Work Online From Home: How To Make Money With A Hobby?

For years now, the world has been confronting with an unprecedented economic crisis, which has resulted in scary unemployment, and forced more and more people to search for a way to make money online. Yet, this is not the only reason why the Internet has become so popular lately.

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

Everybody’s goal in life is to be happy, to have a nice life, made up of spiritual, physical and economic wellbeing. Work, definitely, is an essential part of our life project, and making money with a hobby, with a passion, with something you love doing, is everybody’s dream.

Dreams aren’t impossible, and the internet has made some of them possible.

Working online from home has several advantages:

• increased freedom to manage your own time;
• more time to dedicate to your family and to yourself;
• significantly reduced stress levels, since you don’t have to travel to work and relate with your boss and your co-workers (some of them can be really nasty!);

But being able to exploit your expertise or your passion to make money online, is definitely the most important advantage.

How to make money online with a hobby? – Guide for beginners

By hobby I mean a passion of yours, something you like doing, something you are good at, or a subject you like going into. Here are a few examples:

• photography;
• painting;
• writing;
• books;
• gardening;
• knitting;
• embroidering;
• cooking;
• do-it-yourself (DIY);
• gaming;
• yoga;
• sports;
• nutrition and fitness;
• traveling;
• foreign languages;
• graphic design;
• IT & Software;
• blogging ecc.

There are several ways to turn your hobby, whatever it is, into an online full-time income source.

Here’s how you can work online from home and earn money:

#1 Get paid doing tasks:

There are several platforms on the Internet where you can put yourself forward, specifying your fee to do such tasks as: translations, logo development, image development for social media, writing articles and summaries, postcard development, making videos, creating online courses, online personal trainer, website development, etc.

One of those sites where you can put your expertise forward is Fiverr. You can sign up for free and you have to confirm your e-mail address, by clicking on the confirmation link, which is e-mailed to you. Once you have logged in, you can start setting up your profile and putting your expertise forward, specifying your minimum fee and delivery time. You are going to be paid through PayPal or bank transfer.

Another famous platform is Freelancer where you can browse the jobs that suit your skills, expertise, price and schedule preferences. Unlike Fiverr, on Freelancer in order to be hired you have to contact the clients and convince them you’re the best person for the job.

#2 Writing articles (copywriting)

If you love writing, you may want to offer your services on platforms dedicated to copywriting, like for instance:

Constant Content one of the most famous places for freelance writers and content developers. You can get paid up to $100 for a high-quality article.

Great Content you have to send an article written by you if you want to be approved.

Other platforms you can apply to are Copify (US nationals only) and BoostMedia.

#3 Writing and selling info products (ebooks)

Another way to make money online with a hobby is to write an e-book and sell it on Amazon, for instance. With Kindle Direct Publishing you can publish your e-books directly on Amazon. You are going to earn 70% of royalties on sales.

#4 Create and sell online courses

If you have notable skills in a specific field (herbal therapy, fitness, nutrition, cooking, photography, yoga, music, business, marketing, design, IT and software, etc.) you may want to make an online educational course and sell it on Udemy – an international education platform online, which already has over 100.000 courses.

#5 Open an e-store

If you are keen on sales, or if you love making jewelry, accessories, household articles, clothes, toys, you may want to open your own e-store, by using one of these platforms:

Etsy (they charge € 0,18 for every product you add to your e-store, 5% transaction fee and 4% + € 0,30 payment processing fee);

Ebay (offers 50 free listings per month);

Amazon.

#6 Network Marketing

Network marketing is a very popular and widespread way to earn income, and anyone having a social media account, likely has at least one contact promoting products through network marketing. The most famous brands are Forever Living, Amway, Faberlic, Mary Kay, Herbalife, Avon, Tupperware, doTERRA ecc.

Network marketing is a widespread business model. It consists in selling products through a network of people you are going to create. You usually have to make an initial investment (purchase the product you are going to promote), and afterwards you start to add interested people to your sales network (your team).

This network is made up of levels and you may earn money even from your team sales (downline). The promotion activity can also take place offline, and you need to have notable persuasive skills.

#7 Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing, in my opinion, is the best way to make a long-term online income. Compared to the other ways of online income, this is the one requiring much more time and effort at the beginning, though it is also the best way to grant a passive income in the future.

How does affiliate marketing work?

I have already written about affiliate marketing on one of my previous posts and, unlike network marketing, you don’t have to build a downline (a network of people) to make money.  Actually, you receive royalties each time a product you promote on your website is sold.

Yes, you understood correctly – you have to build a website, where you are going to be dealing with your passions and interests, publishing blog posts and product reviews related to your niche. In these reviews you may want to add your affiliate links and receive royalties when the product is bought by someone visiting your website and clicking on your link.

As your website is growing, more and more people will visit it and you have more chance to make money, collaborating with famous platforms like Amazon, Ebay, Clickbank, Rakuten Marketing, Awin, HealthTrader etc.                            

Surely there are lots of people who start an affiliate marketing business without having a website, but simply by posting their links on several social media platforms, for instance. It may look like a good strategy, but it doesn’t usually lead to any notable income, as it is hard to persuade people to buy something by simply showing them the picture of the product.

Maybe this is the reason why most affiliate platforms require affiliates to have a website with a minimum of monthly visits. 

One of the main advantages of affiliate marketing is that you don’t need an initial investment to start. There exist several platforms online, where you can build your blog/website for free, though my advice is to do your research and learn the basics of affiliate marketing first, so that you can make a good start.

This is how I started my journey online and I would like to suggest you to subscribe to the Wealthy Affiliate Educational Program for free. You free membership will give you access to a ten-lesson Getting Started course, where you are going to be walked through step-by-step to learn how to build a website and start making money online.

On the same platform, you will also have the possibility to build 1 website for free and you are going to have access to a community of more than 1 million of like-minded people, ready to help you out if you get stuck or have any questions.

If you seriously decide to follow this path and put constant effort in your online business, you may choose to go Premium (with unlimited access to 50 getting started lessons, 5 Affiliate Bootcamp courses, hundreds of tutorials, webinars, hosting services, the opportunity to have your own blog on the platform etc.) and choose your terms of payment (monthly, biannual, yearly). Read more HERE.

Besides all the forms of income listed above, there are also several online programs, that can help you take advantage of and make money with your hobby. All you have to do is search on Google, “how to make money with <your hobby>”.

Good luck and all the best of success in your new journey!

Thank you for reading and if you find this article useful, please comment below and share it so other people can benefit from it as well!