Small hobby websites can turn into large businesses

Small hobby websites can turn into large businesses

Many people on websites like Etsy or eBay have started to move from small hobby shops to big businesses because they've been upscaling and obtaining more clients.  A majority of these people started out messing with a hobby they loved and realized they could make some side cash off of it, then they turned it into a full-time digital business and scaled it to a point where they were super successful.

Small hobby websites can make you a few bucks a month or make you a millionaire depending on how many people are within your niche and how many of those people want to purchase something.  You can do as much research as you want, but you'll never really know the results unless you try

Below are a few things to think about when it comes to turning your hobby into a profession.


What items do you frequently use with your hobby?
If you can identify some common things that you would use every single time you're messing around with your hobby, you have something that can be profited from.  Think about it: how many people do the same thing as you and use the same items daily or weekly?  Those are all of the people you can target if you had something awesome to sell, something like the item we're talking about right now.

This item could be anything from a pencil sharpener to a hammer; it simply has to be easy to reproduce with the ability to make it better for everyone to take notice and love.

How can you expand or make that item better?
Now that you know what a common item is for your hobby, how can you expand on it?  Think about the hammer for a second, people use these all the time to drive nails into wood, but why wouldn't there be a hammer that has nails loaded into it?  Well, there is now, and I'm sure the person who holds that patent is making a healthy passive income since this type of hammer is at every single hardware store in the world lol.

How can you evolve your simple item to be more efficient, or have it solve a problem quicker?  Can you do a simple tweak to it, something you've been doing for years already, and automate it, so someone doesn't have to do this manually? 

There are little things hobbyists do all the time as a sort of "hack," and that's what you can profit from.  Figure out your hack, and you will then need to figure out how you can profit from it.

Set up an eCommerce site
Once you figure out your product and how you can make it better, you need a website to sell it on.  I would recommend using WooCommerce on Wordpress because it's pretty simple to do.  If you don't have any experience setting up a website, then go with Shopify because they're a point and click website system that has a pretty powerful backend.

Figure out what domain you want to use before setting up your website.  Remember, your domain is the first thing people will identify you as, so make sure it's catchy and stands out a little, so everyone remembers it.

Set up your email list
A huge thing for startups like this is that a lot of them don't capture emails from day one.  The thing is, a lot of people who first figure out what your product is will be the people who are actively searching for it.  They will want something like your product, they will be the first people to recommend it, and those are the people you want on your email list.  Now, I'm not saying you won't find these people in 6 months or even a year down the road; I'm just saying you don't want to miss them in your email list so capture them as soon as possible.

I like using MailChimp because it's easy to set up and link with my contact and purchase forms.  When someone sends me an email through the "contact us" form or purchases a product from me, they're added to my email list and will get newsletters each week until they unsubscribe.

Remember, email marketing is still bringing in a great ROI so be sure to start on the right foot

Start running Facebook ads
What you'll want to do is get super-targeted, like down to the very last detail, and make sure your ads are only showing to people you know would use the product you've made.  Think about what they would be interested in, something related to your industry, and target those people.  Target nationally for shipping reasons but make sure you target your specific language.

Don't worry about how low your audience numbers are, make sure your bids are at a point you're comfortable with, and you should be able to pull in traffic easily if your niche isn't saturated.


Final thoughts
A small hobby website turning into a full-fledged business isn't something everyone can do, but it is something you can strive for, find something that can be improved upon and run with it.  Think of what your "hacks" are and think of a way to commercialize it to the people who are interested in the same hobby you are.  This will help you get a product they need right in front of them, and they will likely buy it if you're saving them time, reducing their stress, or you have a product that looks better than the rest lol.


Thanks for reading

- Tommy
https://www.seoclerks.com/user/TommyCarey