money making hobbies
Updated September 30, 2021

Bored? 25 Money Making Hobbies That Will Make You Richer

Side Hustles

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A movie character once said “if you’re good at something, never do it for free.” Well, we say that even if you just enjoy something, don’t do it for free.

Your hobbies are yours to enjoy, but if you can make money through them then even better.

Actually, being able to make money through your hobbies should encourage you to do them more often and get better at them.

Play a Free Slots App

These days there are many game apps that actually pay you either real money or gift cards to play them.

One of our favorites is Long Game Savings, which is essentially a free slots app that also doubles as a free savings account.

The more money you deposit into your savings account, the more coins you earn to play slots and other games to win prizes of up to $1,000,000.

Play Mobile Games

If slots aren’t your thing, you can also make money by playing games on your phone.

Mistplay is a free new app that rewards you for downloading games from the App Store or Google Play Store through its own interface.

As you level up in the mobile games, you earn more points that you can redeem for gift cards at Amazon, VISA, PlayStation, Xbox, Apple, Starbucks, and more.

Click here to start winning free gift cards for playing mobile games on your phone.

Write as a Freelancer

The number of people who enjoy writing is in decline these days but writers still exist among us.

Maybe people aren’t writing as much because others no longer enjoy reading, or don’t have the time to read.

If you’re getting paid to write, however, then you’re going to do it way more often since you’re gaining something in return.

Getting started can be a little hard so you should like into acquiring more writing skills so that people are more likely to hire you.

Create a Blog

The benefits of creating a blog are two-fold.

First of all, you get to write about whatever you want and your income could be based on the ads that come your way as the blog gains popularity.

Secondly, it can be considered as a portfolio for if/when you start freelancing as a writer.

An issue plenty of starting writers face is that they have nothing to show potential clients.

By having a rich blog where you can demonstrate your writing skills, you’ll definitely be able to get more freelance jobs.

Click here to learn more about starting your own money-making blog.

Take Online Surveys

Companies care what you think, and they’ll pay you for telling them your opinion.

With Survey Junkie you can take online surveys and earn cash and gift cards as you collect points.

You won’t be receiving cash directly as it’ll be transferred to your PayPal account.

Take Pictures

Professional cameras aren’t cheap, yet people still buy them out of love for photography and capturing beauty.

Photography is really one of the best money-making hobbies.

Others will be able to view your pictures and purchase them if they want.

The more pictures you upload and the more attractive these pictures are to viewers, the more money you’ll make. Photography is definitely one of the hobbies that pay.

Graphic Design

The world is full of designers nowadays, but only a few are actually good at what they do.

You could decide websites or even t-shirts, someone out there will be looking for your services.

Instead of designing as a hobby and not sharing your work, take advantage and offer your services as a freelancer.

By doing this you’ll also feel motivated to build your skills since the stakes are much higher now.

Go Shopping: One of the Money Making Hobbies You Didn’t Expect

It’s quite surprising that people aren’t aware of this or using it enough, but there are plenty of apps right now that’ll reward you with cash just for shopping.

Rakuten (formerly Ebates)

Through Rakuten you’ll receive cash back for online shopping at one of the stores they have an affiliation with.

Don’t worry, Rakuten is affiliated with over 2,000 stores.

When you’re referred to a store through their service, Rakuten get a commission. In order to make their services more attractive for people, Rakuten gives part of their commission back to the buyer.

Ibotta

If you don’t like shopping online and prefer to go out, Ibotta is your go-to app.

Once you’re done shopping just take a picture of your receipt, upload it to the app, and get a coupon or cash back in return.

It really doesn’t get better than that.

Better Banking

This might be surprising for some, but there are people who enjoy banking and arranging their finances.

It’s just exciting to know where you stand financially, especially if your financial status is getting better.

Better banking is surprisingly one of the most productive money making hobbies.

Chime is a new bank with no nonsense fees and better services as opposed to most existing banks out there.

Traveling and Hosting

Traveling is a hobby that doesn’t get practiced enough because it’s just too expensive.

With Airbnb you can travel while saving money, or you could even host guests to your city by running your own Airbnb!

If you love meeting new people and experiencing different cultures all within the comfort of your home then this would suit you well.

Eliminate Unnecessary Subscriptions

Perhaps this is more of a way to eliminate past hobbies rather than utilizing existing ones.

Your past hobbies are probably associated with subscriptions and bills that you no longer need or use.

With Cushion you’ll be able to track the things you’re subscribed to in order to cancel the things you don’t use anymore.

Some of these subscriptions often include regular fees so you’ll be saving money by canceling them.

Gardening

Looking for ways to make money with hobbies? Well you don’t need to look further than your backyard.

If you’re good at gardening and have a backyard or garden full of fresh fruits and veggies, you could sell extras to friends and family, or even at a local market.

Just check with your local rules and regulations because you might need a license in order to sell the food you grow.

Surf the Internet

This is one hobby almost everyone hopes to see on a list like this.

Surfing the Internet is something we’re all experts at. In fact, the bulk of our day is probably wasted on the Internet.

With Swagbucks you can make money just by taking surveys, watching videos, and playing games online.

Swagbucks uses your info and reviews to provide feedback to companies, who then pay Swagbucks for its input. Likewise, Swagbucks will pay you for your input.

Create a YouTube Channel

The Internet is all about videos right now. Actually, it’s estimated that 80% of content on the Internet will consist of videos by 2021.

Creating a YouTube channel is one of the best ways to make money online. It’s also a lot of fun!

Getting started and building a fan base will take time, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be making lots of money and getting deals from famous companies.

Creating a YouTube channel and being a vlogger is one of the best and most fun money making hobbies.

Work as an Organizer

In the modern day, people often have too much to do and not enough time or energy to do it.

Getting things organized can make a busy person’s life a lot easier. This is why so many executives hire personal assistants.

Simply having a plan for the week will add so much peace to a person’s day to day life.

You can offer your services online as an organizer or a virtual assistant and get paid for it.

Play an Instrument

Once you get to a certain level of playing an instrument, you can start offering your services to people.

You might be asked to play at a wedding or a dinner party.

If you’re really good and start having a decent reputation, you could be paid up to 300$ at an event.

It’s a pretty great way to make money and will take up very little of your time.

Invest in Real Estate

Just like banking, investing money can be a surprising hobby.

When people talk about hobbies they think of fun activities like swimming and reading.

Nonetheless, some people enjoy managing their money and find that it brings them great relief.

One exciting way to invest your money is via real estate.

The financial gain from this is often delayed though, so just like with most investments, this will need patience.

Sell Your Old Books

If you thought reading is a hobby that has no financial gain potential, you’re wrong.

You can always sell your old books. You can also sell your school textbooks once you’re done with them.

Check out the price they’re being sold for (in a used condition) online and you’ll get a fair estimate of how much you should expect to make by selling them.

Post them on eBay or Amazon for people to view and purchase them.

We know some people prefer to keep their books and never sell them though, so no pressure. Surely there are other money making hobbies that’ll suit you better.

Get Busy Working

Handyman Work

Love fixing stuff and doing regular handyman work?

If so, you can sign up for TaskRabbit and help people in your neighborhood with tasks like painting rooms, moving furniture, and more.

These jobs are often suited for someone with some muscle power and will certainly help keep that person fit.

Mow Lawns and Shovel Driveways

You don’t much to get started doing these things. You can simply knock on doors offering your help and leaving your card.

This is particularly lucrative in places with heavy snow, there will be too much shoveling to do and they’ll certainly call you to get the job done.

It’s easy work that doesn’t require a degree, has little room for error, and will earn you decent money.

Create an Online Course

If you’re patient about something, surely you have enough knowledge about it to teach others.

There are several websites online that’ll let you create a course through a series of videos on the topic you choose.

This is a great and extremely productive way to build on your hobbies.

Consider it a way of taking your hobby to the next level.

You’ll be surprised how many people sign up for your course and you might end up being one of the experts on that particular subject.

Just make sure your course is thoroughly planned out so websites accept it.

Tutor

Not tech savvy enough to create an online course or simply don’t have the time to record so many videos?

Don’t forget about good old fashioned tutoring.

You could tutor individual people or a small class.

This will be lucrative if you have a reputation in your community for being really good at a certain topic like chemistry or literature.

As time passes, people you tutor now will start recommending you to others and before you know it you’ll be everyone’s go to teacher for that subject.

Lose Weight and Stay Fit

Doctors will tell you to lose weight because it’s good for your health, but has anyone ever told you to lose weight because you can also make money through it?

Healthy Wage will pay you to lose weight and participate in weight loss challenges.

The better you do, the more money you win. Some people won up to 4,000 dollars.

Sell Through Your Website

This is similar to creating a blog and getting money through ads.

Your website doesn’t have to be an online market dedicated purely to selling stuff.

It’s just that you can dedicate a few portions of the website to selling products related to the theme of your site or blog.

For this to work, your site will need to have a solid fan base.

Sell Avon Products

Love make-up? Just join Avon’s representative network and enter the world of cosmetics.

When you join Avon, you’ll need to start hiring recruits.

The more your recruits sell, the more money you make. Also, the more you sell, the more the people who recruited you make.

It’s a win-win for everyone, but might take you a few weeks to get started as you recruit people.

Recycle

People don’t obsess about recycling itself, but more about the idea of saving the planet.

You shouldn’t save the planet for free though, even people working at NGOs get paid.

Recycling glass bottles and aluminum cans can earn you money as a can or glass deposit will give you 10 cents per item.

It’s not much, but at least it might cover the gas money you spent while collecting items to recycle in order to save the environment.

Walk Dogs

This is one of the most enjoyable money making hobbies.

It’s also easy to start and won’t take much time or effort.

Just offer to walk your neighbor’s dogs and as long as you do a good job, you’ll have more people asking you to walk their dogs.

You can also sign up for Rover and find dogs to walk for money.

Surprisingly, this is a hobby that could end up as a pretty decent source of income.

A hobby doesn’t have to be limited. Expand on it and find ways to make money out of it.

Don’t pressure yourself though, if making money through a hobby is turning into something stressful then it might be time to stop.

It’s not like there’s a shortage of money making hobbies anyway.

What money making hobbies do you have? We’d love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in a comment below!

Author:

Logan Allec, CPA

Logan is a practicing CPA and founder of Choice Tax Relief and Money Done Right. After spending nearly a decade in the corporate world helping big businesses save money, he launched his blog with the goal of helping everyday Americans earn, save, and invest more money. Learn more about Logan.

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Carolyn Brown
Carolyn Brown
4 years ago

Great article! It was to the point, not bulky with too much information but just enough information to help you decide if it’s for you or not. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the whole article, so the article also keeps your attention, and I have one of the worst cases of A.D.H.D! Great read!