8 Online Businesses You Can Start With (Almost) No Money

Want to start making money online but don’t have a bunch of cash to invest upfront?

You’re in luck.

There’s a lot of buzz around faceless YouTube channels, AI-generated content, dropshipping, vibe coding, and print-on-demand.

And yes, they’re all viable options.

But today we’re diving into 8 realistic ways to make money online, even if you’re not an expert, even if you’re not technical, and even if you’ve tried other side hustles and failed in the past.

These are low-cost, high-potential businesses you can start right from your laptop.

Table of Contents show

1. Amazon Influencer Program

This is hands down the easiest way I’ve ever made money online.

Here’s how it works: you request to join the Amazon Influencer program. You do need some level of social media following to qualify, but you don’t need millions of followers to be accepted.

After that, you create short video product reviews of items sold on Amazon. Amazon puts your videos on the relevant product pages, and when someone buys the product after watching your video, they reward you with a small commission.

I started by just looking around the office. I’ve got this microphone arm, standing desk, standing desk mat, ring light, teleprompter, podcasting headphones, and all sorts of stuff.

I’m over $2,000 in total earnings, including over $300 this year, and I haven’t uploaded a single new video. Imagine what might happen if you took it seriously and were consistent with creating content.

Tyler Christensen from Episode 656 has taken this way more seriously. Here’s his advice on what makes you successful as a product reviewer:

“Set manageable goals. Do five videos a week, but do that consistently over a period of several months. And then it starts to compound. If you’re only making pennies in the beginning, just know it’s a numbers game.”

Tyler shared that he did a review about six months into his journey that made him $17,000. And that product still makes him a few hundred dollars every single month. But if he had only done his first 400 videos, he never would have found that winning product.

The videos can have a really long shelf life. The stuff from previous years can still make sales. If you get something that sticks, it can drive passive income for months or years.

Tyler estimates if he stopped making videos today, he’d probably still make at least $25,000 this year just from his existing catalog.

3 Ways Amazon Influencers Get Paid:

Brand Deals: Once influencers build a solid catalog and reputation, brands reach out and pay them directly.
Influencer Commissions from Amazon: You upload review videos → Amazon places them on product pages → you earn a commission when shoppers watch your video and buy.
YouTube Ad Revenue: If you post on platforms like YouTube.

Bonus: Reselling free products on FB Marketplace, eBay, Whatnot, etc.

Earlier this year, I met a guy who every few months would need to clear out his inventory. He was getting enough products for free that he’d need to resell them to make room. So he sells them on Facebook Marketplace, on eBay, and through the live shopping app Whatnot.

2. Freelancing / Consulting

The next online business you can start for $0 is freelancing or consulting.

The premise here is really simple: Figure out a problem you can solve, then connect with people who have that problem.

Start by identifying your service. Ask yourself:

What have you been paid to do before?
What do people naturally ask you for help with?
What do you know more about than the average person?
What comes easily to you that others struggle with?

A powerful shortcut is to piggyback on popular software tools. You don’t need to be a world-class expert — just knowing more than your clients is enough.

Maybe you’re an early adopter or a power user of something like:

Kristi DaSilva from Episode 627 did exactly that. She started as a general VA (Virtual Assistant) but realized she loved helping clients build systems inside ClickUp and HoneyBook. When she niched down, her income skyrocketed:

“I went from making about $30-40 an hour as a VA, where now I charge $300 an hour for a strategy session,” she shared.

Once you know your service, the next step is getting clients. Kristi focused on YouTube, creating tutorials that built trust long before anyone booked a call. Most of her clients show up already feeling like they know her because they’ve watched her videos for years.

That’s attraction marketing: answer questions your ideal clients are already searching for, and they naturally come to you.

Other freelancers land clients through strategic partnerships. One example: Carter Osborne from Episode 601 did college admissions essay consulting and partnered with someone who handled the rest of the admissions process. She didn’t want to touch essays — so she sent him all her leads.

Freelancing is low-cost, high-margin, and one of the fastest paths to online income.

3. Selling Digital Products

Digital products are another fantastic low-cost business model. Once you create the product, you can sell it over and over with no inventory costs.

We’ve had guests on the show selling everything from Notion templates to AI-generated coloring books to travel planning spreadsheets.

Cody Berman from Episode 665 creates mini digital products on Etsy using Canva templates. He uses the same listing format over and over to speed up uploads. Even the listing descriptions are templated. It’s plug-and-play productivity.

The beauty of digital products is that you create it once and sell it forever. There’s no shipping, no inventory management, no physical overhead. Just pure profit after the initial creation time.

Popular digital product ideas include printable planners, budget trackers, social media templates, resume templates, meal planning guides, workout programs, and educational worksheets.

The key is to solve a specific problem for a specific audience.

Don’t try to create something for everyone. Create something that one type of person desperately needs.

4. Rank and Rent Websites

“Rank and Rent” is one of the most underrated online business models — and it costs almost nothing to start.

Here’s how it works:

You build a simple website targeting local service keywords (think “Dallas carpet cleaning” or “Boston gravel driveways”). Once the site ranks in Google and starts generating leads, you rent it out to a local business for $500–$1,500/month.

It’s like owning digital real estate.

Miao Rios from Episode 597 explained what makes a niche work well:

Service-based businesses with no storefront (plumbers, concrete guys, roofers, demolition, earthworks)
High-ticket jobs where each customer is valuable
Cities around 400k population — enough search demand, but not so competitive that ranking becomes impossible

Once your site ranks, you look for a provider who does great work but doesn’t want to deal with SEO. You become a simple monthly marketing expense — and because the leads are real and predictable, these clients tend to stay for a long time.

When recorded, Miao had built a portfolio of 20–30 income-generating sites, each producing recurring revenue. That’s the beauty of the Rank and Rent model: it’s scalable, high-margin, and location-independent.

If you want to dig deeper into this model, you can watch the full video interview with Miao or check out Luke Van Der Veer’s training at websiterentalcoaching.com/shn

Those resources walk through the exact process of picking niches, building sites, ranking them, and renting them out.

Rank and Rent is one of the rare online businesses that is cheap to start, simple to maintain, and capable of producing predictable monthly income — without needing a huge audience or a ton of tech skills.

5. UGC (User-Generated Content)

UGC (user-generated content) is one of the fastest-growing ways to make money online, and you can start with nothing more than your phone and products you already own.

You don’t need a following. You don’t need to post on your own feed.

Brands hire everyday people to create authentic-looking product videos they can use for ads or social content.

Megan Collier from Episode 666 got started by recording 4 simple videos of products she already used. Those first videos became her portfolio — and within 10 days, she landed her first paid deal for about $750.

Her outreach strategy was simple:

Scroll through Instagram, look at the ads, follow the brand, and DM them. She’d introduce herself, mention she’d been seeing their ads, and ask to be connected with the person who handles partnerships. That one script led to multiple paid collaborations.

She also emailed brands directly, including an app company that hired her for three videos, then bought two more she created proactively.

If you’re stuck on who to pitch, Megan recommends walking around your house and making a list of everything you use regularly. Skincare, snacks, headphones, kitchen gadgets, software — almost every brand is using UGC these days.

Brands love it because it looks real and performs well as ad content. Creators love it because it pays.

And if you do have a bit of a following, you can earn even more by creating content (affiliate) for TikTok Shop and getting paid commissions when your videos drive purchases.

UGC is one of the simplest, lowest-cost ways to start earning online, and you can begin today with nothing but your phone.

6. Directory Websites

Directory websites might sound old-school, but they’re actually one of the most resilient online business models right now, especially with all the recent SEO chaos.

The idea is simple:

You build a website that curates businesses or locations in a specific niche (like thrift stores, hiking spots, RV dump stations, or anything underserved online). If you add enough value and organize the information well, people will visit your site instead of relying on Google Maps alone.

That’s exactly what Frey Chu from Episode 692 did. Six months after launching his first directory, he logged in one day and noticed 1,000 people had visited that day alone. Once he added ads, the site earned $1,200 that month completely passively.

Frey wasn’t an SEO expert. He simply built something useful, shared it on Reddit, and let the traffic grow. When he realized the site was ranking #1 for a major thrift-related keyword — despite being pretty “ugly” and missing locations — he knew he could build something better. That became his first profitable directory.

He eventually realized the model checked all the boxes he wanted in a business:

Scalable
Cheap to start
Remote-friendly
High-margin
Sellable as an asset

Website directories fit into a rare category of online businesses that still thrive, despite algorithm changes. Unlike traditional blogs that have been hit by Google updates, directories continue to get traffic because they organize information in a way Google can’t replicate.

If you want a business that’s low-cost, SEO-friendly, and capable of generating passive income, directories are definitely worth exploring.

7. Newsletter

Newsletters are one of the lowest-cost online businesses you can start and one of the highest-margin. Platforms like Substack and Kit make it free to get up and running, and once you have readers, you can monetize through sponsorships, affiliate links, digital products, or even paid subscriptions.

One of my favorite examples is Danielle Desir-Corbett from Episode 544, creator of Grants for Creators. When we recorded her episode, she was earning over $1,000/month sending her newsletter every couple of weeks without a huge audience and without a complicated setup.

Her launch strategy was simple and authentic. She went on Twitter and posted a vulnerable announcement: “I launched a new project. I’m super terrified… My goal is to just help find us creators, opportunities and funding opportunities.”

That vulnerability and honesty resonated. People shared her tweet, subscribed, and started spreading the word.

From there, she grew using:

Daily Twitter posts about grants
Newsletter mentions from creators with their own audiences
Word-of-mouth from friends who forwarded her signup link
Submitting updates to community newsletters she was already part of

She didn’t need a viral tweet or a huge following. Just consistency, clarity, and a valuable topic creators cared about.

A smart growth tactic many newsletter operators use today is: Social Media → Lead Magnet → Email List

For example, a creator might promote an AI tool, checklist, or niche summary agent on Twitter, then send subscribers straight to their newsletter.

Newsletters scale incredibly well because you’re essentially taking the ideas in your head and packaging them for hundreds or thousands of people at a time — for free.

8. Online Class

Teaching an online class is another powerful low-cost online business, and you can do it two ways:

Create a pre-recorded course you sell as a digital product
Run a live, cohort-based class with a clear start and end date

Both work, but cohort-based classes are becoming more popular because students love having a live, structured learning experience.

We’ve seen guests successfully teach everything from piano lessons to chess to sourdough bread to growing microgreens. But one of the most unique examples is Devyn Ricks from Episode 499, who earns around $4,000/month, part-time, teaching video game classes online.

Her secret wasn’t being a professional gamer. It was using Outschool, a platform where K–12 students can take online classes in both academic and extracurricular subjects. Outschool handles the parent trust, background checks, safety, and discovery — so teachers can focus on teaching.

Devyn charges about $13 per student per hour, and Outschool recommends pricing classes between $10-$15. Since Outschool takes 30%, creators keep the rest.

With classes of 10-12 students, Devyn routinely makes close to $200 per hour, playing games she already loved.

The beauty of a platform like Outschool is the built-in audience. You don’t need followers or a marketing plan. Parents are already browsing the site looking for classes.

Devyn teaches Zelda, Minecraft, Switch games, and more — and even though other teachers offer similar classes, demand is so high that there’s room for everyone.

Final Thoughts

The beautiful thing about making money online today is that you don’t need a huge budget, complicated tech, or a massive audience. You just need a laptop, a few hours a week, and the willingness to experiment.

These eight online businesses are all low-cost, high-upside ways to start earning extra income. And they’re all proven by real people actually doing them.

And if you’re looking for the perfect next episode to listen to, I put together something fun for you at hustle.show.

Answer a few quick questions and you’ll get a curated list of 8-10 binge-worthy episodes tailored to your goals, so you can learn from people who’ve been where you are and built something that works.

Episode Links:

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.