e-commerce stores
Another type of online business is an eCommerce store where you can sell your own products (digital or physical) or someone else’s products through drop shipping. When selling your own products, you need to make sure that you have enough space to store the products, and once an order is placed, you need to ship them to your customers. With the drop-shipping model, the manufacturer will host the products as well as ship them; You will only need to provide the online platform where customers can choose the products they would like to buy and where they can pay. Once an order is placed, you must pay the manufacturer the agreed amount for the product and shipping and they will take care of the rest. Ultimately, you act as a middleman who attracts the customers, sells the products but doesn’t have the hassle of hosting or shipping the products.
You can also set up your own store on eBay or Amazon and sell products provided by suppliers around the world found on Alibaba.com and WorldwideBrands.com
The application model
The online business applications model involves creating applications for use by smartphone users as well as for desktop use. After you develop an app, you can distribute it as a free or paid app. It is possible to earn money through free and paid applications.
In the case of paid applications for mobile phones, for example, the applications are paid in incremental terms. These prices start as low as $0.99 and gradually increase. When you use Apple as your app store, you can receive up to 30% of every app you sell. While individual app sales may seem insignificant, cumulative sales can earn you significant revenue.
The biggest advantage of selling your app is the potential to generate income. Also, app stores like Apple are more receptive to paid apps than free ones.
The main source of revenue for free apps is pay-per-click advertising, which works on a similar premise as AdSense. It is also possible to earn money with in-app spending or by using the free app as a preview of the paid variation of the app. You can use various advertising companies to add ads to your free app. These include Google Adsense, GreyStripe, iAd, Admob, Brightroll, among others.
The most attractive benefit of free apps is that you can continue to earn money even after people have downloaded the app. In contrast, paid apps only allow you to earn money once, when the app is purchased, unless you include in-app ads. It is also more likely to reach a larger audience because more people are inclined to download a free app than a paid one.
API and data access
An application programming interface is a source code interface created and offered for use by other users. An example of an API is Google Maps, which hosts chunks of data related to geographic location and mapping. Another great example is Facebook apps.
Through an API, developers can create applications that improve the user experience. Through APIs, websites can communicate with each other and use each other’s technological creations to create innovative products. One of the benefits of creating an open or free API is that you have the ability to build backlinks to your ecommerce website. This can go a long way toward improving your search engine rankings, thus generating free marketing for your ecommerce website and business.
It is important that you limit the number of APIs you create and distribute, especially if you are looking to make money through APIs. Limiting your APIs creates a demand for them, allowing you to charge a premium price to users who are interested in the API.
This online business model offers companies the opportunity to specialize in a single stage of the data access value chain. This is because the production or creation of data is usually a complex and intensive process that involves the use of human and technological resources. However, once this data is developed, you can sell it to other users who will then further develop the app and perhaps sell it to other users in the value chain.
Application programming interfaces offer companies the opportunity to use web resources to release their processed output in a way that they can control themselves. In this way, you, as the data publisher, are in a position to freely provide the data for all users to access without jeopardizing your profit margins.