Cash in on Your Passions: The Best Hobbies that Make Money and How to Monetize the Rest

Want to make money doing something you love and get paid for it?

Explore some of these fun and engaging hobbies that make money. 

What Are the Best Hobbies to Make Money?

You shouldn’t choose a hobby solely for its monetization opportunities. You should start a hobby you enjoy. 

If you choose a hobby based on the potential for payment, is it still a hobby? Or is it just another job?

While it’s true that some hobbies are more suited for monetization than others, the primary purpose of a hobby is doing something that you enjoy. 

However, if you’re creative enough, there are ways to monetize nearly any hobby!

How Do I Find A Hobby To Make Money

To find a hobby that makes money, you should start by finding a hobby. Focus on the money-making part later.

That begs the question – how do you find a hobby?

Ask yourself, “What do I enjoy doing?”. I’m sure there are things that you love to do – that you would spend all of your free time doing, that you would pay to do. Those are the hobbies that you should focus on to start earning money.

Hobbies You Can Easily Start Monetizing

Some hobbies that lend themselves to making money far more readily than others. It is essential to curb expectations, though. “Easily” doesn’t mean easy money. It means that these hobbies are already suited for monetization. 

Earning money from them will still take a lot of work and commitment, but the effort can pay off in the long run. 

Painting

Painting is a fantastic creative outlet and a great hobby to turn into a side hustle. Many people sell their artwork on Etsy and eBay, but there are platforms explicitly dedicated to painting.

Artspan is a hosting service dedicated to artists. They offer gallery and print-on-demand services so that people can buy your prints. You will have to pay a monthly hosting fee for this service, but it’s a great way to get your artwork out there.

For a free gallery, you can check out websites like Artpal. They offer artists free gallery space and take a portion of all sales. If you want to sell art on your own, you can use a social media site like Instagram to build a following and try to find commissions.

Music

Are you a talented musician? If you know how to play and mix music, you can turn that skill into cash by playing with a band that needs an extra, tutoring kids in your chosen instrument, or creating music for online media. 

With the rise of video, stock music is just as important as stock photography. Sell your instrumentals to brands for their Youtube, Podcast, and Social Media projects. 

Crafts

Etsy makes it easy to sell any craft you want to make. The platform is already available for you. It costs twenty cents to list an item, and Etsy takes 5% of all sales. If you create any craft as a hobby, you should look into trying to sell it on Etsy. 

Here are some fantastic crafting hobbies you should explore:

• Sewing
• Knitting
• Crocheting
• Woodworking
• Ceramics
• Jewelry Making
• Doll-making
• Upcycling

There is also a market for seasonal crafts for holidays like Christmas and Halloween. You can create ornaments, decorations, wreaths, and various other festive seasonal delights to sell online. 

Digital Arts

Another easy type of hobby to monetize is anything digital. Are you into graphic design? Video or podcast editing? Building websites? There is a massive market for those types of hobbies online.

A great place to start is Fiverr. It’s an online marketplace for people to make money online by selling the things they are good at. Thousands of people look to places like Fiverr and Upwork for help editing, writing resumes, designing emotes and logos, creating websites, and a plethora of other similar tasks that can be done with technology. Check it out and see if there’s a demand for your digital hobby.

Graphic Design

While talking about digital arts, it’s important to talk separately about graphic design because there’s another excellent way to monetize this particular hobby, and that’s with print on demand. Websites like Teespring, Teepublic, and Redbubble allow artists to upload their designs to t-shirts, mugs, purses, and other items. 

When customers purchase the design, these websites handle the printing and shipping and pay the artists a percentage of the sales. It’s an easy way to make money from a graphic design hobby.

Photography

There are a lot of ways that you can monetize a photography hobby. The most accessible place to start is selling your photos online. You can upload your photos to websites like Shutterstock and get paid when someone wants to use your image.

Another way to turn your photography hobby into a money-making venture is to offer photography services in your local area. People want professional photos for various events, including birthdays, engagements, and baby showers. If you can build a portfolio of great images, you can create a side business from your love for cameras.

Writing

There are many ways to earn money through your love of writing. The easiest is to sign up for a Hubpages account. This online platform lets you write about whatever you want and sign up for their ad platform to monetize it. The catch is that you won’t make that much money unless you have a lot of volume. But if you put a lot of time and effort into it, you can get a lot of page views and make some decent money.

A better way to get paid to write is to become a freelancer. You can look for freelance writing work on sites like Fiverr and Upwork, but there are also sites dedicated to writing. Verblio is one of those sites. They are very strict about who they let write for them – potential writers must pass a punctuation test! Once in, you can start pitching articles to companies. However, ensure you do your best work; the competition is fierce.

Another option, which takes much longer but has the potential for higher returns, is to write an E-book. You can sign up for Draft-2-Digital and publish your E-Book across a vast network of retailers. Self-Publishing has never been easier!

Gardening

Gardening is the perfect pastime for spending time outside and reducing your food bill. You can turn it into cash by selling your excess at your local Farmer’s Market. 

Contact your community center to see what it takes to sell and share the bounties of your field with neighbors. 

You can also barter your excess veggies for stuff the neighbors make, saving everyone money in the long run. Money saved is money earned!

Baking

If you’re a master of culinary delight, consider selling your baked goods at local fairs and festivals. People love freshly baked cookies, pastries, and cupcakes. 

Be sure to follow all health department requirements before pursuing a baking side hustle. Some localities require health certifications and commercial kitchens, while others may allow hobbyists selling under a certain threshold to use their personal kitchens. 

Shopping

Shopping is a valid hobby and is usually associated with spending money rather than making money. However, you can turn your love of shopping into a moneymaking venture in two ways.

First, try shopping at a garage sale and flip cool items you find on eBay. It’s hard to know what things will sell on eBay, so it’s best to go in with a specific niche you know and love. Some folks find treasures like designer brands, others look for old toys, and others find antiques to sell. You can find all of these items at garage sales and thrift shops.

Becoming a mystery shopper is another way to turn your love of shopping into a side hustle. These folks go into stores, interact with the staff, and report how the experience went. Be careful, though – some places you find looking for mystery shoppers ask you to buy them gift cards or wire them money. If they are trying to get you to pay for something, it’s most likely a scam. Be sure to use a reputable company.

Trivia

Make cash at trivia night!

If you’re a social butterfly who loves hanging out at bars, why not trade your time for cash? Many places host trivia night once a week and are always looking for new folks to moderate. 

Hosting trivia at your local bar one night per week will give you an excuse to enjoy a night out and put extra money in your pocket. 

Gaming

Gaming is a great relaxing hobby, and a platform is already established to monetize it. You can live stream your gaming on Twitch and start getting paid as a Twitch affiliate in less than 30 days!

Okay, it’s not as easy as all that. Although you can become a Twitch affiliate and start monetizing that quickly, most Twitch Streamers don’t make much money. But if you put some time and effort into becoming a Twitch affiliate, you should be able to make enough money to support your gaming habit. And some people have been able to turn their gaming hobby into a 6-figure income!

There are other platforms outside of Twitch that you can use to turn your love of gaming into a money-making hobby, but Twitch is my favorite because it has the lowest threshold for monetizing.

Tarot

Those gifted with sight may turn their esoteric pastime into a money-making venture. 

Find out what’s in the cards for your friends and acquaintance. Offer your services on Facebook and Nextdoor, or get a booth at local fairs and festivals. 

How to Monetize Other Hobbies

Those hobbies make money on their own because there’s a relatively large demand for them. But what if your hobby is more niche? What if there aren’t a bunch of platforms already dedicated to it or a ton of people looking for it?

There are three great ways to turn these niche interests (and any of the other things on this list!) into hobbies that make money. You can start a blog, make a Youtube channel, or create a podcast.

Start a Blog

We could have talked about blogging in the writing section; yes, it’s a great way to make money online if you are passionate about writing. But it’s also a great way to monetize any specialized hobbies that you might have.

Do you love to cook? Start a recipe blog. Eat? Start a foodie blog. Travel? Are you starting to get the idea? You can make a blog about anything that interests you – from money to books, wellness to toys. The great thing about blogging is that it can help you discover other folks who share your interest, even if it is super specific. You can start a blog with Bluehost for as little as four bucks a month, so why not try it?

One thing to remember about blogging is that it isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. You can’t throw a few posts up and expect to make thousands of dollars. Like anything, it’s a labor of love. But if you put in the time and effort, you will eventually be able to monetize nearly any hobby by blogging about it.

Start your blogging journey. 

Make a Youtube Channel

If you don’t enjoy writing, you can monetize nearly any hobby by making videos about it. Create “how-to” tutorials surrounding your hobby, make passionate stories about why you love it so much, and post videos of conferences or conventions covering your hobby.

It does take a while to get to the point where you can monetize your Youtube videos. You need over four thousand valid watch hours and over one thousand subscribers in the past year. 

These numbers seem daunting, but you will get there if you post regularly and have great content.

Create a Podcast

If you don’t want to spend time making and editing videos, you can always go an easier route and make a podcast. Podcasting is all the rage right now, and if you can talk about your hobby for hours on end, why not break it down into digestible podcast-able segments?

Most podcast hosting networks offer a few free hours of podcast time and then charge a monthly fee. This allows you to explore podcasting and determine if you like it before you have to pay. The hosting fees are usually reasonable, with most sites costing between $10-$20 per month, and allow you to send your podcast to Apple and Spotify.

Once you get your name out there, you can start working with brands on sponsorship deals. Find brands that are important to your hobby and reach out to them. You’d be surprised at how many smaller brands might be willing to work with you.

Which Hobbies are the Cheapest?

If you don’t have a hobby yet and want to start one at minimal cost, I’d recommend writing and graphic design. These two hobbies make money you can begin with at almost no cost.

As long as you have a computer, you can find free writing and graphic design programs. 

Then, you can write on HubPages for free if you’re a writer and upload your designs to Teepublic for free if you’re a graphic designer.

Check out the full list of cheap hobbies to explore more options. 

What Can I Do With My Free Time to Make Money?

Hobbies that make money are great, but what if you have some free time and just want to make money? You can do many things that might not be as enjoyable as a hobby but will make you a little extra cash in your spare time.

Take Surveys and Kill Time Online

There are a ton of sites that claim to offer money and cashback for taking surveys, but Swagbucks is my favorite. You can earn points, called SB, for taking online surveys, watching videos, and doing other fun things online. You can redeem the points for gift cards to your favorite stores. It’s a great way to earn cash online if you have a few minutes to kill.

Check out all these other survey sites that will let you make money taking surveys in your spare time. 

Drive

If you have even more time to kill, you can sign up for Uber or Lyft and make extra money by driving folks around. It’s a fun way to meet interesting people and learn the best routes for getting around your city.

 If you don’t like interacting with people, you can still make money driving with companies like Doordash. You have to pick up people’s food and deliver it to them.

Play with Pets

If you don’t like interacting with people, you can play with pets in your spare time for money. Rover is a great site that pays you for dog-walking, pet-sitting, and caring for people’s pets when they can’t.

Help People Out

Task-Rabbit is a great website that connects task-doers with people who need things done around the house. Usually, the tasks are simple things, like changing lightbulbs, running errands, or helping hang things. People often just need an extra helping hand with these things, and Task-rabbit lets you get paid to do it.

Build Stuff

Handy is similar to task-rabbit but more specific to handy-man type work. If people need help installing air conditioners, painting a room, or building a bike, they can post their job and Handy, and people with that skill can bid on the job. It’s a great way to make money in your spare time if you are good at completing small projects around the house.

Start Monetizing Your Hobby Today!

This isn’t a complete list of hobbies that make money. You can turn anything you are passionate about monetizing into a money-making venture with enough time and effort. 

Start your hobby today!