Hobbies that can get profitable?

[PenguinManiac]

There are many hobbies that require you to develop the so called transferable skills: drawing, writing, programming and so on and so forth. It's usually easier to learn skills through activities you enjoy, especially because you pour more time into them without even noticing, and it's even easier to get good at them.

What hobbies are the easiest ones to get into that can make you gain some money (even if they won't make you rich)? What are the most potentially profitable ones, instead? And even if you can't directly make money out of them, what would be the most appealing in the job market (well, that's more indirect, but that can be just as valuable)?

 

[Rob Whisonant]

When determining if a hobby is a money maker I do the following.

1. Does the hobby have a magazine?
2. Do you need to continuously by things for the hobby?
3. Are there Facebook groups for the hobby?
4. Is there a forum for the hobby?
5. Are there blogs for the hobby?
6. etc...

The more yes answers the more likely you can profit from the hobby.

 

[peachpurple]

There are a few hobbies that could help one to earn money online such as drawing arts or cartoons which sells well at Fiverr. If you can sew or handmade crafts, you can sell them at Ebay or other online sites for buyers to buy from you . If your hobby is writing reviews and previews for movies or games, you can fetch higher income at many websites.

 

[Xperienced]

Writing a s a hobby can be profitable if time is taken to make it very attractive. I always think writing kids stories and poems is a very profitable niche if done with the age grade in mind together with some good graphics to get their attention. It's one project I'm planning to invest in to increase my brand and raise some cash in the process.

 

[PenguinManiac]

PenguinManiac

Sounds original. Is it digital content or physical? Starting digital could be a cheaper alternative, but I guess most kids/families will go for the physical version. Are you investing on publishers or something like that?

 

[homebizmom]

homebizmom

I am actually thinking of doing writing on the side as well. it could be a great way to bring some extra income on the side.

 

[Promoguy]

Back in the day, I used to play a tcg game online. Turned it into a little business by selling cards

 

[ballyhara]

Well my Yoga instructor is such a good example. She started taking Yoga classes as a hobby, then she realized she was really good at it, she also is very patient and dedicated, so besides her regular job as a nurse, she began to give some basic classes to her neighbors and friends, including me. So far, this girl has a very good income by giving privates, also there are some groups that get together and she gives lessons online. She earns an amount per hour depending on the level skill and has a better income than me hahaha.

 

[Pink_Turtle]

I have always had profitable hobbies. Even when I was a kid I start making Bracelets and rings and I used to sell them in my school. Then, when social media kick in with Facebook, I offer them online too. After that, I start learning English as a hobby and use it to teach little kids some words. The parents pay me for it. Sometimes I did English essays too and charge for it. After a while I start doing Henna tattoos – I start doing them for me- and then when my friends start to ask I did them for them too and charge considering the design… I even got a facebook page to offer the tattoos after a while because they became so popular among my friends that I just have to make it. There are other ways like photography or drawing/writing comics- I have this friends that use to draw and write comics and he make money with it- you just have to think what you like and start to think how to make money out of it.

 

[PenguinManiac]

PenguinManiac

Craft is another very profitable niche. If I may ask, how did you promote your business on Facebook? Did you just make a page and asked your friends to spread the word? Plus, haven't you considered joining dedicated online shops like Etsy for that?
Teaching kids English is another alternative I've seen online quite a lot, there's plenty of apps and websites that pay a nice hourly rate for online lessons.
Drawing can get very profitable with commissions, but unfortunately I'm a terrible artist

 

[Pink_Turtle]

Pink_Turtle

Yes, I did it that way. I didn't spend money in promoting my page. I just told my friends to tag me when they put their tattoo photos online. Also to share my page. Sometimes people still see my page and ask me if I still do the Henna tattos but it was just a hobbie so I don't do it no more. About the online shops I've never considered it but now that you say it. It might be a good idea. I still do Bracelets and rings as a hobbie. thanks for the idea!

 

[PenguinManiac]

PenguinManiac

You're welcome! I honestly never took local promotion seriously because of how restricted it is, but I've been proven wrong, it seems! Online shops are easier to handle than things like tattoos, since you can just produce items in your spare time and wait for sellers to come with no additional time investment. Since your rings and bracelets have already got popular among your friends, I'm sure many more people would like them!

 

[shilpa]

Yes, hobbies can be cultivated to earn money as well. Let me tell you a success story of one of my close friend. I won't take names, because it would not be a good thing to do.

Okay, so here's the story - My friend had an interest in making artist trading cards. For those who don't know what an artist trading card or ATC is: An ATC is a miniature card of size that of a baseball card. It consists of the artist's art, usually a miniature painting that is sold or exchanged either in person or online.

Now coming on to the story of my friend. She was always a fine artist with fine brush skills. She used to make ATCs as a hobby only. One day one of our mutual friend came across one of her ATC and greatly liked it. She suggested her to auction the ATC on eBay. My friend thought it was a joke but nevertheless she felt that there was no harm in trying. She immediately photographed her ATC, put it up for the auction on eBay, and waited.

Now, let me tell you here one thing about selling online: always include high quality images of your item that you're selling, otherwise people may not even notice.

So my friend waited for sometime until a buyer matched the bidding. My friend's first thoughts were, "Okay, I need to seize this opportunity..." But she waited for more time. Then after some more time she finally came across a very good local bidder. She felt that it would be a loss to let the opportunity go so she accepted the offer. She was offered $50 just for her first ATC. She was lucky there, or maybe her art was that much good. She then started doing it more often and sold about a dozen cards in a month.

Now she does it as a side income opportunity. She already has a main job. Also she does it in free time and has no pressure whatsoever. She can do it on her own pace and sell it whenever she needs.

So as you can see what started as just a hobby became a secondary source of income to my friend. So if we have a hobby, and refined skills then we can use them to sell our products or services online.

 

[PenguinManiac]

PenguinManiac

Nice story, thanks for sharing! Arts and crafts are amazing hobbies to have for personal growth, but if you have a talent they can be easily turned into a source of income. If I might ask, does she have a job in design or any other artistic field, perhaps? Because she could even make a job out of commissions or illustrations for projects online. I constantly read about them, and there are so many of them that it makes me wonder why I never sit down and tried to learn how to draw.

 

[Lem]

I know a few people that have turned their hobby into a profession online - mostly buying, selling and coloring yarns. They have to work extremely hard to do that, as most hobbies that can be turned into money are really hard to break in to. But hey, if you've got the passion and the drive to do it - go for it!

 

[shilpa]

No, she only does this as a hobby. Actually she is a professional industrial psychologist employed with a reputed company here in India. She has been doing ATCs for a while now, but she never thought of earning money from them. But that changed after a mutual friend of ours suggested her to auction her arts. Now she has a supplementary source of income. She is earning money from what she loves to do. I once asked her if she'd ever quit her job if she got more successful as an artist but she said that she had no intention of quitting her job. She said she loves both of her professions. I think she has a point there.

 

[PenguinManiac]

PenguinManiac

She's lucky to make money out of not one, but two activities she loves. Well, luck's certainly not the only force at play here, so she must be really skillful as well. Kudos to her and to your friend as well for suggesting it to her!

 

[shilpa]

Yes, I agree. She wasn't lucky alone. She was skillful, that's why she was able to turn her hobby into an art, which later led to her supplementary source of income. Also the mutual friend who suggested her to auction was also a medium for her success. I agree that both of them deserve praise.

 

[carla281]

I know a lady that crochets for extra income. She makes blankets, baby clothes, scarfs, hats and many other things. She is very talented and is very fast. She has a portfolio that she carries around showing her work. It is beautiful. If I could crochet as quickly as her I would consider doing that.

 

[PenguinManiac]

PenguinManiac

Producing your own clothes sounds like fantastic, but being able to crochet things from the ground up is not that far from sorcery to me. I'll be honest, I never took crocheting seriously until I started to see some amazing stuff made with just a pair of sticks and yarn, like plushes and very particular hats (you've probably seen that famous one that looks like a knight helmet). She must be amazing!

 

[diels1001]

Your hobby can be profitable if you put an extra effort to it. I have a schoolmate before that is not interested in studying but really likes running in track. He always sacrifices his classes over his training in the athletics gym. I don't why he is doing that because for me, he will never achieve anything just from running and running. I am a nerd one so I think studying will be the only foundation of getting an income but I was wrong. My schoolmate now is a millionaire even though we are still studying because he became a member of the national team and brought home 4 gold medals in men's decathlon in the previous Sea games.

 

[tenthztar]

every hobby can be taken as profitable, It depends on how you will market it. I heard a huge deal in talented artist online that do sketching's for commissions. If you love anime then why don't you make a review and recommend it to others by You tube. Some peoples make so much money on being artistic that it became their full time job. Doing something you love makes the whole job fun and exciting.

 

[Rebara19]

Yes, they can be profitable. But only if you become an expert of a specialist in them. To put it simply, your satisfaction with a certain activity is not enough. An extra service or an advantage is required to make people come to you instead of your competition. Many times, there are more ways how to profit from one hobby. Either performing the sklil or teaching it (active) or writing about it (passive). Probably, IT skills would earn a lot as still many people don´t know how to operate with a software so anything like a website designer, an account manager...

 

[Store]

If you love taking photos and good at it, you can make money from it online. Even photos taken from your smartphone can be sold online.If you have a number of quality photos that you believe people may want to pay for, there are many websites that would help you sell your photos and make hundreds of dollars.

Although you will have a lot of tough competition from many other photographers but if you believe you have the necessary skills on taking and editing photos surely you find your photos turn into dollars.
To think that this is what you enjoy doing, money is just a bonus from doing what you really love.

So it's enjoying while earning..

 

[johnmctown]

Making youtube videos is a hobby nowadays. Making and uploading videos on your leisure time. It gives you a passive income. The challenge is how to make your channel gain more views and subscribers.

 

[SimplyD]

Actually, my hobby is writing online on sites like this. I started joining online write sites since 2008, and I must say I enjoyed it so much. Specially, when I see that my post gets a lot of comments. It motivates me to write more and sometimes it's not the money anymore I am after but the satisfaction of seeing your post collects a lots of comments.
Thus, writing online is a profitable hobby to me.

 

[Hurry14]

Well if you always use the computer everyday for various reasons like researching, writing, Social Medias, Games, and other stuffs. That can be a way to earn some money online. you can be a blogger if you really like to write stuffs, or be a data encoder if your typing skills a great, you can even play games to earn money by grinding items in the game to sell it to people that wants that items in the game. so many stuff can be done online without needing special talents or skills. Hobbies can earn cash.

 

[jaymish]

I agree with the comments that your hobby can be profitable. Remember all the advice we get from the self-help Gurus. One of the ways to prosperity we are told is to love what you are doing so that when you spend hours on it, it doesn't seem like a Job. And they are examples of business leaders who call themselves serial entrepreneurs and enjoy building and selling businesses as their hobbies. Hobbies like cooking, sewing, playing football and basketball, reading, writing and drawing often turn profitable. This is seen from the likes of Micheal Jordan, David Beckham, J.K.Rowling who love what they do and have turned it into millions and billions.