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Common Hobbies That Can Earn You Additional Cash

Updated on January 5, 2015
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I'm a dad, husband, and Christian first. Second, I'm an educator and organizational development professional.

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Additional income sounds good

Do you earn extra cash from your hobby? It’s surprising to know that many people actually make extra income from activities to pass their time. The extra cash from hobbies sounds interesting, I know. But what exactly do you do to pass your time? The right hobby can be lucrative only if you have the passion for the activity. Remember, this is just a hobby, not work. But, why turn away from the extra income you can get?

Here are some hobbies that can give you additional income.

Snap Shots for Cash

This is a Nikon D70 DSLR.  What do you use to take snap shots?
This is a Nikon D70 DSLR. What do you use to take snap shots? | Source

1. Make Money from Photography

Today, many people have cameras. In fact, even the cell phones now have cameras built in to them. We just love taking snap shots of our lives. You can see them posted in social networks like facebook, instagram and even pinterest. But with a little practice and instruction, anyone can turn picture taking into a money-making hobby.

The easiest way to earn from photography is to shoot and then sell them online. There are numerous stock photography sites where you can upload your pictures. As a newbie in selling your photographs online you will definitely face stiff competition. But, hey, remember that this is just a hobby of yours.

Surely, you want to earn from your hobby. So here are some quick tips to make extra cash from your taking photos as a hobby:

  • Learn the basics of photography and build your skill
  • Sell high quality photos (HD is always better)
  • Seek your niche
  • Find a stock photography site that suits your needs
  • Read and follow rules of the stock image site
  • The right equipment can make a difference
  • Click away and enjoy your hobby

Everyone starts somewhere. As a photographer, you can improve your skills and thus improve your outputs. Sooner or later, people will take notice. Who knows someday you can even expand your earning potential by teaching others how to become an accomplished photographer.

Get Paid to Write

What type of online writing do you like?

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2. Additional Cash from Writing and Blogging

Writing or blogging is becoming a popular source of income online. With a few keystrokes and a few pictures, you can share information and turn it into profit. Unfortunately, writing does not come naturally for everyone. But if you’re one of those who writes as a hobby, then you can push it a little further and make money out of it.

The internet is a place to share information. The boom it has created is without a doubt felt worldwide. Apart from writing your own blogs, you may want to explore other online writing opportunities like copy writing, product reviews, and other similar opportunities.

Tips for earning from online writing:

  • Write about what you know and love
  • Create original and unique content
  • Proofread your work
  • Choose the right writing/blogging site
  • Follow the rules of the writing/blogging sites
  • Hone your writing skills
  • Expand the depth and breadth of your knowledge

Gardening for Beginners

3. Extra Money from Gardening

There are people who relax by getting down and dirty in the garden. For many people with a green thumb, it’s a way to commune with nature. You see, gardening is a therapeutic activity. But don’t you want to earn from your hobby as well?

One option is to sell the plants after propagation. Propagating your plants entails different strategies. This includes air layering, stem or leaf cuttings, separating the rhizomes and propagation through seeds. Depending on your plant, you can choose the best way to do this.

Another option is to sell the flowers or even the fruits that your plants will bear. Depending on the season, you can surely find the right market. Selling exotic plants and flowers is a great hobby but it is also a lucrative business. All it takes is a little TLC and you can be sure to have extra profit from your pastime.

To enjoy the extra cash from gardening, you can do the following tips:

  • Learn proper plant and flower care – especially propagation techniques
  • Choose the right plant/flower to grow for every season
  • Learn what is best to grow in your climate
  • Create a network with garden suppliers, professionals and other enthusiasts
  • Have the right tools and equipment to make it easier and fun for you
  • Advertise and market your hobby/business so people will notice you
  • Have competitive prices – if you’re not a professional, charging like one will dissuade people from buying from you

When you garden, you do your part in preserving the environment. By sharing this with others, you reach out and make others aware of the benefits of gardening. Now, you can go green and earn a little more.

What do you love to bake?
What do you love to bake? | Source

What do you love to bake?

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4. Extra Income from Cooking and Baking

People need to eat. As such, cooking and baking are always lucrative. Surely, getting formal culinary schooling can be expensive, but you don’t have to start there. Remember that this is just a hobby - plus some extra cash. Think back when you were just a kid. Were you the one selling lemon aid or were you the one buying it? Now, instead of lemons, expand your options!

You can find a particular dish or pastry that you know so well. You can offer it to neighbors, office-mate and family. If you’re adventurous enough, you may want to try sending samples to food establishments.

You can start with cookies, brownies, breads, cakes or go into special dishes, snacks or even go for full meals. It’s prudent to start small. But no one is stopping you to be audacious.

Cooking and baking entails work. But if you’re doing something you love, you’ll enjoy every step of it. Here are some tips to earn from cooking and baking:

  • Keep it clean
  • Follow policies and regulations when selling food
  • Provide samples for taste testing
  • Keep your ingredients fresh
  • Find the right suppliers to ensure quality and pull the prices down
  • Use the internet to advertise your products
  • Take lessons and learn cooking techniques and baking techniques
  • Check out recipes online and try them out
  • Learn to innovate
  • Learn how to present and package your products

The taste buds of people want new flavors. It’s up to you to make them want for more. So take out those cooking utensils and baking tools and start making people crave for more.

Is Knitting and Crocheting For You?

Knitting and Crocheting can earn you additional cash
Knitting and Crocheting can earn you additional cash | Source

5. Earn from Knitting and Crocheting

What comes to mind when you hear knitting and crocheting? Did that conjure images of old people sitting in rocking chairs? But the truth is, knitting and crocheting are hobbies that all ages enjoy.

What many do not realize is that hand-made products are often given more value. In fact, this labor of love can cost a lot more than mass produced items. Every crocheted item or knitted product is practically unique. The patterns maybe the same, but you can expect a certain level of uniqueness with every item

Of course, selling your knitted or crocheted item is an option. But there are other ways you can earn from this hobby:

  • Provide lessons or guides through online knitting and crocheting videos
  • One on one tutorial on knitting and crocheting
  • Selling cheap knitting and crocheting supplies
  • Selling crocheting and knitting kits for other hobbyist
  • Making crocheting and knitting patterns for sale

As always, turning a hobby into something lucrative entails more work than just knitting and selling it. It requires improving your skills, lowering the cost in a very competitive market and finding the consumers for your products. Because of these challenges, here are some tips to turn knitting and crocheting hobbies into money-earning activities:

  • Check out online crocheting patterns and knitting ideas
  • Join knitting and crocheting associations and clubs
  • Search for online crocheting products to get ideas
  • Source out cheap crocheting and knitting supplies
  • Compare your work with others so you’ll know what to improve
  • Learn new techniques and methods
  • Create your own style

Just imagine earning from something you really love doing. Isn’t that great? The next time old folks that are knitting and crocheting cross your mind, think of them as people earning from what they enjoy doing.

Do you like tinkering under the hood?

Elbow Grease Earns You Money
Elbow Grease Earns You Money | Source

6. Make Extra Cash from Automotive Repairs

If you have a car, chances are you visit auto shops and auto repair experts. Whether it’s for the regular maintenance or repairing persistent problems, you need someone with special skills to do it. Of course it’s easier to have someone fix it for you. But if you know what you are doing, then you don’t have to worry. In fact, you can make money from automotive repairs.

Tinkering under the hood will make you familiar with what goes on. Some simply look and pass it on to others while some take the time to really know and learn. Many car owners still pay others to do even the simplest tasks:

  • Changing car’s engine oil
  • Replacing alternator belts and air conditioner belts
  • Replacing spark plugs
  • Replacing radiator fluid
  • Cleaning terminals and contacts
  • Replacing bulbs and lights
  • Changing tires
  • And my favorite…washing cars

But these activities are easy to do once you know how. With the help of some tools and some elbow grease, you can do this without any problems. However, since new models and technology come out often, you need to keep yourself abreast with the latest. In order to earn money from tinkering under the hood you need to do the following:

  • Learn the right methods from an expert
  • Get a certification or even a license where applicable
  • Get reliable automotive tools and equipment
  • Practice safe workmanship
  • Build your reputation as a knowledgeable and skillful mechanic
  • Learn the latest techniques and methodologies

Changing a flat tire however simple is still not palatable to everyone. Even a simple tune up can start as a hobby in the garage and end up making you extra income.

Click thumbnail to view full-size
$2.3 Million for a stamp!A picture of the Gutenburg bible taken by Henry Trotter.  This copy is found at the Yale University. Paul Cézanne's The Card Players is currently the most expensive painting sold.  It fetch almost $270 million.The Double Fantasy album that John Lennon signed sold for more than Half a million dollars.The rare 1933 Double eagle Coin sold for $7.59 Million. T206 Honus Wagner baseball card is considered as one of the rarest and most expensive baseball cards in the world.
$2.3 Million for a stamp!
$2.3 Million for a stamp! | Source
A picture of the Gutenburg bible taken by Henry Trotter.  This copy is found at the Yale University.
A picture of the Gutenburg bible taken by Henry Trotter. This copy is found at the Yale University. | Source
 Paul Cézanne's The Card Players is currently the most expensive painting sold.  It fetch almost $270 million.
Paul Cézanne's The Card Players is currently the most expensive painting sold. It fetch almost $270 million. | Source
The Double Fantasy album that John Lennon signed sold for more than Half a million dollars.
The Double Fantasy album that John Lennon signed sold for more than Half a million dollars. | Source
The rare 1933 Double eagle Coin sold for $7.59 Million.
The rare 1933 Double eagle Coin sold for $7.59 Million. | Source
T206 Honus Wagner baseball card is considered as one of the rarest and most expensive baseball cards in the world.
T206 Honus Wagner baseball card is considered as one of the rarest and most expensive baseball cards in the world. | Source

7. Extra Wealth from Collecting Items

Who knew that the few busks you dished out decades ago is now worth a lot more. This is the common tale when it comes to collecting. Many collectors start out as a hobbyist then they evolve into rich people with rare items.

Collecting items can be from the common to the bizarre. Some of the most usual collector’s items include coins, comic books, stamps, knives and weapons, baseball cards. Others go as extreme as collecting tanks. Regardless of what your hobby is, you can rake in extra cash from it.

  • Comic book collection- Amazing Spiderman first issue worth 12₵ in 1963 is now worth $40,000
  • Stamp collection - Treskilling Banco yellow in Sweden; sold at $2.3M in 1996
  • Book collections - Gutenberg bible, the first book printed using movable type
  • Baseball card collection - T206 Honus Wagne was released in 1909 and only 60 cards were released. In 2000 it sold for $1.26 million. In 2012, A card was sold at $1.2 million and in 2013, another card sold for $2.1 million.
  • Wine Collection - 1787 Chateau Lafite valued at $156,450. It belonged to Thomas Jefferson
  • Music collection – The signed Double Fantasy album of John Lennon sold for $525,000 in 2003

Collecting as a hobby is more than just keeping junk at home. You are preserving history. If you want to earn from what you collect, then take heed:

  • Know the value of what you are collecting
  • Compare prices and items
  • Learn how to distinguish a fake from the real thing
  • When in doubt, call an expert
  • Take precaution to safe-keep the items
  • Handle them with care
  • Attend seminars and workshops about the item you are collecting

What’s great about collecting as a hobby is that you can collect almost anything. There is a special niche for every item. Moreover, there are experts all over the world who can help you.

Which hobby will you turn into profit?

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A hobby is something we do because we enjoy doing it. Making money from our hobbies is often not the primary motivation. But why not earn extra cash from your hobbies? You’re already engaged in doing it. Now, it all takes a little more effort any you’ll surely get additional income.

Remember, you already know how to do it. Just take the time to monetize from what you enjoy doing. If it does not work, then at least you still have your hobby to entertain you.

Who knows, this can start a whole new you. Try it, turn your hobby into an income generating activity.

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