6 best ways to earn money online: which one is right for you?

Candidate,

By the end of today's email, you'll know exactly what kind of business to build.

I recently asked my readers "What excites you about starting an online business?" I LOVED reading the 2,000+ answers to my question, but here were a few that really stood out to me:

Click "Display Images" to see some of your comments.

What do you notice about these comments?

I'll tell you what I notice. It's the actual words people use when they talk about starting an online business:

"Freedom and flexibility!"
"Making money from home without somebody breathing down your neck."
"Control over my future."

YES! You don't have to wake up every morning to a screaming alarm, slap the snooze button, groggily stumble out of bed, gulp down a cup of coffee, and rush out the door to work. You can build a business around the lifestyle you want. A business that lets you go to the gym in the middle of the day.

Taken at 4:30pm.

Or take a long lunch because your friend is in town. A business that generates income while you're traveling (and even sleeping), like this:

$14,316 in sales from a random day earlier this year.

I can show you exactly how to do that. Not in a scammy, "make a bazillion dollars in your slippers!!" way, but in a way that's totally authentic to yourself.

How do you get started?

Let me show you the different ways you can start your first successful online business -- with my specific recommendation on the best way to earn money online.

Which online business should you start?

Should you start a dropshipping company? Software? Etsy? Online courses?

How do you know which is best?

I could give you a bunch of theory, principles, and a long history of the relative pros and cons of each. Or I can just tell you the answer:

There are 6 main options for an online business
I've systematically tried them ALL, and I'll tell you the straight truth about which is good and which is bad
As always, learn these rules. When you get more advanced, you can break them!

Your 6 options for starting an online business are: Software (including apps), physical products, ads, affiliate marketing, coaching, and online courses.

Some of these options, like building physical products, have high costs (think about the cost of materials, shipping, storage, etc.). Whereas others, like coaching and online courses, don't require storage space, shipping costs, or materials to get started.

This graph shows a quick rundown of the profitability of each business option:

What do you notice about this illustration?

Using a simple framework lets you instantly see if a business model is attractive or unattractive (most people never do this)
Online courses and coaching are both very attractive. So how do we decide?

At this point, either model is great. I love coaching, and I've taught thousands of people how to become freelancers/consultants/coaches. It is the single best way to start learning business skills.

But if you want to scale your business -- so you can create something once and profit for YEARS to come -- that's where an online business comes in.

Specifically, online courses.

Which online courses could you create? Here's where it's easy to get tripped up. "But Ramit," people say, "I'm not an expert in personal finance or finding a Dream Job. I don't know anything that people would pay for!"

Oh really?

Take a look at these 3 amazingly weird (yet successful) courses.

Toilet Trained Cat: Train cats to use the toilet. Revenue through books and courses.
The Ultimate Disney World Savings Guide: Take a vacation to Disneyworld for half the price. Revenue through ebooks.
Hear and Play: Play the piano without years of lessons and sheet music. Revenue through courses.

What are you good at? What do your friends call you for advice on? What kind of sites do you read while you're waiting to check out at the grocery store?

Notice how, at this point, we're already jumping 50 questions ahead:

"But what if I'm not sure what I'm good at?"
"An online course? But I don't have a website/traffic..."
"What kind of software should I use for..."

SLOW DOWN.

Part of trusting the system is focusing on ONE step at a time, not jumping ahead. I have a proprietary process to show you how to identify what you're ALREADY great at...and what the market will pay for.

For now, I want you to know that YES -- you have passions and experiences that people will pay for. Even if you're not the world's expert on them!

Let's take a minute and celebrate. You've already learned more in this post than in the last 3 months of reading blog after blog.

If you want to see the kind of impact that building an online business has on people's lives, look at some of these amazing businesses my students built: