What’s the Best Online Business to Start in 2024? (Hint: It’s Not What You Think)

Do you want to know the best online business to start in 2024?

You might be thinking, if you’ve watched my videos or read the blog before, I’m gonna say freelance writing.

If you’re an absolute beginner, you’re right. I still think freelance writing is the easiest way to make your first dollar online and generate some income.

But if you’re sick and tired of trying to figure out which online business is right for you, and you just want something to sink your teeth into and get going with?

Well, you’re going to want to keep watching.

Prefer video?

Check this out.

This is the Best Online  Business to Start in 2024

Ok, I’ve kept you in suspense enough.

What is it?

Affiliate marketing.

Now, stop right there. I know what you’re thinking. It’s not affiliate marketing in the way you traditionally think about it.

But first, let me tell you a story of how I have done this in my own life so you can start to understand why there is so much opportunity here.

For the better part of the last 15 years, I have been a professional blogger, writing 1000s of blog posts across this very blog, and now Breaking Eighty and Slightly Pretentious.

I’m not stopping that anytime soon.

But over the last few years, I’ve been putting a little bit more time and effort into another aspect of my business that has really started to pay off.

It’s using YouTube to do affiliate marketing by way of creating videos.

I still think creating a YouTube channel is one of the most underutilized, under-appreciated ways to build an online business right now.

The Most Important Thing in Affiliate Marketing

So, a lot of people lately have been saying affiliate marketing is dead for one specific reason: there’s way too much competition. Add AI writing tools into the mix, and people can churn out a lot of mediocre content about a topic in minutes.

And, sure, that may be true to a point. But there’s one thing I want to touch on regardless if you’re doing affiliate marketing via video or blog. And that’s building trust.

Right now, more than ever, people are looking for trust; they are looking for authority, and over the course of the coming months and years, that is only going to grow as AI becomes more prevalent.

As people are trying to game the system, they’re trying to use AI instead of actually reviewing products and getting legitimate information that they have used with their own hands and be able to make comparisons across different products across different niches.

People will seek out the person that has actually done that. That’s not to say AI doesn’t have its place, and you shouldn’t build AI into your workflow.

But if you can be the person who leads with authority and builds trust, you will be the one who wins, and that’s why there is so much opportunity right now.

Why YouTube Affiliate Marketing?

So why will video affiliate marketing be such a thing in 2024?

There are a couple of reasons.

Number one, AI can’t easily replicate video. Sure, there are video AI tools out there, but none can replace you directly talking to people from an authentic place.

You can go to ChatGPT and write a product review about any product in literally five minutes.

Is it gonna be good? Probably not. Is it gonna be trustworthy? Probably not.

But sometimes Google still rewards those, so you could lose out to people on your blogs and your reviews.

If you are not really savvy with what you do with video, that is a much more difficult task. With video, building trust by being a real person is much easier.

So, if you build a YouTube channel within a specific niche where you become an expert, you suddenly have the keys to the castle. Suddenly, you’re the trustworthy authority, and when people make their buying decisions for specific products, they will come to you for recommendations.

For instance, I have a golf site called Breaking Eighty. I review golf courses and products, and I’ve been doing this for almost a decade. For years, people have been saying you should start a YouTube channel.

I was hesitant for a variety of reasons. But over the last year, I finally dove in and started creating golf product review videos. And what happened?

Well, my traffic and revenue doubled.

And that’s a channel with significantly fewer subscribers than Location Rebel’s YouTube.

With video, you really can’t fake it.

But by doing videos holding the product and comparing it to products you can see in my hands, you can see videos of me using all of a sudden; it’s not hard to become an expert in that space.

You don’t need hundreds of thousands of subscribers to succeed with this. You just need high-quality content within your specific niche.

You don’t have to be an expert in golf to succeed in golf on YouTube. You just have to know a little more than the beginner and be honest and forthcoming about your experiences with whatever you’re reviewing.

The Power of Video and Blogging

Here’s where things take off if you really want to start affiliate marketing and make money.

Do video content and written reviews and combine the two. That’s where the magic happens.

Because you’re going to have some people who want to watch videos and some who want to read about it. Catering to both audiences and having high-quality content on your blog and YouTube will do wonders for your expertise in Google’s eyes. And it helps build your expertise with your audience, too.

Create an affiliate marketing business with both video posts and blog posts.

There is so much opportunity because of the trust factor, the authority factor, and because AI and all of these different content farms can churn out blog posts and rudimentary videos.

But what they can’t do is replicate your authenticity when you are genuinely reviewing products, sharing your experiences, and being the person that people turn to when they’re looking to make a buying decision.

That will help you start reaching a broader audience.

And if you do this smartly and you target the right products, you can make a killing with affiliate marketing.

Is it easy?

Not exactly. And that’s why most people won’t do it. You may have to post consistent videos for a year or two before seeing traction.

If you’re willing to do the work on both, then there are a lot of opportunities out there for combining the two. Now you can embed video on your posts, turn video reviews into written content, and so on. That also helps your SEO, which helps drive more traffic to your site.

And most importantly, once you have people on your site who trust what you say, they want to buy from you.

As AI becomes more prevalent, trust and authority will be paramount for success.

So what’s the plan for 2024?

Create high-quality videos and blog posts in a niche that you enjoy that’s filled with affiliate opportunities.

That is the best way to build a business right now.

If you have passion and knowledge in a particular area, start creating content about that.

You will find people who like the same things you do.

If you do that, you will have a six-figure business much faster than you could have imagined.

Want More on Affiliate Marketing?

Stick around because we’ve got a bunch of posts and videos all about looking ahead to what’s working in 2024 and specifically diving into affiliate marketing.

So, I’ll be talking about videos, blogging, keyword research, building trust, and all that cool stuff.

If you’re interested, get on the email list so you don’t miss any of the new stuff.

Sean Ogle

Sean Ogle is the Founder of Location Rebel where he has spent the last 12+ years teaching people how to build online businesses that give them the freedom to do more of the things they like to do in life. When he's not in the coffee shops of Portland, or the beaches of Bali, he's probably sneaking into some other high-class establishment where he most certainly doesn't belong.