The rapid growth of the World Wide Web has given birth to numerous small business ideas that business-minded individuals can exploit to earn them substantial amounts of income online. It is no longer uncommon to hear nowadays of people becoming millionaires just by starting an online business. The great thing about the internet is that it's still growing so you shouldn't worry about "opportunity shortages". However, the online business rush has caused a lot of markets to get saturated. With that said, if you can start an online business now, do it. Don't wait for tomorrow. Everything is moving so fast online that a single niche can get saturated in just one passing day.

Here's three of the best small business ideas that you can build today to start earning from the internet.

1. Affiliate marketing. If you have experience with offline sales, it has a lot of similarities to affiliate marketing. You don't own the products and services you are selling. You are merely the middle man. You simply sign up with an affiliate company or program then start promoting their products or services. If you are able to sell something, you earn a commission from it. Depending on the company you signed up with, affiliate commissions can range from a few cents to several hundred dollars. To be successful in affiliate marketing though, you should have excellent internet marketing skills. You should be able to get your affiliate products in front of the right customers.

2. Blogging. Among the small business ideas mentioned here, this is the easiest to set up. There are free blogging platforms out there so you can have a blog running in just a matter of minutes. You need to understand though that earning a significant income from blogging will take some considerable time. Weeks, months, or even years. You need to build your blog's readership first before you'll be able to make money from it. There are also numerous ways on how you can monetize a blog. These include banner advertising, display advertising, affiliate marketing, and direct ad selling.

3. Freelancing. If you have a skill or talent, i.e. writing, web design, illustration, etc., you can offer it online as a freelancer. There are dozens of online job boards and directories where you can find potential clients for your services.

If you are looking for small business ideas, the three ideas mentioned above could be everything you need. Start out with any of them before you branch out to more complicated business endeavors.