5 Best Creative Home Business Ideas Online

Think you need some kind of special expertise to start a creative home business online?

Not necessarily.

In this article, we will look at 5 creative home business ideas online with no experience needed. These business ideas all have a low-cost barrier to entry and are fairly easy to get started. Grow your business into a full-time career while you make extra cash and have fun doing so! 

Will these businesses take time, honest hard work, and commitment to flourish? Yes, of course. None of these business suggestions are of the “get-rich-quick” variety. Every online business takes commitment and work. Entrepreneurship does not happen overnight.

Learn how to get started building a profitable creative online business in your spare time, then work consistently at your own pace until you can finally quit your day job.

**This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you for products you purchase via this website. For more information click here.**

What to know about creating a home business

The first thing you should know about creating a successful online business is that entrepreneurship is not for everyone. You must be willing to endure the uncomfortable parts of starting a creative home business. There is uncertainty involved, some financial investments made, and plenty of time devoted.

Online business is 100% DIY. Your success is entirely up to you. But with dedication, hard work, and enjoyment of the process, any of the ideas in this article can be quite profitable and successful.

Obviously, the main point of starting a business is to make money, especially passive income, but there are so many other benefits to being an online entrepreneur.

Related: Best Blog and Website Recommendations

Why start a creative home business

• Freedom
• Confidence
• Use your creative powers
• Self-esteem
• Knowledge
• Ability to share expertise
• Adventure
• Explore what’s possible in life
• Lifestyle design
• Happiness
• More family time once you transition to working only at home

For me, leaning into online entrepreneurship is the only way. Other than being a mother and homemaker, no other work makes me as happy or fulfilled. That’s the best way I can put it. What about you?

Let’s jump right into each of our case studies so you can find out which of these home business ideas online sounds like a good fit for you.

Creative Home Business Idea Online #1- Blogging

Blogging is one of the best creative home businesses you can start today. Although it can take some time to make money blogging, blogging is fun and profitable. You can make money blogging many different ways, which we will discuss in just a sec.

You may wonder if you have to be good at writing to start a blog.

Ultimately, the answer is “No.”

If you’d prefer not to do a lot of writing, you can create a blog that is more image-based, such as the fashion blog The Londoner. (Love her website!)

Or if you love writing, you can go more text-heavy, like this website.

If you want to write but are unsure about your writing skills, don’t worry. It’s okay not to write perfectly, and it’s okay to be a beginner. Your skills will improve with time, so don’t let that fear stop you. Be supportive of yourself, and be your own motivator. Just keep writing!

You can use your blog to showcase your art, music, or written work. Within those 3 categories are many subcategories- your art could be photography, crafts, fashion, or cooking, for example.

Related: What Causes Art Block and How to Overcome it Permanently

You can make money blogging a few different ways

Products and services

You can promote and sell your own creative products, such as online courses, art, e-books, and physical products. For example, I sell art prints on Etsy and sometimes promote via this blog. On my list of things to also make and sell are ebooks. I used to sell a journal on Amazon and promote it through this blog, but not anymore.

Affiliate marketing

Earn commission promoting affiliate products via clickable links. When your reader clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, you can get paid a small percentage of the sale. This is at no additional cost to your reader.

With affiliate marketing, think of yourself as being a virtual shop assistant. You can direct your readers to products just as you would in any other sales position. And you can do this by writing naturally about topics that interest you and provide value to your readers.

I tend to recommend and link books I love quite often, for example. This article is another perfect example of writing about an interesting topic and using affiliate marketing:

Simple Self-Care Morning Routine for Moms

Sponsored posts

After you’re established, you can also work with brands to do sponsored posts. You may need to reach out to them, or they may contact you. I don’t use this method for monetization, but many blogs do.

Ads

You can apply to different ad networks and earn decent money once your traffic is up. You can apply for Google ads or Ezoic ads with fairly low traffic (around 10,000 monthly views.) Or, once you have around 50,000 sessions per month, you can apply to Mediavine. AdThrive has even higher traffic requirements.

I’ve used Ezoic, and they are great for lesser-traffic blogs. I now use Mediavine and prefer them most of all.

To get started blogging

To establish your blog, the first thing you need to do is sign up for web hosting.

I recommend using Bluehost to start your website. They are reliable and affordable.

Bluehost offers 24/7 customer support, a free domain name included for the first year, and you can install WordPress for free with one simple click.

They are often running a sale for $2.95/ month. But otherwise, it’s around $3.95/ month. Check it out if blogging sounds fun to you!

Establishing your blog is easy and takes 5 minutes. Learning to use WordPress? This may take you some time.

Building a blog is a learning curve and can be overwhelming when you first get started. So be prepared. But after the initial learning curve, it becomes much easier. And truthfully, blogging is a lot of fun! It’s my favorite of these 5 home business ideas online.

Grab your free home business planner printable

While you’re feeling motivated….

I offer a free 11-page PDF printable business planner. It’s perfect for anyone thinking of starting a blog or small business. Subscribe to download!

Creative Home Business Idea Online #2- Graphic Design

If you love art, you might consider learning graphic design.

One of the best things about graphic design, much like blogging, is that you can learn on your own and at your own pace.

Related: 30 Free Art Printables -Black & White Plus Color {Cute and Modern!}

Learn graphic design

Youtube

Check out YouTube to get started with some terrific free guides and educational videos.

Canva

Get started with graphic design by experimenting with Canva.

Canva is a free graphic design software and it’s super easy to learn. I use it all the time for creating pins for Pinterest. I do use the paid version for more special features that I need for my blogging business and my Etsy shop.

Adobe Photoshop

For more skills in graphic design, check out Adobe Photoshop.

It’s quite affordable at $9.99/month the last I checked. Such little financial investment to start creating a home business using graphic design.

You will want to use Photoshop for creating mock-ups for your art prints if you plan to sell art on Etsy or other places online.

Classes on Skillshare

If you want to learn graphic design the faster, easier way, I’d recommend checking out Skillshare for classes.

Skillshare is an online learning platform with more than 25,000 classes available on a huge variety of subjects.

And of course, they have tons of Photoshop classes and oodles of graphic design classes.

To make money with graphic design

Once you learn graphic design, you can turn your graphic work into many saleable forms- digital art downloads, t-shirts, mugs, and more.

You can sell your art on your own website or blog, or a marketplace such as Etsy or Shopify. Check out my Etsy shop Dream Dash Designs for inspiration! *Update, I just opened my second shop called Tartaria Love.

* Word to the wise:

Consider starting your own blog or website if you have products to sell or eventually sell. I have written an in-depth article as to why if you’re interested:

How to Start an Art Blog and Why You Need One {No Tech Skills Required!}

Note that any social media platform you market on, such as Instagram or Facebook, could change its algorithm at any time, drastically affecting your business and sales. And if you sell anything controversial, you could be censored. Think of how Facebook has been banning natural health-related material, for example.

Always have your own website where you collect the emails of your readers/customers/clients. Then you actually have control of your biz.

Creative Home Business Online Idea #3- eBay

Do you love shopping for bargains?

Why not flip items you find at yard sales, thrift stores, and on sale at deep discounts from regular retail stores? Flipping can be quite a profitable home business idea online.

I know eBay is rather old-school. I had an eBay shop myself back in 2003 selling second-hand clothes. It was one of the easiest home business ideas online to start at the time.

Back in the early 2000s, eBay used to be like thrift-store shopping, price-wise. You could truly find a deal on some 7 For All Mankind flared jeans. (LOL! RIP early 2000’s fashion.)

Now the prices of everything have gone up. Which is great for you as an eBay seller!

Now you can get more money for those designer clothes you found at Goodwill!

All you have to do is check how much an item is going for on eBay while you’re out and about shopping to see if it’s worth your time to purchase something to re-sell.

eBay may be old-school, but it’s only gotten better with age for sellers.

Start selling & making money on eBay

Creating a listing on eBay is super easy. You can sign up for a seller account for free right here.

Start with selling individual items, then when you’re ready, create an eBay store.

Taking photos and listing your items is a piece of cake. You will need space to store your stuff, and you will need to figure out packaging and selling, but beyond that, it doesn’t need to be too involved.

The most important things about selling on eBay are to have good photos, good products, good customer service, and to keep your eBay store stocked!

To learn more about selling on eBay, check out Skillshare. As I mentioned before, Skillshare has classes on everything, including selling on eBay!

Creative Home Business Idea Online #4- YouTube

If you like being on camera, why not try YouTube?

For YouTube, you can use your smartphone or a simple camcorder to record videos. Those low-investment tools may work great starting out as a beginner, but as you grow into your Youtube biz, you may want to invest some money in higher-quality equipment.

For this reason, YouTube could be a more expensive start-up than some of these other home business ideas online. But if you’re in it for the long haul, feel committed, and inspired, then give it a go! It’s a totally viable home business idea online.

Here’s a list of YouTube equipment to invest in to get started

Camera

A quality DSLR camera or a mirrorless camera is a worthy investment. You could try something like the Canon EOS Rebel T5i.

Microphone

Depending on the nature of your YouTube content, there are different types of microphones you may need. These start from around $10 and go up.

• USB microphone- Most common and easy to use. This one is a very reasonable price with good stars.
• Condenser microphone- Good for podcasting and home videos. Here’s Amazons best selling version. 
• Shotgun microphone- Another popular option. A mic like this helps reduce noises from your surroundings that you don’t want on film.
• Lapel microphone.-Stick it discreetly to your clothing.

Tripod

You’ll need one to stabilize your video. Check out this reasonably-priced tripod with great Amazon reviews.

Lighting

Depending on your content, there are several types of lighting you may want to invest in:

Softbox lighting– Emulates natural light pouring in your window.

Umbrella lighting– Similar to softbox but offering more control on where the lighting can go.

Ring light– Very popular with beauty vloggers as it eliminates all shadows from your face, making you look your best. Much needed for your home business if you show your face alot.

Video Editing Software

Try a video editing program such as Windows Movie Maker or Apple iMovie. Both are user-friendly and FREE to download.

How to make money on YouTube

Like blogging, you make money on YouTube via ads, affiliate marketing, and paid sponsorships.

In most cases, you need a good amount of followers before you can start making money, at least around 10,000 to make your first $100 in ads and $100-300 from sponsorships.

However, you don’t make money based on viewers, you make money when someone clicks on an ad or watches for more than 30 seconds. And usually, you need that level of traffic for that to happen.

Like any online business, your ability to attract an audience depends not only on quality, interesting content but just as much on search engine optimization, (SEO.)

To learn more about what it takes to be a successful YouTuber, check out Youtube for a wealth of free videos.

Or, I’ll say it again- check out Skillshare. I know I keep mentioning them, but I truly think Skillshare is an awesome deal for educating yourself on all aspects of online entrepreneurship!

Creative Home Business Idea Online #5- Amazon Selling

Have you ever considered selling a product on Amazon?

You may not realize that Amazon is made up of millions of individual sellers. It’s mainly the sellers who create the item listings and stock Amazon’s virtual shelves with bulk shipments of anything and everything.

It’s easy to sign up to become an Amazon seller.

To find a product to sell, you can look for deals on bulk goods to resell, or you can invent your own product to sell.

I recommend the latter, as there is much competition for sourcing a deal on new items that already exist.

Know that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to create a product of your own. It can be something like a journal, mug, or tote bag with your unique image.

You’ll need to find out a manufacturer and get a sample before placing a bulk order. This can be a bit of a process, but it’s essential to ensure quality.

As far as shipping goes, you can have Amazon package and ship all of your orders. It’s called fulfillment, and although it’ll take a chunk of your profit, it can be totally worth it.

There is truly a lot to selling on Amazon. But I am not an expert on this subject.

For tons of inspiration and info about selling on Amazon for beginners, check out the My Wife Quit Her Job podcast and website. I’m such a huge fan of Steve Chou!

Profitable home business ideas online conclusion

In all my entrepreneurial adventures, from Amazon to eBay to blogging, I’ve never had any idea what I was doing when I first started out.

And that’s completely OK.

You learn by doing.

I’ve found varying levels of success and satisfaction in all of these areas of online entrepreneurship, and I love the adventure involved. That’s why I blog and have my two Etsy stores.

If you feel the entrepreneurial calling, I hope you try one of these home business ideas online. No experience needed!!

Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle commitment. It’s taken me a long time to finally realize that and to truly lean in.

The entrepreneurial lifestyle is also a mindset.

Those who are the most successful are those who never give up on this commitment to themselves. It’s a personal dedication, reflective of who you feel you truly are on the inside:

• Creative
• Hardworking
• Innovative
• Analytical
• Problem solver
• Possess a positive growth mindset
• Dabbler
• Risk-taker
• Loves to learn
• Driven to succeed in a healthy, positive way

Making the choice and commitment to becoming an online entrepreneur is a positive, empowering investment in your future. The potential that exists to make money online is enormous.  The reward far outweighs the risk when you are committed.

You will find success if you don’t give up, it’s only a matter of time.

And, the sky is truly the limit.

Please let me know what you think about these 5 home business ideas online, (no experience required) in the comments below!

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