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Can you really make money with your passion?
Think about it, imagine if you can turn your hobby into a business – that would be a dream come true for many of us.
Waking up every day to begin “work” would be such a joy.
I gave up my 9-5 to work from home as a blogger. I make a full-time income from home and feel so blessed to do what I enjoy – writing!
If you have a passion for something, there is definitely a way to turn it into a successful income source.
**This post may contain affiliate links. Please read disclosure.
Home cooks can start a food blog or make YouTube videos of your recipes if you enjoy art you can make and sell crafts for profit. You can also become an online coach and train people without leaving your home.
If you are someone that enjoys doing more than one thing, you can hustle two or three side gigs. I have known many bloggers that also make money as freelance writers and proofreaders.
Hobbies that Make Money
1. Sell Crafts Online
If you like making handmade crafts, you can certainly sell them online. The first thing is to brainstorm craft ideas that are popular and in-demand. I have narrowed it down to this list of 40 crafts to make and sell for profit.
Selling crafts online gives you the freedom to work from home 100%. While Etsy is the most popular platform to sell craft online, here are some other places you can sell things online.
2. Get Paid to Write
While you can make money as a freelance writer, shorter gigs are great for beginners.
If you do a google search for the term, “Write For Us” followed by the type of topics you are interested in writing you will see websites that pay you to write per article.
From food, health, fitness, parenting and even religion, you can get paid to write on topics you are familiar with.
Once you have built a writing portfolio you can move on to offer freelance writing services to clients.
Download this free copy of over 200 writing niches that are in demand.
Be sure to also check out this job directory that has regular openings for content writers.
3. Online research -$300/study
While you can get paid for your opinion with online surveys, not all of them pay as well as Survey Junkie. The next best option to consider is paid online research.
Respondent is one such online platform that pays you up to $140 an hour for providing feedback on a particular interest. You do not need to be professional to apply, they happily accept parents at home to give their opinion on a topic.
Signing up is free and you can do so right here. Once you are in, you can access your own personalised dashboard and select the type of studies you want to take part in. Some of these studies are through a video call and others through online surveys.
4. Money for Your Word Skills
This is one is great for stay at home moms who want to make a full-time income from home.
Its the job of a virtual proofreader.
If you have the skill to correct grammar errors in ebooks, blogs, resumes, cookbooks, or pretty much any online content – you can average $40,000/yr as a freelance proofreader.
You can start a small professional website for just $10.99 a month with Lyrical Host (that’s’ what I use on this blog). Creating a website can help you set up a Hire Me page, with services and price packages you offer to clients.
Alternatively, you can choose to apply for online proofreading jobs that have regular openings.
If you find this to your liking, you can check out this free proofreading training.
5. Sell Printables
If you are an artsy person or have experience in graphic designing this is the perfect side hustle for you. With everything going online these days there is a high demand for digital printables.
Whether it’s for greeting cards, wedding invites, party games, or wall art – everyone wants something unique or personalised.
Gone are the days where you pick up these items from a stationery store. You can cash in on this demand by creating your own online store to sell your printables.
Not sure how to begin?
Here is a step-by-step guide that also teaches you how to create printables from scratch. I’m no graphic designer, but I found this guide extremely easy to understand even for a non-tech person like myself. You also learn how to start your own store, price your product and all the legal stuff involved in selling your printables.
6. Virtual assistant
A virtual assistant typically works from home doing admin tasks. While this type of work does not require experience, it’s a bonus if you have previously worked in administration.
This is a career that does not limit how much you can grow. You can either choose to be a general virtual assistant or specialise in a certain role. There are Real estate virtual assistants, Pinterest virtual assistant or Podcast virtual assistant.
Specializing in a field makes you look like an expert in that area, and helps you stand out from the crowd.
Check out these guides that will give you further information on each of these careers.
7. Flipping
Flipping is the art of buying something cheap and selling it for profit.
You can buy thrift store items and sell them for two or three times the original price on eBay. Melissa and her husband make over $100,000 a year doing this.
If you prefer a more technical approach – how about selling blogs for profit.
You can either create your own small blog and sell, or sell someone else’s blog for a commission.
Jennifer Leach buys and sells blogs for-profit and states you can earn up to $2,500 a month doing this. She has made a six-figure income in the past, doing so and shares her knowledge in this guide.
8. Drive
There is more than one ways of making money with your car. If you own a car and have a clean driving history, you can work delivering food and groceries or just renting your car for cash. Here are some companies that let you do that.
Postmates – If you are interested in using your car to deliver food, groceries and alcohol, try Postmates. Sign up here with your email to make money in your spare time.
DoorDash – Are you happy to deliver hot food from restaurants to customers in your neighbourhood? DoorDash is available in the US, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia.
Get Around – With GetAround, you can give your car up for rent and earn for every ride. You get the flexibility to choose your hours of availability and provide riders with a car that is road ready. Check out their website for more info on rates and pricing.
9. Get paid for everyday things you do
With Swagbucks, you can get paid for doing the simplest things like surfing the web!
They have a 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot and an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Swagbucks is a rewards site, where you earn points for shopping, playing games, completing polls/surveys and surfing the web through the Swagbucks browser.
For every action you take, your points build up and you can redeem them for gift cards or PayPal cash – you only need to reach a $3 minimum to cash out!
10. Pet Sitting
At Rover you can make money taking care of cats and dogs in your home. If you are an animal lover, you will have fun with this job. You can work either part-time and make around $1,000 a month or up to $3,000 if you want to make this a full-time job.
11. Illustration
In simple language, illustration is when you transform real images into cartoons. But you might be wondering how to make money with this skill, right?
Online business owners/bloggers, can make use of your service to illustrator book covers, business cards, logos or for social media promotion.
You can also spread the word to friends and family who are looking to create fun graphic images of themselves for birthday cards, wedding invites or as a portrait.
Skillshare has a lot of illustrator courses that can check out on this free 2-month trial.
12. Make money with your camera
While you can make money as a freelance photographer, you can sell your own stock photography.
Almost every blogger (other than food/travel bloggers) use stock images on their website. Scroll through my site and you will notice every image on my site is from paid stock photos. If you can create stunning images, you can sell them for profit.
You can create lifestyle images, food images, desktop or work stock photos.
Another high paying side hustle for photographers is photo editing. Katie, a wedding photo editor earns $75,000 a year from home. Check out my interview with Katie here.
