How To Make A Living Doing Hobbies
Some lucky people are able to make a living doing their hobbies. They design jewelry, they write novels, they make computer games. The hard truth is that for every one of them who succeeds, there are probably tens or hundreds that remain hobbyists. Converting a hobby into a livelihood is already a tough problem. Unfortunately, what I have in mind poses some additional difficulties. First of all, I don’t want to make a living doing just one hobby. I want to be doing whatever hobby that strikes my fancy. Since I don’t know what I will fancy, say two weeks from now, how can I plan to make money with it?
The second difficulty is that my fancies don’t last very long: no longer than 4 months at a time (I call these short-lived hobbies obbies). In this day and age, people get paid for the expertise they develop in their chosen fields. Four months is not a long time to develop any kind of expertise let alone produce something, convince someone to pay for it, and get paid enough to make a living. But after much soul searching, I decided that nevertheless these are my terms.
Here is what I envision: I get into some kind of new obby like basket weaving. Then, I think about how I can make money doing it. I sell the baskets I make, I teach others how to make baskets, I consult for a basket weaving company, I write about basket weaving, I make an informative website on basket weaving and sell ad space on it…
It sure would be nice to have a comprehensive list of ways to make money. That way, every time I get into a new obby, I can refer to my big list and quickly come up with an effective way to generate income. This is my first step. Effectively, I will develop an infrastructure for monetizing obbies so that the turn around time from idea conception to income generation is minimized. Whether I can get the process down to under 4 months remains to be seen.
I did a quick brainstorm. Here is a starting point of ways to make money.
- Make and sell things
- Join an online affiliate program
- Make a high-traffic webpage and sell ads on it
- Develop material/service on a website and sell subscriptions
- Consult
- Teach (tutor, teach adult education classes, conduct seminars/workshops)
- Write and sell articles
Over the next three months, I will be adding to the list and fleshing it out. There are a lot of questions that needs to be answered for each of these models. For example:
- What’s the up front investment in terms of time and money?
- How soon can I turn a profit with this model?
- How much can I expect to make? (What’s my hourly rate?)
- How re-usable will my work be? (e.g. If I invest time and energy developing a website, can I develop similar ones quickly and make more money?)
- Will the steps involved in setting it up be fun, interesting, and challenging for me personally?
If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know.
prowler replied:
“Will the steps involved in setting it up be fun, interesting, and challenging for me personally?”
i think this is the main question.. i mean, the very reason you embark on doing an obby in the first place is that you find it interesting and fun – wouldn’t turning it into a business be more of a headache, thus detracting from the overall experience?
of course, that’s my negativist way of seeing it, i’m sure you’ll find ways to make even this enjoyable and challenging.
November 14, 2006 at 4:15 pm. Permalink.
obby replied:
No doubt, turning obbies into businesses would detract from the experience in some ways. I’m doing it mainly out of practical reasons – need to make a living some how. Now, I could better separate the two by getting a normal job and then doing my purely fun obbies in my free time. I considered it and rejected that option for several reasons. One, most jobs that are interesting to me are also very demanding (e.g. management consulting). I probably wouldn’t have the time to pursue my obbies AND have a social life. Two, I’m afraid I would fall into climbing the career ladder. It’s not easy to say no when your peers are all doing it. Three, I could get a easy job that just pay the bills, but if I spend more than 20 hours a week doing it, it would probably drain my energy and motivation. Four, I want to go all out right now and have maximal freedom to pursue my own projects. Going all out is exciting, and if it doesn’t work out in a year or two, I can fall back to a job with no regrets.
Besides, I actually think running a business can be pretty interesting and fulfilling. I’ve gained a lot of appreciation for it over the last few years. Everything is so new to me which means I can learn a lot in a short period of time. That makes it exciting. As to the headaches, I’m sure they will come (I’ve experienced some already). I think what will save me there is the people that I will be working with. If you are working with good people, headaches turn into bonding experiences. Now the pitfalls are if I’m ever going at something alone for too long, or my headaches are with people…
Do you have any experience with these issues? Any thoughts?
November 14, 2006 at 10:41 pm. Permalink.
prowler replied:
couldn’t say i have any experience..
i’m in college right now, and i haven’t had a job in my life.
i can relate to what you’re saying though – i too would love to transform one of my hobbies into a (functional) business, but i guess i’m too lazy/afraid/unexperienced to give it a shot…
i’m searching for middle ground right now, a job that i wouldn’t dislike and that would leave me enough time for my hobbies.
November 15, 2006 at 11:42 am. Permalink.
obby replied:
In that case, it might still be beneficial to read an entrepreneurship book or two, follow a business blog, or talk to some small business owners and see how they first got started (They are every where, probably some among your own family and friends. Who knows, it might even turn a boring family function into a fun day). That way, even if you are working at a job, your mind will be primed for business opportunities. You never know when they will present themselves.
November 15, 2006 at 6:07 pm. Permalink.