Joan’s Boomer Blog

Who wouldn’t like a Four Hour Work Week? Make all your money in just 4 hours a week, then use the rest of

The 4 Hour Work Week

your time to do all the things you enjoy? If you’re a 20-something with your career ahead of you, or approaching retirement but still need or want to work part time, or perhaps you’ve lost your job in the recent economic downturn and fear you won’t find another, the book The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated could very possibly change your life.

In The 4 Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss puts forth the idea that there really is no “fulfilling” job. The best job, and the one we all really want, is the one which takes the least time and makes us the most money. Just imagine, if you someone offered you a job you could do anywhere in the world, paid you the amount of money you desired to support your lifestyle and took only 4 hours a week, wouldn’t you take it? The beauty behind Tim Ferriss’s book is that no one has to offer you this job, you create it yourself and he tells you how.

The first part of The 4 Hour Work Week pertains to employees who are currently working 80 hour weeks and want to escape the rat race. Tim tells you how to do that. The part of the book I was most interested in, though, was the part that told you how to build your own 4 hour work week business. Every single resource you could possibly need is there and the entire process is laid out for you with steps to follow. This is the part of the book you could use to finance a permanent retirement, working minimal hours but still having the income to enjoy life in any way you choose.

In Timothy Ferriss’s best life, he travels, living in different countries for months at a time, operating his business remotely using just 4 hours a week of his time. He even offers tips and guidelines for anyone who wants to do the same. Instead of working for years and then retiring, he says you should take “mini-retirements” all through your life.

While I would love to travel and spend maybe three weeks or a month in England or France, living abroad for months isn’t really on my list of things I want to do at this stage of my life. However, my husband and I do want to travel the US in our RV and it would be nice to have a income from something that only took 4 hours a week.

I got a Kindle 3G Wireless as an early Christmas present because I was going to spend nearly 3 weeks with my parents and my husband thought it would be great for the trip. I subscribed to the 14 day free subscriptions of USA Today and my hometown newspaper and bought a nice book of fiction to occupy me on the trip. While shopping the Kindle store, (from my Kindle!) I stumbled on The Four Hour Work Week. I thought, “This has to be too good to be true,” or some other type of come on.

I love reading reviews of books or other products before I buy and this book has an astounding 911 5 star reviews and 112 4 star reviews. Out of over 1,000 reviews, there were only 24 1 and 2 star reviews. I read all the negative reviews first and the only hesitation I had in buying the book was that it sounded too good to be true. However, I decided to go with the majority and buy the book. I am so glad I did!

You don’t have to be an exec working 80 hour weeks to build a 4 hour work week with this book. The process is simple really. You invent or find a product to sell, test it thoroughly and then market it and Tim explains how to do this. If you want to invent a product, you might think along the lines that I am and come up with an information product to sell - audios, a guide book and other materials. If you choose to find a product or build a store, Tim offers resources for that as well. They drop ship the product for you an the entire process is automated.

One thing I love about the Kindle is that you can highlight and bookmark different parts and then review them later. I have lots highlighted in this one.

I’ve seen that this remote business management work in my own business on a small scale. I have blogs and Amazon affiliates and earn money from Google Adsense. When I am home, I spend about 5 hours a day on various computer tasks, writing articles, promoting my blogs, etc. When I travel, I spend one hour, 5 days a week or less, and the money still comes in, without me doing a thing. I can put my business on remote control for 2-3 weeks without affecting anything.

If I can do this on a small scale, I can see how it would also work on a large scale and I am eager to try the steps laid out in The 4 Hour Work Week. I still have a week or so before I return home but the ideas are already working as to what I can do and how. I intent to follow Tim’s steps letter for letter and see how it turns out.

Even if I don’t become a citizen of the work and take tango lessons in Brazil like Tim Ferriss, I have some great ideas about how I would like to spend my time (The first step in the process is deciding how you’d like to spend all the free time you will have.)

I’ll keep you posted on how the process is going for me but in the meantime, get The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content for yourself, try the process and let me know what you think of it.

This book is going to be in my daughter’s Christmas stocking this year!

I hadn’t heard about unretirement until recently but I think it’s soon going to be a new word in our retirement vocabulary. A casualty of the recent economic downturn, the traditional view of retirement, working at a job for 20 to 30 years and then stepping into the world of leisure and relaxation is ceasing to exist and unretirement is taking its place.

Our recent ideas about retirement are indeed, a recent invention. This humorous article The History of Retirement from Early Man to AARP takes retirement up to 1999 but it needs a new chapter to cover the past four years or so when economic hardships caused many people close to retirement age to lose jobs, pensions and
savings. Many baby boomers find they can no longer afford the
leisurely retirement they’d planned. They know they will need
supplemental retirement income and that means working at least 20 hours a
week, if not more.

And that, basically is unretirement. Those approaching retirement age will make a choice of either working at least 20 hours a week and/or downsizing their lifestyle, which, by the way, is another trend left over from the recession among people of all ages.

For some, working longer is a preference. After all, people are living longer, healthier lives nowadays and how many years can you spend in your rocking chair or fishing boat without getting bored? Many people of traditional retirement age still feel productive and have a lot of offer, even if employers don’t want to hire hire those over 50.

If you find you do have to work at least 20 hours a week, get creative and find something that fulfills a passion. I’ve written several articles about turning hobbies into income and creative ways to supplement retirement income. Continuing to work at something you love can add years to your life and life to your years.

The other trend from the recession which seems to be sticking around is to be more cautious with money. Pay down debt, save more and purchase only what you need. Do it yourself classes are overflowing these days as more and more people find pleasure in gardening, preserving food, sewing, doing simple repairs and more. These things do save money, true, but having a productive hobby may help retire and still live well on less money.

I personally plan to work til I can’t type anymore, but I may slow down over time. I’ve found my passion in writing my blogs and working on my health and wellness website. My husband and I found a nice little piece of land where we can have a garden and a few chickens and we’re planning to build a small, energy efficient home to live in there. All of these things will help us save money and I think the amount of work involved will probably equate to unretirement since maintaining gardens and 10 acres will pretty much a full time job.

Has the recent economic conditions caused you to rethink your retirement plans? Will you keep working for pleasure or profit? I’d love to hear readers thoughts on this new trend.

There’s something fascinating about the RV lifestyle, especially after 40 years of punching a time clock. My

Hit the road and enjoy views like this from your RV

husband was in the Navy for 30 years and I was a Navy Corpsman for 10 years, plus I moved around with my husband after our marriage. After years of living this way, every 3-4 years we tend to look around and say, “Where are we going next?”

Retirement should be a time of adventure and RV living means freedom and the open road. What could be better a better fit for a creative retirement?

I loved the movie Under the Tuscan Sun where the heroine takes a trip to Tuscany, buys an old villa and makes a totally new life for herself. To me, RV life is like that. My husband wants to work for two more years but we decided, if we go RVing for one year of that time, we can live on a fraction of what we are living on now, still putting away savings even without his current income. My own income comes from writing projects on the Internet so I can take my job along with me.

I’ve talked before in this blog about setting goals and writing them down. Our RV retirement goal is that within the next 18 months, we will sell our house and downsize our possessions and travel for one year, with stops of a few weeks here and there to visit family. When we return, we will take the RV to our lake property and live in it until we get our retirement home built there. We had to search for over 3 years to find a piece of property with no restrictions on living temporarily in an RV but we finally found it this past summer.

Is the RV retirement lifestyle for you? Here are some of the resources we’ve used in planning. Many of these offer free newsletters from people already living in an RV, either full time or part time.

RVLifestyleExperts.com I’ve gotten to know Jaimie Hall Bruzenak through the terrific ezine she puts out and I’ve read several of her RV lifestyle books, including Support Your RV Lifestyle! An Insider’s Guide to Working on the Road. This book, by the way, offers great ideas for earning extra income you could also use working from home. Jaimie and Alice Zyetz have put together a website packed with information and resources on living and retiring in an RV.

Read Alice’s article “Why Retire to an RV?”

There are also great articles on their website on RV budgeting and ways to save money living in an RV.

RVDreams.com - Howard and Linda Payne have put together a website offering information on all aspects of RVing, including links to Workamper sites. Workamping involves lining up jobs you can do on the road to help pay your expenses, such as signing up to be a park host to get free space rent. RV-Dreams has sells a great RV cookbook, plus there are many recipes on the site. Linda also helps support their RV lifestyle through her beadwork projects.

RVers are a friendly bunch and RVDreams also has a helpful forum where you can get all your questions answered by those who are already living the RV life.

RVNet offers an ezine and dozens of articles by different authors on all aspects of RVing. Most author also has a blog or website on the subject of the RV lifestyle worth checking out as well. There are articles on fitness in an RV, RV cooking, trip planning, Green Rving, Workamping, RV maintenance and much much more.

RV Escape Club - This club also offers one of the best mail services for RVers. If you’re on the road for a year or more, you will probably need a mail service to hold and forward your mail to you - wherever you are. Here is a link to some of their free ebooks. If you decide to become a member, you also get a bi-monthly magazine.

RVLife.com - RV Life offers a magazine, articles and blogs on Rving, fishing, golfing and travel. This digital magazine is free and has lots of terrific travel articles.

If you’re on Facebook, you can also connect with, and ask questions of, many others interested in RV living.

RV Club Forums

RV discussion groups are a useful place to find out more information from those with experience and knowledge. These RV Club sites have forums and and you don’t have to be a member to see them.

Good Sam Club- If you join the Good Sam Club, you can get disounts on many park fees, as well as other benefits.

Escapees RV Club- Great magazine with memberhips and lots of info on their website and forum.

How to Create an RV Budget

Here are some resources to help you set up an RV budget and see just how much money it would take to retire to an RV. Even though you may sell your permanent home, extra vehicles and other things that cost you money, there are certain expenses associated with RVing, such as insurance, park fees, and perhaps your vehicle payment to think about.

RV Lifestyle Experts - Preparing your RV budget - includes a worksheet.

RV Dreams - Sample Budgets and Expenses

Changing Gears offers a Budget for the RV Lifestyle

If you have an RV blog or resource you’d like to share, please feel free to post it in the comment section.

If you have dreams of retiring to an RV to live full time or want to take to the road on shorter trips after retirement, check out these resources and subscribe to a few blogs from those who are living the RV lifestyle. It won’t be long before you’re convinced this is the only way to retire!

Stay tuned in. I’ll be adding more resources as I discover them.

When I was growing up, my teenage crushes weren’t on musicians like the Beatles, although most of my

World Series 2010 National Anthem

friends loved them. My secret passion in high school was the Los Angeles Dodgers, and watching Sandy Koufax pitch was the highlight of my life. I was raised on the West Coast and back then, all you got to watch was the Saturday game of the week and play off and World Series games, unlike today when you can watch any team, any day of the week.

I would have given anything to go to a live World Series game back then and seen Sandy Koufax pitch in person. I even had a scrap book of newspaper clippings that is probably still floating around my parents house.

Since those years, we’ve become Texas natives and have gone to quite a few Texas Ranger games. This year was THE year for the Texas Rangers. We went to one of their playoff games against Tampa Bay and it was a thrilling experience! In this particular game, they didn’t start losing til the 8th inning so the crowd was wild with every pitch.

Fast forward to now. The Texas Rangers are actually going to their first World Series appearance ever and my daughter’s boyfriend managed to get four tickets. I had a chance to go but, of all things, I also have airline tickets for my semi-annual visit to see my parents in Oregon. When I made the airline reservations, I never dreamed the Rangers would actually make it.

Rangers in the World Series 2010

I looked into changing my airline reservation and it was going to cost over $200 to change it - a rip off by the airlines, by the way! I gave up the idea for a while but then my son-in-law (who would have gotten my ticket if I didn’t go) convinced me I should go ahead and do it and hang the cost. He said they’d even pay half as a Christmas present. My husband also wanted me to just pay the money and change the ticket so I could go to the World Series with him - what a nice guy!

This morning I checked with my parents to make sure they wouldn’t mind my putting off my trip. After all, even the World Series isn’t worth upsetting my parents for. However, they too were very supportive, as long as I came at a later date.

So, here I am, $273 poorer but going to the World Series, game 4. If there is any justice in the world, the Rangers will sweet San Francisco and I can actually see them win!

I think in life, sometimes you just have to go for it and hang the monetary cost! You can’t put a price tag on some of life’s most thrilling experiences and I think this is going to be one of those experiences for me.

Most of us are familiar with goal setting. We set goals to lose weight, to build a career, to save money for

Our dogs enjoying our future retirement home

retirement. How often did you achieve the goals you set out for yourself? Do you really know an effective way to set and achieve retirement goals.

I recently wrote an article Preparing for Retirement - It’s About More than Money which has proven to be one of my most popular posts. Well, goal setting for retirement is about more than money too so it’s important to learn more about how to set and achieve goals for a creative retirement.

How to Set Goals and Achieve Them

1. Deciding on Your Goals

Believe it or not, this is the step that most often stumped me. I read many books on the Law of Attraction and the number one advice they all give is Know What You Want. It seems like a no-brainer but setting definable goals is hard for many people.

When setting goals for retirement, create a list of questions for yourself to help you define your idea of a happy retirement:

• Where do I want to live when I retire?
• How do I want to spend my days?
• What things in my life bring me happiness that I’d like more of?
• What new things would I like to try out in retirement?
• Do I need extra income after retirement?

Come up with a list of your own questions and brainstorm for a while. Write down all the ideas that come to you, no matter how far fetched.

2. Look at your list and focus on the goals that seem most important to you. Simplify the wording and Write it down! Be clear and focused. Write your goals on 3×5 cards and put them where you will see them every day.

In her book Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It, Henriette Anne Klauser says “Writing down your goals and aspirations is like hanging out a sign that says ‘Open for Business’.

Writing down your goals, looking at them every day, brings you one step closer to achieving them.

3. Now that your goals are formalized and written down, create another list of goals within each, steps to bring you closer to the desired goal. For instance - My husband and I decided we’d like to retire near a lake. Our goals within that goal were:

a. Decide what specifications we wanted in property. We wanted 3-5 affordable acres, someplace where we could put an RV while we built our house. Many lakes in Texas have subdivided tracts of land with acreage but have strict rules about leaving an RV on the property, unless there is already a house and a covered area to store it.

That was our first requirements and our “wish list” included being able to have chickens or perhaps small farm animals, like alpacas or sheep. We looked for about 4 years and had about given up when we found the perfect spot that filled all of our goals for a retirement home. It proved to be even more affordable than we’d every dared hope for too.

b. Our next goal within the first one is to shop for an RV. We listed goals for that too and since we want to buy used, it may take some time to find the perfect one.

The idea is to take each goal and ask yourself “What can I do today to help me achieve that goal?” (I learned that from my short career selling Mary Kaye). If your goal is downsizing to a smaller home, you can scope out real estate ads, getting a feel for what’s out there. If you want to move to another place when you retire, you can research best places to retire.

My husband wants to spend time playing golf when he retires, something he hasn’t done in 25 years. So he bought some newer clubs (he was told his old ones were antiques now-lol) and he goes out a few times a month to play some golf and shoot practice balls, looking forward to the time when he can spend even more time on it.

If one of your goals is to set up a new business for some retirement income, you can begin progressing toward that goal by doing it on a small scale before retirement or doing research to see what you’d like to do, something you’d enjoy.

By coming up with active steps that you can take now toward your goals, it keeps your mind focused on them and also makes them seem closer because you are actually doing something toward making them a reality.

Create a Vision Board

This is another tip I learned from the Law of Attraction folks. I bought a cheap bulletin board to hand over my desk. On it are pictures I cut from magazines of RV’s the garden I want with raised beds and paths, the back deck where I want to sit in evenings at our retirement home, places we want to visit in our RV.

I look at those pictures every day and imagine my retirement life when those pictures are my reality. This helps to put energy and thought behind any goal you have.

Be Open to Things that Can Help You

Once you’ve written down those goals and decided what steps you can take to bringing them closer, be open to what happens. I believe we do attract what we think about the most. If you’re focused on those goals, you may start seeing sign posts along the way to help you toward them.

Retirement goals are different than other goals like losing weight or career goals. Retirement goals should be about fun and what you want from your life after retirement. Believe it or not, it does take planning and goal setting to get the most our of these years.

I love signing up for free newsletters and ebooks. I’ve gotten lots of great information on retirement and simplifying and enjoying life from them. Here is a list of some of my favorite ebooks relating to enjoying our retirement years. I know there are others and I’ll post them as I find them.

You will probably also enjoy the blogs which offer these free ebooks as well.

From Love Being Retired - Navigating the Retirement Jungle

Dave at Love Being Retired has written a terrific free ebook that covers lots of the issues faced by those approaching retirement. Some of the topics include evaluating when we can afford to retire, identifying and pursuing our passions in retirement, health, finances, travel, frugal retirement living and more. Dave’s blog and ebook have a very friendly, readable style and give you lots to think about.

The Positivity Blog offers a free ebook The 7 Timeless Habits of Happiness

You would think that the words “happiness” and “retirement” would be synonymous. Often, however, that is not the case. Our retirement years bring many challenges, health problems or physical limitations, worrying about our children or our finances, losing that zest for life we had when we were young, just slowing down generally. In other words, although the challenges are different than when we were young, retirement still brings it’s own share of cares and worries. The real challenge in retirement, as in any part of life, is how to be happy no matter what life throws at you.

The Seven Timeless habits of Happiness gives you sound tips on being happy, no matter what your age. Don’t put off being happy until some vague, distant time when your life is perfect, choose happiness now.

If you stop and think about it, if you don’t choose happiness in your retirement years, when will you do it?

The 437 Best Things Ever Said about Retirement by Ernie Zelinski

Ernie Zelinski, the author of How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free, offers free ebook download of the ebook listed above and The 1001 Best Things Ever Said about Work, plus excerpts of other books he’s written.

This ebook is full of great quotes about retirement and getting older. It’s a quick, fun read.

For those of you interested building retirement income from your passion in life, get Rich German’s free ebook Monetize Your Passion. This 234 page ebook is packed with great information on how to identify your passion, build a business and make money from it.

If you choose to make a donation to Rich for this ebook, he is giving all proceeds to programs to help homeless children in the USA. He’s managed to raise thousands of dollars with this project to donate back.

Zen Habits Guide to Simpifying Your Life

This isn’t exactly an ebook but the Zen Habits website offers a complete list of links to their articles on simplifying and decluttering your life. Many retirees have “been there and done that” in regards to big houses, lots of possessions and buying the next new thing. They long for peace and simplicity in their retirement. Zen Habits offers lots of great tips in this area.

If you’d like a source for free ebooks on any topic imaginable, check out Free-ebooks.net. Just register and download ebooks on hundreds of topics.

If you’ve downloaded any good free ebooks lately in the areas of retirement, simplifying your life or finding happiness, please let me know or post it in the comment section.

Blogging for Dummies is on the best-selling books on how to blog for money. The Internet in general and blogging in particular, is always changing and evolving. This updated version of Blogging for Dummies explains these latest tools and techniques.

There are many things to learn about blogging, from choosing a hosting service to how to monetize your blog and write engaging articles. All of the “for Dummies” books are informative and fun to read. I have them on several different topics, including knitting, building a home business, Real Estate Investment for Dummies and a few others, and always find them full of comprehensive, easy to understand information.

Blogging for Dummies covers:

• Choosing a topic and finding your niche
• Setting up your blog from A to Z
• Widgets, plug-ins and themes to customize your blog
• How to build a readership and connect with readers
• How to make money with your blog and track your success

One part of this book I got a lot out of was the section on using social marketing to promote your blog and how to do videos and podcasts, which I’m planning to delve into in the near future.

If you’ve always wanted to start a blog for profit or for fun, or if you already have a blog of your own and want to take it to the next level, Blogging for Dummies is a great addition to your home business library.

(more…)

Book Review Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a 6 Figure Income

Recently I saw this list of bloggers’ salaries which is topped by Markus Frind with over $3,600,000! Never heard of him? Markus Frind owns a free dating website called PlentyofFish.com. I think every blogger dreams of making a six figure salary, just like nearly every actor dreams of winning an Oscar - But how do you begin?

There are millions of bloggers out there today, writing away, wondering why the big bucks eluded them. What are they doing wrong and what could they do better?

What is your level of blogging expertise? Are you:

• blogging as a hobby and not making a dime
• Are you facing retirement and looking for supplemental income?
• Are you unemployed and really need to start generating income?
• Are you in a job you don’t care for and would like to start a blog as a part or full time venture?
• Do you already have a blog that generates income but you would like that blog to make more?

Wherever you are in your blogging career, ProBlogger can help guide you to a higher level.

Authors Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett cover:

• How to choose a (profitable) subject for your blog
• How to handle the technical parts of blogging
• Different ways to generate income with your blog
• How to evaluate your blog’s success
• How to keep your content fresh and interesting to readers
• How to use your blog to generate income indirectly

ProBlogger offers a complete how-to on blogging from from two top-performing bloggers. If you’re one of thousands of aspiring bloggers who launch new blogs every day hoping to boost their income or someone who already has a blog, you can benefit from ProBlogger’s advice. Without solid advice from experts, most will fail. This best-selling guide, (more…)

Review of How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free

Retirement should be a time to enjoy life to the fullest and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free offers inspirational advice on just the way to do that.  A creative and fulfilling retirement is about more than just money, and author Ernie Zelinski covers how to put money into its proper perspective so you don’t need millions to retire.

How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free also offers advice on other retirement topics, such as:

• How to get up the courage to retire early.
• Find purpose and fulfillment in your retirement - That sounds easy but it takes some thought.
• How to follow your dreams and not get sidetracked by what others think you should do.
• How to take charge of your mental, physical, and spiritual health.
• Setting retirement goals — including whether or not you should relocate.

When you’re thinking about the retirement years ahead, making them the best of your life probably seems like a no-brainer. Actually, though, the earlier you begin planning for the many different aspect of retirement and setting some goals, the more prepared you will be to take advantage these years.

(more…)

When you retire, you may need some extra retirement income and what better way to make it than doing

One of my most recent beaded creations.

what you love? Turning a hobby into retirement income may seem like a good way to go and there are many ways you can go about it.

Retirement gives us lots of time, hopefully, to pursue those hobbies we’ve picked up over the years. But after you’ve knitted a dozen scarves, made a bunch of woodworking do-dads or turned your beautiful photos into posters, what do you do with all of them? Everybody in my family now has a knitted scarf and hat so turning my passion for knitting into profit might be the next step.

Keep in Mind:

1.  If you want to turn a hobby into a business, once your hobby becomes “work” it may not seem like as much fun.

I used to have a passion for bead work and created some beautiful (if I do say so) pieces. I worked in a bead store and taught classes and soon I was sitting at a booth at a craft fair selling my wares. Production work isn’t like beadiing, or doing any craft, for fun. If you’re going to do a craft fair, for instance, you need a certain amount of stock. Your wrists and hands begin to hurt, your shoulders have knots in them and your eyes are burning. Not so much fun.

2.  If you are going to rely in any way on the money you make from your hobby, realize that you still have to spend money for supplies, entries into craft fairs, etc, so your profit margin may not be that big.

I spent more than I ever made, I think, on beads, yarn, etc, for any hobby I tried to turn into a business. If you have a real passion for your hobby, you’re likely to spend more. The flip side of this, of course, is that if you want a real business and you make some money, you can deduct many of your supplies on your taxes.

If you’re still sure you want to turn your hobby into an income producing business. Here are some steps to take.

Start by Assessing:

1. What is your skill level? – Whatever your hobby, can you make them quickly, in quantities and make your product look professional?

2. How much time do you want to devote? Making enough items for a craft fair, for instance, is very time-consuming. If you decide to create a website or online store, you also have to devote time to that as well.

Next:

1. Find a Niche market – Rather than trying to be all things to all people, it’s easier to make a profit if you cater to one niche, or group of people, and be specific. Take knitting, for instance. You could make your pieces from organic yarn. You could stick to baby clothes or blankets. You could specialize in prayer shawls or knit only with hand painted, hand dyed yarns.

Specialize in knitted baby hats

Knitting examples are easy for me because that’s what I love doing but if you are a photographer you could specialize in nature photography, scenery, animals, cute puppies, whatever. If you do woodworking, you could specialize in wooden toys, fancy shelves or cradles.If you make candles, you could make only soy or natural fragrances.

4. Research your market – Who is your competition and how do they manage their businesses? Visit some craft fairs and see if you can spot a niche that needs to be filled and talk to others who are doing what you want to do. Crafters are generally very helpful and nice people. Try to find a  niche that is popular but where the competition is less.

5.  Decide HOW you will sell your product. Are you willing and able to spend your weekends holding down the fort at your craft fair table? Are you willing to travel to get to craft fairs? You can also sell with a website such as Etsy.com or Artfire.com. Setting up an online store is free on these sites which feature only handcrafted items. They just take a small percentage on what you sell. Keep in mind too that people are paying through pay pal usually and pay pal also takes a percentage of your profits so price accordingly.

6. Once you decide on just what you will make, set up a plan and choose some goals - How much money would you like to make? Just enough to pay for your own materials? Enough to pay for one of the household bills or give you some money for that extra trip? It’s important to know the purpose for your hobby business.

Other Ways to Profit from Your Hobby

Write about Your Hobby

Even if you don’t get into production, you can still profit from your hobby. One way is to create a blog or website and put some affiliate ads on it. You can talk about books or products you like or don’t like and if giving a good recommendation, sell it via the Amazon.com affiliate program or a google adsense account, or find your own companies to represent.

If you would like to create a for profit blog, I can highly recommend the program The Niche Blogger. The Niche Blogger is a subscription site so you can set up your blog, or blogs, and then cancel anytime. The Niche Blogger takes you from step one, day one, through the entire process of creating a self-hosted wordpress blog. A blog like this will only cost you about $10 a year to keep online.

The Niche Blogger can help you choose a niche topic for your hobby as well so it is most likely to be profitable.

Write an ebook About Your Hobby

If you’ve been doing your hobby for a while, or you’ve gotten into a good niche, you probably have a lot of expertise in that area. Consider writing an ebook that will help others enjoy the same passion for the hobby that you do. The Niche Blogger program does into exactly how to create an ebook and market it, I think around month 4-5 of the program.

Teach Classes

If you’d like interacting with others and sharing your hobby, contact your local craft store, like Michaels or Joanns, or your local hobby store. Find out if they have a need for a teacher or there is a special technique that they don’t currently offer, that you could teach.

You can also create podcasts and teach online (again, this is covered in The Niche Blogger Program)

Other Resources for Starting a Craft Business

How to Create an Etsy Store to sell your knitting online

How to Create An Artfire Store to make money knitting.

If you’re interested in knitting for profit, Liz Raad has written a terrific ebook on Knitting for Profit. Liz also has a helpful newsletter for those wanting to learn how to make a living from knitting and sign up is free.

The Savvy Crafters Guide To Success: Turn Your Crafts Into A Career

Another good resource for turning any type of hobby into income is Complete Idiot’s Guide to Making Money with Your Hobby which takes you from A to Z.

If you want to turn your hobby into retirement income, realize that there will be work involved in making it successful. However, the fact that you are able to spend your days focusing on your passion, makes it different than any other “job.” You’ll have fun and probably make a lot of new friends along the way.