Why I love Internet Businesses
What Other Entrepreneurs Are Not Telling You
I’ve been in the business of making money online for over three years now, and all that time, I have been learning and testing different internet business models.
I’ve started dozens of online businesses, from simple blog sites, dropshipping e-commerce sites, and Cudy Technologies.
But I have always loved creating niche websites, so I am going to talk about here today.
Why I love online businesses
There are many reasons why I love to start online businesses.
The first being that all I need is my laptop and internet connection. I can literally be at any place on earth and still run my online business.
The second reason is that most of my income is passive.
That means that once I have set up my online business, all I need to do is to keep working on it from time to time, and the money keeps rolling in without me having to work for it anymore.
Thirdly, starting an online business can be done while doing anything else in your life because of the above two points.
You can start an online business when you wake up in the morning and then go back to sleep.
Or you can start one when you are stuck in a traffic jam or waiting for a meeting to start — a great opportunity to create passive income.
Fourthly, with the advancement of technology, running an online business has become so simple now.
I don’t need to set up expensive domains or complicated hosting; many SaaS tools can help me to achieve the same effect at very low or no cost.
I can even use Google AdSense or other advertising platforms for my website. The tools that you need are available on the internet for free.
Fifthly, If you are like me, who loves to be creative, you can start an online business to show off your creativity and let your imagination run wild as you build a highly targeted niche website from scratch.
A website is like a canvas that we use to paint our creations; it is a place where we can post all our thoughts and ideas for everyone else to enjoy.
A website allows us to share our knowledge with others and educate people in whatever field we wish.
Sixthly, What is more, exciting than creating a brand new product from scratch?
What is better than creating something that has never been created before?
That’s right! Creating a brand new product from scratch and selling it for money!
With just a little bit of research and time spent creating a highly targeted niche website, you can learn how to create a product that has never been created before.
The pros
1. It is easy to start and build.
This is perhaps the easiest business to start if you are looking for a passive income.
Set-up, the website, write your first article and let it run on autopilot.
Plus, tons of online marketing resources help you build your site traffic and get it ranked on Google.
2. It is cheap to start.
Compared to other online businesses, niche sites require the least capital investment.
You can start a niche site for as little as $10 per month depending on the theme and hosting plan you choose for your WordPress site; most blog sites run on free hosting plans from popular providers like WordPress.com, Blogger, or Tumblr; while some e-commerce sites might cost you $50 or so a month if you want your own domain name and hosting plan from a reliable provider like HostGator or BlueHost.
3. You can focus on what you enjoy.
You can focus your efforts on creating high-quality content and promoting it to the right audience.
There is no need to worry about handling inventory or shipping orders; you write content and promote it to the right audience.
4. You can start small and grow big.
This is a great business model as you can start with a small, manageable site that generates just a few hundred dollars per month and then scale it up into something huge when you get more traffic or learn more about what your customers like to read about.
The cons:
1. It takes time to create high-quality content that attracts visitors in numbers.
It is not easy to create awesome content that attracts readers. Even if you already have some experience blogging, sometimes you need more time to produce quality content for your niche site.
Many times new niche sites fail because they don’t have enough traffic and sales after two or three months of launching; this might be because their site isn’t generating enough quality traffic or isn’t ranked high enough in Google search results for the target keyword phrases they are targeting with their articles (you might still be getting some traffic, but it is probably not enough to convert to sales).
2. You need a sizable audience to make any money.
If you don’t have a big audience, you won’t be able to make any money from your niche site.
It takes time to build an audience that visits your site and reads your articles, and then it takes more time to convert them into customers or subscribers.
If you don’t have a large audience that regularly reads your site, you won’t succeed with this business model.
3. It is hard to find something that nobody else has covered already.
This is one of the biggest challenges of building a niche site; coming up with something new and fresh that no other sites cover already is very hard, and then writing about it in such a way that attracts readers can be even harder (especially when you are writing for the web).
The good news: many sites cover similar topics; so if you are struggling with this challenge for your niche website idea, look for other sites in the same industry/niche as yours and see what they talk about on their blogs — chances are they might be covering some topics that you haven’t yet — then write about them in your own style.
4. You can’t just build the site and wait for traffic to come in.
Your site needs to be marketed to get a steady stream of visitors who will read your articles and hopefully become customers.
This means that you need to be active on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook; you need to find sites that are similar to yours and join their discussion forums; you need to create a mailing list (and use email marketing software like MailChimp or Aweber); you might even consider hiring an assistant or outsourcer from UpWork, Freelancer or Fiverr if you don’t have the time to do all this yourself.
Even though niche websites take more time and effort to create, they are a great way for anyone to become an entrepreneur; you don’t necessarily need a technical background or special expertise to start a niche website.
Of course, if you have some experience in copywriting or internet marketing, this will definitely help you build a successful niche site from the start.
So if you are looking for a business that is easy to start but hard to master, then this is the Internet business model for you!
About the Author
I am the Founder of Cudy Technologies (www.cudy.co), a full-stack EdTech startup helping teachers and students learn better. I am also a mentor and angel investor in other Startups of my other interests (Proptech, Fintech, HRtech, Ride-hailing, C2C marketplaces, and SaaS). You can also find me on Cudy for early-stage Startup Founder mentorship and advice.
You can connect with me on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderlhk) and let me know that you are a reader of my Medium posts in your invitation message.
