6 Ways to Make Money Breeding Snakes (besides selling them)
Snake breeding can get expensive. Your first year of breeding you probably barely made enough to break even. Like most people, snake breeding(ball pythons in particular) for me is just a hobby and selling snakes is a way to make some of my money back. Here I’ll show you some ways to utilize your snake breeding hobby to stream income in other ways.
Money spent on supplies, electricity, food and start up costs will make a deep hole in your pocket, but I’ve researched(and executed) ways to make money online to help support your reptile addiction…oops I mean hobby.
Before getting into these let’s talk about whether you can profit from breeding snakes. It is definitely possible to make a profit breeding and selling snakes. Just like any business the way to succeed is to have quantity, quality or exclusivity in your products, or in this case, your animals. Not everyone can afford to have one let alone all 3 of those qualities, so here is a list of things that you can do to make some side money to support your hobby.
1. Sell Reptile Merch
Selling merch is one of the top ways to make money while getting your name out there. Not only can you have people wearing something that YOU made, it’s also FREE advertising when people wear it.
You might be thinking… it’s not easy to design and sell shirts, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Merch can be as simple as a sticker or a mug with your reptile pictures on it.
Custom product websites like the one’s linked below have a variety of products you can customize to sell. Simply upload your logo(or reptile photo) and get printing.
Don’t have the money or space to have stocks of product laying around? Get it made to order easily with websites like Etsy. Etsy is a great place to find people who will make your t-shirts for reasonable prices that you can sell for profit to any reptile supporter.
Where to start
2. Start a Blog About Breeding(or anything)
Remember when you just started breeding reptiles and how little you knew about it…think about all the information you’ve learned since then. Take all that information, write it down, post it online and you can start profiting from your own knowledge. How crazy is that?
Blogging has grown in popularity over the years since people have found out you can actually make a living off of it.
Billions of people are still searching in Google for answers and if you can provide those answers, google will pay you.
Have you ever looked up a recipe and had to scroll all the way down past the story to get the actual recipe? Well, those websites are making THOUSANDS of dollars per month just from ad revenue. That can be you but instead of recipes, writing breeding how-to’s and reptile stories in a blog.
That’s exactly what I’m doing with this post you are reading.
I started this blog using a self-hosted website A-2 and there are so many more to choose from that fit your budget and needs.
Where to start
3. Become an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is the perfect way to make money without having to create or design your own product. Being an affiliate means that you make a commission when someone buys a product or service of another company through your links.
It’s as easy as signing up to be an amazon affiliate(it’s free!), sending people your links and BOOM, when they click that “Place Order” button, you get a commission.
It doesn’t end at Amazon either.
There are actually affiliate networks you can join that make it easy to sign up for any company’s affiliate program that best fits you.
The best part? Most companies have a program so you can make commissions on anything from digital products to services to custom cookies.
Imagine getting a commission everytime you recommend a reptile related product to someone. Umm…ca-ching?
Where to start:
4. Make Youtube Videos
There is so much potential on Youtube for any type of reptile keeper. Simple videos like a cleaning routine or how-to video can rack up thousands of views and I think there is room for a big time reptile youtuber right now.
You’ve heard it before, but I’ll say it again…you can use what you have to make videos. The camera on your phone is more than enough to get started and now Youtube has it so you can record right from the app.
Not only can you make money from ads, you can also get sponsors and start networking with other people like we have.
Where to start
5. Sell Your Reptile Photos to Stock Image Websites
Blogging about ball pythons has made me realize that there are not enough photos of ball pythons on the internet and I’m sure it’s the same for every other reptile. Selling stock photos can bridge that gap and you can make money doing it.
Making money breeding snakes and taking photos go hand in hand. Do your thing breeding snakes, take pics as you go, and upload them for other people to use(for a fee of course)
So, ake good photos, upload them online and wait for the cha-ching.
The best part? it can all be done one your cell phone. Cell phone cameras are so high quality nowadays that photos come out looking like professional pics.
You may have heard of websites like Getty Images and Shutterstock…well you can make money contributing your photos to them. Depositphoto’s has a program that offers royalties per sale of your photo. Who knows, maybe those instagram photos you always take can make you some money.
Where to start:
6. Make Tik Toks
I know, I know, another app to try to figure out. It is frustrating, but it’s true. Tik tok is one of the fastest growing social media apps of 2020 and trends keep going up in 2021. They recently started a creator fund that allows you to make money based on how many views you get on your videos.
The app makes it easy to grow as long as you’re active and sometimes even when you’re not. My videos occasionally get over 100k views and I don’t post very often. I find this as a great way to showcase what reptiles you’re working with and what you have available for people to get.
Where to start:
- Download TikTok(mobile only)
Conclusion
Breeding ball pythons or any reptile is a hobby for most people and most hobbies don’t provide much monetary value. Hobbies are mostly for fun and relaxation. Why not have both? These reptile side gigs will help you promote your reptiles and may help you make money on the side.
Why am I sharing this information with you? Well, I think reptiles should be in as many households as dogs and cats are. I’m giving you this information in hopes that you can help spread reptile love and destigmatize snake’s and lizard’s bad reps, while making money at the same time.
I hope you take some value out of this and continue having a passion for your animals.
