10 Ways to Make Money With Tarot

Tarot readers who have reached a certain level of competency – received good feedback from friends, learned to trust their intuition, feeling comfortable with their deck and not needing to look meanings up in a book – may wonder if there’s a way to make money with tarot. It’s strange that talking about earning money with tarot is almost taboo. It’s okay to ‘have an interest’ or to do readings for nothing, but when it comes to putting your skills to work for you, then many have a hard time with it.

There are ways to turn your love of tarot into a business, as long as you don’t expect too much at first. I’ve been there, done it and am still doing it, though not on a full-time basis. Let me show you ten ways in which to get your tarot deck to earn some cash for you.

1. Face-To-Face Readings

Pretty straightforward – you make it known that you will read the cards for money. ~~Bribe~~ Ask your friends to pass the word around. Maybe get some business cards printed. Take out an advert in a local newspaper and away you go. Make sure to set it up properly, keep records of income and expenditure and all that. You can find out tons of info about how to set up a small business, so I’m not going to do that here. You will need to set your fees, decide whether you will go to them or if they will come to you, or if you will rent a space somewhere. It is hard work, you will necessarily be doing a lot of talking, but at the same time, it’s rewarding meeting and helping people. It makes sense to get some form of counselling training.

2. Tarot Parties

Tarot parties are great fun and you can integrate them into your face-to-face reading business as above. It’s important to stress that the readings are for entertainment and to that end, you should keep them upbeat. The trickiest part is working out your fee. You can charge a flat-rate for the evening, no matter how many people are there – you have to work out the time given to each reading so that everyone gets a fair shot. Alternatively, charge individually, so that some could have a one-card reading while others get a longer one. Make sure you work it out with the hostess in advance and that she lets the participants know how it’s going to be. Try to restrict numbers, if you can. It’s exhausting and you will be drained (and flying as high as a kite) by the end of the night. Have plenty of water near you to sip on and give yourself a minute or two between readings. Don’t forget to give one of your business cards to each attendee.

3. Reading Tarot at Festivals

Reading at festivals and psychic fairs can be rewarding or disappointing. I’ve only done one – Witchfest – and it was brilliant. However, I’ve been to places where the poor tarot reader is sitting alone in her booth while everyone walks past. Some people are embarrassed to be seen getting a reading in a public place. You will either be there because you are involved with a group, or you may hire your own pitch and scoop all the takings, less your costs for the day/s.

4. Online Tarot Readings

Oh boy, have I done a lot of these! Hundreds, nay maybe a thousand or more. I started for free and then built my own site back in the Web 1.0 days. I got my first client within two days of going live. Mine were (and still are) typed out in Word and sent to the client. I include a scan of each card for their convenience and so they can see what I’m talking about. You can charge what you like, depending on the spread and number of cards. I hafta tell you, it’s hard work for not a lot of money. I like to give good value so a ten-card reading is about ten pages long – you can’t do them fast, well maybe you can, but I can’t.

Nowadays, you can read via Zoom, Skype or other platform You could even make a private YouTube video. Cast your eye around the tarot reading world and check out what others are doing. Bear in mind, if you stick with typing them out, you need to be pretty confident of your grammar and presentation. Nothing looks worse than a reading full of basic errors.

5. Write a Tarot Book

If you are experienced and have your own style, a unique approach and something different to offer then think about self-publishing a book. I can’t tell you how to go about it in detail because I haven’t done it (yet). You can sell it from a blog or website or even give it away free in order to enhance your business. It is quite easy to publish direct to Kindle or Lulu.

6. Give Tarot Talks

If you have the confidence, then consider giving talks at tarot conventions. It’s a chance to publicise your business and sign your latest book. Seriously, there are tarot organisations who would love to have a new face on the scene to expound on their particular method, system or approach. You will need to clock up a few miles first, get yourself known around the tarotsphere and be able to speak in public. A good idea might be to start off doing a simple talk for free at the local WI (Women’s Institute in the UK) – I hear they are open to all kinds of ideas.

7. Teach Tarot Workshops

Giving a workshop, i.e. gathering some willing, paying participants and teaching, preparing exercises, games, etc. is a wonderful way of making tarot earn some money for you. Each person is usually very enthusiastic – or they wouldn’t be there, and they are all eager to get as much from the day (or weekend) as they can. Workshops might best be set up with a tarot colleague as it is a lot of work for one person. I have heard of someone running mini-workshops for two or three people at her home… her hubby provides a delicious lunch and they all have a marvellous time.

8. Run an Online Tarot Course

On line courses are popular in every subject these days. If you have a website, then a natural extension of your tarot offerings might be a course. It can be delivered live, by scheduled emails or as a complete one-off download. It could be run on a Ning group and it might include video, audio, PDFs, exercises with feedback, a private Facebook group, guest teachers.. Anything you can think of. The benefit of virtual products like e-Books and on-line courses is that you can sell them over and over.

9. Build a Tarot Website with Advertising Revenue

This one should have been near the beginning as several of the other methods depend upon you having a website. However, you could create a website or blog simply to share your knowledge, opinions, experiences and ideas. It’s possible to monetise it so that you receive income from advertisers or via affiliate sales like Amazon. A bit like this site, in fact. Don’t expect to make a lot of money though, it is best used in conjunction with some of the other ideas above. You can set up a blog or website without any technical skills (can you tell?) and everything you need to know can be found via a search. You can set up free blogs with WordPress.com or Blogger but your money-making opportunities will be minimal, as WordPress.com does not allow advertising. Blogger does allow Amazon links as far as I know. Therefore, I recommend a self-hosted blog. You can research and learn how to do this – it seems complicated, but if I can do it, anyone can.

10. Write Tarot Articles For a Paying Site

If you like to write but don’t want to go to the trouble of having your own site, then consider writing for paying sites like HubPages. There are lots of writing sites around so you will need to do some research. It takes a while to build up a decent amount and, to be very honest, right now it is difficult as many sites were recently downgraded by Google (yeah thanks, Big G.). It is possible but know that you need to create a lot of content to get the spondoolies flowing.

Conclusion

It’s not been possible for me to go into huge amount of detail on any of these suggestions, but perhaps they will give you some ideas of how to make your enthusiasm for tarot pay you back for all those hours, days and months you have spent hunched over your cards. One thing I will say, is that the most successful, professional tarotists always, with no exception, give good value. In fact, they give more than they get. In other words, they always go the extra mile out of love and respect for their clients – it’s called ‘added value’. To be like them, you must do the same.

You can support Tarot Study (and help me make more free content) by clicking on the Ko-fi link and ‘buying me a coffee’.

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