How To Get Paid For Your Hobby
Inspriation for this post came from two places: this post over at YourDailyFinance on how to align your interests, skills, and finding something someone is willing to pay for, and reading through Rich Dad Poor Dad
How To Get Paid For Your Hobby – Background
I’ll admit, I’m not an expert on how you can get paid for your hobby. I can think of very few examples where I’ve been successfully able to make anything off of what I enjoy doing… The thing is, every one of us has something we enjoy doing in our free time – our hobby. One of my favorite things to do with my free time is play computer games.
Both of the inspirations I mentioned above tell us that awesome things can start to happen when these three factors converge:
– you find something you enjoy doing
– AND you develop great skill with with that something
– AND you can identify someone or something that is willing to pay for this
How To Get Paid For Your Hobby – Open Your Mind
So, how can we open our minds to identify how we can get paid for our hobby? The main trick for most people in how to get paid for your hobby is identifying that third step (finding someone willing to pay for your hobby). This has always been the trickiest part for me.
I just recently had a sort of personal mini-epiphany just last week on how I could get started making money from my hobby. For more than a year, my son and I have been playing the computer game Tribes Ascend off and on. On the mornings when I take him to the bus stop, we usually have a free 15 minutes before the bus arrives – not enough time to load up a Tribes Ascend match, but enough time to watch some cool Tribes Ascend Youtube videos….
As we were watching one of these videos last week, the idea just hit me like a semi-truck barreling down the highway at 70mph. Why the hell haven’t I been recording my own videos while I’ve been playing Tribes? Some of the Tribes Ascend videos we watch have more than 100,000 views – and the revenue that would come from that isn’t just pocket change.
How To Get Paid For Your Hobby – Taking Action
I soon realized that I could easily record my own matches while I play in my free time and upload videos to Youtube with about five minutes of real, actual work! This could be a great and easy way for me to get paid for my hobby with very little fuss. For that matter, I could record any PC game I play and upload the interesting parts to Youtube from here on out! Now because I’m a little slower than others at coming to conclusions about how to make money, several other folks have already beat me to this idea. PC game Youtube videos are definitely out there in huge numbers, but there’s no reason why I shouldn’t throw my name in the hat. There are definitely a ton of viewers out there that are interested in PC games…
How To Get Paid For Your Hobby – It Starts With Taking the First Step
So, I went ahead and took the first step. My first Tribes Ascend Youtube video is out in the wild for everyone to see (I attached it below). It isn’t much, and I will definitely NOT get rich from this process any time soon (if ever), but I feel like it is a great step in the right direction in how to get paid for your hobby. If this idea would have occurred to me maybe 10 years ago, I’d have hundreds (maybe even more than 1000) of videos up by now for dozens of games that I’ve played over the years. My guess is that I’d probably be making several hundred dollars a month in ad revenue by now.
How To Get Paid For Your Hobby – Final Thoughts
The journey to success starts with just the first step. If we can remind ourselves to always be thinking of new and creative ways to monetize our hobby and take off our “blinders”, we’re bound to find the right audience/market eventually. It is all about our mindsets! I believe the secret to success in getting paid for your hobby is to never stop searching for monetization ideas. In my case, the method to monetize my hobby was right in front of my face for more than a decade, yet I didn’t recognize it. Hopefully, with a changed mindset and a new drive to search out how to get paid for my hobbies, I’ll identify dozens of new ways to get paid for my hobbies going forward!
What about you? Does anyone have any great stories where you’ve learned how to get paid for your hobby?
The best part about trying to make money off your hobbies is that even if you fail you have a lot of fun anyways. I’m an avid gamer as well but I don’t have the chance to play as much as I would like. What software did you use to create the video?
I’m also a coin collector which I figure should be a good way to make some extra money. I just haven’t put in the time to become an expert or hash out how to make money with it.
Levi @ Wealthnote.com recently posted…Four Horsemen Documentary (Full Video)
Levi,
That’s a great point. Even if you don’t earn a cent, you’re still having a blast.
I used MSI Afterburner. You can get it here: http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm
You can easily record in 1080p and use your microphone – I has like a 5 minute setup and you’re good to go. Let me know if you need more instructions to set it up, or you can just search youtube for the setup.
I collected silver coins a while back and doubled my money over a couple months. When silver prices went up I cashed back out.
-Good luck!
Being able to monetize your hobby is a great idea as long as it doesn’t suck the fun out of it. I love to BBQ, and people tell me I should open a restaurant, or a catering service. I would never do it though, because then it would become work – and then it wouldn’t have the same level of enjoyment.
Brock @cleverdude recently posted…How I Got A Brand New Xbox For $100
Brock,
That’s a good point. So far, I’ve found a good balance that doesn’t detract too much from the fun aspect of it. If taken to the extreme, like opening your own restaurant, I can see how it could become a real chore. Maybe there’s a way to strike a balance by choosing something in the middle. Buying a restaurant and hiring a manager would allow you to continue to cook without the day-to-day hassle.
I say try to get creative and find a way to keep it fun and monetize it at the same time.
One certainly needs to think outside the proverbial box to come up with ways of monetizing their hobbies. In a way I have been lucky in that regard, I used to be an avid fiction reader with a sizable collection of awesome and sought for novels. Where I live we don’t have the luxury of finding lots of modern fiction in the libraries…then I struck on the idea of renting mine to other enthusiasts and running an exchange with a small fee ofcourse while selling some…I loved every moment of it, a community quickly came up we started discussing novels etc.
Creativity and willingness to put in some small work.
Simon @ Modest Money recently posted…TradeKing Review – Exclusive Review of TradeKing Brokerage
Simon,
Wow – that is an awesome story of monetizing your hobby! Is it still going on, or did you stop it for some reason?