17 Easy Online Business Ideas You Can Start Today

I'm Donny. I'm a world traveler, investor, entrepreneur, and online marketing aficionado who has a big appetite to compete and disrupt big markets. I thrive on being able to create things that impact change, difficult challenges, and being able to add value in negative situations.

Starting a podcast
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Maybe you've been considering an online business for years, or maybe it's a new daydream of yours. Either way, you can make starting an online business a reality in 2025. There's more opportunity than ever, so now's the time! 

Here are 17 of the best online business ideas you can start in 2025:

  1. Make money from blogging.
  2. Sell your art online.
  3. Flip thrift store finds.
  4. Start a podcast.  
  5. Create and sell handmade goods. 
  6. Become an SEO consultant.
  7. Create an online tutoring business.
  8. Become an affiliate marketer.
  9. Start a travel planning service.
  10. Charge for video production.
  11. Become an online fitness coach or nutritionist.
  12. Teach a language.
  13. Set up an e-commerce store.
  14. Become a YouTuber.
  15. Start a dropshipping store.
  16. Self-publish a book or ebook.
  17. Become a virtual assistant.

Keep reading to discover which of these ideas is best for you, your skillset, and your lifestyle. With your new online business, 2025 will be your year!

1. Make Money from Blogging

If you're willing to put in the work, you can turn your style, cooking skills, travel know-how, or other skills and interests into a money-making business by blogging about it. 

You'll need to post consistently, and your content will need to be engaging and educational enough to keep people's interest. Still, if you care about what you're posting and sharing, you’ll build readership. 

For a blog to be a business, you'll need to sell something through it. You could sell physical products that align with your audiences, such as a special hot sauce you developed if you're running a cooking blog or an accessory you designed if you have a fashion blog. 

You can also sell digital products like templates, photo presets, or designs. You can even charge for subscriptions through a platform like Patreon

Why I like Launch Your Blog Biz:

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2. Sell Your Art Online

If you're a painter, photographer, musician, writer, or any other kind of artist, you can build an online business where you turn your masterpieces into revenue

You can sell prints, canvases, and posters if you're a painter or photographer. Not only will you be making money, but you'll also have the pride of knowing that your work is hanging in someone's home. 

Musicians can sell their beats, samples, or songs as digital products. Writers can sell prints of their work online or offer personalized writing services, such as selling custom poems.

Why I like Masterworks:

Masterworks allows you to purchase shares in great masterpieces from artists like Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Andy Warhol, and more.

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Min. Investment: $1000 @ $20 per share x 50 shares

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3. Flip Thrift Store Finds

If you're a fashionista who doesn't mind digging through endless boxes and racks of clothes to find great deals, then you can sell your finds online. If you score on a designer product and clean it properly, you'll likely make a profit. 

Another way to turn your thrifting obsession into an online business is to alter the clothing in some way that would increase its value. You can turn a plain Hanes sweatshirt you bought for $3 from Goodwill into something worth $25 to some consumers simply by ironing on a patch. 

If you can embroider or sew, your opportunity to make money from flipping second hand clothes will be even greater.

Recommended Platforms: Etsy, eBay, or Amazon

4. Start a Podcast

Podcasts are growing in popularity, so if you have a good idea and a quality microphone, why not give podcasting a try? 

If you're in the market for a microphone, I like this TONOR USB Microphone (available on Amazon.com) because of its cardioid pickup pattern that captures clear and smooth sound, as well as its easy installation. 

You'll need to do everything you can to stand out from the crowd, though. According to Podcast Insights, there are now approximately 2,000,000 podcasts, with over 48 million episodes.

To promote your podcast, you should encourage listeners to leave you a review and share your show with their friends and family. 

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5. Create and Sell Handmade Goods

If you're crafty and have an idea for a product you could make and sell, why not start an online store? Thousands of artists make money from selling their handmade jewelry, furniture, cloth dolls, etc., online. 

You can use platforms like Craigslist or Etsy, but to go the extra mile, creating your online store will make it easier for you to track orders, and you'll have more control. 

One benefit of this online business is that you get to determine how much or how little you work. If you have limited time, you can put a limit on how many orders you accept per month, or if you want to take some time off, you can simply stop accepting orders for however long you need.

6. Become an SEO Consultant

If you're a pro at search engine optimization, there are plenty of companies who are willing to pay you for your expertise. You can sell your services and help companies by updating their blog, editing metadata tags, and turning searchers into customers. 

A good SEO strategy can drastically change how a company's online presence appears to people who search for information on google, influencing how much traffic their website receives and how much business they receive.

7. Create an Online Tutoring Business

You can start a tutoring business if you have the time and technology to call or video chat clients. You can choose to tutor a particular subject, or if you're particularly skilled with standardized test-taking, there's a big market for tutoring students taking any of these tests, especially the SAT or ACT. 

You may not make a fortune immediately, but the better your results and the happier your clients, the better your reputation will be. Once you've got the reviews and results to back you up, you can charge more per hour, session, or package.

Recommended Platforms: Tutor.com, TutorMe, & Classgap

8. Become an Affiliate Marketer

If you have a high social media profile or lots of followers, many companies are willing to pay you to highlight their products on your profile. 

Be aware, though, some followers are turned off by too much advertising, so if your entire feed becomes posts trying to sell products, you may lose some of your followers and, therefore, some of your sponsorships or brand deals. 

One way to avoid this is to be creative in how you highlight your products. Additionally, you should ensure you have plenty of other, non-marketing content available to your followers.

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9. Start a Travel Planning Service

If you love to travel and don't mind dealing with the tedious details and logistics of a travel itinerary, or if you've traveled a lot and have a network of connections around the globe, you can start charging others for your travel planning expertise. 

You can charge people for helping them organize every aspect of their trip, from booking flights and hotels to coming up with things to do. Many people want to travel, but are intimidated by currency exchange, foreign foods, safety concerns, or other aspects of travel.

By helping them navigate these unfamiliar waters, you get to help others go on the journey of their dreams and make some money doing so. 

10. Charge for Video Production

Video is becoming one of the most popular communication mediums for businesses of all types. If you have video filming and editing knowledge and skill, you can build a clientele of customers and businesses eager to have quality and engaging video content on their websites. 

You can take your skillset a step further by creating video production workshops and tutorials and charging for those, too.

Recommended Platforms: Fiverr or Upwork 

11. Become an Online Fitness Coach or Nutritionist

People are always seeking to improve themselves, so if you have the credentials to help others in their wellness journey, there's no law saying you can't do this online.

You can film personalized workouts for clients and send the videos to them, or you can use video chat to join your client virtually as they work out. 

Additionally, there’s a lot of contradictory and confusing advice online about nutrition, so more people are turning to professional nutritionists for personalized guidance.

You can charge for personalized nutrition plans and consulting and help others become their healthiest selves.

12. Teach a Language

You can use online communication tools, like Zoom or Skype, to connect with others who want to learn a language you're fluent in. You can package your hours into teaching sessions, charge per session, and you have an online business! 

Ask your clients to leave you positive reviews so you can increase your prices as your reputation improves. If you're bilingual, trilingual, or more, you can start making money online in no time.

Recommended Platforms: Verbling or italki 

13. Set Up an E-Commerce Store

There are thousands of e-commerce websites and online stores, so making money this way requires hard work and marketing skills. However, if you put in the time and the effort, an e-commerce store can be a great way to make some income. 

First, you'll need to find a profitable market and calculate the costs of manufacturing and distributing that product. 

Another thing to consider is if there is or will be growth in your particular market in the future. For example, it's probably not a good idea to start an e-commerce store that sells VCRs because most people don't own a VCR player. 

Keep in mind, though, that just because a product is "old" doesn't mean that the market is past its prime. A great example of this is record players and records.

Even though this method of listening to music is relatively old-school, record sales have been increasing in the past few years and don't show signs of stopping. 

Recommended Platform: Shopify

14. Become a YouTuber

People love videos, as evidenced by YouTube's popularity and the growth of other video-sharing platforms such as Tik Tok, Snapchat Stories, and Instagram TV. YouTubers can make money from ad revenue and sell products to their audience. 

Another way to use YouTube to make money is to use it to boost your other online business. For example, if you have an online store that sells handmade goods, you can make YouTube videos that show your process or your customer's reaction to your product.

Alternatively, if you have a blog, you can use YouTube to drive traffic to it. 

15. Start a Dropshipping Store

A dropshipping store is a store that doesn't keep the products they sell in stock but instead purchases the item from a third-party supplier. That supplier also packages and ships the product.

This way, your cash won't get tied up in inventory, and you don't need to have a physical warehouse. Dropshipping is a good option for entrepreneurs because it requires less capital, and it's relatively easy to get started. 

You won't purchase any products until you've already made a sale, and you can run your business from anywhere, as long as you've got an internet connection. 

There are some disadvantages to dropshipping, though. The first is that there are usually lower profit margins than you hope. Because it's easy to start a dropshipping store, there’ll be lots of competition selling items at rock-bottom prices. 

Customers will compare their price to yours, and you'll potentially lose their business. Additionally, keeping track of inventory is a challenge. Finally, any error made by the supplier will be blamed on you.

Recommended Platforms: Amazon or Shopify

16. Self-Publish a Book or Ebook

If you're a writer, there's a good chance you've thought about publishing a book someday. Luckily, nowadays, you don't have to wait for an agent or publisher to notice you and take a chance on your work.

Now, there are plenty of options for self-publishing your book or ebook, including Amazon Kindle, Blurb, and CreateSpace

If writing is your passion, you can make money by doing something you enjoy. If you want to publish ebooks, you won't need to worry about printing or shipping your work.

You just need to write it and market it. Then, not only will people be reading your writing, but they'll be paying you, too! 

17. Become a Virtual Assistant

If you’re super organized, you should consider becoming a virtual assistant. You can help entrepreneurs, businesses, and executives organize their lives by scheduling appointments, conducting research, and managing customers. 

Over time, as you develop your strengths and determine which clients you like working with, you can evolve your business to cater to those clients and companies you enjoy working for.

Additionally, there's potential for business growth. If you've experienced success on your own, you can grow your business into a network of virtual assistants.

Hiring and training assistants to work under you will allow you to accept more clients and increase profits. 

Recommended Platforms: Upwork, Indeed, Flexjobs

The Bottom Line

Getting starting with a new online business is one of the most exciting things you can do in 2025.  Not only will you learn new skillsets, build new friendships, and gain a vast amount of business experience, but you will have the opportunity to earn a passive income stream from your business.

So pick one of the online business ideas above and get started on your journey to financial freedom and making money online.

I'm Donny. I'm a world traveler, investor, entrepreneur, and online marketing aficionado who has a big appetite to compete and disrupt big markets. I thrive on being able to create things that impact change, difficult challenges, and being able to add value in negative situations.

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