What Exactly is an Online Business

Mika

VIP Contributor
If you are on money-making forums you will come across questions like:

Why do most online businesses fail?

Are online businesses reliable?

Based on the comments on the aforementioned topics it appears that a lot of people do not know what exactly is an online business.

Anything you do on the World Wide Web to make money is an online business. For example,

This forum is an online business (for the owner)

I own a website and it is an online business for me.

Facebook, Amazon, Google, Whatsapp are all online businesses that are making a lot of money for the owners.

Tesla is a car manufacturing company that makes money by selling cars. Facebook Inc. owns Facebook, a social networking site that makes money by providing advertising services. In terms of business perspective Facebook, an online business, and Tesla, an offline business, have no difference. They both are selling something to make money.
 

Sherman198

VIP Contributor
To me online business is when we sell and buy things online to make money. Most of the online earners engaged in one thing or the other to earn some certain amount of money online but I can't say we are all business men. Those who own their website and are using their to sell their products are business people.
 

btaliat

VIP Contributor
Digital marketing is online business. When you make your business to be reached through the internet, then you are dealing with online business. These days most online business fail because they don't put the same energy they would have put of it is physical business. Most of them don't care to still run some advertisments to popularise their websites if not their goods.
 

Augusta

VIP Contributor
Yeah online business is anything one does to make money online. When once it has to do with people buying and selling online a business transaction is on already. I think people should know that trading online is real. Though scammers are there as well but the legit sellers and buyers too
 

Mataracy

VIP Contributor
One business have to do with transacting online with a company or somebody at another edge. The online business is very good and a lucrative business if someone knows how to go about it.
Though it required somebody to be focus creative and ready to sacrifice time and resources sometimes.
 

Chibson

VIP Contributor
In my own perspective, an online business is a type of business that is being done and carried out online. There are numerous kinds of online business that anyone can venture into and start making a whole lot of money if only he or she can put in the required work. one of the best online business is presently is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing simply means selling people's product in order to get a certain percentage of the sale price.
 

sincerem

VIP Contributor
You said it all with perfect example dear, that's the simple truth when it comes to online business and offline business. Anything we do that comes to selling products and generating money is business. Those who sell automobile and those who are selling advertisement space are all doing business no one is different from others, unless is by profit percentage.
 

Alexandoy

VIP Contributor
I have dreamed of having an online business way back before the social media came. That was the time when I had my first and only website. But there was not much internet users yet. Now an online business can make you rich as what we can see with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Ali Baba.
 

Mika

VIP Contributor
I have dreamed of having an online business way back before the social media came. That was the time when I had my first and only website. But there was not much internet users yet. Now an online business can make you rich as what we can see with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Ali Baba.
Facebook came in 2004 and Twitter came in 2006. Are you talking about the time before Facebook and Twitter? (I am using facebook and twitter just as a reference.). Maybe you were inspired by Amazon that began selling online in 1995, 8 years before myspace was launched (a popular social networking site back then)
 

Yugocean

Valued Contributor
I have dreamed of having an online business way back before the social media came. That was the time when I had my first and only website. But there was not much internet users yet. Now an online business can make you rich as what we can see with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Ali Baba.
There was no computer or internet in our home that time (before social media) I started using Internet based computer during Computer training classes; later we had in our home in the years 2008. That time I was not aware of any online business expect PTC sites when a friend successfully made me to join it and started my online earning activities. Perhaps these activities are also online business as freelancer.
 

Setho

VIP Contributor
If I am asked to explain what an online business , is I am definitely going to say that it is a business that allows you to solve people's problems and earn money from them without having to meet them physically for any exchange whatsoever.
 

Jasmine

VIP Contributor
Anything you sell online to make money is an online business. For instance, you work on a freelancer site and sell your services. That's your online business. You have a blog and you provide free content and earn revenue from advertising, that's also an online business. There is slight difference between jobs and profession.
 

Jonaville

Active member
This particular question has a broad answer. But put simply, any type of business you engage in on the internet that provides income and makes you interact with your clients or customers without having to meet them physically is known as online business. Freelancing is a stellar example of this type of business.
 

kayode10

VIP Contributor
To the best of my knowledge, online business is the business you do with other people on the internet. You are doing online business when you are making used of internet to sell your products to other people. The product you are selling can either be digital download or physical products. You can also receive your earnings through the internet.
 

Good-Guy

VIP Contributor
I think each and every person has his or her own perception of what an online business actually is. I think online business refers to any kind of activity where you invest money online and conduct sales in order to make money. You may make a website and sell products to make money and this would be considered as an online business.
 

Abigael

Valued Contributor
I agree with you. An online business is just similar to exactly what is done in offline businesses, only that this is done entirely online. It involve putting in efforts and strategies that enable you to make some money. Some involves giving services while others involve selling digital products or promoting physical items online to get customers.
 

Jasmine

VIP Contributor
I think each and every person has his or her own perception of what an online business actually is. I think online business refers to any kind of activity where you invest money online and conduct sales in order to make money. You may make a website and sell products to make money and this would be considered as an online business.
That's a good definition. A simple blog can be an online business because you invest money on your blog, you provide content for readers and make money by displaying ads or selling ads. A forum is a business for the owner s the owner is trying to make money from the forum. Even a social networking site is a business for the owner.
 

Good luck

Verified member
Online business is a business you do offline.it is a business you engaged your self using your smart phone or laptop to perform some task with the aid of good internet data.Online business has really boost people's product and also help advertisement and marketing so easy because it goes a long way to reach many people globally.
 

Skysaint

Verified member
You're right about that mate. Most of the things we do to earn money, maybe by offering services or goods to customers for a monetary value is actually a business. Then whether we make these transactions physical or over the internet will determine if it's an offline or online business. But I do have a question about this anyway, don't you think that there is a difference between online business and online jobs? For instance the posting forum example you gave, for the admin it's actually an online business for him but for the forum members I think it's more like an online job/task
 
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