Mark Twain famously said, “Find a job you enjoy doing and you will never have to work a day in your life”. By simply “thinking outside the box” you can turn a hobby into a moneymaking enterprise and do exactly what Mark Twain was referring to. Even if it’s something that you do on a part-time basis, you can make money from some of the things that other people see as a way to pass time. When you figure out what you like doing the most in regards to a hobby, you can begin buying more materials or spending more time completing tasks to see how much money you can make.
Blogging
This is a hobby that you can turn into a business. If you enjoy writing or people enjoy listening to your stories, travel adventures, etc. You can write a blog about your personal experiences, your everyday life or even write for a company. Many people are interested in reading the advice offered on a blog or seeing that there are people who have normal lives like they have at home. You’ll make money writing your own blog with the ads that are placed on your site or by using a pay-per-click strategy. Writing for a company is often a better idea to get you started to see if you enjoy writing for a living.
Crafting
Any kind of handmade craft usually sells as people are looking for unique gifts and decorations instead of the traditional items that they can get in a retail store. Set up a booth at a community event to sell your crafts. You can also create a social media page as a way to display pictures and take orders. Holiday seasons will likely see an increased demand for crafts that are handmade.
Collecting Coins
The key to collecting coins (or any other collectable is knowledge) before you spend a single cent you need to know what you are doing. You need to know how to handle coins properly, how to store them safely, how to grade them and once you know that you need to get a basic understanding of how much they are worth. The easiest thing to spot is a pre-1964 U.S. silver coin. If it is a Dime, Quarter, Half-dollar or Silver Dollar with a date of 1964 or before it is made of solid silver. And no matter how bad it looks it will be worth at least the value of its silver content.
At the current silver price of $16.16/oz a pre-1964 silver dime is worth $1.1690, a silver dollar has 10 times more silver and is thus worth ten times as much. A quarter is worth 2.5 times as much and a silver half dollar is worth 5 times as much. Easy Peasy, all you need to know is the current price of silver. Then you can go to garage sales and pick up silver coins at a discount and resell them, either to a dealer or on Ebay. There is always a good market for pure silver coins. If it is in somewhat better condition than average you may be able to get a premium for older silver coins but don’t count on it for a 1964 since there are tons of fantastic specimens available since they were mostly taken out of circulation right away the following year when “Clad” coinage started being minted.
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Gaming
If you spend your time playing video games, then you might want to join a few online groups where you can make money doing what you love. While making money by playing a game isn’t easy, it’s definitely doable. It’s typically not as glamourous as many young gamers envision it to be though. The most common ways to make money through video games are beta testing, playing in tournaments, or in some instances actually selling characters. All of those sound pretty good to someone who wants to make money with their gaming account.
In each case, however, many hours of monotonous game-play (or “grinding”) are required in order to earn a significant return on your investment. Beta testers play the same level, or the same part of a level, over and over again trying to do everything and anything they can conceive of, and must rigorously document the whole process. Selling characters means making and leveling up those characters, and tournament players dedicate months or years to training and practicing in order to rank well. You can certainly make money playing your favorite games, but remember that it will still be work.
Your hobby can be a way to make a little extra spending money or a way to make a living instead of working at an ordinary job. It might take a while to grow your customer base, but once people see what you have to offer and you show your talents, then you’ll begin to make more money. Once your business takes off, you want to keep notes about what sells best and the amount of money that you’re making to report it on your tax return.