How to Make Money by Being Funny

If you're a natural comedian and can compose and deliver a good joke, you can make money being funny. You don't have to be a world class comedian to get cash flow from your comedy skills. Sometimes you just have to think out of the box a bit and figure out how to best market your talents. Here are some ideas on how to make money through the gentle art of being funny:

Publish your funny thoughts on imprintables.

There's a substantial market for clever, funny sayings on t-shirts, magnets, coffee mugs, and other imprintable objects. You don't even have to leave your home to market them. There's a website called Café Press where you can submit your funny thought as designs for a variety of wearable items such as t-shirts as well as coffee mugs, calendars, and more. When your funny saying sells, you'll receive a commission. Cafe Press takes care of all the packaging and delivery of the finished product.

Start a joke of the week email letter.

This is potentially an easy way to make money being funny. Come up with some original jokes and send them to your email list on a weekly basis. To make money, publish links to purchase joke books and gag gifts from companies who will give you a percentage of the sales for your efforts. How do you find these companies? Simply do a search for associate programs that sell these items. Enter a relevant search term plus the word “associate program” and you should come up with lots of potential companies who will grant you a share of the profits.

Start a funny blog.

If you have a gift for putting your funny thoughts into writing, you can develop quite an online readership. Pick a particular topic that you know something about and develop a humorous blog around it. For example, you might choose a particular celebrity or political party as the focus of your blog. People loving hearing humorous comments about a person or party they're passionate about. To make money, sign up for affiliate programs that sell posters of the individual or books about the individual or political party. Amazon.com would be one option. After you develop a strong following, you can develop an e-book on the topic to sell to your devoted readers.

Write material for comedians.

If you're good at coming up with funny, original material, consider writing comedy content for comedians. If you have a comedy club in your area, you may be able to pick up some contacts from local comedians who perform there.

Deliver your own comedy routine.

If you like performing, why not work up your own comedy routine and take it on the road? You can offer your services to restaurants, night clubs, charity events, and other special events in your area. Who knows? You may become a local celebrity just by being funny.

Write for the greeting card market.

Greeting card companies are always looking for humorous sayings for greeting cards and will accept work from freelancers. There are numerous books in print about how to enter the greeting card market as a freelancer. You should be able to locate one at Amazon.com.

Why let your comedy talents go to waste when there are so many ways you can make money being funny?