Money-making hobby activities that you can pursue
Money-making hobby activities that you can pursue
As you look through the many personal bios on social media, you’ll find a wide range of topics. Some people talk about their kids, while others talk about their jobs, favorite bands, or personal opinions.
But most people always talk about their hobbies in the short “about me” section.
Whether you like cats, hike a lot, or drink a lot of coffee, your profile bio probably has something about a hobby or activity you enjoy.
Why?
Because your hobbies are a big part of who you are.
Most people don’t know that your hobbies can also be a way to make extra money.
Things you can do at home or online to make money
Can you really make money by hiking, making things, or loving animals?
Not all extracurricular activities can make you money, but it’s likely that you have some that you didn’t even know about.
Here are some ways that people just like you are making money from their interests.
Money-making hobby activities that you can pursue
1. Write and get paid
As a way to make money on the side, writing has almost no limits.
Blogging for Money
It’s easy to start a blog, and it gives you a direct way to make money from your love of writing. My blog started out as a way for me to express my creativity. Now, it’s a full-time source of income.
Do you enjoy:
- Are you trying out new recipes?
- Concerned about your own money?
- Putting together cute outfits out of things you find at thrift stores?
- Write it down.
Fans follow every hobby. Use blogging as a way to connect with that group of fans. There are a few easy steps you can take to start making your blog. Choose a topic, gather your ideas and thoughts, and then start typing.
Getting money from your blog takes time. But you’ll learn how to make content, get more visitors, and make more money online.
Writing on Your Own
You can do freelance work on top of your regular job or turn your skill into a full-time online job.
Check out my interview with freelance writer Georgia Austin, who got her start on Fiverr. As her schedule filled up, she raised her prices and eventually started her own writing agency. When we talked, she was making $90k a month with her business.
2. Paying to Play Games
Video games might be the most fun thing you can do to make money. You might not believe it, but there are real ways to make money by playing games.
Here are some ideas.
Cube of Solitaire
I played Windows Solitaire a fair amount when I was younger, so Solitaire Cube got my attention.
The well-reviewed game app puts you against players with the same level of skill as you. Every player gets the same deck, and the player with the most points at the end wins. Of course, I think you should try it out for free first!
Solitaire Cube is free to download and play, but there aren’t any “real prize” tournaments in AR, CT, DE, IL, IN, LA, ME, or SD yet.
It is possible to win real money, but it takes time. The creator of the app and experienced players say that the “pro league” can help you make more money faster.
Bingo in Blackout
With the popular Blackout Bingo app, the game of bingo goes from being a game of luck to one of speed and skill. Each game takes about 2 minutes to play, and you can win real-world prizes and cash (except in AR, CT, DE, IL, IN, LA, ME, or SD).
The app gets mostly good reviews from players, who say it’s fun and hard to stop playing. However, some say their ads are a bit misleading because they say you can win a lot of money with little work.
As with any game app, you should try it out for free first. Then, you shouldn’t risk more money than you can afford to lose.
Cashyy App
Thousands of people are making money with the free Cashyy app, which has a 4-star rating on the Google Play store.
As you find new free games and complete “missions,” you’ll earn coins that you can trade for gift cards or PayPal cash.
Mistplay App
Mistplay has been downloaded more than 10 million times. It pays you to find and play new games on your Android phone.
You get more “units” the more you play. Watch out, because some games pay up to eight times more than others. Then, you can turn those units into gift cards for your favorite stores.
A live stream channel
Start a live stream channel where you share your game play in real time. This is one way to make money from your love of video games.
When you have a fan base, you can:
- Use ads to make money.
- ask your audience for donations
- make a service where people pay to get access to exclusive content
- Right now, Twitch is the best place to live stream.
You can also make money from your love of games by starting a YouTube channel or podcast. You could talk about gaming news, the newest innovations in the field, or even tips for specific games.
As your audience grows, you can make money by showing ads, getting paid sponsorships, or getting people to sign up for Patreon.
How to Teach Video Games
Video game clubs often meet on platforms like Outschool. Parents pay for their kids to play online in a safe place and learn from teachers whose backgrounds have been checked.
Miss Devyn is one of these teachers. She said that she makes $4,000 a month from her Outschool classes.
3. Shopping to Make Money
Everyone shops on Amazon these days. But did you know that you can also make money through Amazon?
A simple Amazon business is the easiest way to get started, and this is great for people who like to find deals.
You need three things to get going:
- An Amazon Seller Account: To start, you can use a free Personal seller account. If you sell more than 40 items a month, it makes sense to move up to the Professional account level.
- The Amazon Seller app is free and works on both iOS and Android.
- Just a few dollars to buy your first stock.
As long as you have these three things, you’re good to go. Now let’s go look for ways to make money!
Stop by the clearance section while you’re out doing your regular errands to see what treasures you can find. It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, but you might be surprised by what you can find online that sells for much more.
When you read people’s bios on social media, you’ll find a lot of different things. Some people talk about their kids, while others talk about their jobs, favorite bands, or personal thoughts.
But in the short “about me” section, most people always talk about their hobbies.
Whether you like cats, hike a lot, or drink a lot of coffee, your profile bio probably has something about a hobby or activity you like.
Why?
Because the things you like to do make up a big part of who you are.
Most people don’t know that your hobbies can also help you make extra money.
7. Get paid to fly drones.
Drones can take amazing videos that companies and businesses are happy to pay for.
Some of the biggest buyers of drone video and photos are:
- Real estate agents
- Construction companies
- Sites that sell stock photos
- Companies like drones because they can help them market their goods and services from a unique point of view. In some situations, like roof inspections, it’s also easier or less expensive to send a drone instead of a person.
You can set your own prices if you want to make money with a drone. You may need to try out different rates to find out what the fair market value is in your area.
Some people who fly drones say that a single job pays them $200.
8. Tell me what you think
With online focus groups and surveys, you can get paid for your opinion.
These won’t take the place of your regular job, but they can be a fun way to make some extra cash on the side. Here are some of Side Hustle Nation’s favorite ideas:
- Swagbucks is a very popular app that lets you take surveys and get paid up to $35 for each one. When you sign up, you also get a $10 bonus.
- Survey Junkie: You can make up to $40 a month and get paid as little as $5.
- Branded Surveys is rated as one of the best survey sites and has paid out millions.
- InboxDollars: Sign up and get a $5 bonus right away!
- YouGov is a long-running survey panel whose results are often used in the news.
- Pinecone Research: Each survey takes between 15 and 20 minutes and pays $3. After your first check, they’ll send you one for $3.
- Join up for free at American Consumer Opinion and earn up to $50 per survey.
9. “Hunting” for Deals
Could you become the hobbyists’ go-to person for deals and bargains? Camron Stover does this with his website, Hunting Gear Deals, which, as you might guess, finds the best deals on hunting gear.
On The Side Hustle Show, he said that he had grown the business on the side of his full-time job to make $90k a year.
10. Become a Brand Ambassador
Do you always buy the same brand of shoes or clothes? As a brand ambassador, you could get paid for how much you like a brand.
A brand ambassador is someone who gets paid to talk about a company’s products or services. Companies all over the world want their customers to see how other people are using and enjoying their products. That means you get to use the product and get paid for each new customer you send their way.
Ambassadors often make thousands of dollars just by showing why they love the brand and why they think other people will too. They do this by building up a following on social media or a blog audience that brands will pay to reach.
You could be a brand ambassador if you have a big following on YouTube, Instagram, or your other favorite social media site, or if you can build one.
11. Trivia nights:
Quiz nights are a fun way to make money from your favorite social activity.
Trivia nights are often held in restaurants, bars, and other places, but many people don’t want to plan, market, and run the event.
You can get the word out about trivia nights by making event pages on social media or putting up flyers on business boards in your area. Then, run the events for these venues to make money. Charge a flat rate, or at the end of the night, split the money with the venue.
Some people have made this money-making hobby into their full-time job.
12. Buy food for other people.
If you like shopping for groceries, or at least don’t mind it, you can use this hobby to make extra money by becoming an Instacart shopper.
People who deliver groceries for Instacart are paid between $10 and $15 per hour.
As a full-service shopper, you take orders from customers, find and pay for the things on their list, and then deliver the goods to the customer’s home. You get a commission based on the size of the order and any tips that customers give you.
Kevin LaCombe, who reads Side Hustle Nation, makes an extra $450 to $500 a week as a Full-Service Instacart Shopper:
If you like the idea of delivering things, you could also do something like DoorDash, which delivers food.
Both Instacart and DoorDash were on our big list of the best paid apps.
13. Feed your desire to travel
Use your credit card rewards in a smart way. People who are good at this hobby have been able to make thousands of dollars in free travel, gift cards, and cash over the past few years.
There’s a little bit of an art and science to this, and you must use your credit card responsibly, but it can pay off.
How simple hobbies can help individuals living with depression and anxiety
14. Digital Real Estate Investing
Buying a house that needs some work has become popular in real estate and many other fields.
People can now make money by buying and making changes to websites. This is called “digital real estate.”
This is what Stacy Caprio did to find a new way to make money after she quit her job. She knew a little about online marketing, and by reading blogs, she taught herself the rest of what she needed to know.
If you don’t want to keep your new website, you can also try to increase the cash flow so you can sell it quickly. Some possible changes are:
- adding stuff
- Getting the most out of search engines
- Changing the look
- advertising networks are changing
- Once the websites are finished, they can be sold for a lot of money on sites like Flippa.
Flipping websites is a way to make money that doesn’t require you to be an expert webmaster. You just need the right plan and a little bit of hard work.
15. Get Paid to Snap Photos
Photography could be a good way to make money if you have a knack for capturing the beauty in everyday life or just like taking pictures.
This is my wife’s side business, which began as a hobby!
There are many ways to make money by taking pictures. Reaching out to friends and family is one of the easiest ways to get started. Some events to think about are graduations, weddings, and newborn photos.
You can raise your rates as your portfolio grows, your client base grows, and you gain more experience.
Selling your photos online is another way to make money with photography. Companies like Shutterstock and Adobe Stock make it easy to reach people who might want to buy your work. There is always a market for high-quality photos, and photographers get paid for each license or copy they sell.
Marc Andre went in a different direction with his photography hobby when he made and sold websites that sold digital products to other photographers. This “hobby” made more than $1 million in the end!
16. Show off where you live.
Alexandra Kenin’s favorite thing to do was hike around San Francisco’s city trails. She thought, “Why not a hiking tour?” when she saw how popular bike tours, walking tours, bus tours, and even Segway tours were.
On The Side Hustle Show, Alexandra talked about how, on top of her regular job, she hosts 1,000 hikers a year for $50 each. She has even hired other guides to lead the hikes and sold a book about what she knows.
Could you give a guided tour of your city or town with a specific focus? With platforms like Airbnb Experiences, getting started is easier than ever.
17. Show how much you like arts and crafts.
May Najafabadi made $12,000 in 8 weeks by showing kids how much she liked doing arts and crafts.
She made a unique program to help kids after school at the elementary school near her home.
May had hoped that at least six kids would sign up for that first class, but 18 did so at $120 each. Aside from marketing and making the lessons, you only need a couple of hours a week.
From there, she hired help, grew to more schools, and made a new class.
Is there something you’d love to run after school? What was your favorite thing to do when you were a kid?
18. A love of fashion and making money (In)
Brock McGoff made a six-figure online business out of his interest in men’s fashion. He runs TheModestMan.com, which started out as a blog and now has a popular YouTube channel, podcast, and Instagram account.
The company makes money by:
- affiliate marketing
- display ads
- sponsored contentCould you find a group of people who like your sense of fashion?
19. Dressing Well
Kelly Snyder’s business is similar to Brock’s because she “helps women get dressed in the morning.”
At least, that’s how she told me about herself when we met a few years ago at a conference.
Kelly runs the website AdoreYourWardrobe.com. The site’s tagline says that it teaches women how to “dress their unique bodies with confidence by using math and science.”
She turned it into a six-figure online business in less than two years.
20. Playing Piano
We’ve seen a lot of music-related businesses on The Side Hustle Show over the years, but Jacques Hopkins’ may be the most inspiring.
Jacques’s unique way of learning to play the piano led him to create an online course business that makes $30,000 a month in sales.
Customers find him on Google or YouTube, and some of them go on to sign up for his paid course. He was able to quit his job as an engineer and work full-time on this course business.
21. Using toy guns to fire
Kelly Hardwick turned her hobby of airsoft into a brand that makes her money. When we talked, I didn’t know what airsoft was, but she told me it was a sport that was like “Call of Duty” in real life.
She liked to play airsoft, so she started a blog about it. Soon, other publications in her field started to ask her if she would write for them.
Then, other companies asked if they could send her things to review.
Over time, she gained a lot of followers on social media, and now she gets paid by:
contracts for freelance content management and social media management
agreements to sponsor ties with affiliates
22. Detailing Cars
Do you like making the inside and outside of your car shine? Austin Belk was obsessed with taking care of his Honda Accord.
Then, his older brother Josh asked him to help start a mobile detailing business with him. Within a year, the two college students were making $6,000 a month from their business.
They are proud of their great customer service and have come up with some creative ways to reach new customers through online marketing.
23. Taking Stock
Colin Jones, a former substitute teacher, had a fun hobby of counting cards when he played blackjack.
Casinos gave his blackjack teams almost $4 million, and he himself made more than $500,000.
Colin is now a dad of six, so he doesn’t play as much as he used to. However, he has turned his unique skill into a successful online business. He shows people how to win at blackjack at BlackjackApprenticeship.com.
24. The Girl Scouts
Jodi Carlson has been involved with Girl Scouts for more than 20 years, first as a Girl Scout and then as a troop leader.
The magic started to happen when she started to put some of her hard work and interest in the topic on a website. She wrote about what her troop did, and soon other scout leaders found the site and started asking her questions.
Jodi made digital activity guides for certain badges and started selling them on Teachers Pay Teachers and on her own site. When we talked, she was making $5,000 a month in addition to her regular job.
25. Finances and saving money for yourself
Jonathan Mendonsa was obsessed with the “FIRE” movement, which stands for “financial independence, retire early.” He read every blog he could find about it and worked hard to pay off his own student loans.
Still, he was not happy. He saw that there were no podcasts that were all about being financially independent, so he made one.
ChooseFI quickly gained a loyal following, and affiliate marketing is the main way it makes money.
26. How to Make “Dough”
Statista says that “food” is one of the most popular things to do in the United States. Teresa Greenway is a mother of ten who used to work part-time in a bakery but now makes $5,000 a month doing what she loves: baking and teaching others how to bake.
She teaches how to make perfect sourdough bread, to be more specific.
At NorthwestSourdough.com, Teresa has built a really cool business around this niche.
In the last few years, Udemy courses have brought in several thousand dollars a month, which has been her main source of income.
27. Movie Fan-dom + 3D Printing
Many people share a love of comic books and superhero movies. Nikko Mendoza, on the other hand, has turned his love of music into a serious side business.
Nikko has an online store that sells Hollywood-inspired costume armor, props, and figurines that are all made with 3D printing.
When we talked, he was making an extra $2,000 a month from his main job.
28. Use your drawing skills to make money
In the past few years, my wife and I have added a Merch by Amazon-powered print-on-demand t-shirt business to our list of side jobs.
You upload your design and set the price, and Amazon takes care of the rest. When someone places an order, they print the product and send it to the customer.
Some business owners went crazy with this, uploaded thousands of designs, and made more than $50,000 in a year.
For us, it’s a passive source of $50–$200 a month.
29. How to Make Some Extra Money from Your Green Thumb
Sustainable farming and farming in cities are very popular right now. Nate Dodson made a little money by growing and selling microgreens in his hometown.
(Microgreens are super nutrient-dense edible plants.)
He made up to $1000 a month with this side job by selling at the farmer’s market, to local restaurants, and even to people’s homes.
Then he turned around and taught other people how to do the same thing. He grew that business to $40,000 a month!
30. Make music and sell it.
StockMusicMusician.com was started by Evan Oxhorn. He liked to make beats and songs on his computer as a hobby, and stock music licensing was a way for him to get paid for his work.
He has made a lot of money by selling and licensing his music on websites like AudioJungle.
31. Fixing up furniture
Refinishing old furniture can be a profitable business if you know how to do it yourself or watch YouTube videos. People are making between $100 and $200 per piece of furniture they sell on Facebook Marketplace as a side job.
Advice from an expert? Start with dressers that are in the style of a “rustic farmhouse.” The simple shape and purposely imperfect finish make them easy for people who are just starting to flip furniture.
32. Seeing birds
Scott Keller just quit his job in insurance to work full-time on his blog about watching birds. The site makes more than $100,000 a year from advertising and commissions from affiliates.
Other Fun Ways to Make Money
The archives of The Side Hustle Show are full of creative ways that entrepreneurs have found to make money from their hobbies, interests, and passions.
I love these kinds of stories!
How do you feel? Chances are all around us.
Can You Make Money from All Hobbies?
With the right attitude and a little creativity, you can make money doing almost anything.
Everyone has a favorite thing to do, like fly drones or play video games.
That means that anyone can make extra money doing something they enjoy in their spare time. At first glance, there may not be a clear path. But if you work hard and think outside the box, you can turn your hobby into a way to make money in no time.
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