It sure is a fine line - putting your thing out to the world & trying to make more of the world appreciate the thing more. My hobby being an art, I get to experience this internal tug-of-war with each new work. If I do nothing, I may be the only person on earth to appreciate it, which feels really bad. If I promote with the handful of inadequate tools at my disposal, I may become lost in metrics and disappointed with cost/benefit.
Monetizing hobbies
81–90 of 98 posts
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#82Ah, the old phrase "my avocation is my vocation" I'm very blessed to be able to tell people this. When I was growing up, my grandmother had a radio scanner in her small town Virginia home, and I was fascinated that you could listen in on what the police and fire departments were doing on a daily basis. My parents bought me a radio scanner a few years later and as a young boy I followed the rabbit hole of radio commun…
I've used your site several times, thanks!
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#83Ah, the old phrase "my avocation is my vocation" I'm very blessed to be able to tell people this. When I was growing up, my grandmother had a radio scanner in her small town Virginia home, and I was fascinated that you could listen in on what the police and fire departments were doing on a daily basis. My parents bought me a radio scanner a few years later and as a young boy I followed the rabbit hole of radio commun…
But now many jurisdictions are choosing to go full-encrypted, because of people showing up to the scene and getting in the way. :-/
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#84I monetized my German science fiction novels by publishing them on Amazon, but so far have regretted it. They generally get great reviews and sure have their readers, but mostly just one of them (by far not the best) sells well continuously. The rest would require marketing that is a completely different activity than writing books, and really not fun to me at all. Moreover, you invariably get the occasional bad or i…
I've published a few non-fiction books in the tech space--one through a major publisher and couple independently.
Certainly some people do well but, in the main, the finances don't really work. I've never done a serious marketing push beyond book signings at some industry events (with someone else paying for the book copies) but I'm not at all confident that incremental sales would cover significant PR/marketing activities.
What it has done in my case is a likely pretty significant enhancement to my visibility/stature professionally. Which has been very beneficial.
I did shareware for a while too back in the 90s (MS-DOS mostly). I enjoyed doing it for a time, liked interacting with my testers and other users, was part of the shareware community, etc. And made reasonable side hobby business money. But certainly not at my day job level.
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#85I've spent the last 5 months or so working on a custom-built mouse, for the fun of it. Designed the PCB around a high-end laser sensor, designed the case in FreeCAD, wrote the firmware. I've made two so far and given one of them away. I'm planning to make at least a few more. By the time I get 5 or 6 built, I'll have probably spent $1000 on the project, although a majority of that is a 3d printer. I'm still not sure…
Sounds interesting. Got a picture or something ?
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#86I've spent the last 5 months or so working on a custom-built mouse, for the fun of it. Designed the PCB around a high-end laser sensor, designed the case in FreeCAD, wrote the firmware. I've made two so far and given one of them away. I'm planning to make at least a few more. By the time I get 5 or 6 built, I'll have probably spent $1000 on the project, although a majority of that is a 3d printer. I'm still not sure…
Sounds interesting. Got a picture or something ?
http://jfloren.net/b/2022/3/2/0 has pictures and a video
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#87A hobby should be something you can do for yourself. Something you get pleasure / relaxation / a welcomed distraction. out of doing. If you take up painting (art, not houses) you should know you will never be Rembrandt and it should not keep you from painting (Unless painting houses is your hobby) With things like (marathon) running, hiking, it is easy to meassure Objective progress and qutie hard to moneteize. If yo…
With things like (marathon) running, hiking, it is easy to meassure Objective progress and qutie hard to moneteize. Well, no. You can do sooo much here. Log your hike, provide coordinates of off-the-beaten-track routes and sites, provide info on trail conditions, run team events, gear reviews, first aid courses... Also, who said I can't be the next Rembrandt? Kandinsky is only one of many proofs that that second sent…
But that is not running, hiking, or snowboarding. What you are talking about is making maps and writing reviews. They are related, but are not the thing the enthusiast enjoys.
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#88Ah, the old phrase "my avocation is my vocation" I'm very blessed to be able to tell people this. When I was growing up, my grandmother had a radio scanner in her small town Virginia home, and I was fascinated that you could listen in on what the police and fire departments were doing on a daily basis. My parents bought me a radio scanner a few years later and as a young boy I followed the rabbit hole of radio commun…
But now many jurisdictions are choosing to go full-encrypted, because of people showing up to the scene and getting in the way. :-/
'now'? That's an argument/news item for more than a decade ago isn't it?
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#89I've monetised my hobbies three times so far. All three times it has become lucrative, but none of them are hobbies any more. One of the important things along the way I've learned is that what makes hobbies relaxing and fun isn't about the specific task you're doing but the fact that it's about enjoying the process of making/doing rather than feeling pressure to deliver the end result. That's not to say I have any r…
> the whole adage about "do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life" doesn't apply to running a small business. Is that because when you turn a hobby into a business there are lots of non-hobby tasks and requirements? Like sales, marketing, etc, etc? Or because of the pressure of delivering the result? Or for some other reason?
>Or because of the pressure of delivering the result?
It's mainly this. It's not a hobby when the customer needs their product delivered by Thursday, not is it a hobby where you need to maintain a certain output to pay the bills.
Sales and marketing are just a thing that you get used to.
Re: Monetizing hobbies
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
But now many jurisdictions are choosing to go full-encrypted, because of people showing up to the scene and getting in the way. :-/
'now'? That's an argument/news item for more than a decade ago isn't it?
Not really. Many are indeed implementing digital trunking systems, but choosing to leave most of their talkgroups in the clear. After incidents happen some of them are getting pushed to take all talkgroups encrypted, rather than just sensitive ones, such as tactical/SWAT.