Not everyone realizes the amount of surprisingly profitable hobbies to try. As you’ll see from the points below, turning a hobby into a career can open quite a few doors for you—both professionally and financially.
Streaming
With the right patience, passion, and work ethic, you can turn gaming into a career. Video game streaming has quickly become a very profitable career in recent years, with streamers like Ninja proving you can truly make a big name for yourself in the industry.
While gaming is the best avenue to go down when trying to make streaming a career, there are also options like live podcasting. However, this method is typically followed when you want to expand your brand instead of starting it.
That being said, whichever content you like to live stream, the opportunity for consistent revenue via donations, sponsorships, and even merchandise is still there. It’ll take some time but once you carve out your own niche, streaming can become a good living.
Streaming isn’t as easy as simply firing up the computer and going. To do it properly, you’ll have to spend some time prior to each stream to ensure that every component is working. Focusing on work at home can sometimes be tough, but adding small touches to your at-home work environment can swiftly increase productivity.
Photography
While streaming can relate to different industries, whether you’re gaming or podcasting, photography has even broader appeal than that. By broader appeal, we mean there are many industries that can utilize photography in important ways.
If your hobby is photography, you’ve hopefully had some time to find a niche within that world you can use to your advantage. In other words, people should look at your photos and say “That person is good at X” if you’re trying to turn it into a career. Whether you have a great eye for landscape imagery or you can produce incredible black-and-white photos, be good at X.
By honing your skills, you can turn that hobby into a profession by taking photos for weddings, families, stock image websites, company events, community events, or even marketing purposes (products, food, etc).
On the other hand, you can put those pictures up on places like Twitter or, more preferably, Instagram. This can bring you to the attention of potential employers or, similar to streaming, sponsorship opportunities with brands.
Welding
Out of all these surprisingly profitable hobbies to try, welding arguably has the most opportunities available. The reason for this is welding is quintessential to many big industries like aerospace, automotive, construction, and manufacturing.
Depending on where you work, the average salary for a welder can vary from $30,000 to $60,000. Even if you find yourself starting at the $30,000 level, many welding jobs have immense growth opportunities if you put in the effort.
You can also make money with welding in a creative manner. Weld some intriguing home décor, sculptures, or anything else you think has an audience for. There are some great at-home welding projects that can help you make some money.
You don’t need a college degree to become a welder, but it does require a thorough training course. In the wrong hands, welding gear can be dangerous. In the right hands, however, it can be quite profitable.
Van Rundell is a writer and author who specializes in transportation, travel, guidance, health & fitness. With over 10 years of experience in the industry as a driver and an entrepreneur, he has seen it all. His tone is professional but friendly with a dash of humor thrown in for good measure. In past, he has been advising, educating and writing about transport for the public and professionals alike.
A qualified fitness instructor with over 5 years’ experience as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, Van brings his deep knowledge of health and exercise science to his articles on health & fitness.
