My Hobby is my Job, 1

 

Vocabulary

maybe	create	how about
strange	cash cow	whatever
turn (2)	weird	breaking into (2)
break (2)	local	affair (2)
expand	town	sell/sold
chance	outside	backyard
popular	nowadays	international
attach	basically	third party
subject	anything	knitting
add	material	attract
mushroom	maintenance	coin
collect	brew	important
should	passionate	main
want	need	activity
advice	mind	like-minded
anyone	be able to	advantages
ton	invest	part-time
boss	commute	schedule
just	effort	as little as
cost	start-up	honey
examples	list	endless
flute	link	wiz
venture	quest	as a result
flat (2)	authority	somewhat
fight	exercise	four-figure
guy	figure (2)	nowadays
naturally	everything	rather (2)
reach	court (2)	rather
dedication	model (3)	knowledge
via	literally	everything

 
 
Do you play a flute? How about fishing? Maybe you make your own honey? Whatever your hobby and however strange it may be (the weirder the better), now you can turn it into a cash cow.

By Mark Morgan Ford

Pre-Internet Days

Before the Internet, breaking into a new business was mostly a local affair. You got an idea, created a product, and tried to sell it out of a small store. If it worked, you could expand outside your town.

Nowadays

Today the Internet gives you the chance to make money — internationally.

A popular to do this is through websites and blogs. Basically you create a website or blog. Add new material to attract viewers, then attach advertising links to a third party’s website.

Subjects, Topics

The subject matter could be anything: knitting…flower gardening…cooking mushrooms…bicycle maintenance… …pet dog care…coin collecting…brewing beer.

There are millions of examples of topics. The list is endless.

The important idea is that it should be a hobby, activity or giving advice that you and like-minded people need, want or are passionate about.

Advantages

Moneymaking websites have many advantages:

• Anyone can do it (it’s easy and simple to understand)
• You can work from home.
• You could work part-time or on weekends
• You could begin without investing a ton of money.
• No boss, no commute, no set schedule.

You can start with a just few hours of effort per week. The start-up cost is as little as $100. And you don’t have to be a computer wiz to do it.

Examples

An example is Lisa Irby. Her venture started as a personal quest to flatten her stomach. As a result, she became somewhat of an authority at this.

Lisa’s experience inspired her to start her own website, Flat Stomach Exercises; she wanted to help other people fighting the same problems she had.

Nowadays her website gets about 6,500 visitors per day and brings in four figures a month.

Another guy, Tomaz Mencinger, has been working in tennis clubs and schools for 10 years. Naturally he loves to teach people everything about tennis.

So in 2005 he decided to create a website called Feel Tennis. Now he’s able to reach thousands of people rather than just a few on the court.

Anyone Can do This

All you need is passion and dedication. You also need knowledge of how this business model works. But like everything else these days, it’s literally just a click away – via Google and YouTube.

 

Questions

1. “…however strange it may be (the weirder the better).” What does this mean?

2. What was the old (pre-internet) business paradigm?

3. Describe the way people can make online through their hobby, passion, or expertise.

4. Only topics with commercial potential should be considered. Yes or no?

5. To be successful, websites must attract everyone, like Facebook, Google and YouTube.

6. What are some advantages of having a moneymaking website?

7. Do you have to take special courses to learn how to build websites?
 
 
A. What are or were your favorite websites?

B. Do you or anyone you know have a website or blog? What is it about?

C. What are some ideas or potential ideas for successful websites?
 
 

Email this page