Website Business Ideas for Young Entrepreneurs
Building a website like Ice Casino is a huge undertaking, but it is doable. There are many entrepreneurs who quit their programming jobs and started a casino. Do not fret if you are not a programmer; there are other types of websites that you can build as a young entrepreneur.
1. Dropshipping
What is Dropshipping? Dropshipping is a business model where you sell someone’s products. It is like being a door-to-door salesperson, albeit online.
In dropshipping, you do not buy an inventory. What you need to do is to post products in your dropshipping store. Once a customer makes a purchase, you buy that product from a supplier, and then the supplier ships it to your customer.
In short, it is a business arbitrage. How can you start your career as a drop shipper? Here is an overview of how it works:
- Find suppliers;
- Create your online store;
- Upload the products to your store;
- Advertise your business;
- Fulfill orders as they come in.
The profit you make is the difference between the supplier’s price and the price you sold the product for. Shipping is not your obligation. But in your customer’s eyes, you are the retailer. It is your responsibility to respond to customer inquiries. It is also your obligation to issue refunds and process returns.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a process where you promote someone else’s products with special links. If a person clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
What you earn in affiliate marketing depends on several factors. Here are some examples:
- Commission rate;
- Product price;
- Market and sales volume;
- The quality of your ad copy.
Affiliate Marketing is performance-based, which means you do not earn according to your effort — you only get money based on sales results. How can you start your career as an affiliate marketer? You can do this by building a website and then filling that website with content.
In a nutshell, here is how it works:
- Choose a niche or an industry that you are passionate about;
- Look for affiliate programs for that niche;
- Apply for the affiliate programs;
- Decide how you want to promote (blog, YouTube, social media, etc.)
Success in affiliate marketing depends on how you make copy or advertising material. Your main duty is to become a credible person or authority in your niche. Once you have amassed a following, it’ll be easy for you to recommend products.
Your goal is to get as many leads as you can. A lead – is a person who has an interest in the product you are promoting — do not waste your time with random advertising. Instead, focus on people who have a problem you can solve—problems that your product can solve.
3. e-Commerce
Although dropshipping is also e-commerce, the one thing that makes this different is that you are selling your own products, not someone else’s.
With e-commerce, the process is similar to what you would do in dropshipping. The first step is determining what product you want to sell. Once you are done with this step, you can now build your website.
There are many website builders you can use, but the two most popular are Shopify and WooCommerce. The WooCommerce platform is complicated to use, as you need to integrate it with WordPress. Besides, you have to buy a hosting service.
If you want to be free of technical headaches, your best option is Shopify. However, it costs a lot of money. The good news is that Shopify has everything you need to build a store from scratch. You can also get a free domain name from Shopify if you do not want to pay for it.
4. Marketplace
The last type of website you can build is a marketplace where buyers and sellers meet. It can be a little complicated because you need to process payments. In addition, you must work with an escrow financial system or company to put the money on hold while the seller is in the process of fulfilling an order.
A marketplace is like Amazon or Fiverr. Amazon is a marketplace for physical goods. On the other hand, Fiverr is a marketplace for services. It is up to you to choose which niche you want to serve. Take note that as a marketplace, you have liability if scams happen on your website.
There are many kinds of websites you can build to earn a living. If you can program a site, you can try building a forum where you can attract people to ask questions and also answer them. These forum sites are like Reddit or Quora.
The type of website you build depends on your interest and specialty. For obvious reasons, you should not build a casino website if you do not know how these businesses run.
Featured Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay
