Hobby Into Business: Is Building PCs Profitable? 3 Ways To Make Money From Your Geeky Passion

Introduction

If you’re a gamer or a bit of a geek then you’ll probably relish the opportunity to get involved in a spot of computer building and that’s because it’s kind of like LEGO except with real parts where you can add your own little touches to make it stand out.

Building PCs isn’t a new advent, however, in the past ten years it has really taken off as a serious pastime for hobbyists and businesses alike.

You can make some really decent money if you’re good at building PCs, especially if you know how to install water cooling or if you’re capable of making custom parts to be installed for your clients.

Some good examples of companies already doing this include Origin PC, Alienware, and even Apple.

Origin has really cemented their position in the world of PC building purely down to their dedication to customization; essentially, consumers now want more than just a run-of-the-mill RGB PC, they want something that says “this is me”.

It’s true that Origin is fierce competition in the world of PC building, however, there’s definitely lots of room in this still-growing industry for more competitors to enter the market who are just as dedicated as Origin, if not more so.

With that said, we want to offer a comprehensive look at how you can make money from building PCs, including some not-so-obvious ways to do so.


Profit From Your Hobbies: 3 Ways to Make Money Building PCs

1. Open a shop on eBay

If you want to make a little bit of money from your PC building hobby, without all the hassle and red-tape of starting a business, then eBay can still be a great way to do this.

eBay gives you quick access to the market where you’ll have potentially millions of people browsing your listings on a day-to-day basis.

This is very important early in your venture as it means you don’t have to expose yourself to too much risk from overheads and marketing budgets.

Yes, eBay will still take a cut which you’ll need to account for, however, this cut is reasonably fair considering the amount of money you’d need to spend if you were to set up your own shop or online store.

In fact, if you’re looking to source inventory or PC parts then eBay will have you covered too — you can buy new or used parts at market competitive rates, and sometimes you’ll even be able to snipe a bargain from sellers who want a quick sale.

You probably won’t make earthshattering amounts of money but the profit for doing something you love can be enough to keep you motivated to establish a foothold in a relatively new market.

2. Start a YouTube channel

YouTube is an interesting market for making money building PCs and that’s because you’re primarily profiting from display ads rather than direct sales.

As well as that, you’ll also be able to include affiliate links in your video descriptions meaning if you make a video that’s exciting or interesting enough, people will be very likely to click on those links to buy things.

There are tons of affiliate marketing services out there but the most commonly used one is the Amazon Associates program.

Basically, you’ll be able to link to certain products from Amazon and when the person makes a qualifying purchase you’ll be paid a slice of the commission.

That may not sound like much, however, if your videos are getting thousands of views and people are buying items worth $300-400 (graphics cards, etc), then you can easily make a few thousand dollars every month without much effort.

A good example of how this would work would go like this: you make a video showing off a PC you’ve built with various parts used in the process, you talk about the benefits throughout the video explaining why you used those parts, you include your affiliate links in the description for people to click to buy the same products, you make a profit.

Affiliate marketing and display ad revenue models are relatively risk-free when done online; eventually, they can become an easy source of passive income.

3. Start a computer building blog

If you love building PCs then you’ll probably love writing about the process too.

Blogs are an underrated form of marketing and can easily make you some serious money if you know how to do it right.

The great thing about starting a blog in this area is that you’ll be able to take photographs of the PCs you’re building which makes for a much more engaging experience for your audience and will set you apart from other blogs.

Again, similar to YouTube, you can include affiliate links to the computer parts you’re using throughout your blog posts and/or articles meaning you’ll be able to generate a slice of the income for qualifying purchases.

If you can combine your writing with a solid SEO (search engine optimized) process then it’s not unrealistic to expect thousands of dollars each month from writing about something you love.

Lastly, it may take a while, however, if you’re constantly writing good articles about computers or PC parts then it’s quite likely that big companies will end up reaching out to you and may even ask you to test some of their parts.

Again, this will help cut down on costs and could be a lucrative way to make an income.


Conclusion

Buildings PCs can be incredibly fun, however, with anything in life you need to maximize how productive your time-spent is and the best way to do that is by making money at the same time.

Hopefully, some of the suggestions on the list have enlightened you to the ways you can make money from this geeky pastime, and maybe you’ll end up as the next Origin PC.

As always, if you enjoyed the article then don’t forget to check out our homepage and other sections of our site which also talk about gaming in general.