Contributed article in our entrepreneurial business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly
If you are tired of your day-to-day routine and would rather be spending your afternoons doing something you love rather than sitting at your desk, staring out the window wishing you were doing anything but your job, then you should consider turning your hobby into a stream of income. This may seem impossible, but in many cases it is far from it. Here are five hobbies that can be extremely profitable.
Blogging
In recent years blogging has become not only a very popular hobby, but also a very popular profession. Some people write mostly on their own blogs with the occasional guest post on other popular blogs in their niche. These people generally are making money from advertising, eBooks and other online streams of income while they write and improve their own blog. Another option is to get paid to guest post on other blogs, and many of the high traffic blogs will not only pay you but allow you to link back to your own blog to bring in traffic.
There are very few expenses involved in blogging. All you really need is a website, hosting and a laptop. It is a good idea to get high quality hosting these days to ensure your site is fast, especially if you are hosting video. Visit Umbee Hosting for virtual server hosting.
Graphics
Are you a Photoshop guru? If so, then you could probably make quite a bit of money offering graphic design services. Simple things, like removing backgrounds from images and retouching a yearbook photo, are quick for anyone who is good with Photoshop and can actually pay pretty well. There are also sites like cafepress.com and zazzle.com, which allow you to start a print-on-demand online store to sell anything from hats and t-shirts, to key chains, and receive a royalty on the items sold for your design.
Gaming
If you find that most of your free time is spent playing video games on your Xbox or PlayStation then you might be interested to know that even this can be a profitable hobby. You can join a professional league of gamers for example. Or you could write reviews, blog posts or create a YouTube channel about gaming in general, or a specific genre of games. There are many gamers making money this way, such as PewDiePie, or the entire staff of Machinima on YouTube.
Music
Whether you are a musician, song writer or an enthusiast there is room for you to make money with music. From things as simple as slicethepie.com, which allows you to review music from up and coming artists and get paid for it, down to creating an album yourself and selling it on iTunes. The possibilities are nearly endless; especially if you enjoy playing live shows locally, as there are bound to be bars and restaurants looking for great, unique and new music!
Shopping
Another popular trend in recent years is the ability to be a Mystery Shopper. By becoming a shopper you are able to be reimbursed for eating meals, making purchases, or seeing a movie; all by writing an in depth review about your experience. Best of all, not only did your excursion cost you nothing but they usually pay you an extra sum on top of it!
These are five of the common, profitable hobbies, but there are hundreds more. Take a look around the internet and you are sure to find a way to make money doing something you love.
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Your post is a timely couitrbntion to the debate