The world is filled with ways to make money. Most people connect the act of money-making with something boring and mundane. Just get through those 8 hours somehow and get paid. But not all ways to make living require boredom as the main element. How does one get passionate about their job? Simple, make your hobby your job!
Step 1: Get a hobby
If you already have one, skip to step 2, otherwise, this is a very important step.
Pete, you might say, I don’t have any hobbies, to begin with, to make them my job. I hear you, dear reader. I do. I heard this many, many times. A lot of the times even from myself. The truth is though, that getting a hobby is one of the simplest things you can do. You just have to open your mind to experimenting, forget what others might think of you and just do it.
Have you ever spent hours watching YouTube, browsing Reddit or Facebook and saw something interesting? Maybe a nice-looking recipe, a lamp you could buy, jewellery or even the act of making videos, editing or sound design. All of these things are worth a try. We are living in a world where if you have a computer or even a phone, you can try almost all digital stuff for free and all of it can be a fun hobby. When it comes to non-digital, the opportunities are endless.
So to get your hobby, open your mind. Get into that experimental phase you were in when you were a kid and just discovered the world. The fact is, no matter how old you are, there are still things to discover. One lifetime is not enough to try everything, which means there will always be something new for you to try if the last thing did not work out.
Don’t be afraid of failure
People often don’t do things, because they are afraid of what will happen if stuff won’t work out. They say “I would just waste my time.” or “I will give up anyway.” or the good old, “I can never be as good as <insert a popular person here>”. Look, the truth is, everyone had to start somewhere. I also believe everyone is really good at something. You just need to find your passion. And you can’t do that without failing.
Trust me, you will fail in everything at least once. If you wouldn’t, how else would you learn from your mistakes? It’s only people that never try anything, people that don’t live their lives to their fullest, that never fail. As you will be experimenting and trying different hobbies you will eventually find the one where failing will become a part of the fun. It will become a challenge. A thing you will overcome and get that sweet reward of dopamine surging through your body. Failing will help you to get better.
You are your own boss
One thing you have to also understand is that no one is forcing you to get a hobby or to be good at it. The only person that has the final saying in this, is you. When you come back from work and eventually go try a new hobby or do your normal one, it’s the realization that this is something YOU decided to do that gives your life control. Doing things for your own self is necessary for a happy life. We are not talking about being selfish here, but about self-care. Mental health is important and if your hobby is something like a sport or pretty much anything physical, you are helping your physical health as well.
Step 2: Think of your hobby as something more
Once you found your hobby and know this is something fun for you – something you enjoy and can stick to – you can now try to think of your hobby in a different way. And that way is: Can I make some money out of this? I would recommend not starting a hobby with this idea in mind, but rather do so with the one you already enjoy. You should be combining your passion and work not work and work.
Now, let’s see if your answer can be yes. Is your hobby making a physical product of any kind? Then the answer is definitely yes! Is your hobby anything fun you could share with others? Then the answer is yes as well. Let’s see, what if your hobby is something like reading? An activity that you do alone and just for yourself. Funnily enough, even here the answer is, yes, you can make money out of it. Alright, I wasn’t really honest. The answer is always yes, you don’t really have to ask the question. What you should ask is, how?
How do I make money with my hobby?
There is a great amount of activities that can monetize your hobby. Each of those will need its own article and some of them already have it, but let’s just use examples for now:
Do you like books, movies, pretty much any hobby that involves stories?
Make a blog, website, YouTube channel and discuss it with people. Just put your thoughts out there. People are always interested in reviews and opinions, even reactions. If they wouldn’t be there wouldn’t exist so many YouTube channels with this type of content. You can analyze your favourite passages, your favourite authors/directors or you can just rant into the camera for ten minutes about things you didn’t like. There are also channels that compare the movies to their original source. Possibilities are endless here.
Is your hobby a skill that you are learning?
This can be anything from writing, sewing, baking to even things like fishing or making music. Make a website/blog and write about things you are learning. Or make a course! Sites like Skillshare afford courses for one specific thing, for example, “making sourdough bread” or “how to write a good character”. Remember that to teach someone, all you need to do is to share your knowledge and have 10% more knowledge than that person about the subject. In other words, anyone can teach. Share. Your. Knowledge.
What if your hobby is a sport or any physical activity?
If you are a people person, look around if you can maybe have other people join you? Maybe you can help someone learn yoga or you can take some tourists with you on your bike ride through your favourite places. Ask your friends to try this stuff with you and see if they like it. You can then look into stuff like AirBnB Experiences to get new people to join. If you are doing athletic sports, once again, start a YouTube channel where you can do physical challenges or share the exercises you do. If you become very successful, who knows, maybe you can end up opening your very own gym or sell your exercise equipment.
Are you an artist?
For you, I already wrote two articles on this site. What you want is gaining following on social media and then sell your art with print on demand or through stores like Amazon or Etsy if you are making a physical product. If you want more information about the topic, read about the basics here or see the step-by-step tutorial for Etsy and Print-on-Demand combo here. We are in an amazing age to be artists! Don’t give up and keep working! You got this!
There are many more ways that work and I can’t really name all of them. If you can think of some, let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them. In summary, the biggest things you can use to monetize your hobby are making courses, making videos, writing a blog or selling something let it be service or a product. The ways you can do this are numerous. In any way, no matter what you choose, please, make a website.
More ideas
If you’d like to read up on more ideas, check out this article from the blog Think Smart Wealth How to make money with 15 hobbies.
Step 3: Profit
Now all you have to do, is to try these things. Remember, you might not see profit right away, but I promise you, if you will stick to those things, you will see profit. Always make sure you are not spending more money than you are willing. If you want to earn a profit for just exchange for your time, rather than money, you can do that, although it might be slower. Money speeds up things, but in the end it’s you who has to do these things. And if you are motivated and passionate, there’s not many things that can stop you.
One thing I should also mention is to always make sure to do your taxes right. I know, I know, taxes, a scary word, but don’t worry, it’s not so bad. Just realize that once you start earning money, you are officially a business. Even if a small one. Unless you are secretive about it, which I don’t recommend. In any way, just think of the taxes when you are monetizing your stuff, so you always have a profit. This is a mistake I did with my last business. Thanks to me forgetting about taxes, I found out my profit in the end was about a dollar a month. But hey! I wouldn’t be here without that mistake, giving you this advice. Failure is a really good teacher, if not the best.
Summary
There are way too many ways to make money out of your hobbies. The only problem is that people don’t know about them or get discouraged by the obstacles. All I can say is don’t be afraid to fail. You’ll learn how to do this, just like many before you. I trust you, my reader. I truly do. You are the reason I write this blog. Don’t think of the obstacles, think of your goals. One day, you’ll end up combining your passion with your work and at that point, the word “work” will not have a negative feeling attached to it. I hope this article opened your eyes at least a bit and that I can see you in other articles.
If you are enjoying my blog and would like to get to know more about side hustling, consider joining my e-mail list, where I will inform you about new articles being published. If not, then thank you for reading this far. You are an awesome and beautiful person.
