Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Make money from cats
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe’ve advertised many dream jobs on here, but this is one we know millions will scramble for as a side hustle: cat-sitting! We actually know quite a few people who do this, and it fits in around their jobs.
What’s more, to mark International Cat Day, we’ve rounded-up the best ways to make money from moggies, whether you’re a cat owner or just like spending time with other people’s pets.
- Become a qualified carer
- Help pet companies with market research
- Make your cat Insta-famous
- Share your knowledge
- Sell photos of your cat
- Shows and competitions
Become a qualified carer
According to our recent research, you could earn up to £2,350 a year as a cat carer. There are a good few cat guardian clubs out there such as Pawshake, Rover.com and Cat In A Flat. You may want to sign up to work for one of those businesses, or just to set yourself up as a cat-sitter.
Angie Rance, based in London, has been a cat-sitter for a couple of years. Angie works with Cat In A Flat but has also picked up a few cat-sitting and cat-feeding gigs via word of mouth, and said she can make about £20 a day. If she has the time or is required to do this five times every week, that works out to £400-plus a week. In a typical month, however, she tends to make a couple of hundred pounds, due to her availability.
“Cat feeding, for me, has provided a wonderful supplementary income. Which, after switching to being self-employed, is very helpful,” said Angie.
She said it has also given her the opportunity to “meet neighbours, explore new bits of the neighbourhood…and best of all to hang out with friendly animals”.
So there are several places to start there with your plans to become a cat-sitter. It can fit around your job and lifestyle, and you get to meet lots of wonderful felines!
Help pet companies with market research
Just like every other industry, pet-focused companies need to know as much as possible about their target market to deliver good products.
Of course, since your cat’s ability to provide feedback is limited, you can step in and be his or hers voice. An easy way of doing this is filling in paid online surveys focused specifically on cat products.
The best way to go about this is to sign up for survey sites, such as Swagbucks, LifePoints and Nielsen Panel. The money isn’t enough to live on and it won’t provide you with a steady income, but paid surveys are a great way to make some cash with very little effort. You could make in excess of £50 a month without doing much at all.
Read more about doing online surveys for cash. Or click here to help pet-focused companies with market research.
Make your cat Insta-famous
If you have a cat, you probably hundreds of pictures or videos of them doing cute or funny things at home or when you’re out and about.
People love cute cats, especially when they are doing something funny or memorable. Their demand for new pictures and videos online will never be satiated, so you might as well give the people what they want and get paid for it.
While there is no cut-and-dry method for turning your cat into an internet celebrity, here are some ideas that might help:
- Give your cat a memorable nickname, like the dear-departed Grumpy Cat.
- Observe their behaviour and document them doing things they love.
- Create social media accounts dedicated to your cat. It might be good to focus only on Instagram or Facebook to start off with.
- Use hashtags to help broaden your audience.
- Take good quality photos and videos.
- Post regularly to create consistency.
- Focus on something original or specific about your cat.
While you won’t get any money from your new endeavour initially, you could develop a following over time. Eventually your cat could hit the big time, and advertisers may pay you to show their products and services to your audience.
In time you could be raking in the big bucks. Grumpy Cat, for example, before his passing, earned over $100 million. Not too bad for a sour-puss!
Another way to get your cat Insta-famous is to jump onto trends. Search data can be used to determine how much interest there is in a trend, which can be a factor in how profitable it is.
Share your knowledge
If you’ve had cats for a long time and enjoy reading articles and studies about their behaviour, breeds, etc. why not share your knowledge with others? They may find it useful and, in time, this could earn you some money.
You can achieve this by setting up a blog and writing regular posts about interesting cat-related topics. As more and more people start reading your blog, you could approach cat product companies to partner with you. They could buy advertising on your site or sponsor some of your social media posts.
In time, your blog could even lead you to an eBook or a full-blown book deal!
Finally, you could offer to do talks at local events, schools and community organisations for a small fee. Who knows, you might even get the chance to share your cat knowledge on world stages one day.
Sell photos of your cat
You can also make money by selling them to stock galleries and other online resources. Believe it or not, people really need these to help draw people to their articles, products or website with your adorable cat’s pictures. It’s a nice way to make some money from things you enjoy.
While you probably won’t make buckets full of cash, it could provide you with a welcome little windfall every once in a while. And your fluffy friends will live on forever in the work of others.
Read more about selling your photos online.
Shows and competitions
Finally, you will notice that many cat-related competitions don’t really offer prize money. However, in many cases, once you enter your little friend, you could be in the running to win pet food for a year or something similar.
Many companies regularly run competitions like these, where all you have to do is simply upload a photo and to join.
Remember to also keep an eye out for cat shows in your local area too if your furry one is particularly bonny!
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