101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas

101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas

brought to you by: "Why Start A New Business When You Can Make Money With Your Favorite Hobby?" http://www.hobbydollars.com

101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas

Table of Contents Hobby Business Ideas..................................................................................3 Online Marketing Tips...............................................................................10 Offline Marketing Tips.............................................................................. 11 Advertising media/strategies..................................................................... 11 Selling Products on virtual stores.............................................................. 13 Multiple Streams of Income...................................................................... 14 Blog and Website Tips...............................................................................15 Information Products................................................................................. 15 Affiliate Marketing.................................................................................... 16 Motivational and Business Tips.................................................................16 IRS/Taxes.................................................................................................. 17

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas A hobby business can be a great way to either generate a side income or even as a full time profession. What exactly is a hobby business? It is a business in which you take some skill or activity which you engage in for fun or creative stimulation and turn it into a money making venture of some sort.

This can take many forms and involve different levels of time and commitment. If you’re thinking of starting a hobby business these 101 tips will help you get a sense of the overall scope of the endeavor and the many directions it can take. These tips all involve in one way or another putting your hobby or hobbies to work in a monetary sense.

Hobby Business Ideas 1) Look at the hobbies you already engage in and see how they can make you money One of the best ways to start a hobby business is to look at your current hobbies. These will be things you already know well and do often such as music, woodworking, creative writing, or a sport, along with thousands of others.

2) If you can’t find any hobbies that fit the bill, find new lucrative hobbies It’s seldom that you won’t find some way or another to put your existing hobbies to work making money for you. But if that seems to be the case, investigate new hobbies that you might enjoy for which there seems to be more demand.

3) Do deeper market research about the hobby you’ve chosen Once you’ve gotten a sense that there may be demand for the goods or services associated with your hobby, it’s time to take it a step further and do more thorough research into the demand level.

4) Do market research by consulting forums and blogs On of the best informal ways to do market research is to read and ask questions on blogs associated with your particular hobby. For instance, if your hobby is glass work, you would consult a glass work forum and ask others how successful they have been in business, as well as read articles on a glass work blog.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 5) Do market research by talking to your friends Often people involved in a certain hobby will have friends involved in the same hobby. So a good source of information about the hobby is talking to friends who may have already tried to take the hobby to a commercial level.

6) Do market research by consulting market research sites There are a number of sites that specialize in free market research. Often they have graphs and charts showing consumer demand, profit potential, and so on. So if you want to get more in depth you can research your hobby on these sites. One such site is: http://www.marketresearchworld.net/ , and there are many others.

7) Write out some sort of business plan about the hobby business A business plan is in essence nothing more than a series of projections as to what the profit possibilities of a certain business can be. So how formal and detailed a hobby business plan you create is up to you. But it should at least include something about how much you need to spend on materials, how much on advertising, how much on overhead, and finally sales projections and how they will exceed costs to turn a profit.

8) Freelance writing as a hobby business If you like to write as a hobby, this is an always in-demand hobby business. There is plenty of demand online for articles and other web content, and sites like Elance.com, IFreelance.com, Textbroker, Constant Content, Associated Content, Freelancewritinggigs.com, and many others list all kinds of writing opportunities.

You can also start a blog, write a book or an eBook, offer ghostwriting services (writing books for other writers), work on collaborative projects, try to write for in print magazines or ezines, write a children’s book, and the list goes on. There are so many “hobby business” options here it’s hard to list them all in one place.

9) Wood working Wood working. It’s great as a hobby and if you do good work can become a lucrative business. You can sell your creations to furniture retailers, sell them at craft fairs, advertise them online with craft sites, and so on. It’s a good idea to get a good plan for marketing if you try this and see how much demand there is.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 10) Pottery Similar to wood working and other crafts as a hobby business. Again, make sure you investigate demand and how you’ll market your pieces.

11) Glass blowing This tends to be a popular craft business with hippy types and with many others as well.

Glass blowers deal with melted glass and create items like glass pipes, smoking accessories, and sculptural items. There tends to be a pretty good market for it but often also a lot of competition.

12) Photography There is always a demand for high quality photographs and images, and this demand has increased thanks to the internet. There are many sites where you can sell usage rights for uploaded images. There are also many other ways to sell your photographic work.

13) Stained glass This is a different field from glass blowing and also makes a great hobby business. It involves cutting and staining glass rather than working with molten glass. There tends to be high demand for this hobby/skill because not all that many people do it.

14) Picture Framing This takes some skill and practice, but it can be turned into a successful hobby business with plenty of demand.

15) Scrap Booking Believe it or not, creating scrap books has involved into quite an art. There are even classes you can take in it. A way to use this hobby as a business is to either create scrap books for others or offer to teach others how.

16) Painting and Faux Painting At the high end, we’re talking about painting real paintings in the artistic sense and trying to either sell them or sell reproduced images of them. That can be a tough business. ©Copyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas An art called faux painting is easier to get into. It involves painting murals and doing decorative work. At the lower end of the skill level is ordinary interior and exterior house painting, which can be combined with faux painting to add to revenue.

17) Genealogies If you like researching things and examining history, you can offer to do genealogies for people for a fee. This is often a lot of fun and very interesting – some people do it exclusively as a hobby. However there is lucrative potential in it.

18) Music As mentioned above this hobby business area has a lot of different avenues. You can perform at local venues, give lessons, teach music playing, writing, or recording, record other people’s music, be an agent who books gigs and/or sells the music of others, offer consulting services, sell your own recordings online or via an actual record label, and on and on.

19) Personal Fitness Trainer If you love to work out and know a thing or two about exercise and diet, you can be a personal fitness trainer for others.

20) Masseur/Masseuse People will never stop enjoying getting massages. And if you enjoy giving them and are good at it, you could have a lucrative hobby business on your hands (pun intended).

21) Cooking/Baking Many people love to cook and bake and have been doing so for years without considering turning it into a hobby business. Again, many possible avenues here – cooking and baking and selling your dishes, sandwiches or baked items online or to local stores, freelancing your cooking and baking expertise to bakeries and restaurants, opening your own restaurant, or selling the rights to a dynamite recipe to some larger producer.

Want to learn more? Visit: http://www.hobbydollars.com/ to sign up for the FREE “Cashing in on Your Favorite Hobby” online course. ©Copyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 22) Handyman If you’re handy and like working with your hands, you can be a handyman. Hey that rhymes doesn’t it? There’s reason to this rhyme – there is a virtually never ending demand for all kinds of household repair and maintenance, from hanging curtains or screwing in light bulbs all the way up to replacing roofs and building additions to houses. How deep into it you want to get is up to you.

23) Dog boarding/training If you like dogs and are good with them, you can offer to board dogs or house sit them while owners are away, train dogs, train people how to train dogs (i.e. give dog training classes), and so on.

24) Collector Collecting things has long been a popular hobby, be they stamps, baseball cards, comic books, autographed baseballs, autographs in general, etc. You can consider reselling these items at a profit, or even open a store that sells collectibles.

25) Web design Web developers may or may not be in it for the artistic satisfaction, but web design definitely is an art. So if you enjoy being artistic in a digital sense and have good web design skills you can turn it into a lucrative hobby business.

26) Sign Making Making signs is a good hobby business idea that combines artistic, manual, and technical skill. Businesses of all types need flashy, eye catching signs. Making signs may involve painting, illustration, some construction ability, and electrical know how for creating lighting on signs – even neon lighting.

27) Flower arrangement You can grow or purchase flowers and then create floral arrangements to sell to individuals and flower shops.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 28) Candle Making It’s not very hard to learn how to make candles and there are endless varieties of design that can be created. You can sell innovative and attractive candles in all kinds of places.

29) Courier/delivery/transportation service People don’t usually think of driving as a hobby, but if you enjoy driving it certainly counts as one. You can thus start a hobby business delivering paperwork, packages, and so on for local businesses or individuals. You can also give people rides to and from airports, to jobs, and so on.

30) Drawing/illustration Drawing is a very marketable skill. If you’ve done drawing as a hobby long enough to be accomplished at it, you can take that in a number of hobby business directions. You can give drawing lessons, do illustrations or caricatures of people for a fee, or offer to illustrate logos for businesses. These designs and drawings can later be scanned in for digital use.

31) Juggling This hobby can be put to use in ways similar to magic skills. People love to watch experienced jugglers do their thing, and many people start out in juggling as a hobby. So if you can polish up your skills you can begin to get bookings at parties, fairs, and other events, as well as give lessons.

32) Reiki, Quantum Touch, or other healing work There are many healing modalities that you can learn and offer to perform on people. A couple of examples are Reiki and Quantum Touch, but there are many more. These are very worthwhile to learn and get into either as hobbies or hobby businesses.

33) Making tie dye and other T-shirts Making tie dye T-shirts is not hard to learn. Many people take it up as a hippieish hobby and experiment with the cool kaleidoscopic designs it produces. These shirts have been popular for a while now, and if you produce your own you can sell them online from a website, to other larger retailers, consignment shops, or simply via free classified ads. If you have other T-shirt production methods such as screen printing you can do the same thing. ©Copyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 34) Computer Graphics This is similar to the web design option, but in fact you don’t need to know all about setting up websites to put your computer graphics skills to work. If you are simply good at creating eye catching images with contemporary graphics programs, you can sell usage licenses to them, create prints to sell at fairs and festivals, collaborate with web designers, get hired on a freelance basis by companies that need designers, and offer courses teaching graphic design.

35) Movie Making If you like shooting your own home movies, that can lead to interesting and lucrative work in a lot of ways. You can feature your movies on all kinds of video upload sites such as Youtube, and enter them in amateur film contests. Lessons for beginners are an option here too.

36) Making rugs This requires skill, but it is a great artistic hobby. It has the potentiality of being fairly lucrative both because not a lot of people know how to do it and because rugs tend to fetch good prices.

37) Electronics/computer repair Not all electronics buffs get into it by going to school for it. There are many quite knowledgeable electronics tinkerers who do it for the sheer interest and enjoyment. This is another hobby that can go in many directions. The most obvious is offering to fix various electronic devices such as cell phones, DVD players, computer hardware (printers, monitors, even mother boards), and so on. Teaching is also an option.

38) Inventing A classic and time honored hobby is inventing things. There are so many things that you can potentially invent it would be silly to try to cover them all here. It could be new household items, electronic devices, mechanical devices, anything that you can come up with. It’s helpful here to get very clear on how patents work and the best ways to market your original invention.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 39) Giving lessons in sports, outward bound activities, extreme sports, etc You can offer instruction in ordinary sports (tennis, baseball, bowling, etc.) as well as extreme sports and outdoor activities such as rock climbing, skiing (downhill, cross country and waterskiing), snowboarding, parachuting, hang gliding, horseback riding, and many others. These sports oriented and adventurous hobbies can be real money makers from a lesson standpoint.

40) Craft blogs Craft blogs are becoming more popular. Include information about yourself as an artist and your inspiration for your work.

41) Soap making Soap making is another hobby business that's stood the test of time. Soap doesn't go out of style.

42) Antiques and collectibles If you enjoy hunting for antiques and collectibles, you should know they tend to sell better on the internet than anywhere else.

43) Jewelry making Jewelry making is yet one more hobby which can be taken online quite easily.

44) For some hot business ideas, consider a trip to the local flea market. Take note of what's selling well, and be the first to sell it online.

Online Marketing Tips 45) Add a link in your email signature to your web page, store items, or other products. It's free non-intrusive advertising.

46) Write a few articles to establish yourself as a credible expert. Websites like ezinearticles.com allow you to include a link to your site.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 47) Brand recognition works online. Create and consistently use an avatar. It's a small logo or icon which appears next to your name in a forum.

48) If you belong to a hobby-related forum or message board, then include a link to your website in your signature.

49) If you're already established offline, blogs are very useful for updating the progress of your work easily. Consider Wordpress or Blogger.

50) Craigslist.org is a popular website for selling your products locally. Placing an ad on their website is free.

51) Include an area on your blog offering an incentive such as a free report. Use it to capture names, emails, and addresses of visitors.

Offline Marketing Tips 52) If you took the advice to write some articles online, remember to print some and use them offline too. Asking an opinion can bring visitors.

53) All outgoing mail and stationary should include a link to your website or blog. It's another source of free traffic.

54) Consider sending offer letters to your previous customers. An envelope with hand writing and a real postage stamp will get opened and read.

55) Differentiate yourself from competitors with a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

What makes your items or services different from others?

Advertising media/strategies 56) Have a series of advertising media/strategies Often the best way to advertise is not only with one medium or strategy. So try a number of them at once and see which ones work best in advertising the goods or services your hobby provides. The following few tips are some marketing methods you can try. ŠCopyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 57) Advertise your hobby business on free classified ad sites Free classified ad sites like Craigslist.com, Backpage.com, USfreeads.com, and many others are a great place to start with advertising your hobby business. They don’t cost anything and often bring in quite a lot of business quickly.

58) Advertise your hobby business on specialty sites relating to your hobby There are sites that may serve as marketplaces for your hobby in particular, or more commonly for a general category into which your hobby fits. For instance, the website Etsy.com specializes in listing and selling crafts, vintage items, and food. So hobby preneurs whose hobbies are handcrafted pottery, woodworking, making clothes, or baking as well as many others would be able to use the site. These sites often charge a fee for listing your business, and the hope is that the traffic you receive will be more targeted.

59) Advertise your hobby business on EBay Yes, good old EBay is still a great place to advertise your hobby business and its wares or services. There are many collectors on EBay who love to buy handcrafted and original items and that works well with many hobbies.

60) Advertise your hobby business in the local newspaper Many people read the newspaper before they go to online sites. So it’s not a marketing medium to just forget about. It does cost money, but often the rates are reasonable and can bring in a lot of business.

61) Advertise your hobby business with article marketing Article marketing is writing informational articles that you post on article directories or elsewhere. In the case of a hobby business you would write a general article about your hobby or the associated products or services and then provide a link to a website at the end or simply some contact information, telling the reader how they can get more information about your specific goods or services.

62) Advertise your hobby business with a website This is a biggie. It’s not hard to design a quick website these days, much easier than many people think, and you can give the link to this website on forum posts, emails, articles, flyers and so on. ©Copyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas On the site you can describe the products you sell, the services you offer, post pictures of your work, and so on.

63) Advertise your hobby business with a blog A blog is similar to a website but content (in the form of short articles known as blog posts) is updated periodically in a way similar to a magazine. This keeps readers coming back to the site to get new information. Your blog can be all about your particular hobby and also offer your products for sale. A lot of fun content and pictures liven up a blog.

64) Go to fairs and events that relate to your hobby Many kinds of hobbies have whole communities of people associated with them, and these people set up events like fairs so they can all get together, see each others’ work, and sell it to consumers. For instance, there are craft fairs where people who do all sorts of handcrafts may display their work. These are great for both selling your items and for making business contacts.

65) Use affiliate marketing to promote your hobby business Affiliate marketing is a great technique because it gets others actively working to promote your products or services. If, for instance, your hobby is writing, you can sign up with Click bank and have them promote an eBook you’ve written. Other affiliate networks will work with you to find promoters for other types of products.

Selling Products on virtual stores 66) "How to" information products sell well on Ebay. Crafts do well too. Consider using Ebay to list and sell your products initially.

67) Etsy.com and Artfire.com are two popular places to sell handmade arts and crafts.

68) Don't become too dependent on online stores to sell your products. Include a link to your website in all your ads for repeat business.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas

Multiple Streams of Income 69) Consider creating multiple streams of income with your hobby business Think multidimensionally when planning your hobby business. There are often a number of different ways in which to earn income from a single hobby. For instance, if playing music is one of your hobbies, you can generate income from it by playing gigs, giving lessons, setting up an online site where people can pay to download your recordings, and doing consulting – offering advice people who are seeking to get started in the music business. In addition, if you have a number of different hobbies, you can of course have several hobby businesses going at once.

72) Mailing lists, affiliate products, and advertising space can be used for multiple streams of income on a website.

73) Earn a commission by recommending your web host. A small affiliate link at the bottom of your site saying "hosted by..." can do the trick.

74) If your website gets good traffic, consider selling some of it by redirecting it to other site with a link or banner.

75) Once you've set up your online presence, offer the same to others in your field. It's an extra means to earn a very good income.

76) CPALead.com is another way to monetize a website. Visitors fill out a survey to gain access. It works better with information-based sites.

77) Google Adsense is a popular program for beginners to place ads on a website. Check them out here... https://www.google.com/adsense/ Want to learn more? Visit: http://www.hobbydollars.com/ to sign up for the FREE “Cashing in on Your Favorite Hobby” online course.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas

Blog and Website Tips 78) Create a website or blog One tool that is absolutely essential to turning hobby into a hobby businesses is a website.

Websites allow you to go from a local business to a worldwide business, which is an amazing advantage. Many hobbies are also more likely to be “niche” hobbies, which means that a wider potential customer base is necessary to really make good money.

The internet provides you with the widest possible customer base, right? Furthermore, you can promote your hobby business locally and still provide people with your website so they can share it with others, order items, and more.

79) Wordpress is one of the easiest and fastest blogs to set up. You can even use it with your own web host. www.wordpress.com 80) Did you know? It's easy to use a blog as a website. Simply turn off the date stamp.

Posts look like separate web pages.

81) Research keywords before creating a website or blog. Use Google's research tool. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal 82) GoDaddy.com and HostGator.com are two places to register and host your website for a low price.

Information Products 83) A website can be as simple as a collection of Youtube videos. Youtube will host the videos, so it won't cost you extra money to host them.

84) Making information products is easier with voice recognition software such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You can even sell your own book.

85) Consider outsourcing your article writing. Sites such as Textbroker, Elance, and Freelancer work well.

86) Another simple way to create your own information product is to record it on your computer. Then pay a freelancer to transcribe it for you. ©Copyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas

Affiliate Marketing 87) Affiliate marketing is an easy way to earn commissions on information products without creating your own. Check out clickbank.com.

88) If you frequent a website often, check it for an affiliate program near the bottom of the page. It's easier to endorse products you use.

89) CPA or Cost Per Action is another way to monetize a website. It involves getting visitors of your site to perform some action for a sponsor 90) Market affiliate products to your list of customers via email. Those are targeted people who have chosen to receive your emails.

91) If you don't have a list, create a product. Then, joint venture with someone who has a targeted list of customers.

Motivational and Business Tips 92) Take your business seriously. That means having a marketing plan, setting goals, and preparing time lines for your work.

93) Set a work schedule for your business. It's still a hobby if you don't do it consistently and regularly.

94) Get over the mental barrier of thinking your hobby-related activities are simply casual work. Work it like a real business.

95) Enjoy the feedback you receive from others on the internet. Knowing you're helping can be better motivation than the hobby business itself.

96) Think of yourself and act like a professional in what you do. The professional mindset separates you from a mere hobbyist.

Want to learn more? Visit: http://www.hobbydollars.com/ to sign up for the FREE “Cashing in on Your Favorite Hobby” online course.

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 97) People skills Another important thing will be your people skills. While your hobby may be something that doesn’t require a lot of interaction (such as gardening or knitting), if you expect to sell finished products, services or exchange your knowledge for income, you will have to market yourself properly, which often has more to do with building relationships than anything else. Make yourself a part of your hobby community if you haven’t already, and build those connections.

98) Managing your money Another thing that is essential is the ability to manage money effectively. Hobby businesses can quickly get out of hand if your expenses are far outweighing your income, or if you simply haven’t planned effectively in order to generate a healthy income. Do some research to make sure your idea is profitable, and stick to your financial plans, no matter how difficult it may be at times! This will ensure that your hobby money is used correctly.

99) Have a positive attitude The final thing is more of an intrinsic tool, and that is a good attitude! It may sound corny, but without a good attitude you simply will not go far with your hobby business. Very few hobby businesses are an immediate, overnight success, and the rest often have to persevere in the short or even long term while things get rolling.

You probably already have a lot of competition for the money of your customers, and you will have to work hard in order to establish your business as one that people can trust. With hard work and the right tools, though, your hobby money can give you a huge financial boost.

IRS/Taxes 100) Tax breaks come with a business, but be careful. If you don't run it like a business then the IRS will penalize you.

101) Keeping records is a must for business. Start by making this a habit at the beginning of your business start-up. ©Copyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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101 Hobby Business Tips And Ideas 102) Your business can take a loss for only three of the first five years without being heavily scrutinized by the IRS. It's better to profit.

103) The IRS has a section for hobbies vs businesses. Be sure you're running a business. http://www.tax.gov/Individual/PayingTaxes/HobbyBusiness.

Get creative and start that hobby business you’ve been dreaming about!

Want to learn more? Visit: http://www.hobbydollars.com/ to sign up for the FREE “Cashing in on Your Favorite Hobby” online course.

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