can start today to make money online.

Enjoy the video…

Video Transcription

Sarah: Hey, guys. It’s me, Sarah, the video editor at Wholesale Ted and in this video, I’m gonna give you six online business ideas so that you can create your own small digital business. Now, of course, my subscribers here at Wholesale Ted can probably guess what some of these ideas are going to be. But I think even my subscribers might be surprised at some of these ideas, especially idea number four.

The great thing about a lot of these ideas is they require very little startup money. If you’re willing to put in the work, then you can create your own small online business as well. And I’ve actually got a special guest with me on this video today, Mark Ling. Mark Ling is a multi-millionaire who owns several successful digital businesses.

He’s also the co-founder for SaleHoo which is actually how I met him. And plus, he’s also a New Zealander like me so be aware, he also has a funny accent. Now, there are two people that have massively influenced my life. It was Ted who changed my life by teaching me the world of e-commerce and it was Mark who changed my life by teaching me the world of affiliate marketing. So I’m really excited to have him on this video today.

All right. Let’s jump straight into it…

Idea number one, start a YouTube channel

A lot of people ask me this exact question, “Sarah, if you’re a successful online seller, why do you even bother having a YouTube channel?”

Well, I’ll tell you why. It’s a form of income diversification. I learned very quickly early on that income diversification is very important, which is one of the reasons why I teach multiple business models on this channel. And I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty profitable. Every month, this channel makes tens of thousands of dollars.

How?

Well, let me tell you now. It is not from AdSense. In fact, as you may or may not have noticed, we actually have AdSense turned off so we get no AdSense money at all.

YouTube AdSense usually pays around $1 to $2 per 1,000 views. In the previous 4 weeks, Wholesale Ted had 278,000 views. If we had AdSense on, then that means we’d have made between $278 to $556.

We also regularly get emails from people that want to do sponsorships on this channel. I’ll tell you now, I always turn these down. Yes, I do promote and I recommend products on this channel but I only promote and recommend products that I use and believe in. I’m not gonna sell my soul for $250.

Given that those are the two common ways to make money on YouTube, how are we able to make tens of thousands of dollars every month with less than 100,000 subscribers and the answer is simple…

It’s through affiliate marketing.

Now, Mark is going to give you a deeper explanation as to what affiliate marketing is very shortly but let me give you a quick rundown.

Affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else’s product and if somebody purchases the product because of you, then you get a commission cut on the sale and this is usually tracked through a unique URL which shows that the person bought because of you.

For example, on this channel, we have a video which shows you how to use Jungle Scout to find great products to sell on Amazon. And in the video description of that video, we have an affiliate link to Jungle Scout. And this isn’t some big secret. In the video, I give a very clear disclaimer that the link in the video description is an affiliate link.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, honesty is the best policy. Why? Well, because when you recommend a product and you’re getting a commission cut on the sale if the customer purchases it because of you, then obviously, they’re going to become skeptical. Are you just recommending it for the money? So don’t be dishonest and create more distrust by hiding the affiliate link and pretending like you aren’t getting a commission cut for the sale.

Be upfront and honest. The other way that we create trust is that we show how we use these tools in tutorial form so that others can see that they are genuinely helpful, that they are useful, and that they are worth purchasing. Not everyone will use your affiliate link but if you provide genuinely useful advice in your video, then a lot of people will use your affiliate link as a thank you for the time and effort that you spent creating it.

Another way that we build trust is that the majority of our videos don’t even use any tools or have any affiliate links in the description. We only use tools if they are relevant to the video. We focus on providing genuinely great content. And it’s funny. If you focus on creating great content for the viewer and you treat money as a secondary concern, then what you’re gonna find is that you’re gonna make more money because when you do recommend products, people are actually going to trust you and that is actually a great lesson for anyone who is starting a business.

If you start a business on the basis of helping people rather than cheating people, you’re going to go much further. If you go and you cheat people out of some money, then sure, maybe you’ll make a quick buck but they will go and tell others and your reputation will be trashed. But if you sell and recommend products that genuinely help people and fix their problems, then not only will they go and tell others that you helped them but you will also create repeat buyers.

But, I digress.

The point here is that if you want to start a YouTube channel, do not start it with the focus being on getting money through AdSense or through sponsorships. Instead, look for more lucrative ways to monetize and usually, that means that you’re either gonna be selling other people’s products through affiliate links or, if you’re even more bold, you can sell your own products.

And, of course, don’t make crappy videos that are just designed to sell stuff. There are no shortcuts here. You have to make good videos.

All right…

Let’s switch over to Mark so he can tell you more about affiliate marketing.

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Mark: Idea number two, become an affiliate marketer. Thanks, Sarah. Yes, affiliate marketing is hugely profitable. I make tens of thousands of dollars from affiliate commissions every month. Here’s a screenshot of just one of my ClickBank accounts and as you can see, that in the past 4 weeks, I’ve made over $20,000. And in just 3 months, I generated over $47,000 from commissions selling a product that is in the supplements niche.

So, what is affiliate marketing?

Sarah touched on this briefly but I’ll explain it a bit more now. Affiliate marketing is when you don’t have your own products to sell and instead, you sell someone else’s product. And when you make a sale, you get a commission for it. So sales are tracked through a unique URL. When someone clicks on that URL, they get cookied. That cookie then tracks them and it means that the merchant can tell if somebody bought the product directly after clicking their link.

So what this means then is that you don’t need to have a product of your own to sell. You can actually start making money online by selling other people’s products. What it means is that you just need to focus on generating traffic from people who might be interested in buying the products that you are promoting.

Now, Sarah has already explained how having a YouTube channel can be one really great source of traffic but there are lots of others out there too. Some examples include Facebook advertising, Google AdWords, free search engine optimization traffic, having your own email newsletter list, social platforms like Instagram or Pinterest, and more. And you’ve got two main options. The first is that you can direct your traffic directly to an offer. For example, Sarah directs people directly to buy Jungle Scout in her video. And sometimes, like in the case of that example, it is best to do that.

But usually, it’s best to actually direct that traffic to a freebie offer like a free eBook. Let’s say then that you are really into organic gardening for instance. So you decided to promote products related to this. What I would recommend you do is create a free eBook to help people who are also interested in this.

So it might be something like “The Seven Steps to Creating an Organic Garden.” Then, when people get their free eBook, require then that they give their email address and that they opt-in to receive your newsletter series. So in this newsletter series, you should send them lots of free, helpful information about organic gardening to prove that you’re an authority and that they can trust your recommendations and to build a relationship. But, you should also use this newsletter series to recommend great products that are related to organic gardening that you think that your subscribers will like and find helpful. And, of course, when you do that, you can use your affiliate link. By instead directing traffic to your free eBook, you’ll capture their email addresses so that you can remarket to them again and again instead of just one-off, which is why this method is so powerful and so lucrative.

Sarah: Idea number three, reselling items online.

This method is really simple. It simply goes going out there and finding items in the real world that are really cheap and then reselling them on sites like eBay and Amazon. For example, this is Pokémon Leaf Green version, which, by the way, includes the Game Boy Advance wireless adapter, which is a big deal. Now, I picked this little bad boy up at a garage sale for about $30. Now, if I were to resell that on the New Zealand version of eBay, which is called Trade Me, I could get anywhere from $70 to $100 for it. Now, I don’t do this business model anymore but I like to keep these video games around for nostalgia because this was my first foray into online selling.

Now, if you go to thrift stores, to garage sales, to Craigslist, and even to buy and sell Facebook groups, you’ll often find items that are priced lower on there than their going price on eBay and Amazon. If you want to get even more sophisticated with this method, you can do something that’s called retail arbitrage. This business model is when you find items priced lower in retail stores than their going price on Amazon. You then go and buy up all the stock in that retail store and then ship it into Amazon. For example, here in New Zealand, we have some candy called pineapple lumps. Now, I can go and buy this at a supermarket for $2.99. Now, that’s in New Zealand dollars. If you convert that to United States dollars, it costs just $2.16. But on Amazon, they are selling for over $8 in U.S. dollars. Now, you may have noticed that I specifically mentioned Amazon for retail arbitrage and not for eBay and this is for two reasons.

One, there is a great culture of buying brand-new items on Amazon than there is on eBay so it means that the prices are usually higher. And two, Amazon has an amazing program called Fulfilled by Amazon. This means then that you can take the items that you’ve purchased, ship them into an Amazon warehouse, and then they will pick, pack, and ship out the item to the customer when they order it. I used to do retail arbitrage myself when I was younger. It’s something that I no longer do anymore. I explained why in my video that is aptly called “Why I Quit Retail Arbitrage.” The main reason is because of the fact that it’s not a scalable method since you always need to be sourcing items. And that’s because of the fact that you’re usually sourcing discounted stock from a store so you never know week-to-week which items are gonna be discounted in a store.

But even though it wasn’t right for me, that doesn’t change the fact that if you scale this method as far as it can go, you can still build a six-figure business. And it’s actually really easy to get started. That’s why I included it on this list of best online business ideas because of the fact that it’s very newbie-friendly. All right. Let’s move on to the next business idea and this business model has made Mark millions of dollars.

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Mark: Idea number four, create and sell your own digital product with the help of affiliates. So, remember how earlier I was discussing affiliate marketing and how you can promote someone else’s product and get a commission cut for the sale?

Let’s flip that on its head. Why not, instead of promoting someone else’s product, you make your own product and then affiliates promote it for you? That’s what I do. I have several products, one of them that I co-own is called Manifestation Miracle and it’s a self-development course and it makes me tens of thousands of dollars every single month. And the best part is I don’t have to drive traffic to it because my affiliates are doing that for me. The business model is simple. Create a great product then place it on a marketplace like ClickBank.

ClickBank is a site where merchants can list their products and affiliates go to ClickBank looking for products to promote so this is how they discover your product and how they start promoting it. If you make a great product that has a high-converting sales page, then you’ll be able to attract affiliates to come and promote your product for you.

And it’s very passive and hands-off. And get this, by having your own product, you now have a list of customers and their email addresses. So take me as an example. I have a huge customer base for Manifestation Miracle. I know that these people are willing to buy personal development courses. It means that I’m then able to use that email list to promote other self-development products to them that they’ll be interested in and it means that I’m able to use my email list, which is built for me by affiliates by promoting my products, to then promote affiliate offers and make even more money. And it’s honestly the best of both worlds and it’s a fantastic online business idea.

Sarah: Idea number five, dropshipping.

Okay, okay. Although my subscribers here at Wholesale Ted probably expected this to make the list and I can’t help it. It’s a really, really good business idea. Dropshipping is a great business model for beginners because it means that you can sell items online without having to buy them in advance. You see, you usually have to buy items in advance when you sell them online. Take business idea number three, retail arbitrage. To do that, you need to go to a retail store, purchase discounted stock, and then go sell it. But with dropshipping, it’s different. You list items that you have not already bought.

To do this, you find dropshippers and these are suppliers that, well, are willing to dropship. You see, most suppliers won’t dropship, of course. They require you to purchase items in bulk and then you go and ship them to your customer. But if a supplier is willing to dropship, then what they’ll do is let you purchase items individually and then they will ship that individual item out to your customer.

So what you do is you list items that the dropshipper has for sale but you put a markup on that price. And then when the customer purchases the item from you, you get to keep the difference in profit. One really, really good thing about this business model is that it requires very little startup money because of the fact that the customer has already purchased the item from you in advance.

Now there are two methods of dropshipping that I teach on this channel. One of them is called “How to Start an AliExpress Dropshipping Store With No Startup Money” and I’ll have a link to that video in the description below. The other method involves dropshipping on Amazon and I have a video for that, titled, “Making Money With a Dropship Business.” And, of course, I will have a link to that video in the description below.

Okay, let’s switch back to Mark so he can give you our final idea for creating an online business.

Mark: Idea number six, private labeling your own physical products.

I don’t just create digital products like courses and eBooks. I create and manufacture my own physical products too. For example, one of my products is a knife sharpening stone and another is a vegetable spiralizer.

This method is simple. You simply import products cheaply from China and you resell them on Amazon or via your own website for massive profits. By selling them on Amazon, you get to take advantage of the Fulfilled by Amazon program so you can let Amazon manage and handle the orders for you, making it very passive. The reason why it’s called private labeling is because you place your own logo and branding on the item. This increases the value of the item so that you can charge an even higher price for it. Yes, it requires you to put money upfront to buy items in advance but it has the huge advantage that you don’t need to worry about managing customers’ orders.

Plus, it’s pretty neat to be selling your own physical products with your own brand. Here’s an additional bonus tip. You can increase your margins by back-ending them to a relevant digital offer. For instance, if you were selling dog leashes, you might wanna upsell people to a dog training guide that they can purchase instant online access to. Or you may wish to affiliate to someone else’s offer if you don’t happen to have one of your own to upsell to.

Sarah: All right. Those are our six online business ideas. If you have any questions about them, be sure to ask them in the comments section below and we will answer as many questions as we can. If you liked this video, I’d appreciate if you gave it a thumbs up and subscribed to us here at Wholesale Ted for more great videos about making money online. And if you would like to start your own online business but you don’t know how, then you should be sure to download our free eBook, “How To Make $10,000 a Month Online With Dropshipping.” You’ll find the link on how to download this incredible, life-changing eBook in the video description below.

Ted: Hi there. And thanks for watching this video, created by us here at Wholesale Ted. It is our mission to help everyone start and grow their own online business. That is why we’ve created a simple eBook which shows how anyone, yes, even you, can make $10,000 each and every month with dropshipping, even if you don’t have startup money. And best of all, we’re giving away this eBook for free. And yes, we really mean absolutely free. So, if you’d like to get this potentially life-changing eBook, simply click on the link in this video description and get it now..

Click here to get started with SaleHoo

6 Online Business Ideas to Make Money in 2018 was first posted on January 29, 2018 at 8:22 am.
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