42 hobbies you can actually turn into cash

October 30, 2021

A big hobby of mine has always been painting, drawing and just releasing my creative energy in any way that I see fit. Who knew these were hobbies that could make money?

My hobbies have recently shifted from mostly painting to digital media and writing over the past couple of years. I could say I am lucky to have found a way to monetize it, but that’s not true. There isn’t an ounce of luck involved with this new success I found with my hobbies.

I worked my butt off to monetize my hobby in a way that worked for me. I run multiple blogs in addition to some freelance writing and design work, and it’s all on the side of my full-time job as a software engineer. However, I am currently working on shifting from a sole proprietorship to an LLC and planning out how to do this full time.

It has been two and a half years in the making for me while trying to monetize several different hobbies, along with losing focus from time to time. But I always kept my main goal in mind to start a full-time business with my love of online media.

Who says you can’t make money with your passion?

As I get closer to achieving that goal, I put together this list of 42 hobbies that make money, and can even be shifted into full-time businesses.

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

My top picks for hobbies that make money

Turning your hobby into a money-making passion may sound harder than everyone makes it seem online. And that is true.

Online gurus, course creators and influencers often make entrepreneurship look like a dream come true, but it has its downsides. You must be prepared to know what you are getting yourself into.

You don’t have to go all-in with your passion either, it could also just be a little side money you make on the weekends. You could even just do it once, for example, writing an ebook and making passive income down the line.

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

1. Writing

Since writing is the main hobby that makes me money, why not check that one off the list first?

I love writing in different creative ways to express compelling thoughts and engage my own critical thinking as well as my readers’. The wonderful thing with writing is that there are so many ways to monetize it.

Different ways to make money with a writing hobby:

Blogging: Income mostly comes from ads served on the blog, affiliate marketing and sponsorships (more on this in No. 15 below)
Become a freelance writer for other blogs and online publications
Write and sell ebooks
Write for magazines
Copywrite for ads

Note: If you love writing and plan on monetizing it, you have to get the right tools to make your job easier. For me, Grammarly works wonders for automatically proofreading my work for me.

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

2. Reading

Oddly enough, you can actually get paid to read books. Money usually comes from sites that pay readers for book reviews, but it also comes in other forms like freelance editing, copyediting and proofreading.

Sites that pay readers for book reviews:

Other ways to make money with a reading hobby:

Audiobook narration
Freelance reading of manuscripts
Create a publishing business
Become an online proofreader

Image Credit: istockphoto.

3. Social media

Social media has become more of a habit than a hobby. But for many, they love using the platforms and have managed to create quite lucrative businesses managing social media for others.

In addition to managing social media, there are other ways to monetize a hobby of scrolling through social media day in and day out:

Become a brand ambassador and get paid from a brand to promote their products
Have posts sponsored by brands
Audit other social media profiles for clients

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

4. Pet loving

As a pet lover myself, I tried monetizing it and, surprisingly enough, it worked!

At the beginning of this past summer, I signed up for Rover and ended up doing three cat sitting jobs. I made $45 off of each one and all that it entailed was going to a house and watching a cat for 30 minutes a day. We played and I made sure the cat had food and water when I came over.

That was it.

I know many dog walkers and pet sitters who make a full-time income with their pet-loving hobby, and I have read articles about people who actually went on to start their own pet care businesses.

Other ways to make money by loving pets:

Pet grooming
Pet photography
Create outfits for pets and sell them on Etsy

Image Credit: bernardbodo / istockphoto.

5. Painting

As mentioned above, I love painting. It was actually one of my first profitable side hustles that I never really tried to push.

In college, I would paint at live shows and festivals and would bring some finished paintings with me to display. Usually, I would sell all of what I brought with me. I even had some of my work displayed at a gallery for a while.

Unfortunately, I never pursued this further and it basically stopped there. Life got busy, and as I started my career in I.T., the time I had to paint became more limited.

Other ways to make money with a painting hobby:

Sell paintings on Etsy
Sell them at cafes
Create an Instagram and sell them through the app, taking payments via Venmo

Related: How to make money as an artist

Image Credit: SeventyFour/istockphoto.

6. Illustration

Have you ever visited Creative Market? I’ve used it here and there to purchase some graphics for my sites. It is basically a giant online shop of anything you could ever need when it comes to design. You can get themes, plugins, illustrations, designs, fonts and more. Literally, anything.

You could create a couple of illustrations and test selling them Creative Market or on Etsy.

Other ways to make money from your illustrations:

Offer illustration services on Fiverr or Upwork
Print them on t-shirts with sites like Zazzle

Image Credit: EvgeniyShkolenko / istockphoto.

7. Graphic design

Similar to illustration, you can easily make money with your love of graphic design using sites like Creative Market and Etsy. You would sign up to become a seller on those sites, upload your designs and try to market your listings either with ads, connections with bloggers and site creators or other avenues.

Other ways to bank off of graphic design:

Offer design services on Fiverr or Upwork
Create a website with a membership service where members would receive new designs every week or month
Sell your graphic design services through your website
Create designs and place them on t-shirts and other items using services like Printful and Printify

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

8. Running

I love running, but I don’t think I could manage to create a business from this hobby. I just have too much other stuff going on.

But for someone who is a running and fitness fanatic over anything else, try to think of how you can leverage that.

Ways to make money with a running and fitness obsession:

Become a personal trainer
Create a fitness brand and sell physical products (like workout equipment or muscle tape)
Create a fitness blog, vlog or podcast about running
Sign up for Healthywage and get paid for completing challenges

Image Credit: m-imagephotography / istockphoto.

9. Building

This is an interesting one. I can’t build anything to save my life, but there are loads of people who love it and are already making money from it on apps like Handy.

Handy is an app where you are sent small jobs like handy work, yard cleanup, furniture assembly and more. I have a reader who was able to make $140 after four hours of installing ceiling fans through Handy.

Other ways to make money with a building hobby:

Accept tasks on TaskRabbit
Build tiny houses and offer those services to others
Look for building jobs on Steady

Image Credit: Deposit Photos.

10. Cleaning

Handy is great for also finding cleaning jobs as well as building jobs, as mentioned in the hobby above.

Other ways to make money with a cleaning hobby:

Look for cleaning jobs on AppJobs (type your city or zip code and search for cleaning opportunities in your area)
Start your own small cleaning business

Image Credit: chameleonseye / istockphoto.

11. Driving

Driving can be nice, especially when its able to destress you on an open road. But in bumper to bumper traffic, it can be a real pain.

Some people don’t mind that though and love driving, bumping their music and just being in their space. They also love not having to sit at a desk.

Ways to make money with driving:

Deliver food for DoorDash
Shop and deliver for Instacart

Or not drive and make money with your car

If you hate bumper to bumper traffic and people screwing you on tips, why not take the driving part out of it? You can still make money with your car and you don’t have to actually drive it anywhere.

Ways to make money with your car:

Rent it out on Hyrecar
Rent it out on Turo
Rent it out on Getaround
Work as a shopper for Instacart and put together orders but never have to deliver them anywhere

Image Credit: Rawpixel / istockphoto.

12. Hiking

If you have a love of hiking and the great outdoors, you can get paid to share that love with others.

Become an Airbnb Experiences host and create an experience on the app in your local city to offer a guided tour of a specific state park through hikes or other outdoor attractions near you. You could charge around $50 to $100 per person for each experience booking and make quite the lucrative money-making venture out of your outdoorsy hobby.

Other ways to make money with a hiking hobby:

Apply to work at a state park
Create a YouTube channel and video document your hikes

Image Credit: monkeybusinessimages / istockphoto.

13. Gardening

With a gardening hobby, you have quite a few choices to make extra money with your green thumb. You could grow vegetables and fruit and sell them at a local farmer’s market.

Other ways to make money with a gardening hobby:

Create other gardens for people
Write an ebook about gardening

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

14. Playing video games

When I was younger, I was obsessed with a game called Spyro on PlayStation. Now, I could get paid to play that very same game in my spare time!

I know, it’s crazy.

Ways that you can get paid to play video games:

Livestream your gameplay on YouTube and monetize your channel with ads or sponsorships
Livestream your gameplay on Twitch and monetize with ads or sponsorships
Make money playing games on your phone with Mistplay
Get paid for your internet usage while you play video games online with Nielsen

Image Credit: nd3000 / istockphoto.

15. Blogging

As mentioned in our first hobby, you can monetize a love of writing with starting your own blog. Anyone can start a blog, but it takes a couple of extra steps to monetize and be able to make some notable money off of that blog.

Some common ways to monetize a blog:

Set up display ads on your blog with either AdSense, Mediavine, etc.
Place affiliate links in your articles and get paid when people sign up or purchase things through those links
Partner with companies on sponsorships for blog posts and get paid for how many articles they sponsor
Offer services through your blog

How I made money blogging the first half of this year: Blogging as a side hustle: mid year blog checkin, income, redesign & more

Image Credit: negativespace.co.

16. Shopping (flipping, retail arbitrage, etc)

Flipping is another side hustle my wife Alexandra and I love to do. We took our compulsive past shopping addictions and channeled that energy into ways we could make money off of shopping instead. Some people call this retail arbitrage or reselling – where you buy something from one retailer and resell it for a profit online.

We flip guitars on sites like eBay and Reverb, and make as much as an extra $3,000 a month sometimes. I also flip designer brand handbags and other things on my own eBay and on Poshmark.

Other ways you can get paid for a shopping hobby:

Buy things from garage sales or yard sales and resell them online (this post will give you all the steps to do this and the easiest items to flip for a profit
Buy things at flea markets and resell them on eBay (take this free workshop to show you how)
Make money sharing your opinion about products on sites like Pinecone Research, Survey Rewardz, Toluna, etc.
Sell old electronics on Decluttr or Gazelle
Become a mystery shopper and make money auditing stores on apps like Shopkick and Field Agent
Get a free $10 by signing up for Rakuten – an app that gives you cash back for your shopping

Image Credit: Ridofranz / istockphoto.

17. Coding

I actually code for my full-time job and was lucky to find a trade that I really loved. Coding is actually one hobby that you will find many jobs in (work from home jobs included). There are more of them popping up every day.

More ways to make money with a coding hobby:

Look for coding jobs on FlexJobs and Indeed
Create an Upwork profile and contract out your coding skills
Film coding video tutorials on YouTube
Create an online course on coding (Teachable is great for this)

Image Credit: Deagreez / istockphoto.

18. Cooking

If you are a freak in the kitchen, you could make extra money cooking in your free time. The most popular way to do this lately seems to be creating YouTube channels of putting recipes together, but there are more avenues to be utilized.

More ways to make money with a cooking hobby:

Create a food blog
Sell recipes on Etsy
Sell recipes to food bloggers
Open a food truck

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

19. Baking

Much like with cooking, you can also make money with a baking hobby.

Some popular ways to make money baking:

Create a YouTube channel
Create a baking blog
Open a bakery
Offer to your local news station to do small baking segments

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

20. Knitting

I have never been a knitter but know many people who love passing the time with knitting. Many of them end up selling their creations, too.

Ways to make money with a knitting hobby:

Sell your creations on Etsy
Sell your creations at flea markets
Bring your creations to local boutiques to sell in their stores

Image Credit: serezniy / istockphoto.

21. Working with kids

I use to work with kids as volunteer work in high school, but I’ve never been inclined to really take it on past that. However, many of my friends have gone on to become teachers, counselors and have even been able to teach online from the comfort of their home.

Sites that pay you to teach online:

Image Credit: kali9.

22. Restoring

If you love restoring things like antique furniture and other timeless items, you could possibly earn money from it too.

Ways to make money restoring items:

Source items from garage sales, thrift stores, auctions, etc, restore them and resell them online
Take restored items to a consignment shop to resell

Image Credit: JackF / istockphoto.

23. Collecting

Collecting might sound a lot like hoarding to some. But to the people who love to collect, it is also a form of investment for them.

They know their collection will one day be worth a lot of money. Or, they just want something nice to pass down to their friends and family.

Ways to make money with a collection:

Sell it at an auction
Sell it on eBay
Sell it on a classifieds site like Craigslist

Image Credit: Deposit Photos.

24. Traveling

I love to travel, and I have actually been able to make some money with my traveling hobby. On top of running an additional travel blog, I have been able to make money promoting Airbnb, an app I absolutely love to use on my trips.

Ways you can make money with a travel hobby:

Housesit for others when traveling with sites like TrustedHousesitters
Create a travel blog, vlog and/or Instagram
Become an Airbnb host and open your property to other travelers
Earn points and rewards while traveling with apps and programs like Rakuten, Ibotta and Hilton Honors

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

25. Photography

If you have the creativity and special eye for photography, you could easily make money taking photos for others. People are always looking for event photographers for things like festivals, weddings and more.

Other ways to make money with a photography hobby:

Create stock photos and sell them on Etsy
Create an online photography course using Teachable
Do pet portrait photos for people

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

26. Watching movies

I love watching movies, and I have been able to snag some extra cash doing so.

One of my first jobs was actually working at a movie theater. I not only got to go to the movies anytime I wanted for free, but also caught a couple of movies during my breaks while on the job.

My favorite ways to get paid to watch movies:

Download Nielsen and get paid for what you watch online
Download Swagbucks and get paid to watch movie previews, celebrity videos and more
Get paid to watch movies as a part of a focus group with Vindale Research.
Start a podcast and discuss movies

Image Credit: Prostock-Studio/istockphoto.

27. Filming

Filming is such a fun hobby, but it can also be an expensive one. Why not make some money with your filming to help cover the costs?

Ways to make money with a filming hobby:

Start a YouTube channel
Create an online course on filming techniques
Film a documentary or indie film

Image Credit: Photoboyko / istockphoto.

28. Speaking

I am a horrible public speaker. I have just always hated it. But a lot of people are making a living from speaking at events and conferences.

Other ways to make money with a speaking hobby:

Start a podcast
Record audiobooks for others
Create online courses about public speaking
Become a professor and give lectures

Image Credit: dusanpetkovic/istockphoto.

29. Decorating

Most people love to decorate their houses, especially around the holidays. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could get paid for it too?

Something is so satisfying getting the creative juices flowing and making a space look a certain way.

Ways to make money with a decorating hobby:

Become an interior designer
Create a YouTube channel and give tutorials on certain decorating looks
Start a blog about decorating
Put together a haunted house around Halloween and charge people to go through it

Image Credit: Zephyr18/istockphoto.

30. Party planning

I love party planning, but mostly because I love to decorate. To me, party planning is definitely another great way to get paid to decorate, but a lot more goes into the entire process of party planning than just decorating.

Ways to make money with a party planning hobby:

Become a party planner or wedding planner and work for specific venues (or privately)
Start a YouTube channel or blog about party planning
Create and sell products specific to your party planning business and sell them on your website or online eCommerce store (like Shopify)

Image Credit: Deagreez / istockphoto.

31. Brewing (Wine, Beer or Kombucha)

I love wine, beer and kombucha…maybe a little too much. I don’t know how to brew it, though.

If I did, I bet I would be trying to make a buck off of it.

Ways to make money with a brewing hobby:

Sell your brews at farmer’s markets
Sell your brews at festivals
Bring your brews to local grocery stores and markets to see if they will sell it for you

Image Credit: arto_canon / istockphoto.

32. Sports

Alright don’t hate me, but I am not a huge sports fan. Unless it’s either hockey, soccer (futbol) or anything in the Olympics, I’m not watching it.

But, I do love to run and be active, and I love playing occasional esports.

Ways to make money with a sports-loving hobby:

Create a sports commentary podcast
Stream esports games on Twitch
Create a YouTube channel about sports, sports commentary, etc.

Image Credit: gorodenkoff / istockphoto.

33. Beauty and skincare

If you have been on YouTube at all in the last five years, you’ve noticed how much beauty gurus have blown up online. They are everywhere.

Some of my favorite beauty gurus like Jeffree Star make millions a year in the beauty industry with beauty reviews, tutorial videos, sponsorships, creating their own makeup products and so on.

But seriously, anyone can become a beauty guru these days.

Ways you can make money as a beauty/skincare guru:

Create a YouTube channel for makeup reviews and tutorials
Create an Instagram for your beauty looks and get companies to sponsor your posts
Create beauty products and sell them to your followers
Sell your makeup services and charge others to do their wedding makeup looks and more

Image Credit: SeventyFour / istockphoto.

34. Fixing things

Many of us are too lazy to fix anything ourselves, so we look to online apps like Handy, TaskRabbit and AppJobs for others to fix things for us. The good news is if you love fixing things, you can make some good money on these apps fixing things for others.

In addition to those apps, you can also make money fixing things in these ways:

Write and sell ebooks about fixing certain things
Create an online course for fixing specific things like plumbing, walls and other difficult things that you might not see courses out there for already
Start a YouTube channel where you film tutorials about fixing things

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

35. Health and fitness

I am a big health and fitness buff myself, but I think the health and fitness industry may be too saturated for what I would want to do with it. Nonetheless, there are still ways for you to enter the industry as a smaller influencer.

Or don’t even try influencing and go a different way.

Here are ways to make money as a health and fitness buff:

Write and sell a health/fitness related ebook
Create online challenges where others sign up to participate with you for a small fee
Sign up for Healthywage and get paid for completing challenges

Image Credit: Wand_Prapan / istockphoto.

36. Swimming

I use to be a competitive swimmer, and I actually won the Swimmer of The Year award in 2003 at the swim club I swam for. I was in 8th grade at the time and went on to swim throughout high school. If I continued with that competitive spirit, who knows where I would be now.

But guess why I didn’t? I got severely burned out and ended up hating swimming competitively after some time.

Even though I didn’t make any money swimming competitively back then, there are other ways I could make money swimming now.

How to make money with a swimming hobby:

Create YouTube tutorials
Create a podcast or blog for other swimmers and how to deal with burnout when swimming competitively
Write and sell ebooks about swimming and swimming lifestyles
Create and sell products for swimmers

Image Credit: Jacob Ammentorp Lund / istockphoto.

37. Music

Do you have a musical talent? If so, you could make some fun money with it.

As mentioned above, Alexandra does this with flipping guitars online. Even though she doesn’t play all that much anymore, she is still able to make money with musical instruments.

Ways you can make money with a musical hobby:

Restore and sell instruments online
Create YouTube tutorials
Create online courses on how to play certain instruments
Start a band and start playing gigs

Image Credit: millann / istockphoto.

38. Comedy

I like to think I’m funny, but I don’t have nearly enough guts to get on stage and try to do stand up comedy. Some friends of mine actually did so in the past at a local sandwich shop.

Even though they didn’t make any money and it was mostly for fun, they could have.

Ways to make money with comedy:

Create a podcast
Start a YouTube channel
Create a blog
Write funny ebooks to sell
Freelance write jokes for others
Sign up for open mic nights and work your way up to small comedy gigs for money

Image Credit: 7713Photography / istockphoto.

39. History

Are you a huge history buff? There are actually loads of jobs available at museums and historical landmarks looking for history buffs like you.

Other ways to make money as a history buff:

Create an Airbnb Experience around the local history of your town/city
Start a touring company in your city
If your house is on historic land or a landmark, host it on Airbnb

Image Credit: GaudiLab / istockphoto.

40. Investing

If backing the companies you believe in is your thing, and you have the extra money to do so, you can invest in those companies. This way, your money makes more money for you.

How to get started investing:

M1 Finance is an online brokerage and robo-advisor we use to invest in the companies we love and believe in.

Image Credit: Lazy_Bear / istockphoto.

41. Working on cars

My dad taught me a couple of things when it comes to working on my own car. One of the things he taught me was to YouTube how to fix something first and do some research before going straight to the mechanic.

In some ways, this has helped me a lot. And in other ways, it has hurt me because I tried to fix things and would break things when I didn’t know what I was doing.

Still, it was always a learning experience.

Ways to make money with a car-loving hobby:

Create YouTube tutorials
Write ebooks or courses online about fixing cars
Fix cars part-time for others

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

42. Hospitality

Hospitality is a broad category for a hobby. Basically, if you like having guests over, making drinks and creating a hospitable environment, there are tons of ways to monetize that in the hospitality industry.

Ways to make money with hospitality:

Host some of your property on Airbnb
Work part-time as a bartender
Start a catering business
Open a bed and breakfast

Image Credit: Kristen Prahl / istockphoto.

Deciding the right hobby for you

If you’re anything like me, you easily have five to 10 hobbies on this list that you enjoy. You can’t possibly find ways to monetize all of them. I mean, there are only 24 hours in a day and some of us enjoy sleeping.

If you absolutely felt like you had to though, I suggest starting with the hobby you enjoy most. Build up whatever way you plan on monetizing it to be mostly passive down the line so then you can focus on monetizing the next one, and so on.

Or just focus on the one you care most about and forget about all the noise in your head about the others.

After you identify which is the one you care most about, next you must think about how easy it will be for you to monetize. If it is too much or too complicated, maybe think about the others and if their routes will be any easier.

You don’t want to create too much work for yourself and end up hating your passion in the long run.

Last but not least, don’t feel like you have to do it all by yourself. Outsourcing certain tasks that you hate or are repetitive is a must when forming a successful business.

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

Monetizing your hobby the right way

Once you decide which hobby is the right one for you to monetize, there are some steps you need to take in order for it to be legal (and avoid scams).

You see, a lot of suggestions on this list involve you monetizing your hobby as either a contractor, sole proprietor, or as an LLC – Limited Liability Company (or above). The difference between these mainly matter come tax time. As a contractor, you might not have to set aside taxes if the people you work for already take taxes out of your pay.

If they do not take taxes out of your pay or pay any social security, etc on your behalf, then be prepared to pay a self-employment tax. If you freelance in any capacity or are a sole proprietor of your business, then you will 100% be expected to pay a self-employment tax. I suggest you read this step by step post on how to figure your freelance rate (tax included).

If you choose to form an LLC for your business, look to these helpful resources:

Should You Form an LLC?
All You Need to Know About Quick and Cheap LLC Formation
MyCorporation will help you file your LLC and anything else you need related to your business (such as trademarks, copyrights, etc)

Image Credit: Deposit Photos.

Concluding thoughts

If you love what you do as your day job but still want to explore other things, that is totally ok and possible. You just have to be able to manage your time and resources properly so you don’t end up paying with burnout and exhaustion.

If you hate your day job or maybe one day loved it and have since lost interest, no worries! I don’t think we are all meant to have only one career and one focus in life. If you can’t stand being there any longer, stop right now.

Do not waste your life doing something that you can’t stand. That is no life to live. We are meant to experiment, shift many times in our lives and explore as much as we can as creative beings.

I think our hobbies are absolutely worth exploring in ways that will pay us time and time again down the line (and maybe passively too). I think the more you enjoy something, the more you should look towards that thing as a way to make money.

You won’t only pay yourself in money but in satisfaction.

Once you align with your higher self (as in what you truly want to be doing in life), doors open that you didn’t even know were there and your life begins to change in amazing ways.

This article originally appeared on ILikeToDabble.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.

Image Credit: fizkes / istockphoto.

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