Can your hobby earn your money

Etsy is the leading marketplace for handmade items and crafts that might not be so popular on Amazon or eBay that specialize in manufactured goods. Online training courses from sites like Udemy or Lynda are popular among working professionals that want to learn new skills but do not have the time or means to attend a regular college or continuing education class.

If you can create a course about the newest computer program, playing the acoustic guitar, photography, or your favorite hobby, you can create an online course to teach others a new skill. If you like expressing your opinion the world, get paid to take opinion surveys from a site like Survey Junkie. Once you earn enough credits, you can get paid cash via PayPal or with gift cards. This is something you can easily do during your lunch break or in between activities when you have a little downtime.

One way is to use Swagbucks that pays you to take surveys, watch videos, search, and even play games. You can also get paid to test websites from several online companies. This option is a little more competitive although the pay is higher. If you get selected, you visit websites on a live video conference and tell the site designers how you interact with the site and what can be improved.

In some ways, you could say that video is the future of the internet. Whether you make videos of how to beat video games, how-to videos, unbox cell phones, etc. Are you the first among your friends to beat the latest video game? Now you can earn money from this hobby in addition to bragging rights. You can sell your video game accounts on sites like eBay or player to player peer platforms such as Playerauctions or Playerup.

Do you have video games that you no longer play? See what you can get for them on a site like Decluttr which makes it super easy to get rid of a lot of items quickly. Decluttr has a Trustpilot score of 4. So you might already invest in a k or IRA account for retirement.

How about setting aside a small portion of your taxable investment portfolio for hobby investing. Using the online brokerage Ally Invest gives you plenty of investment options and trading fees are free for individual stocks.

With your hobby investing money, take the opportunity to invest in riskier assets that fall outside your normal investment strategy. It can also be a good way to try a new investment strategy without impacting your normal accounts that you rely on to build your net worth.

Whether you are a college student looking for some extra money at the end of the current semester or want to clean out your personal library, you can make money from selling books. Bookscouter will automatically search 35 online marketplaces if you have textbooks to resell and give you the best price.

Do you have lots of book? You now can do a bulk ISBN check. If you do woodworking, pottery, painting, or some other handmade item, you can make money by selling at local craft fairs. You could also post an advertisement on Craigslist or another Craigslist alternative site to reach more online shoppers. Along with selling locally, you might be able to sell lightweight products online that are cost-effective to ship.

TaskRabbit allows you to put your strength and wit to work as you help neighbors with repair and other house projects. Most of these tasks are one-time needs like loading a moving truck, painting a bedroom, setting up furniture. Some people simply need a helping hand while TaskRabbit clients might not know the difference between a screwdriver and a hammer. Your employer might already offer a fitness rewards program, but, you can also join Achievement to earn fitness rewards as well.

You can even invite people to visit your garden or farm so they can get a look at their produce source first hand. This can also be a good activity to help teach your children skills and a unique way to earn money in their teen years. Assuming you can grow plants, flowers, and trees, you can also sell these products at local markets or post listings on Craigslist. People are always looking for affordable trees, shrubs, and flowers to landscape their yard without having to pay the retail price charged by a local nursery or superstore garden center.

If you want to help protect the environment and make a little money in the process, recycling wood pallets can earn you a little extra cash. You can make money by reselling directly to local businesses, on Craigslist, or to pallet brokers. This is more lucrative if you live in a state with a bottle or can deposit as you can automatically up to 10 cents per can or bottle that you sell.

Other scrap metal vendors will offer you the current spot price 30 cents per pound on average for the aluminum. Since scrap metal prices are cyclical, you might consider waiting until the price rises before you reap your bounty. In addition to collecting old soda cans and glass bottles , you can also make money selling other scrap metal too. To prevent illegal scrap metal sales, some states require proof of ownership or permits before vendors will pay you.

Garage sales happen in every community every weekend. While you might not find a missing Van Gogh or Rembrandt, people deeply discount items or give them away for free because they want it gone. By buying name brand clothes and other items of value for really low prices, you can make some quick cash by selling them online or using Craigslist. If you think thrift stores are a good deal, the clearance centers are even cheaper but less organized meaning it might take a little more time to find items of value.

You can search local advertisements for tutors or join an online site like Tutor. Other sites to consider include StudyPool or Chegg that are more oriented for online tutoring.

You can turn your hobby of playing the piano, guitar, violin, drums, and trumpet into a money-making side business with ease. Have you seen children or adults playing guitar, an electric piano, or a saxophone on the street corner for tips?

That could be you. No matter if you are a solo act or in an acapella group, people will stop, listen and pay you money for your hobby. If you have access to a gym or gathering place like a church or community center, you can make money teaching a fitness class. You can get paid per student in most instances.

Parents periodically want a date night to get away from the children for a few hours and focus on each other. To get started, ask your neighbors if you can walk their dog or care for their other pets.

You can also post your services on local boards or dog walking service sites. This can be relatively easy money if your own house is squeaky clean. Craigslist or TaskRabbit are two good starting places. In addition to cleaning houses, many businesses also outsource their cleaning needs to agencies. It can be at medical offices or other professional buildings. Listings are usually advertised on Craigslist or you can always ask local cleaning agencies if they have any needs in your area.

Unlike houses that you might be able to clean during the workday when the owners are away, most businesses require you to come in after they close. If you are a night owl, this could be a great way to do some physical activity before you go to bed. Homeowners want their homes nicely decorated along with being cleaned. The job description could range from strictly decorating the interior rooms or it could also extend to the outside landscaping as well with season appropriate lawn decorations.

A popular time for this service is Christmas when you can hang exterior Christmas lights and also decorate the family Christmas tree too. If you have a newer car and like talking to people, you can make money driving with Lyft. If photography is your hobby, this is also a wonderful way to make money while honing your camera and editing skills.

There are numerous stock photo sites where you can sell your work, including istockphoto. A great way to earn a little extra from your hobby is to find ways to engage in it for less. If your hobby involves purchasing materials, you can coordinate with other like-minded individuals and buy in bulk. If you have to travel to play a sport, why not car pool?

Sites like eRideShare. Small savings can add up over time. Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses.

You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Or you can rent out your skills. The most obvious way to make money writing is to sell it as a service—freelancing on sites like Upwork or Fiverr or reaching out directly to blogs for paid gigs. Good content writers with niche expertise are usually in demand. However, if you have the discipline and know how to write a good blog post , you can create your own blog-based business by picking a niche and building an audience over time.

Whether you care about tech or travel or cooking, our guide to starting a blog that you can turn into a business will walk you through what you need to know. Like writing, illustration and design are creative money-making hobbies you can do at home on a freelance contract basis. Fiverr, in particular, features many newer artists with a variety of illustration styles. If you want more control, you can put your art on items—from t-shirts to posters to canvases—and sell those instead.

The former is usually easier. Hatecopy is an excellent example of a business that was started by an artist putting their work onto things people can buy. Print-on-demand services offer a low-risk way to take advantage of your creative hobbies. Once you make sales and know what designs and creative have the most demand, you can consider investing in your own inventory.

Next up for profitable hobbies that make money? Sell music. You can take this hobby business in a few different directions. Beats are short hooks composed from different sounds and meant to be a background for a musician, while samples are a portion of a sound recording to reuse elsewhere. You can list beats on third-party sites that work similarly to stock photo sites. Essentially, people purchase your music to use in their own content.

These are typically shorter in length and rely more on instrumentals and less on lyrics. There are a variety of sites where you can list your beats, like Airbit and BeatStars.

Samples by Vanity sells samples that artists can remix and splice together to create their own music. You can make your audio exclusive or non-exclusive. His excellent work has earned him quite the reputation—and his sounds have been featured in more than 20 Grammy Award—winning songs.

He sells his beats with both exclusive and non-exclusive rights. Food has become an art form worthy of taking elaborate pictures and spending the time to perfect the craft. Cooking is one of the hobbies that make money that you also can share with the world in a variety of ways, from starting a blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram account dedicated to recipes to diving head first into a business by creating your own food or cooking products.

Some even hit the road with a food truck business. In less than minutes, let us walk you through how to find product ideas, how to validate them, and how to sell the product once you have an idea you want to pursue.

Gardening has seen a spike in popularity as people spend more time at home. You can also sell products to help your customers indulge in their own gardening hobbies. While you can become a freelance photographer, this can restrict you to shooting local events and gigs. And when there are no events, there are fewer photography gigs.