Best Internet Business Ideas for Tight Budgets

When you're on a tight budget and want to start your own business, focus on the best Internet business ideas that require little money to start. One advantage of working online is that you can accomplish a lot with just your computer and Internet access. You don't even need telephone service, unless you use dial-up Internet. If you can spare enough money to pay for hosting and Internet access (less than $40 in many cases), and are willing to work hard, you can grow an Internet business that will replace your current or former salary eventually.

Blogs have exploded all over the Internet, and few website owners lack one. It's an effective marketing tool to engage prospective customers, and entice existing customers to buy more. However, it's one more thing piled on the plates of small business owners who don't have time to keep up with one. That's where you come in.

If you have writing skills, that's an added bonus. You can write for and maintain someone's blog, for an additional source of income. Knowledge of WordPress is key, since many businesses prefer to use it as a blog publishing platform. Typical duties include scheduling posts, finding images, including relevant links and optimizing the blogs for search engines. You may also have to find and hire freelance writers to write daily posts for the blog, which means you'll need to be comfortable with project and people management.

click to enlarge

The idea is that when these articles are posted in article directories or on the website, consumers who type those same keywords in their Bing, Yahoo! or Google search will find it if it's well written, and highly optimized. The benefit to the website owner is increased traffic directly to the website, or more traffic from people clicking the link that redirects them to the website. Article writing and marketing is one of the best Internet businesses to start on a tight budget, because you only need Internet access and a word processor. You can make at least $1,000 per month and work your way up from there.

If you enjoy teaching, then you should look at online tutoring as one of the best Internet businesses you can start. Reach students globally, who need your expertise. For example, you can market yourself as a math tutor online and use email, a webcam and the telephone to tutor. It's a viable business, and the Internet makes it possible to have more choices for who you want to tutor. Let's say you want to concentrate on homeschool students; you'll be able to tutor students in many cities, if there's not enough of a market in your own town or city. Whatever area you choose, be ready to demonstrate your competency and proficiency in that area, beginning with the level of education that your audience expects.

It can be tempting to pour more money into these ideas than you need. It's hard to believe it's simple to start and maintain, and some entrepreneurs may go off on a tangent, adding too many bells and whistles. Avoid this trap, but carefully considering how you'll reinvest money into the business, and what you really need to make your business idea work.