Hobby jobs and side projects are, for most of us, often much more enjoyable than our 9 to 5 jobs. In an ideal world, you should be able to turn all your hobbies and passions into a source of income.
After all, this is the type of advice many online self-development “experts” will give you. They commonly say: “Just follow your passion!”
Well is it that simple?
Technically, but only technically, this is correct. Once you’ve become good at something, be that knitting, copywriting or video editing, there will be ways to monetise your skills.
However, it’s easier said done. And there will be times when you just can’t become that good at something and expect to magically make money as a direct result.
If you’re 5 foot tall and want to be a professional netball player :) let’s face it, you won’t be able to make a ‘proper’ job or income out of it.
And watching more games or reading about the history of this sport won’t make you a world class player.
This goes for most of the areas which require talent, there are some things which we can learn and become proficient at. There are also things which require talent, the type of talent you are born with.
Without talent, you can’t just learn how be a world class opera singer…
Even if you really, really want to.
Okay, so can we monetise our hobbies and side projects?
Yes, but before we do that we should decide which of our hobbies can be, (realistically) made into profitable projects.
Not all freelance jobs are created equal and some are better than others when it comes to profitability.
How to monetise our hobbies and side projects
How we can do that will very much depend on the type of hobby we have. However, there are some universal rules we will discuss here. We will be focusing on the online side of things.
Building an audience
If you can build an audience by sharing you hobby, you will most likely be able to monetise it. Let’s say your hobby is **knitting**. You share your passion for knitting on YouTube.
In your videos you show your arts and crafts projects, patterns, and supplies.
Over a time you have built a following of 10,000. At this stage or perhaps even earlier, you will be able to start monetising your channel with adverts. You will also most likely get offers from various companies in the knitting niche asking you to review or promote their products.
Offering your skill as a paid service
Let’s look at another example. This time let’s say your hobby is videography.
Once you get proficient at making hight quality videos, you can start offering your skill as a paid service. If you have an audience, this will be much easier.
But even without an audience, you may start contacting companies, which you think could benefit from your skills, and offering them your services. Being able to work from home efficiently will be quite an important skill to develop here.
If you want to make money from your hobby, you’ll have to start treating it a bit more seriously.
Selling your products
If you hobby involves making digital or physical products, you can definitely consider selling these either online or at various local markets etc.
The best place to sell your products would depend largely upon the type of the product you have.
But going back to our first example, if you’re into knitting you may be able to sell your knitting patters as a digital download via a website. You could perhaps also sell the finished knitted products too.
Sharing your skills
If you are really good at your particular hobby or side project, you may consider sharing your skills.
There are many dedicated platforms which enable you to do that. Creating an online course has never been easier.
We hope you have found this post useful, and that it will help you to monetise your hobby if you so choose.
One important thing is to remember that you absolutely don’t have to monetise you hobby. It’s only an option you may want to consider. And do consider it carefully as making your hobby into a job can sometimes take some of the fun away. Especially if it will force you to focus on what’s most profitable vs the part of your hobby which makes you happy.
