Online Business Models Tier List: 2025 Edition
149: Maximize your odds of making it.
Welcome reader! Before we hit 150 articles, let’s do a fun one about business models and where things are headed. This is a quick reality check on how online business models will operate for the rest of 2025 and whether they are worth it. It also positions us to draw parallels between now and then and understand where the market is heading.
FAQ - How Most People View Business Models
Additional reading on business:
Business models vs. vehicles: Considering there are new readers or those who are yet to start their WiFi money adventure. It is important to distinguish between business models and business vehicles. Let us take a basic example. Affiliate marketing is a business model. TikTok Shop affiliate marketing is a vehicle - one is built on top of the other. Business vehicles are frameworks/tools driving the underlying core business model. We mention this because a lack of knowledge and common sense has spread across the internet for the past few years, and no one can ignore it. TikTok Shop is not a business model but a vehicle supporting your business model. Affiliate marketing in this case. Another common one you heard in the past month or two? The business model of clipping videos on Whop. Next time you hear someone mention it… You know with what kind of experience and expertise you are dealing with.
Business models don’t change. Vehicles of distribution do: This brings us to the next point. How often have you heard over the past few months: "X business model changed because of _____"? Next time you hear that, it again means only one thing. The other side is trying to push you into something (sell you something). The business model didn’t change. The vehicles of distribution have changed. If the business model were entirely tied to a specific platform (such as FBA), you could say that the business model has died. We intentionally mixed up business models and vehicles of distribution in this post. Technically, it is not the right thing to do. But considering how widely acceptable it has become. We are doing it.
Don't fall in love with your business vehicle: "How easy it used to be to make something out of (insert business model)". If you have been in this space for some time. There is nothing you have not already heard of. Business is dynamic - nothing is fixed. Those who have been in this game and space for at least 10 - 15 years. We are sure you can remember how easy it used to be. Get on Google / Yahoo → load up the balance → run the ads. The business process remains the same after all those years. What has changed? The probability of turning a profit with the same approach that worked 15 years ago. The game favors big players with big budgets. The TAM and the internet space as such (attention) are limiting factors. There are no technical limitations, but the limitations are entirely based on factors most people don’t consider. It is often inefficient for those who follow this basic approach - making your business model/vehicle useless. Since this is becoming a massive wall of text, we have yet to cover the business model. Our advice is to treat all vehicles built on top of your core business model as temporary. Nothing in the online space is permanent.
Understand before reading further:
There is a difference between business models and business vehicles (one is built on top of the other).
You will have to adapt to win the long game. Meaning that sooner or later, you will have to change the business vehicle. This is all incorporated into the business model and a natural lifecycle.
The internet space is unlimited - the attention is limited (that’s why prices for paid traffic go up).
Don't fall in love with the business vehicle you use to support your core business model.