We’re so lucky to be living in the internet era. Making money is easier than ever before. I am not saying though that it can make you rich right away because making money online is not a get-rich-quick scheme. What I am saying is that unlike in the past, we have more options now to make money “anywhere and anytime” nowadays. You can now even profit from your hobby if you wish to, especially if you maximize the available technology to you.
Photo by Mackenzie Marco on Unsplash
My Story – From Hobby to A Small Business
I love shopping and I love buying new and used clothes. It actually did not matter to me if I was buying from the mall or from the thrift shops.
When I discovered that there were a lot of nice clothes from the thrift shops and the prices were just a fraction of the mall prices (still is), I started buying most of my clothes from thrift shops.
It came to a point wherein I got so many clothes at home and my apartment started looking like a thrift store LOL!. There were just too many and it ate up all of my available space.
I started selling most of them especially the ones that I didn’t wear anymore and those that I didn’t like anymore.
Of course, I continued buying for myself and also continued selling in order to continually have enough space for my new purchases.
I did that for quite some time until I realized that I could actually make a living from doing it.
And fast forward to today, I have been selling online for a couple of years now mostly used clothes, bags, shoes, and accessories for both men and women and I also added used house decors, art, etc to my list of merchandise.
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Examples of Hobbies that Can Be Profitable
Arts and Crafts
Etsy and Instagram are just some of the websites that you can check to see the thriving market of arts and crafts. If you are a creative individual and if you like making arts and crafts then consider selling them on Etsy and/or Instagram.
In the Philippines, there are also communal marketplaces in shopping malls that you can join if you want to have a physical presence. But if you’re just starting out, I suggest that you sell online first so you wouldn’t have to pay rent right away. This is very practical especially for people who have very limited capital to work with.
Shopping
Who would have thought that shopping can be profitable? Technically, my business is about shopping. I shop for pieces that I think my target market will like and I sell the items to them by posting these items on online selling websites such as Carousell, eBay, Grailed, Instagram, etc.
Instagram is also a great platform to observe what other online sellers are doing. Some people even took it a notch higher and started buying designer items abroad and their selling those bags and other pieces back home.
Pet Keeping
The Pet keeping industry is a multi-billion industry around the world. A lot of people have a variety of pets such as dogs, cats, etc.
Pet sitting and dog walking are some of the most common ways for animal lovers to earn money from.
But due to the popularity of the internet around the globe, people are now making by making blogs and vlogs about their pets.
Personally, I love watching videos about dogs and I lost count on how many times I’ve watched dog videos on Youtube. I do this because I wanted to learn more about the best practices in taking care of your dogs s I have some dogs as well.
Singing and Dancing (and perhaps other talents)
Gone are the days when you have to wait to be discovered by a talent scout in order to start earning money from your singing and dancing talents.
Gone are the days when you need to be signed up to a huge record label before you can start to sell and profit from your talent.
You can now earn money at the comfort of your home by building a massive following on social media and by posting videos on Youtube and TikTok.
I am a fan of some local artists here and I do watch their live shows on Youtube every now and then. I noticed that they earn money by getting direct donations from their followers, by sponsorships, and of course, once the live show is over, the video is posted on Youtube and they earn money from the ads (views).
Some people are also doing tutorial videos online on:
- How to sing
- Dance steps
- How to play the guitar
- How to do magic tricks
- How to draw
- How to paint
- Etc
Share Your Skills Online
This is similar to what I have just discussed but this is more of earning money from your handy skills. I have been planning to buy a low-cost house in the near future and I have been watching videos on Youtube on a variety of things. And as I watched these videos, I noticed how many views these videos are getting.
Some of these videos are about:
- Woodworking
- Interior Designing
- Cleaning
- DIYs
- Etc
The list is endless…
This blog could probably be enough to list all the hobbies that you can potentially earn money from.
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How to Profit from Your Hobby
Identify the Hobby You Want to Profit From
We do have a lot of hobbies and it might be very difficult to try to profit from all of them right away. I suggest that you identify first which hobby/ies you’d like to profit from.
In my case, the first hobby that I monetized was shopping. I built an online store so I can sell everything that I bought from thrift stores.
Now, I think I can handle a bit more responsibility and I will try to profit from my other hobby – writing/content creation. Writing is my refuge when I’m feeling down and sad. Regardless of what I write, the process of writing helps me calm down and forget all of my worries even for just a few hours.
I suggest that you start with one hobby first to avoid getting overwhelmed. And I suggest that you start with the hobby that you spend a lot of time doing.
Identify Possible Monetization Strategies
There are various ways to monetize a hobby depending on the nature of your hobby and depending on the time you want to spend working on it.
For example, if you love traveling on weekends or during your holidays, then it doesn’t mean that setting up a travel agency is the best way to monetize your hobby. Running a travel agency will of course be very tedious, costly, and time-consuming.
Perhaps, you can monetize it by:
- Selling things you buy in your travels
- Creating a travel blog to share tips and tricks
- Creating a Vlog to share your adventure
- Selling pictures you’ve taken on your trips abroad
- Etc
Identify Your Target Market
Monetizing a hobby is not different from setting up a business. You need a customer/audience that is interested in what you have to offer.
Personally, I always believed that there’s a market for everything.
However, not all available markets are created equal. Some markets have deep pockets and some don’t.
Your target market will of course depend on the kind of hobby and the type of monetization strategy that you will decide on.
For example:
If the hobby that you want to monetize on is singing, then chances are, your monetization strategy at the onset is to create video content (of you singing). The market that this will attract at first would be people who are also interested in music but not necessarily willing to buy anything from you.
Personally, I watch singing videos because I just want to hear their version of the song.
So, initially, your income might be focused on getting donations from your followers and from your advertisements on Youtube.
However, once you’ve grown your Youtube Channel, then perhaps you can expand to other monetization strategies such as selling merch, getting sponsorships, etc.
Start Researching Similar Monetized Hobbies
Once you have decided on the hobby that you want to monetize, monetization strategy, and your target market, then it’s time to do some online research on similar monetized hobbies.
For example, if you’re planning to monetize your fish-keeping hobby by creating video content, then start checking Youtube and TikTok for those kinds of content.
Identify the ‘top’ players in your chosen niche and binge-watch or binge-read their content.
Take note of their best practices and observe the quality of their work.
Make a Draft of Your Plan
Once you’ve researched the top players in your chosen niche, then start drafting how you will start with your own project of monetizing your hobby.
List down all the things that you need to start with.
If you’re going to monetize a hobby, then chances are you already have most of the things that you need. However, other things that you will need will depend on your monetization strategy.
For example, if your hobby is crocheting and you want to earn money by selling your crochets and by making online content about crocheting then you will probably need a decent camera, laptop, and other blogging/vlogging tools.
Start Executing Your Plan
Don’t worry if your plan is not perfect. As long as you think you can comfortably execute your plan, then start doing it.
The thing is, when you’re doing something new, it is already known that the skill level is low. But it will greatly improve as you go along.
If you don’t give it a try then you wouldn’t know what to improve on.
Continuous Learning
You might be good at your hobby and might be considered an expert on it, but you’re new to monetizing it. Thus your skill level in monetizing your hobby is at the beginner’s level.
Learn how to improve on it by observing the best practices of people who are doing something similar.
For example, if you’re good at singing but not great at recording a video and making cool edits, then you can teach yourself how to do it by watching tutorials online.
You might also need to invest in better-recording equipment such as a mic, camera and you might also need to improve the room where you record in order to achieve better sound acoustics.
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Final Thoughts
There are so many ways to earn money nowadays compared to the past generations. And all of these are because of the internet. It’s great to be alive in the internet era as opportunities seem to be abundant.
This opportunity is also available to almost anyone in the world as long as you have internet access.
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