If you're interested in hypnosis, there are a few ways you can get involved. Below I list some of the big ones, and how you can get started.
Groundwork
Not only hypnosis
For any hobby to turn into a career or business, you'd not only need to know about the hobby itself, but also have some business sense and a marketing strategy. The same goes for hypnosis. You need to know who your target customers are, and how to reach them too.
For any path that interests you below, do check out what it'll be like to go down that path and observe and talk to people who have done something similar.
In summary, it's usually a combination of hypnosis + business/marketing strategy + your skillset. Some are more inclined to writing; others like audio or video better.
Other concerns
- Would it make you lose interest in hypnosis as a hobby?
- Success is not going to come overnight. Are you able to keep doing this professionally after 5, 10 years?
- How will you keep growing on this path? Do you have a plan or rough idea of how each milestone looks like?
- Could it conflict with any other jobs or roles you may hold?
- What are the tax implications of doing this, since as it's most likely going to be considered self-employment?
Hypnotherapy
Getting certification
There are a few places you can get certification. Do check with your local authorities on how to get certified, what is accepted and whether there are courses in your area. The ICCHP also offers an online course that looks reliable.
Setting up a practice
It'll take time and business skills to set things up proper - you need to know both hypnosis AND marketing but once that gets rolling, usually it gets spread by word of mouth. You could do this either online or physically; I'd suggest online to reduce costs, at least at first.
Paid recreational hypnosis
Some people have their own website and space, others - like Sweet - host it on a website like NiteFlirt. You could also try your luck on the hypnosis Discord servers floating around, though those tend to run young (and thus inconsistent). I've had some luck doing a few paid sessions over Discord. You'd need to find clients, similar to hypnotherapists.
Creating media
The subscription model
As far as I know, Shibby is one of the more successful hypnotists in the scene (in terms of revenue per month). At the time of writing, her Patreon is earning a whopping US$35,000/month. Of course, she has a team behind her helping her with the audio at this amount of money each month. Secret Subject is also doing well - you could guess roughly from the "most popular" option, multiplied by the number of subscribers. You can take a look to see what they did to create these kinds of numbers, and how long it took. Master Jay is another example.
For a subscription platform, I personally like using Ghost instead of something like Patreon, because it's open source and doesn't take as big a cut of your earnings, plus you own your data. One downside is that you have to sign up with each creator separately; it's not like Patreon where everything is consolidated together.
Session recordings
I've noticed some subjects use session recordings as a way to get some cash from this hobby. I've most frequently seen this from people specialising in hypno porn (milku bunny is an example).
Files
You could create files in any medium:
- Text
- Audio
- Video
Games
While some games can be considered as files, it requires extra skill to be able to make an interactive one. Some people sell hypnosis games online as well; I've written elsewhere about these. Making games may require some level of programming knowledge. If you are making a text-based, choose your own adventure game, you can take a look at Twine.
Stories
EbonCaine has some stories up for sale at Smashwords. You could look into different websites to sell your stories, and even host them on Patreon or something like Ghost. GigglingGoblin does just that on Patreon.
Art
Some people also draw comics or take commissions for hypnosis-related art. This could be fun and also rewarding - take a look around on DeviantArt or HypnoHub for some examples.
Accessories
Some people have had some luck selling pendants and other devices related to hypnosis, though these tend to just be normal handicrafts repurposed for hypnosis.
Ad revenue
There are also ways to monetise your content with ads - either by working with companies or by using a service like Brave Creators.
Educational Content
Books
I've seen Sleepingirl have some good success with her shop (she does books and podcasts and games and...), and of course, there's always the classic Mind Play by Mark Wiseman, along with other books that many have published.
Courses
There are live or video courses created by some in the community; an example by Hypno Hedonista is linked here.
Passive Income
You should also think about how passive some of these routes are. Some of them - such as creating an article that can be shared - can be considered "passive income" as in, after you've done the initial work, you don't need to create it again to benefit from it. Others - such as sessions - take time, and can't be used again next time (you need just as much time for the next session). Depending on what you enjoy more and how much interaction you want with other people, you could choose any mix that can be comfortable for you.
Other paths
Instead of offering anything hypnosis related yourself, you could also offer services to people who are in the hypnosis community:
- Recording and sound engineering work
- Videography work
- Creating media/crafts/equipment
- Setting up their subscription platform or payments platform for them
- Writing up code for games
Closing remarks
These are just some ideas to get you started; pick a few that you're the most interested in and spend some time experimenting with them. Could be interesting to see where your experiments lead!