Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. We have all heard this before, but not everyone lives up to it. With the rise of the gig economy, making money from your hobby is very possible and you can easily turn it into a side gig, or even your full-time job!
Everybody loves spending time on their hobbies. It helps people feel better and express themselves. What if you could turn your hobby into something profitable? This is becoming a trend making the "passion economy" grow fast. The flexibility of remote work makes it easier to transform your hobbies into an evolving gig or freelancing work.
We did our research and found out how much money youtubers, bloggers, pet sitters, designers and many other freelancers make. So keep reading to find out how you can transform your hobbies into a profitable business:
1. Freelance writing
If you enjoy writing but don’t want to have your own blog, you can try being a freelance writer. You don’t have to limit yourself on writing assignments only. You can expand to marketing campaigns, proofreading, revisions, editing or even translations. The possibilities are endless.
Freelance writers earn an average between €30-70/hour. It really depends on the type of content you will write. The most profitable freelance writing fields are technical, financial, and medical writing. There are many platforms that enable you to search for clients and jobs, like Fiverr, UpWork and AppJobs. The key is to provide quality work and deliver on time. As your portfolio starts building up, you can start charging higher rates for your writing.
2. Design
Design is a great field as a lucrative hobby. If you have skills and passion for it, there are many jobs for you out there. You can respond to on-demand job ads in platforms like Freelancer.com, Guru and PeoplePerHour. But also consider having your own website - which can generate more clients! The average graphic designer with 1-2 years experience makes around €30/hour. But again, experience and the area you’re working in can skyrocket these numbers! You can also think about teaching others how to illustrate work with different types of softwares and editing - it is growing in popularity!
3. Video editing
If you are video savvy and like to create videos or simply edit them, you will have great opportunities to turn this hobby into a side gig. Many brands are looking for on-demand video editors that can create enticing clips. There are various ways you can make money with this, from creating instructional videos, commercials and promoting businesses.
A freelance video editor makes on average €25-35/per hour! It is important to create your own channel and share previous jobs. This way you can build up your portfolio and get more clients.
4. Photography
If you love taking pictures, you can easily have an amazing side gig! But don’t forget that photography is more than just taking pictures, you also need to master the editing tools. Depending on the level of expertise, a freelance photographer can get between €30 to €150 per photo. It depends on the expenses to maintain the equipment you have, as well as the amount of time invested in editing professional photos.
You can set up your profile in websites like Thumbtack, Guru and FlexJobs and accounts on social media. The more you are active on it, you can start building followers, views and likes, which can attract brands who might want to collaborate with you. You may also want to sell the pictures online. For this, try to think about how your photos can be used by a brand or publisher. Then, license them at the various platforms such as Alamy and Getty Images.
5. Taking care of animals
If you love pets, there are plenty of ways to make money on this front. The most common are of course, dog walking and pet sitting. You can also take in pets in your home (if you have the space), take them to vet visits and administer medication.
The average pet sitter earns about €10-15/hour. This number can fluctuate if you decide to work on weekends and holidays, or on what you are expected to do during a visit. In platforms like Petbacker, Grannar, Yepstr and Rover (Dogbuddy) you can create a profile and search for jobs. But you can also start with neighbors, friends and family and build up from there.
6. Voice acting
Voice acting is not just about TV and radio. As an increasing number of companies go digital and remote, there is a growing demand for voice actors to support videos, as well as audiobooks, video games, animation, youtube ads…
Depending on the length and coverage (local, national or international) of the job, you can make an average of €40-55/hour!
7. Teaching
Do you like to teach and share your knowledge? Why not become a language or music teacher? Depending on your purpose you don’t have to be a total expert in order to teach it. You will most likely be working with people who are beginners and want to learn the basics.
There are different channels you can sign up to and you get to connect with people from all over the world! Some of the most popular platforms for language are Italki and Preply, and for music, Udemy and Skillshare. You set your own rates based on what you’re teaching and your experience level. The amount can vary from as low as €8 per class to more than €20 (for language tutors) and €10 to hundreds of euros per class (for music teachers). You can also upload your videos in different social media to get more followers and more income can be generated through advertising and partnerships, like teacher/influencer Lucy.
8. Fitness instructor
Do you love exercising and like to share the experience with others? Then how about getting paid to work out? You can start a running group, yoga classes, bootcamps in the park, being a personal trainer…If you’re just starting out, you can make on average €15-20/hour. Health and fitness blogs and social media are exploding at the moment, like Kayla Itsines, Fanny Josefine and Ako Rahim. Take advantage of this and share tips and workouts with your followers! The more visitors and followers you have, the higher your chances of getting new clients and for collaborating with brands. You can see more on how to earn money as online personal trainer at https://www.theptdc.com/how-to-be-an-online-personal-trainer
9. Social Media
Do you love scrolling in different social media, posting content, reviewing products and sharing tips? This is actually one of the most profitable hobbies you can have. More and more we see that social media management is becoming a career field on its own. You can work as a social media virtual assistant, monitoring their social media accounts and managing audience interactions. Or as an influencer, making money through affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, or by selling your own products.
How much you can earn depends on the product and brand you work with, combined with the number of followers you have. Influencers with less than 10,000 followers make an average of €95 per video post, €85 for an image post, and €35 for a story. Those with more than 100,000 followers earn €580-€750 per photo. Anyone with over 500,000 followers is considered a “celebrity,” and makes thousands of euros for almost any type of post. You can see more on how to earn money on social media at Adrecord.
10. Surveys / Interviewing
Participating in surveys and interviews is quite easy and can be really fun! Many students, researchers and companies are looking for people to take surveys to collect information about a product or service. The payouts vary a lot, according to the task you have to do (reviewing, participating in contests, online micro-tasks, clicking ads, playing games, watching videos). In Sweden, most of these survey services used to pay with gift cards, but now they are changing to salary. You can reach an average of €60-80 per interview. You can register on sites like Pro Active Research and Opticom.
11. Youtubers / Vlogging
YouTube became a huge sensation since its launch in 2005. We use it for everything - in fact, some content and videos are only available on YouTube! Much like social media, the amount of money you can earn depends on the number of views that you reach and how many Google ads are displayed throughout the video.
A report from eMarketer reveals that channels that have between 500 and 5,000 followers, make an average of €260 per YouTube video. Accounts with followings between 30,000 and 500,000, make an average of €650 per video. And by reaching 1 million views, you can get more than €4,000!
12. Blogging
Starting your own blog has become super popular. If you enjoy writing and sharing stories, blogging can be a great profitable hobby for you! You can write about any category you like, such as travel, cooking, fashion, business, finance, politics, fitness, your personal life.
The average payout you can get depends on the number of pageviews you get per month and how much strategic content you will post. In the first year, bloggers make €500 - €$2,000 per month. During the second year bloggers make between €8,000 - €20,000! As the flow of visitors grows, you will get the opportunity to add advertising, advertorial, banners, affiliate marketing and paid sponsorships. You can find more information here: https://millennialmoney.com/how-much-money-make-blogging/
Are you feeling inspired to kick start a new side gig with something you love? Share this post and motivate others to get going on their hobbies!
