21 Businesses You Can Run From a Laptop
Maybe you’re a young kid who wants to start a business.
Maybe you’re a college grad who wants to create a job (rather than finding one).
Or maybe you’re a corporate mouse who’s fed up with the rat race.
In any case, the internet has opened up a world of opportunities for the entrepreneur-at-heart.
We’re about to look at 21 businesses that you can start today and efficiently run with just a laptop and an internet connection.
21 Businesses You Can Run From a Laptop…
Development / Programming
Web developers are programmers who specializes in, or are specifically engaged in, the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over HTTP from a web server to web browsers.
#1 Web Developer
According to SBA.gov, there were 29.6 million small businesses in the US and Ad-ology found that 46% of small businesses don’t have a website.
If you’re a skilled developer / programmer, be sure to apply for AwesomeWeb.com to increase your exposure and earnings today.
#2 Mobile App Developer
There were 140 billion mobile apps downloaded to smartphones in 2014. By 2016, the International Telecommunication Union reports that there will be more than 2 billion smartphones in the world and we have every reason to believe the number of mobile apps downloaded annually will increase.
You can hire a great mobile app developer here.
#3 Blog Maintenance Provider
As tracked by BlogPulse, there were 126 million blogs on the internet in 2010 and most of them suck.
Most bloggers think they just have to write, post, and auto-tweet. So if you know how to properly publish a WordPress blog post, you can offer this as a service to serious bloggers.
Check out our Step by Step Guide to Writing Posts That Rank.
Graphic Design
Graphic designers create visual concepts, by hand or using computer software, to communicate ideas that inspire, inform, or captivate consumers.
#4 Logo Designer
Since there are 29.6 million small businesses in the US alone, that’s 29.6 million potential logo customers. But most of them already have logos… But very few of them have good logos.
Check out 17 Evolutions of Your Favorite Logos
#5 Web Designer
According to Pingdom, there are 234 million websites on the net. Like small business logos, most of these websites look terrible. And even the good ones, know the value of continually improving the design.
These are the 15 best practices for responsible responsive web design.
#6 Book Cover Designer
Right now, there are over 32 million books on Amazon and every one of them has a book cover. According to UNESCO, over 1 million books are published per year. This doesn’t even include eBooks.
If you’re not a skilled designer but feel you could create your own book cover nonetheless, check out youzign.
#7 Mobile App Designer
Much like mobile app developers, there’s plenty of need for mobile app designers. Companies usually contract out to both developers and designers separately to create the app.
Here are 30 great examples of mobile app design.
#8 Computer-Aided Designer
CAD drawings are typically 3D mockups and virtual prototypes that companies create prior to manufacturing a product. Pretty much every product design starts as a CAD drawing.
These are 10 free CAD software applications you can download.
#9 Web Theme Designer
According to WordPress.com, there are over 75 million WordPress sites and about half of them are self-hosted. This means, WordPress alone has about 37 million sites that need themes.
If you’re not a theme design but still need a great theme, ThemeForest has the best selection of high quality, responsive themes available.
#10 Videographer
Last year Organizational housewares e-tailer StacksAndStacks.com reported visitors were 144% more likely to purchase after seeing a product video than those who didn’t. Website owners realize that video converts higher than any other form of content, so they’re starting to contract out for that work.
Here’s the Ultimate Guide to Making Online Video Tutorials.
Writing
Writing jobs in select niches might be difficult to find on your own, but Online Writing Jobs takes the reins, marketing your name to companies that need an expert.
#11 Author
According to Authors Guild, a successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies and a successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies. Also, Jenkins Group (a premier publishing firm) reports that 70% of books published don’t make a profit. Don’t let these stats discourage you, but it’s hard to make a living as an author.
Whether you’re a writer looking to make extra cash or a blog owner in need of content, check out TextBoss.com for all your writing needs.
#12 Editor
Part of the reason books usually don’t earn back their investment is because they have to pay for an editor. You’ll likely earn more as an editor than an author.
There are currently more than 2,000 content editor jobs available on linkedin alone.
#13 Copywriter
With 126 million blogs, there are 126 million websites that constantly need content. If you’re a good writer and knowledgeable about a niche topic, reach out to the top bloggers in that niche and ask if they’ll pay you to write for them.
These 200 top blogs accept guest authors – and many of them pay for content.
#14 Transcription
According to Worldwide Freelance, some industry estimates suggest that up to 50% of all non-fiction books are ghostwritten. Often, these books start as audio recordings and the ghostwriter transcribes and spruces up the content. This is just one way to make money as a transcriber.
Alternatively you can create a software or service that does it for you, like this.
#15 Translation
English is the universal language of business, but there are roughly 6,500 other languages in the world. Books, websites, manuals, etc. all need to be translated to other languages.
Google also offers a free translation service if you’re in a hurry.
#16 Blogger
Much like authors, few bloggers make a living strictly from blogging. To attract advertisers, you typically need a couple thousand unique visitors per day. Think of a blog as a platform to attract other business opportunities.
See how Tracy Raftl became a full-time blogger in under a year.
Internet Marketing
Internet marketers utilize advertising and various marketing strategies leveraging the Web and email to drive direct sales via electronic commerce, in addition to sales leads from Web sites or emails.
#17 Search Engine Optimization
234 million websites compete to rise to the top of search engines. If you know how to optimize websites, you can help website owners save a lot of money on internet advertising.
Discover the 25 SEO Tools for Successful Blogging.
#18 Search Engine Marketer
The other side of search engines is paid search. It’s not unusual for internet marketers to have $500,000 per month budgets for PPC (pay-per-click) and CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) advertising.
Find customers through paid channel advertising.
#19 Social Media Manager
You probably know enough about social media right now to start your own side business! A service that helps people set up their Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus profiles and begin to create authentic interaction is completely legitimate.
Check out this video and see if you’re not convinced that a new social media side project is perfect for you.
#20 Email Marketing Manager
Michael always tells you that the money is in the list, but it takes a lot or work to maintain that list. If you offer to create and automate the email newsletters, it’ll take a lot of pressure off their backs.
Here are 10 ‘fill in the blank’ email subject lines that made us the most money.
#21 Affiliate Marketer
To date, ClickBank alone has paid out more than $2 billion to affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is another way to make a living as a blogger and it’s the primary way that Michael makes money.
Here are 5 reasons to start an affiliate marketing business today.
So what…
I know I gave you lots of big stats and that can be overwhelming.
To put it into perspective, Michael has partaken in or hired out at least 14 of these 21 services; this includes over $30,000 on web design updates to IncomeDiary.
There’s a lot of money to be made on the internet. If you have a laptop, an internet connection, and a working brain, the only thing holding you back is you.
Want To Make Money Every Time You Send An Email?
On this page, you’ll discover how to convert more leads with email autoresponders. If you’ve spent your online career listening to tha gurus… these emails will challenge you, inspire you, probably even PISS YOU OFF…
Email Marketing Gets Us More Traffic & Sales
Aweber is an industry standard. By far the most well known email marketing tool. We use it to collect and send emails. To setup autoresponder series. To split test subject lines. To email unopens. To make more money and get more traffic!
Keep visitors coming back, time after time, by emailing them updates from your site. We personally use Aweber to manage over 100,000 subscribers.
Hire Awesome Designers and Developers Who Could’ve Started Yesterday
AwesomeWeb is a simple freelance marketplace that connects awesome designers & developers with awesome clients.
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Comments
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- How I got over 10,000,000 people to visit my websites.
- The types of blog post that got me all that traffic.
- How to get someone else to do it for you!
that was realy inspirational man, im a web developer who just finished coding his blog but the problem is it hard making alot of traffic to my blog…
learn SEO.
also, GRAPHIC DESIGN puts a$$e$ in seats….lol
site w/ good info ,but is ugly as sin= people take a 5 second glance and never return.
site w/good info AND GOOD DESIGN= people come,stay,enjoy,return,invite others.
Yeah I have to agree with what Prince said there. And yep, I have the same problem, I just finished making a website and now I’m struggling to get organic search engine traffic to it.
Hello,
Good post.
How i wish you went further by giving some examples of websites that can accept such services.
That’s the thing, dude. Every website requires almost all of these services. Either they’re not doing them and missing out. Or they’re doing them themselves and doing a mediocre job. Or they’re outsourcing them. Every website that is making money or has a budget is a potential customer. You just have to make the right offer.
Great list. Simply loved it that the “Web developer” was on the top of the list. A wonderful article to go through.
I love reading posts like this, showing just how large the potential is in the online/tech space. The secret is to spend time deciding which skills to offer as I come across to many people who try to offer all the services you’ve mentioned. Select just 1 or 2, master them and with hard work succeeding isn’t overly hard.
This list shows the awesome opportunities people can have with their laptop and internet connection. In coming days I am sure that more and more people will start working from home. I see a very good future of internet.
Thanks Nick! I am a web developer and this is one of my offline business.
Yeah Great List! I think anything blog related (design, creation, writing) has alot of potential near term and far term but with web design its cake!
the seo game is tricky. trying to get a brand started. making a few demo sites to try and push them to the front of google.
I think earning money by working at home is a great job. no boss……&no fix working time
Great ,I loved it.I was searching these items for something about 20 years ,you answered me at least.Thank you for every word.It is wonderful.
This site has been a inspiration to me. I’m making it work, one step at a time.
Great list. And your absolutely right; quite a few websites don’t know about the necessity of advertising, or do it themselves with mediocre results.
Hello Nick,
Alex here in Aurora Colorado. I like your posts and blogs. I’m a newbie and like your posts. I just built my own blog. Do you host blog teaching sessions in Colorado? If you do I would like to attend. I’m off to write a few articles and then off to suite 200 in downtown Denver.
Great list! Did you consider online apartment locating?
This is a great website, and really inspirational (great for12 yr olds like me looking for ideas lol)
Short and to the point, which can be good and bad. Effective for someone not looking for any real depth and just ideas. Overall great post for showing the breadth of the online business world.
Well written Post on how to make money. A laptop is truly a business asset
Hey,
While these are all ways you can make money online, none of them are sustainable by themselves. The trick online is to create multiple streams of income from a variety of services and products. A few of these methods are more like tools to be used in building authority, growing your lists, and advertising.
Personally, I find online entrepreneurship very faced paced and difficult; despite it being a simple concept. But I’m an affiliate marketer and blogger. I haven’t been able to assemble a team offline to aid me in my efforts, but I’m working to that end. Anyway, just sharing my thoughts.
This is really important information. I also look forward to hopefully reading up more on the types of businesses that a profitable when launched from a blog. I know it’s perfect for writers to launch their books and gather audiences, for example, but I’m looking for other ideas, as well.
Is a great list indeed, all it needs for you to start making a lot of money is putting a lot of effort and dedication
great post about many different things you can do with your knowledge. Another good thing to do is build small websites for small businesses and start a small web development company with just a few employees or by yourself. I’ve noticed that alot of people want e-commerce stores for their businesses but they don’t exactly know where to start or even how to get everything organized.
I have one question and i have never been a entrepreneur. I have a idea that can potentially make a large company a brand new revenue of income and potentially create there brand to a whole new concept. 2 problems, this would be outside my country and its a idea, how do i present something to a large corporation. What steps would i take and please take this serious. I appreciate your time.
Nice list. I am learning web development but i do not know that there are blog maintaining job. I will find one.
You have provided very great information for the people, thinking to make some money online. It takes too much to be an entrepreneur like you.
Well written, laid out article. Quick and to the point.
Truly great ideas on operating a business from a laptop computer. I personally do 3 of these things (most recently blogging, which you should stop by and check out my blog!) And I’m reaching the point of almost being able to quit my part time job due to achieving some great new high profile clients for web design and development. Good luck to anyone who is trying to achieve this, the only thing stopping you from running a successful business from your laptop is you! Be persistent, disciplined and don’t get discouraged!
I previously worked as Search engine optimizer, logo designer, banner designer, web designer, web developer, article writer… if you ask me, these job suckz…. so i stopped working for others and i opened a site… since i had lots of experience, now my site is going good… anyway nice article…
Hey really very nice post. You have given everything crispy and clear.
Good.
Really great list and very informative. With the high level of unemployment in general and especially among young people who love computers and the internet I’m really surprised that the number of people doing online projects isn’t higher.
I started blogging, affiliate marketing and taking on seo clients a year ago and it’s been truly life changing. I can’t imagine ever going back to a traditional job now.