The 9 Lucrative Online Business Ideas to Start in 2024

Starting a digital business offers a lot of flexibility, extensive reach potential and lots of opportunities but one of the keys steps to build a thriving business online, is to start with a lucrative online business idea.

It is crucial you start with a profitable business idea from the scratch is because all business ideas are not the same. There are some ideas that are very lucrative and there are also a number of others that are not.

To become successful in your online business journey, you have to be able to differentiate between a potentially successful business idea and find your ways to get started with just the right ideas.

What is a Lucrative Business Idea?

A lucrative business idea is an idea that has much potential for growth compared to other business ideas. It is a business idea that can generate sustainable profit and returns on investment for the business owner.

Beyond having a potential for growth, for an idea to be deemed a profitable business idea, it must have a clear market demand, including a history of profitability for other businesses among other requirements.

While some of us were not able to spot potentially lucrative business ideas when we first started out, over the years we’ve garnered experiences that’s helped us in identifying and spotting out profitable business ideas for beginners especially in Africa and most developing countries. And I’ll be sharing some of these ideas in this guide.

Influencer Marketing Services

Influencer marketing is one of the top lucrative online business ideas you can start as an entrepreneur.

It is largely a social media focused marketing business where a brand leverages endorsements, recommendations and the influence of popular personalities with a dedicated number of followers, to promote their services or product to a specific target audience.

With the advent of social media and continuous growth on platforms like Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube etc., this is practically one of the easiest and profitable online business ideas you can actually start as a beginner.

To be successful as an influencer, you will need a decent number of followers who’ll be very important in your bid to get clients.

And to get a good number of followers, you’ll have to create content consistently. Promote the content as well as use some specific social media strategies to attract traffic.

Usually, what makes influencer marketing stand out is that in some niches, you don’t need a very high number of followers to start promoting content and getting paid.

In some niches you can start as a micro influencer with less than 10,000 followers. So, getting started as an influencer is not necessarily hard. And like most online businesses, you can start with or without any capital.

But one of the cons of influencer marketing is that you need to be able to create content. A whole lot of them.

And for your content to be successful, you have to know your audience specifically, know the kind of content that matters to them and then focus on creating that kind of content consistently.

Selling eBooks Online

Self-publishing is another lucrative online business idea you can start with little to zero capital. One outstanding thing about this business is that It doesn’t need you to be available all the time.

With the availability of the internet and search engine tools like Google, Bing etc., writing and selling books online is not as difficult as it used to be, many years ago.

To get started with this business, you’ll have to research for popular and interesting topics that will interest a broad range of people.

You can do this using keyword tools like Google Keyword Tool, Ahref, Wordstream Keyword tool, Ubersggest etc, to find topics people are already interested in, based on their search intent.

Besides using the Keyword tools, you can also watch out or trends and try out platforms like Amazon to search for popular and trending books. This will give you a clue on what works.

As soon as you get an idea on what will sell, you can then go and make your own research, write a book on the subject matter and sell them online, either on your own website or on popular ebooks publishing platforms like Amazon.com, Okadabooks etc.

With a handful of books that contain valuable information, you can end up starting a profitable passive business that will survive whether you’re around or not.

PS: Although being a subject matter expert comes with additional benefits, you necessarily have to be an expert on a subject matter before getting to write a book on it. You want to write a book that has valuable information targeted at a specific audience promoted aggressively. And of course, you can build your expertise along the way.

Social Media Management

Social media management involves managing, promoting and posting content on the social media on behalf of another brand or entity. It’s one of the fastest growing and lucrative online businesses at the moment.

What sets it apart as a lucrative online business idea is that in most cases, you don’t need to have a specific degree to become a social media manager.

Most of what you’ll need is a good skill of how the social media works and some insights on strategies to promote a social media handle both organically and otherwise.

Another good thing about this business is that its flexibility allows you to manage more than one social media handle at a time thus making it possible for you to earn even more.

To become a social media manager, you need to be social media savvy, and also, well grounded in content creation and engagement with client’s audience. But, these are things you can always learn about.

You can take up our social media marketing course to learn the nitty gritty of social media management, get mentorship and build your brand as a social media manager or you can head over to start learn the skills and get started on your own.

Freelance Graphics Designing

Supposing you have Graphics Design skills, becoming a Graphics Designer could be just the best lucrative online business idea you need to get started, any time.

The reason is not far-fetched. Graphics Design is a high demand skill and it’ll continue to be so, right into foreseeable future. So, the smart step to take is to key into this niche if you already have the skills.

Where you don’t have the skills, you can pay to learn and get all the basics in a short period. Or you can also learn graphics design using free platforms like Udemy, Coursera or even Youtube.

Alternatively also, you can start your designs using templates from platforms like Canva.

Although these platforms come with their own limitations, you can always get started here while learning more and achieving better graphics design skills so you can use even more advanced platforms like Corel Draw, Illustrator, and Photoshop etc. That’s where the real money stays.

Virtual Assistance Services

With extensive growth internet penetration around the world, a lot of brands are turning their attention online.

And too many times, some of these businesses are actively in search of people who could assist them online while they focus on other things.

This assistance could involve the need for experts that can take care of specific part of their business like email marketing, creating content, social media posting etc.

This automatically makes virtual assistance services one of the most lucrative online businesses you can start right now. With your expertise and skills, you can set up yourself to provide these services for clients at a certain fee.

To get started and maintain a consistent level of clientele however, you need to possess the expertise and skills so you can deliver the services as an expert.

Also, one thing about virtual assistance services is that it can come with a handful of closely related services in one package. This can be seen as an advantage you can use to promote your services.

It can also create some disagreement with your clients if it’s not clearly defined. So, you want to be very sure about the kind of services you want to package for a specific client as well as the extent of your responsibility and limitations.

Content Writing Services

With the advent of digital marketing, the demand for content marketing experts and content writers is at an all-time high.

This makes it a good time to start a business around content writing as a service. And in fact, since a lot of individuals are already keying into this lucrative online business, you can do just the same.

To start content writing as an online business, you need to be able to create engaging and value loaded content that will create the right outcomes for your client.

Where you don’t have the requisite skills, sign up for our Content Marketing College to get all the requisite skills and mentorship that will get you started.

If you already have all the needed skills then you can get right in, start your content marketing services as a business and make money online.

One thing you need to keep in mind about content writing services as an online business is that some niches may need different writing skills and writing styles so, to succeed in these niches you’ll need to master the style.

For this reason, as you continue to grow, you may want to work on focusing on a specific niche so you can create content for people in that niche.

Launch an Online Shop

Recently, the global surge in the ecommerce industry has not just been unprecedented; it has brought about a lot of billionaires and multi billion dollar companies like Amazon, Alibaba, Jumia etc.

While you may not necessarily become the next Jeff Bezos or even plan to become a Jack Ma, starting a digital retail business is one lucrative online business idea that can help you earn a decent side income and achieve your dreams.

The good thing about starting an ecommerce business is that unlike a physical shop, you don’t necessarily have to be present to run your business all the time. So, with this out of the way, you can still save a lot of time to try out other things.

However, to get started with an online shop, one mistake you have to avoid is buying and selling random products that picks your fancy. This might affect your sales to a large extent.

Instead of this, you want to run some research on products that are in high demand within your geographical location or target audience and then work on selling this kind of products only.

Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping is a business model in which a business does not keep a product it sells in stock instead, it pays for the product where a buyer orders for it and then the seller ships to the buyer.

With dropshipping, you don’t need to have the products you want to sell in stock, before you begin to sell them. This makes drop shipping not just a lucrative online business but one business idea you can start even without a large startup capital.

Sounds fair right?

Just like ecommerce, to be successful with drop shipping, you have to know exactly the kind of products that sells. So, you have to get started with a research about these kind of products, depending on your niche and audience.

After that, you need to choose the right dropshipping company that has the kind of products you want and are flexible enough to meet your needs.

Start a Blog

Starting a blog can be quite demanding. And depending on your blog, it can take quite some time to start earning income as a blogger but, starting a blog is still a very reliable and lucrative online business that can get you a decent passive income.

To be successful as a blogger, you need to choose the right niche, identify your audience and then create a valuable content that will attract the kind of traffic that will drive your goals.

Before you even get started, you will need to set up a blog if you don’t have one. And then get to create content and promote your content as widely as possible.

To make money blogging, you’ll need a large traffic and a good number of readers. And for you to get this in place, you need to create content consistently.

That said, there are also a handful of strategies you can use to make both direct and passive income from your blog which includes the use of Advertising banners, Google Adsense, Affiliate Marketing, Sponsored Posts among many others.

Here’s a complete guide on how to start a blog and make online.

Final Words

As you can see, there are so many lucrative online business ideas out there which you can get to choose from, start and begin to earn some income online. However, like I mentioned earlier, you really can’t use all these businesses at the same time.

To be successful with your business, you want to figure out what’s right for you based on your expected outcomes, market demand and supply, available resources and your own personal realities among others.

After that, as soon as you choose your preferred business options, work on getting to know as much as possible about the business before you get started.

And finally after you get started, focus on building a brand that stands out and then promote your business effectively.

Remember, there may be situations where things don’t get to work out as expected at the initial stages. Do not get discouraged or give up easily. Stay focused and keep doing your thing until you get to achieve your expected outcomes.

So, now that you know about all the important business ideas you can start today, head over here to learn smart digital skills that will sett you apart, and get all the mentorship you want when you signup and reach out to us here.

Now, it’s over to you. What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to starting an online business? Share your comments below.