Before you start any online business you will need a computer with access to the Internet, but since I think you are reading this article online, I am going to assume that you already have those. And that is good because it means you already have the major expenses taken care of. If you have a computer and Internet access then you can get started with an online business today.



Here are a few online business ideas for those on a tight budget.

1. Launch a Web Site

It is not expensive to set up an online publication in the form of a web site, ezine or blog. You can obtain a good web hosting package for as low as five dollars per month. If your budget is too low even to afford that then you could set up a free blog at Blogger.com.

The key with a web site business is to build popular sites with a large following of regular readers. Then turn that traffic into revenue through advertising, subscriptions, and sales of your own products and services.

For your web site content I recommend that you write your own original articles as that can be more effective and less expensive. By having original content your pages will rank more highly at the major search engines. Another option is to pay freelance writers a fee for writing articles for your site. It is also possible to source articles from free article directories but keep in mind they will not be original.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate programs are one of the most popular ways for companies to market their products and services online. A company offers a product or service. As an affiliate you sign up to promote the product. Your task is to send a stream of visitors to the company's web site. You do this using a customized link that allows the company to identify which affiliate referred the visitor. Whenever a visitor sent by you buys a product, you earn a commission.

Many affiliates promote affiliate products by placing advertisements at pay-per-click search engines. If you are on a tight budget, however, you can use other methods to promote affiliate products such as promoting them on your own web pages or writing articles relating to the product.

3. Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of the best ways to build an online business at no cost. In fact article marketing can be a business in itself. Article marketing involves writing articles that webmasters can use on their web sites, in return for showing an "About the Author" resource box at the end of the article. That paragraph about the author includes a live link to the author's web site.

You can write articles on almost any topic imaginable. Article marketing is very popular because webmasters need content for their web sites and good content is hard to come by.

Those resource boxes are your opportunity to obtain large amounts of web traffic at no cost. You can use your resource boxes to send traffic to your own web site or to send visitors to landing pages that promote affiliate products.

4. Freelance Writing

If you like to write but you do not want to set up your own web site or online publication, you can still start working online, for example as a freelance writer. Freelance writers are paid to write many types of documents, from articles for magazines and newspapers through to business sales letters, instruction manuals and even greeting cards.

These are only a few ideas for launching an online business on a shoestring. There are more online business ideas.