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Do you know what’s better than working from home? Working from home doing something that’s fun! Your remote career doesn’t have to be anything tedious—you can earn an income working at home by playing video games, reading books, and even going shopping. To prove it, I’ve put together 10 ways you can get paid to have fun.
1. Get Paid to Play Video Games
For all of you who love video games, this is absolutely a hobby that you can monetize—possibly for quite a bit of money! If you are good at playing popular games (Fortnite, anyone?) and have a sense of showmanship, you can start your own channel on Twitch and accept tips and donations from your followers. You could also post videos to YouTube—from reviews of games you play to Let’s Plays and walkthroughs—and make money off ads. You could even try to go pro, joining teams like Cloud9 or the Evil Geniuses and competing in esports tournaments.
Do you prefer talking about games? Try your hand at becoming a paid reviewer. On the other end of the industry, look for jobs in playtesting games or do customer service for gamers at Sutherland Global Services.
For more ideas, check out my post on seven ways to make money gaming from home.
2. Take Photographs
For you photographers out there, this is another hobby that can become a career if you have the skills. Are you an artist with your camera? Sell your photographs to private collectors, galleries, greeting card companies, and more. You could also specialize in selling stock photography. If you like working with people, consider a private photo studio—you can set one up at home or do shoots on location with paying clients. You can also choose your specialty and spend your days photographing babies, pets, engaged couples, or even fantasy cosplayers in amazing costumes.
If you’re more skilled in post-production of images, you could sell your services retouching photos or adding special effects for private clients or on sites like Fiverr.
3. Travel the World
You can create a blog in many industries and turn them into money-makers—and travel blogging is one of the most lucrative niches to explore. If you set up your blog correctly, you have the opportunity to pull in cash from affiliate links and advertisers. And if your blog flourishes thanks to your consistent posting schedule and engaging subject matter, you could become an influencer and attract travel-related companies who are ready to comp you on services and products in order to be featured on your blog.
There are people out there right now who are receiving free hotel rooms and more at destinations across the globe—if you have wanderlust, there aren’t many better ways to make a living.
If you’re not making enough money to support yourself purely through your travel blog, that’s okay: become a digital nomad and work online from wherever you are to pay the bills. (Get more ideas on how to make money while traveling here.)
4. Shop for Fun & Profit
This one’s for you inveterate bargain shoppers: turn your shopping trips into money-making forays. This requires a little bit of organization, but it’s easy to get started, and you have plenty of online options for selling your finds for more than you paid—for example, you can flip items on Amazon, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace.
When you’re shopping to flip items, the name of the game is to find the lowest price possible on items in popular categories that you should have no trouble flipping. There are apps out there that’ll help with this, such as Amazon Seller, Profit Bandit, and Scoutify 2. For more tips, check out my post “45 Ways to Buy Low & Sell High with Retail Arbitrage” before hitting those yard sales, flea markets, and clearance sections.
Rob and Melissa have a great free webinar on flipping or learn how to become a mystery shopper.
5. Write Your Day Away
Are you a writer? You know that you can make an income as a freelance writer on the Internet—and you can make it fun, too. First up, if you enjoy writing stories and books, do that: write nonfiction, fiction, mysteries, thrillers, romances, whatever you like. Then pursue either a traditional publishing deal or self-publish your work on Amazon. You could also sell shorter works to magazines or print anthologies; simply search sites like Writer’s Market to find out who’s paying for original work.
If you pursue a freelance writing career, specialize in subjects that you enjoy writing about so you’re always having fun with your workday. Or go into business writing for yourself and start a blog.
6. Read Your Day Away
Bookworms can also turn their enjoyment of reading into an enjoyable way to earn an income. Book bloggers can look forward to receiving free books for review, and reviewers can get paid by various publications (like Kirkus Reviews) to write about books they’ve read.
You can also become part of the book production process, and freelance as a sensitivity reader, editor, copy editor, layout expert and more. Sensitivity readers are consultants that more authors and publishers are working with these days to ensure sensitive topics in their books are handled respectfully. There’s also other consulting work to be done on books for various subjects, from legal to medical to scientific matters and more—if you have expertise in a subject, you could offer your consulting services on a freelance basis.
Likewise, if you’re knowledgeable about grammar, story pacing, theme building, and more, you can make a tidy sum editing books before publication. Or, if you’re technologically savvy with a clean sense of design, you could freelance in ebook layout and design.
7. Teach & Play Music
Are you a musician? You’ll always be able to find a gig! One of the easiest ways to monetize your musical skills is to offer lessons: you can do these either locally in person or over the Internet using web conferencing services for private clients. Sites like TakeLessons, Live Music Tutor, and LinkedIn Learning provide a platform to connect you with students as well.
If you find the most enjoyment in creating music, you can earn an income from that, too. Record your own original music and songs, and sell them through sites like CD Baby, TuneCore, and Bandcamp. You might also record stock music to sell to podcast and commercial producers, or offer commissions and write music for video games, short films, radio jingles, and more. Don’t forget to use your technical skills as well—you could freelance in audio post-production.
8. Make Art & Crafts
Spend your day creating art, whether you’re a visual illustrator or love crafting things—and earn an income off your work! As a visual artist, you can create artwork and then sell it via galleries, local coffee shops, or online; you can even use sites like RedBubble and Society6 to create products with your art on them. This gives you the opportunity to sell t-shirts, blankets, notebooks, stickers, fridge magnets, and almost anything else you can dream up. You could take commissions to create personalized drawings for people, create book covers, or design logos.
Do you enjoy crafting? Sell your knitted hats, crocheted animals, beaded jewelry, stamped metal, fragrant soaps, or whatever you make on a platform like Etsy or Handmade by Amazon.
9. Play with Pets
Maybe you have the most fun playing with furry friends, and that’s a money-making pastime, too! If you’d like to set up your own pet sitting business and can find local private clients, you can interface directly with your customers and offer animal boarding at your home, dog walking in your neighborhood, pet sitting by checking in on pets in their own homes, and more. If you don’t want to do this on your own, sign up for a service like Rover or Wag—they provide a platform that will connect you with clients, ensure that both you and the clients are vetted, and insure you against accidents that may happen while you’re caring for someone else’s pet. You can set your own schedule, and Rover even says you can make up to $1000 per month as an active sitter.
10. Experience Host
Do you own a business that’s perfect for tourists, or love showing people all that your hometown has to offer? Put these enjoyable activities to work for you and host an Airbnb Experience. Basically, if you live in one of the 1000 cities Airbnb offers Experiences in, you can set up packages that showcase your expertise, grant visitors access to a place or community they wouldn’t have otherwise, and build a connection with your guests. These Experiences could involve activities as varied as teaching pottery, offering horseback tours, or leading ghost tours in haunted locales. Whatever you’re passionate about, own it and monetize it as a skilled host. Learn more in my post on how to make money as an Airbnb Experience Host.
Ready to have fun and earn an income working from home? Great! Get out there and have fun with your workday.
