Do you have a hobby you spend hours working on because it’s your passion? Is it the one thing you turn to on your time off work to relax and unwind?
Why not turn all this “enjoyable” work into an online home business? After all, if it’s what you love doing, why not make it your career?
If you love what you’re doing, it shouldn’t feel like work, right?
If you have a life skill that you’re great at, don’t assume it’s just a hobby. There’s an excellent chance it can be monetized into a wonderful money-making business venture. And already knowing these skills shortens the learning curve and start-up time.
And even though starting an online business takes time and energy, if you’re passionate about what you’re doing, and you have the right help and tools, you’ll create a successful business in no time.
So this is perfect! Passion + Business = Success
This is where I learned how to start my own profitable online business.
Contents
Hobbies That Can Make Money
Here are some ideas of what can make money, but don’t worry if your hobby isn’t here. Any hobby can be tweaked into an online business with the right training and tools.
Photography
Do you always have a camera on you, and are known to take great photos? Photography is a great business idea because there are so many ways to showcase your photos.
Because most images are digital these days, it’s easy to sell them online.
Depending on your subject of choice, you can:
- Sell landscape photos to online photo stock companies
- Sell portraits on a commission basis, or maybe a home studio.
- Sell animal pictures to just about anyone who loves animals, lol.
- Sell images for advertising companies and online newspapers.
- Sell images to print on anything from dishware to clothing.
These are just a few of the many ways you can create a profitable business using just your camera and love for photography.
Check These Out:
Reading & Writing
If you’re an insatiable reader, why not get paid for it? There are many ways you can monetize this hobby. You can become a freelance book reviewer, start your own book blog, become an editor, etc.
Or maybe you’re more interested in writing than reading?
There are easy ways to become a published author. It’s nowhere near as hard as it used to be.
I have a friend who started writing short articles for magazines that he loved reading. He’s now writing for many magazines who seek out his expertise in various areas like hunting, cooking, and camping.
Check These Out:
- Upwork– become a freelancer
- Moody Publishers – get free books and write reviews on your blog
- Amazon – become a published author
Landscaping & Gardening
Wow, the sky’s the limit here. You could create all sorts of businesses in this niche. Many people are looking for advice and ideas when it comes to landscaping and gardening. And even more, are looking to purchase supplies online.
Here are a few ideas:
- Become a local landscaping specialist
- Write a blog on lawn care for different seasons
- Showcase different garden designs
- Discuss the best vegetables for various zones
- How about pests and diseases?
- Or the best garden workshop?
There are so many niches within this one area, that your particular skills could easily be monetized.
Check These Out:
- The Spruce – ideas from a list of top websites
- Better Homes & Gardens – endless ideas here too!
Arts and Crafts
This is personally my favourite category. You have so many options. You could create and sell your own treasures, or you could teach others what you love.
Options would include selling hand made arts, such as sewing, knitting, jewelry, fine art, etc. There is always room for more eCommerce stores, lol. And don’t forget all the supplies you could promote…
Or you could write online courses and tutorials to teach what you know.
Selling courses online has gotten to be a very profitable industry.
It seems people prefer to learn online than drive to any school-type setting. More freedom that way!
Check These Out:
- Teachable – an awesome place to create your online courses
- Etsy – one of many places to sell your wares
Pets
Did you know that Americans spent over $70 billion on pets in 2018? Wow! People sure love their pets, lol. So if you love animals, or simply want in on a piece of that pie, this is another great niche to build a business in.
So many ideas…
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- Grooming and boarding
- Vegan pet food
- Accessories and indulgements
- Pet portraits
- Medical help and treatments
This list could go on and on, but you get the idea, right?
If you’re a pet owner like me, you can probably come up with an idea just from a solution you’re looking for yourself.
Check These Out:
- The Dog People – this site covers a little of everything!
- Amazon – did you know you could sell your services on Amazon?
Cooking
This is a big industry, and if you can specialize with a type of food or technique, you’d have it made. And what about the diets that are taking over the internet? Right now I’m thinking of a friend who’s killing it online with his “Keto” website.
And so many ways to monetize your blog, like advertising, videos, promoting supplies, online courses, tutorials…
Check These Out:
- Love & Lemons – a beautiful site with fresh ideas
- Minimalist Baker – 10 ingredients or less, 1 bowl, or 30 minutes or less
Travel
If you have the travel bug, then this is a great way to supplement your travelling. Why not create a travel blog?
Take pictures of your visits. Write reviews of the locations, hotels, restaurants, and sites. List touring services…
Check These Out:
- A Broken Backpack – the life of a true digital nomad
- Luggage & Lipstick – we babyboomers can do it too!
This is just a quick list of ideas you can come up with. If you have more than one hobby, that’s OK too.
Choose the one your most likely going to commit to in the long run. When you’ve reached your goals for that business, you will know exactly what to do to start another if you wish.
The video below is an example of someone turning a hobby into a business.
Let’s talk about how to turn your hobby into a business…
Steps To Starting Your Own Business
There are many ways to approach building an online business. I wanted to share some steps to make it easier to start and give you some direction.
STEP 1: Where Do I Begin?
The first thing you should do is develop a plan. Do some online research to see if there’s a market for your hobby. In other words, if you’re selling a product or service, are there other people online looking for them?
When you Google your hobby, is there a list of businesses doing the same thing? Don’t let that scare you off. There are many ways to compete with these other people.
You just want to make sure there are actually customers out there looking for what you have to offer.
When you’ve determined there is a market, write down your business plan.
Consider your mission statement. You might be thinking “isn’t this just for big corporations? I just want a small business.”
A mission statement is something that gives you a clear path of why you’re starting this in the first place and will keep you on track. Answer these questions when creating your mission statement:
- The what? What’s the reason you choose to work in this niche?
- The who? Who are you hoping to reach with your website? Your target market?
- The how? How are you going to provide value and benefit your readers?
Your mission statement should only be a couple of sentences long. Roxanne Gilmore describes a mission statement in detail.
Write down how many hours per day you want to commit to your business. Are you raising a family? Do you have a full-time job?
Are you worried about losing interest in your hobby once it’s a business? Then commit to starting part-time with just an hour or two a day. You may surprise yourself and turn this into a full-time career and income.
You may feel you know a lot about the hobby you chose, but there’s always room to grow. With this type of business, you want to become an expert in order to provide value to your readers.
Read about the industry; learn new approaches; get involved with online communities sharing similar interests.
For an online business, you need an online presence. This means your very own website. It’s easier than you think, but I’ll talk about that further down, OK?
STEP 2: What Will I Offer?
The second thing to consider is what it is you are going to offer.
You may start with one idea, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change it up further on down the line.
Start with one thing, then expand out into others once you’ve mastered the first. Some ideas to get you started are:
- A physical product you create at home (woodworking, art, sewing, photography, etc.)
- A service (dog training, gardening, etc.)
- Teaching with tutorials, videos, or ebooks (music lessons, art lessons, car repair, cooking, etc.)
- Inventions (pillow, walking stick, printed t-shirts etc.)
- Promotions using affiliate links (products used within your hobby)
- Organize tours (group tours for tourists)
- Speaking engagements (promoting yourself to share your hobby skills)
Think about what it is you love doing and how you want to share that with people.
The most important thing to remember is offering something of value to your customer. Your passion and knowledge will help build trust with your audience and help you become an authoritative voice they’ll want to come back to.
STEP 3: How Can I Make Money Online?
There are many ways to monetize your website. Here’s just a handful:
- Selling your physical product
- Affiliate marketing
- Pay per click (PPC) ads
- Selling digital products like ebooks
- Selling online courses
- Hosting live workshops and webinars
- Guest posts
Depending on the hobby of your choice, you would start with one method of monetizing and learn it well. Then you can branch out and use other methods. Affiliate marketing is probably one of the easiest to start with.
The most important aspect of making money online is to market, market, market. Once you’ve chosen what you want to sell, and how, you’ll want to reach out to grow your audience.
This is how you brand yourself and become an authority in your hobby’s circle of influence.
Places like social media, and networking with similar online communities, are among the many ways to market yourself and drive traffic to your site.
STEP 4: Where To Get The Know-How
This final step is the one you’ll need the most. Where can you learn how to turn your hobby into an online business? There are certainly many places online that teach you these things, but many of these training platforms don’t have everything you need in one place.
So that means you’re getting the training on one site, getting your website services on another, accessing needed tools on yet another… It can get quite confusing if you’re new to online marketing.
Can I offer you my honest recommendation?
I would love for you to come and see where I learned everything about online marketing, and where I run my business to this day. I’ve been there since 2011 and love it!
This is an all-inclusive platform that has everything you need under one roof. No need to hop around from site to site trying to figure out what to do. It’s all there for you.
Here’s a bit of what they offer:
- Training – Step by step courses, classrooms, tutorials, and live weekly webinars.
- A domain registry – An easy way to find the perfect name for your business.
- A website builder – With over 4,000 WordPress themes to choose from.
- Website hosting – With powerful servers, security, backups, and emails, and more.
- A keyword research tool – Find low-competition keywords for the best ranking.
- A large and active LIVE community – They always have your back!
- And much more…
And the owners, who you meet and interact with whenever you wish, are so confident in their platform, that they allow you to start with a FREE starter membership. No credit cards necessary.
There’s really no other place like this online today!
If you click on the image below, you can read all about it. And when you join, I’ll be there to greet you and help you as long as you need me. See you soon!
So what is your favourite hobby? I’d love to hear from you.
And if you have any questions or comments, please write them below and I’ll get right back to you.
Your friend,
Suzanne
P.S. If you know of anyone with a great hobby they’d like to sell, please share this post with them.
Reading this article and the comments is really increasing my enthusiasm for what I’m trying to accomplish!
One can’t go into it thinking it won’t take some time and effort. It really does. But I’m looking forward to the day I can say it was all worth it!
And like you said, it’s not hard work if it’s doing something you love to do in the first place.
Great article Suzanne, keep up the great work!!
Teresa
Hi Teresa, and thanks for commenting.
I’m happy to hear you’re enthusiastic about building your business. And yes it will definitely be worth it when you start earning your own online income.
With dedication and commitment, it will go faster than you think.
Wishing you all the best,
Suzanne
Hey there,
I frequently tell people they need to consider entrepreneurship. Not because they can make more money. They can. But for the freedom.
We’ve bought this lie that we have to live and die at a desk, and I think that’s such a shame.
Starting a business is the way to go – even if that business is something small.
If it’s something you enjoy that pays the bills, awesome.
Thanks for your great article,
Michael
Hi Michael, and thanks for your wise words!
I’m always amazed at how foreign this industry is to people. But I guess that’s because we’re raised to finish school and go look for a job.
It’s too bad that schools don’t have courses on entrepreneurship. It might save people thousands of dollars on an education that may not even provide them with the job they’re looking to have.
Having an online business has opened so many doors for me. There are many different ways to make an income and all from the comfort of my home.
Thanks again, and wishing you well,
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne, some great ideas for people in this post.
As you say if you have a passion for something it doesn’t seem like work if you want to turn your passion into a business.
Getting the right training in how to start a business is the key and I think where you are sending people is the right place for people to make a start online.
Thanks for the information and the ideas for niches.
Frank
P.S. My passion is 70’s music:)
Hi Frank, and thanks for your comment.
Yes, it’s always more fun to build a business around something you enjoy. Though, if you started making money with something else, you’d learn to enjoy it pretty quick, haha.
Wealthy Affiliate is certainly the best platform online for beginners. Everything you need is under one roof, which makes it so much easier and convenient.
I’m glad you enjoyed my review. And I think your passion is awesome. I love 70’s music too. That was my favourite decade, lol.
Cheers,
Frank
Hi Suzanne,
I’m also a Wealthy Affiliate member and you’re absolutely right about developing a plan. Affiliate marketing is really the easiest way to start your hobby into an online business.
It would take some time until you get the first income, you need to put a lot of effort into it, along with good research. To become successful, you need to be motivated and remain positive.
The online business is a perfect start if you want to have a second income. And later on, you can turn it into your main income.
Thank you for sharing this awesome post, it was a pleasure to read it.
Hi Anh, and thanks so much for your comment.
Yes, any hobby can be turned into a successful business. And you’re right! Affiliate marketing is the easiest way for a beginner to start earning an online income.
Like any offline business, it does take time to become successful. But with patience and persistence, anyone can succeed.
I’m happy you enjoyed my post,
Suzanne
Hi there Suzanne, I loved reading this post.
I found some great suggestions for hobby ideas to turn into a business, thanks for that.
Do you think it is easier to have a service-based business compared to a product-based business?
Hi Tamika, and thanks for your comment.
I’m so happy you enjoyed my post, and found some business ideas! People don’t realize this is a great way to offset the cost of their hobbies.
As for your question, either is great. It’s not so much that one is easier than the other. They will both need constant promotion and engagement from you to be successful.
The advantage of a service-based business is the potential to offer a monthly membership. This will create a more passive income for you.
If you need any more help with anything, please let me know.
Cheers,
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne,
Great post about making your hobby into a small business. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to share their passion with the world.
You have many great ideas for people to go into if they haven’t already done it.
It’s a great help for those who don’t know where to start. They can start here!
Thank you.
Hi Kelyee, and thanks for your kind words.
I think making a business from your hobbies is such a great idea. You can at least cover the costs of your hobby, lol.
I’ve known many people who’ve turned their hobbies into a passive income source. What a great way to help your finances.
Cheers,
Suzanne
Very informative post, Suzanne,
I think I will start a business…wait I already started one with Wealthy Affiliate, the best place to learn to start a business. lol
OK, great article and the place to be if you want to learn how to blog ‘Wealthy Affiliate’.
Hi Fred, and thanks for your comment.
Yes, I agree! If you want to start a blog, Wealthy Affiliate provides excellent training, as well as all the tools you need. There’s no other place like it online.
Glad to have you here!
Suzanne
I wish I had of understood all of this before I started trying to start an online business. There are some really great pointers here for anyone considering this route. I must admit that even though I am years down the road and still trying to generate revenue, I love doing this. Even if it remains a hobby, I will still keep doing it because I love it. However, the dream is to make this my future!
Hi Megan, and wishing you great success with your business. It’s great that you love doing your hobby and business. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to reach success. Are you self taught? Would you like some help? Let me know if you do. I’d love to help.
Blessings,
Suzanne
I have been with Wealthy Affiliate for a few months. I knew nothing about building websites or affiliate marketing when I started. The support of the community is fabulous. You can find someone at any hour who can answer a question.
Hi Sheila,
I’m so happy you found Wealthy Affiliate. They’re designed to help beginners with absolutely no technical knowledge of starting your own website, let alone business. They are wonderful, aren’t they! The community is my best part. They have become like family in many ways.
Cheers,
Suzanne
I am just starting out on affiliate marketing and I think that this is a great post for anybody looking to turn their hobby into a business. Because eventually it would not be like a job at all, it is just something that you love!
Hi Rox, and thanks for your comment. You’re right. That’s why you choose something you’re passionate about, so that it doesn’t feel like work. I’m wishing you great success with your new business. Did you choose a hobby or something else? If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Suzanne
I make comics right now. I actually just finished printing a few of them so I can start selling them. I love topics like this! If only everyone could make a living doing what they wanted to do.
Hi Gabriella. Everyone could if they were so inclined. They usually just need a little nudge. Making comics sounds amazing. You need to drop me a line when you’ve set up your website. I would love to take a look.
Best wishes to you,
Suzanne
Very nice article. I love the idea of taking a hobby and turning it into a business. My hobby used to be playing with pixel art. I wish I could use it to make a site but a lot of the graphics come with copyright rules. I have tried to contact a couple of the girls to see if they would let me and they ignore me. They want you to buy a commercial use license that usually runs anywhere from 100 – 300 dollars. Maybe someday I can afford to get them and do that!
Hi Eden, and thanks for the comment. That sounds like a fun hobby. I love anything regarding art, haha. I’m sure you’ll be able to afford that license soon with your online business. Some day that $300 will be a drop in the bucket. 🙂
Blessings on you,
Suzanne
Love Wealthy Affiliate! They really do offer the best online affiliate programs. Not only do they help you to learn but they also support a huge community who is ready to engage and answer any question you may have.
Hi Tristan. Yes I totally agree. Wealthy Affiliate is an amazing platform with everything you need, to start a business, under one roof. It’s the best place for a beginner and more advanced alike. I’m so glad you enjoy it there. If you have any questions, let me know ok?
Cheers,
Suzanne