online business' & online work if anyone knows anything?

If I knew that, why would I be telling the whole world?

I don't know, & I don't know your perspective of how you see the world.

if I had a good idea of how to make money on the web, I would be foolish to tell strangers about it. That's just commercial common sense. However there is one method that seems to work for some people.

1. Spam forums, newspaper comment sections, etc, with "Make money from home!" links to your website.

2. If anyone responds, tell them that for a fee (e.g. $20) you will give them online work.

3. If they pay, bank the fee.

4. If you even bother to provide them with work, make them spam forums, newspaper comment sections, etc, with "Make money from home!" links to your website. Promise them a part of the fee.

5. Don't pay anybody anything.

Make sure to hide your true identity.

I worked as a freelance writer until one of my clients hired me. Go to Upwork and bid on jobs.

I appreciate the resource although unfortunately they did not accept me for writing after they reviewed me. I ended up wasting 3 hours

Sorry - I've been hearing that from other people. They seem to be cracking down more (and I think they're trying to balance their population a bit better so they can market to a bigger variety of employers).

What about Fiverr or Craig's List?

So you want to start your own home business, and you are upset about wasting 3 whole hours?

Finding your market, time spent honing your skills, heading down dead ends, and endless other things is going to "waste" a whole lot more than 3 hours.

Having your own business is not about finding "the thing" and resting on your laurels.

It's continual searching, refinement, doing the unexpected, hitting dead ends, but fortunately also heading down paths that reap satisfaction.

Ok, on the other side...

What is your definition of small business?

Are you looking to make a few hundred dollars a month in your spare time?

Or are you wanting to gross a few hundred thousand dollars a year?

Or somewhere in between?

I'm retired, but over a few years I've managed to develop hobbies, interests, falling into several things unexpectedly, scouring odd gigs, in other words, cobbling a bunch of things all together that net me, less than a $1000, but more than $700 a month.
One of them in the first few month of this year netted me literally only $15 a month. Now, in December, it nets me at least $300 a month, and growing. I do a contract gig for a few hundred a month. That's diminishing, so I'm on the lookout to replace that.

In other words, my personal advice is to keep your eyes open. Keep your expenses down. Be happy over the bigger amounts that come in, but don't scoff at the couple dollars here and there, as they cover your overhead.

What is your time line for getting up to speed?

That's a question everyone would like the answer to. The problem is that the people who have those answers probably won't tell you. My understanding is that the folks who did that successfully had to put in the work and go through a bit of trial and error to get to the successful side.

People who are successful have skills to share. If you can write well, then make money writing. If you can code well, then make money coding. If you do art well... you get the idea.

I'd be leery of craigslist. Don't know much about Fiverr.

I've gotten short term gigs, like mock jury duty or legitimate surveys where I go to a company and give my opinion on software they are working on. You get paid, $25, $50 or $100 for an hour, or up to 4 hours work.

Most of the gigs on craigslist are from uber, or more like ads for "models" or someone to come over and clean your house naked, or clean it while the customer sits around naked.

I scan past at least 95% of the gigs.

As far as the part time or Etc. section, it depends on what your goal is.
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I fell into something perfect. This woman who lived close to me also sells on ebay, and her business was to the point where she had to hire someone to help so she could concentrate on growing.
3 hours 3 or 4 times a week to take photos of her merchandise, post, wrap and ship etc.

Just because I sell on ebay too doesn't mean I'd steal her idea. She sold something I have no interest in, and she had no interest in what I sold, so it was all good.
She'd been doing it seriously for about a year, and it took her that long to get to a point where she was able to afford to put her 2 year old twins in daycare for the morning while she did her thing, and was renting storage space for her products.

Then of course, she got a phone call from someone who she used to work with, who wanted her to come join him in something she was good at. She was very apologetic to me, but there was no need to be. I was happy for her. It would have been bad for me if I was counting of this extra $4 or 5 hundred a month. So now she's just going to keep what she already has up for sale (she had approx 1,400 different items listed.) and sell them off. If this new thing she's doing doesn't work, maybe I'll get a call back. We really clicked and she had a really cute doggie.

BTW, when I posted I said I was netting $300 a month? Now that's up to $500 net a month. It might not seem like a lot to some, but considering the few hours I do this, it's great. So from $15 or $20 to $500 in just a year. Believe me, I "wasted" quite a few 3 hours here and there investigating stuff too. But, I looked at it that I was learning about so many aspects of trade.

I don't see the problem with telling people what I do, if I don't get too specific re my individual products or service.

You can start an online business..all you need to do is to contact a website development company and you should make sure they do SEO for your website.