Where do we get ideas for hobby products to sell? I have written down 59 ideas here.
Partly these are products I have made or am still making myself. And of course, you can find loads of ideas on the internet. Great platforms for that are Pinterest and Instagram.
And a great way to develop ideas is to brainstorm. Writing this article I did that on my own, but brainstorming with 2 or more people produces a ton of ideas. Start writing down some keywords and from there go on and on. This is such a fun thing to do!
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Table of Contents
Getting ideas for hobby products to sell
Having a hobby is marvellous. Selling your products is an even better feeling. Get ideas by brainstorming, making lists and reading my article. 🙂
1. Drawing
- Illustrations; from very realistic to abstract. Illustrating children’s stories is a great inspiration to make a series;
- Cartoons; single drawings or complete comic books;
- Patterns; think of tapestry patterns or wallpaper decorations;
- Diagrams; when you are good at both numbers and drawing, you can make graphs and diagrams. For example, for annual reports of businesses;
- Graphics; icons, symbols, favicons, pictograms. Little drawings in either black and white or just a few colours;
- Plans; builders, engineers and interior architects need plans to explain their ideas. The floor plan of a house or a cross-section of an object;
- Maps; cartography to give information about landscapes or cities;
- 3D drawings; explain 3D space on a 2D paper;
- Exploded view; a way to explain assembled parts of a machine;
- Mandalas; this is an almost meditative state of drawing and the end result is often quite beautiful and peaceful;
- Etches and other printing techniques; this is a great way to duplicate your work while still being original.
2. Design
- Cards; in this time of email and WhatsApp, receiving a real card is highly valued;
- T-shirts; can be hand-painted, tie-dyed or printed with texts and images;
- Posters; combinations of (informational) text and pictures;
- Books; cover, letter type and layout. Books are great to design, whether with your own content or written by somebody else;
- Colouring pages; this is not an activity anymore for children only. Lots of adults have fun colouring;
- Logos; companies need a logo and nowadays websites of private people too;
- Infographics; are often a combination of symbols, little drawings and text. Have a look at one of mine about One well-spent hour before breakfast;
- Websites; even with all the available tools nowadays, good web designers are much-needed.
3. Painting
- Art; big and small canvases or on paper and cardboard. You can paint with oil paint or acrylic. Landscapes, portraits, still lifes, the subjects are endless;
- Decorating; not all painters are art painters. The painting of houses, fences or furniture is much in demand and just as satisfying.
Related: 20 Simple Ideas on How to Make Money after Retirement
4. Writing
- Short stories; fantasy, fairy tales and anecdotes from your own life;
- Book; write your memoirs. A suspense thriller or something about what you have learned in life;
- Blog; start your own blog or write for somebody else;
- Sales copy; a good sales letter or copy for a landing page is a skill in itself.
Related: 7 Ways to Shape our Ideas without a Computer to Inspire ourselves
5. Music
- Play an instrument; why should it only be the very young people that get discovered on YouTube? Record yourself and put it online;
- Write music; from simple songs to complex symphonies and everything in between;
- Be part of a band; this is one of the better aspects of making music – play together in a group;
- Make arrangements; playing gets more interesting for a band if not everyone plays exactly the same notes;
- Producer; recording and editing. Again, this could be your own music or that of others;
- Street performance; put your hat or an empty guitar case in front of you and play.
6. Computer
- Apps; with all these mobile phones there is a lot of inspiration to build an app;
- Games; adventure games, brain games, skill games. Enough to choose from.
7. Cooking
- Pies and cookies; you could specialize in gluten-free or sugar-free pies;
- Catering; little bites for receptions and parties. (I am getting hungry!);
- Meals; simple or 3-course meals. You can have a living room restaurant or a table d’hôte. Or have a delivery service;
- Special meals; diet meals or special meals for the elderly. Meals for people that have an allergy;
- Vegan; or other specific food. Kosher food, Islamic or Hindu food.
8. Gardening
- Organic produce; vegetables from your kitchen garden, fruits from the trees;
- Flowers; a specific kind, or mixed bouquets. Flower plants, for example, Geraniums; 🙂
- Prepared vegetables; such as pickled or fermented products;
- Nuts;
- Seeds; seeds to grow plants from, but also seeds to eat. Your seedlings when you have an abundance of them;
- How-to manual; explain the tips and tricks from garden design to having a kitchen garden.
9. Photography
- Pictures; large ones from a (D)SLR. As with drawings both realistic and abstract pictures are possible;
- iPhone photography; apps on the smartphone have special effects. For instance Hipstamatic or Snapseed;
- Photography course; everybody makes pictures with a smartphone nowadays – not everyone can make good pictures. 🙂
Related: Profitable Selling Pictures Online? Which Problems and Possibilities Exist?
10. Crafts
- Dolls or toys; if they are not for decoration, but to actually play with they should be of safe materials and forms;
- Knitting and crocheting; sweaters, cardigans, hats, socks and gloves. But also wall hangings or cushions;
- Woodworking; sculptures or furniture. With planks or with complete tree trunks;
- Metallurgy; as with wood you can make art pieces or make utensils;
- Ceramics; I have always made a distinction between ceramics and pottery. Ceramics is formed by hand, pottery with a wheel;
- Pottery; a potter’s wheel is such a skilled technique, which I say because I could never master it! A potter will probably find it easy;
- Papier-mâché; from toilet paper, old newspapers, or magazines. In the Netherlands, they make it on a big scale when it’s time for the Carnival processions;
- Workshops; it’s great to teach people what you know and a perfect way to socialize.
11. Waste
- Waste articles; waste is only waste if you waste it. Some years ago I made an eBook 100+ Ideas for Crafting with Waste. You can have it for free;
- Repair Cafe; organize evenings to repair things that don’t function anymore, but are too good to just throw away.
12. Ideas
- Invent; some people know a solution for anything they see. Something new or improvements to existing things;
- Ideas for others; if people are stuck they could use the help of an idea maker.
Related: Where to Sell the Products of your Creative Hobby or Business
Something to think about
If you sell something occasionally I wouldn’t fuss (although this is not financial advice!), but once you start selling a lot, be aware of regulations and taxes. Turn your hobby into a real business then.
Do you have the 60th idea? Put it in the comment box below.
You have written a terrific list with many viable options to choose from. Thanks!
Hi Hannie,
This is a great article. My parents would be more than happy to sell some of the drawings and paintings they have, and also do themselves. So I will pass this on to them and hopefully they can make a bit of money out of them, they are retired now so they will have a bit more time to do these things.
Thank you for sharing and keep up this amazing work.
All the best,
Tom
Thanks, Tom, and wish your parents a lot of luck on my behalf. It’s great to have some extra money once we are retired 🙂
Wow! I love these ideas! The repair cafe got my attention, that would be such a fun local event! I am a writer and I have a blog and published several books. I would love to write more to make a living, since I absolutely love writing!
I am no painter, but I do like to paint walls, haha. My house is under construction (but it is paused due to the covid situation), and I have painted a few walls. It is actually hard work, especially in the semi-desert (where I live) with the sun shining relentlessly 😉
I can’t think of idea nr. 60 but this is good homework, coming up with a new idea 🙂
Hi Christine, there are more and more repair cafes in Holland and Belgium, and thriving because people get sick and tired of having to throw things away just because one part is broken that can’t be replaced by the factory anymore.
My grandfather was a house painter. Good ones are hard to come by! As goes for any good craftsman, don’t you agree? 🙂
Take care.
Hello Hannie,
It is a great article. I’m so surprised that there are so many hobby products that can sell. I think my writing hobby could be one of my products to sell. Thank you for sharing.
All the best,
Alex
I am sure your writing hobby can be monetized, Alex. Although everybody learns to write at school, not everyone can actually write (they are good in other things). There is a huge shortage of good writers, especially in the advertising business as I know from my own experience.
Hi, I would like to suggest #60 in the Cooking Section: Pre-packed Ingredients for making Breads and Biscuits where the customer only has to add the fresh ingredients such as water, egg, milk – it seems to be taking off lately. You have some great suggestions. Was an enjoyable read – Chrissie
That’s a great idea, Christine! Do you have any idea if that milk could also be almond milk? I would love to bake bread that doesn’t contain dairy. 🙂
What a collection of ideas! I have lot of friends that do monetise their hobbies and only just I think of one by one of them, when I see you included that one and the next one and the next, too 🙂
Doing what you like, creating something, making it by your hands, or with helping tools, but still on your own brings joy, fulfillment, a feeling of success in something, even on it’s own. Paired with earnings, it can be an ideal combination of spending your time in a joyful, useful and profitable way.
I don’t know whether these could count as the 60th and 61st idea, but here they are:
A friend of mine bakes children’s birthday cakes and decorates them by drawing fantastic pictures of your choice on them by a brush and edible colours. The other makes different items of old magazine sheets, making straws first, then weawing them into shape of vases, plates, sculptures, even furniture like commodes with drawers and then paints all that, what not not only covers the magazine print and gives the colour, but also firmness. Finally it is varnished. At the end you get a hard, firm structure. As far as I know, they sell pretty well.
Ahhh, I love your ideas, Hermina, especially the one with the magazines, as I make a lot of collages with magazines at the moment. I guess they would even be lovely looking without painting them. Thanks!
Hi Hannie!
Thank you very much for this great article! I never thought that so many ideas could be invented for a hobby, and this is awesome that you have gathered this ideas in one post!
I will try to think what I could do for my hobby.
All the best,
Alex
Do you have no hobbies at the moment, Alex? I can imagine, since you are working so hard as you do, but it really great, like Hermina says in her comment, to let a hobby bring you joy, happiness and relaxation. Take care 🙂