There is no denial of the fact that the Internet has become more of a permanent fixture in the everyday lives of every people today. It offers a lot of scope for small business owners with low or no capital to make big bucks. All they need is passion, proper planning and persistence.
However, one question may come up in your mind and that is which the best business model? Well, you are requested to take some time to consider the best online business model to showcase your new idea as well as increase your odds of success dramatically.
Typically, there are three basic business models of online businesses that you can choose from according to your vision and mission. These models are:
- Selling a physical product
- Selling a service or
- Selling a digital information product.
However, these specific business models will require some amount of capital for manufacturing the physical product, storage, and shipping. If you do not want to get involved in such hassles and even do not want to provide any services to others, then you can try out another form of online business called affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is becoming very popular gradually and there are several other forms and names having almost the same type of service with a little bit of difference.
Selling physical products online
This is the first thing that comes to the mind when people consider making money online. Either they sell their own stuff to different customers or that of others but one thing is for sure that this form of business model will need a fair amount of marketing and SEO. All you have to do is:
- Create a shippable physical product and
- Choose a suitable e-commerce storefront or an auction site or any third-party site like Amazon.
There are lots of benefits of selling physical products online as compared to selling it from a physical location.
- First of all, it allows the customers to check out your product offering not requiring visiting your physical store provided that you have one which is not mandatory for such business.
- Secondly, the customers get to see all the available options including customer reviews, ingredient lists, uses and other related recipes.
- You simply have to add videos and photos of your product in use to make them understand about your product.
You may add a FAQ sections so that you can give the customers more information about the product. All these will not be provided in a brick and mortar store.
However, there are a few drawbacks to selling physical products online such as:
- You have to actually produce something
- Then warehouse it
- Then ship it and
- There is a chance of physical goods getting spoiled.
- The entire process is time-consuming.
When you want to make money by selling physical goods you will have to be ready to take on the challenge of inventory control.
- If you produce and stock too much, it will remain unsold and you will suffer loss if the product is spoiled.
- If you make too little then you may run out of stock in case there is a high demand and you will lose potential sales and clients. They will go to someplace else to look for a more reliable supply.
However, there are returns when you sell products online and the best way to sell physical products online without having to face any hassles or having to create the products is to start drop shipping business online.
Selling services online
You can also sell services online. Services can be of different types, right from repairs to loans, day care to any emergency services.
There are basically two ways to sell services online such as:
- You can use a website as the sales tool. Many offline businesses make their website as the most powerful sales tool such as just as com and other sites do. This site serves more as a company brochure and the services are delivered in person.
- You can also sell and deliver services online. These types of services include travel, entertainment and web marketing. Purchase of the service is made directly online and the vendor delivers the services through their computer.
Benefits of selling a service online are:
- It is much less expensive
- No customer has to travel to check their options
- Customers can receive lots of information.
If you have a well-built site, you can outperform your competitors through this business model quickly and easily.
Drawbacks to this process are:
- High level of competition for specific keywords
- Requires an aggressive content marketing plan.
The best way to build an audience is to make the best use of the social media.
Selling information products online
This business model is suitable for lifestyle entrepreneurs, internet marketers and others where there is no need of any overhead, staff or inventory. These products are exclusively delivered automatically and electronically. Payments and invoicing are also handled automatically by the shopping cart and payment gateway.
Information products are available in two categories:
- Downloadable material such as an e-book
- Membership sites that provides access to newspapers and magazines.
Benefits of this business model include:
- You require very few clients to be successful due to monthly or annual billing
- Once the product is created it requires very little maintenance time and
- It is a highly scalable model.
The drawbacks to this model are that you may find it a bit difficult to convey the real value of the product as there is so much free information available online and any digital content is easy to steal or copy. If you know how to protect it, you can excel in this business.
Selling information online
Lastly, you can sell information online. This is a process in which you provide information that is current, comprehensive and solves a real problem. The key to success in this model is to be very good in writing a compelling website copy.
Well, regardless of the type of business you choose, you will always need a strong content marketing strategy to successfully make money online.
Author Bio
Marvin Power is a freelance writer who has been writing for various blogs. He has previously covered an extensive range of topics in his posts, including Business, Technology, Finance, Make Money, Crypto currency, and Start-ups.
“Selling services online” is the most amazing business anyone can start! It will help a lot to earn money online. By the way, I can’t wait to try it for me. I hope it would be an amazing experience for me in the end.
I appreciate the balanced approach you’ve taken in presenting this information. It’s refreshing to see a well-rounded perspective