In my last article 'Diversify your income, create an online business' I talked about a simple business model of creating content driven websites or blogs that generated income through advertizing and affiliate marketing. The goal of the article was to show how you can easily use a hobby or a topic that interests you to earn additional money. We can certainly all use extra money and there are so many different ways to achieve this online. In this article, I want to focus on the idea of offering a service online.

Offering an online service can be as large or as small scale as you can manage. The basic concept is to have a website where the user is offered a service for a fee.

Here's a couple of interesting examples of this concept on a large scale:

http://www.earthclassmail.com/

https://www.yousendit.com/

'Earth Class Mail' offers people the ability to receive their 'snail mail' online in digital format. Earth Class Mail receives the clients mail, scans them to digital format and allows the client to access their mail online for a monthly fee. This is a novel idea for a mobile world with an increasing amount of people who travel a lot and own more than one home. This business identified a need that wasn't being met and offer the service online for a monthly fee.

Similarly, 'You Send It' allows users to share large files that couldn't otherwise be emailed. The user purchases a monthly subscription package and than uploads their files and enters in the recipient's email address to retrieve the file. A simple and easy service.

The monthly fee or user subscription model is successfully used by larger online businesses. However it can equally be applied to smaller businesses aswell in just about any field. Any professional who wishes to offer their services virtually can adopt this model.

For example, Social Workers or Business Coaches can offer their services online for a fee per telephone call or email session, the client would pre-purchase bundles of time or emails in exchange for the online service. This model also allows for the practitioner to hire additional staff to handle a larger volume of clients, allowing them to earn more than they could on their own.

Consider what you already do for a living and how you can offer your services online. Think of a unique service that answers a need that hasn't been done yet, or if it already exists, how could it be improved.

Start thinking about ideas for a service website that suits your personality and feel free to share your ideas.