Are you looking for ideas on how to make money as a stay at home mom? Just a few years ago I started to ask the exact same question.
Of course, there are many obvious ways to make money, such as securing a full or part-time job, but it isn’t so easy to find one that fits your schedule when you have a family to raise!
When I had my baby, I soon had to return to work full-time, there was no way that myself or my partner could make one wage work for us. But, I hated my job and I hated having to put my infant in full-time daycare. I felt so guilty and hated that I was sacrificing those precious moments for such an awful job. But we needed the money. I didn’t know where to turn.
I eventually discovered that there were many legitimate ways to make money as a stay at home mom and I was overjoyed. This was the route to leaving my job and creating the lifestyle I so desperately wanted for me and my family.
When I first started looking for methods, I was a stay at home mom with no mone, so it was crucial for me to find methods that required no financial investment. Thankfully, there are numerous ways to create an income online and from the comfort of your own home without needing to pay anything.
A little honesty though – it takes time and effort to make money as a stay at home mom. Like any business, it requires a certain level of commitment to see results, but compared to the sacrifices made to pursue a full-time job, the potential rewards are huge!
Ideas For Stay at Home Moms to Make Money
I am now going to provide a brief overview of some of the best ways to make money as a SAHM. Most of the methods listed require no money at all for you to get started, however, some of them may require a little investment.
And don’t worry! There are no schemes that involve having to pull the hard sell to friends and family! In fact, no one in your real life will ever need to know if you prefer.
1. Make Money Providing Your Opinion
Did you know you that many companies and businesses will pay to hear your views? Many big companies are looking to develop the next best product or service to help fix common issues, so much so that they are willing to pay you to discover just what exactly that issue might be. It’s not just business either, government think tanks are often interested in public opinion as they attempt to shape future policies.
You simply need to complete questionnaires or surveys and you can be rewarded, often via payment, but some companies also offer payment in the form of gift vouchers too.
How to Get Paid to Give Your Opinion
As you are probably aware there are tons of different survey sites online and many have been promoting themselves for years. Unfortunately some of these sites pay so little that it’s barely worth wasting your time, instead, you need to choose the ones that offer fair compensation.
After some trial and error, I found that Survey Junkie and American Consumer Opinion was quite good in terms of survey variety and compensation rates. A great bonus is that they didn’t spam my inbox as much as some of the other big sites either.
2. Get Paid to be a Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) is almost the perfect job for a stay at home mom as the hours are often incredibly flexible meaning that you can often fit the work around your schedule.
So what does it involve? As you may have guessed, a virtual assistant is someone that is hired to complete certain tasks remotely using the internet. The roles are incredibly diverse and can include everything from responding and answering emails, to editing, proofreading or managing a companies social media accounts. For this reason, it’s often advised that you browse for a role that you think suits your skill set and experience.
How to Become a Virtual Assistant
Finding a virtual assistant role is relatively easy and you are likely to find new openings posted on a daily basis on popular freelancing websites such as UpWork and Freelancer.
Although it does help you to have a proven track record, portfolio of work and positive reviews, the reality is that everyone’s got to start somewhere. Therefore, when first applying for jobs just need to submit lots of friendly pitches and leverage your previous experience.
When I first started as a virtual assistant I was establishing my own blogs in my spare time and generating a good amount of cash on the side while they grew to what they are today. I did a wide range of different tasks including social media management on sites like Facebook and Instagram, as well as freelance writing.
At first, the work was inconsistent, but once I built a reputation, I had a lot of new requests coming in daily meaning that I could be quite picky about the type of contracts I accepted.
3. Make Money with a Blog or Website
It’s official, the world is now online searching for answers every second of the day, so if you can establish your own blog targeting a specific audience, it can be extremely lucrative. At present, I run several different blogs about topics I am genuinely passionate about and I make a consistent amount of income from them.
Read my full guide on how to start and make money with a blog for beginners to find out how you could make a stable monthly income.
As mentioned, each of my blogs targets a different audience and topic and they generate money in various different ways. Primarily this money is generated through a combination of ad placements, affiliate commissions, and sponsored posts. I also offer my very own courses and products – both digital and physical.
How to Start a Blog
When I first started my blogging adventure a few years ago, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just wrote about anything and everything and so my first blog wasn’t a success. It struggled to gain traffic and the traction required to generate a consistent income.
For this reason, I always advise people just starting out to enroll in a training course. These courses will teach you everything you need to know to create and grow a flouring blogging business including how to carry out keyword research, choose a profitable niche and monetization.
To start your blog, all you will need is a domain name, some type of hosting (I prefer Bluehost) and a website theme. You can get a free theme, although these are often limited in terms of customization and features.
4. Make Money with Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves promoting a companies products and services and earning a commission on any of the sales generated through the links you share with your audience.
For example, if you set up a blog about fashion or clothing, you may discuss, review and compare different outfits with your audience. In the process you may share promotional links with your audience and if they make a sale earn a commission. This money making method is incredibly popular with YouTube creators, celebrities and other Social Media Influencers.
How to Become an Affiliate Marketer
There are many affiliate programs, but one of the most popular is offered by Amazon and is called the Amazon Associates Program. It’s completely free to sign up and you will earn 8% of the cost of the item on Amazon but that depends on the category the item is in.
Throughout the years I have made a lot of money through the associate’s program, so I would personally recommend it to anyone. Signing up is easy, simply login to Amazon, navigate to the footer and click the “Amazon Associates” link. It’s a very easy and quick process and once accepted you can begin promoting products from the Amazon site using your unique link.
You can promote the links in a variety of places including your own blog, site and social media sites such as Facebook and Pinterest.
The best part is that affiliate marketing doesn’t end at Amazon, in fact, there are many other programs available and many offer much higher commissions than 8%. You can find other affiliate programs on websites like Commission Junction and Share A Sale.
5. Make Money as a Freelance Writer
For me, freelance writing has always been one of the fastest ways to make money online, as it’s always in demand, the pay can be good and it allows you to build a reputation online while you earn, which is a huge bonus.
The majority of freelance writing jobs are posted by website owners including blogs and eCommerce stores. The topics requested to write about can also be incredibly diverse and can include everything from travel and finance to pets and home. Typically, they expect articles to be anywhere from 500 words, all the way up to 2,000 words in length.
How to become a Freelance Writer
Just like virtual assistant jobs, the large majority of freelance writing jobs will be found on popular freelancing sites such as Upwork and Freelancer, but I have also had plenty of luck on various Facebook groups too.
Other than that, there are many websites actively on the hunt for freelance writers. Usually, these sites request you to write about a very niche topic such as finance or travel destinations.
You can easily find plenty of freelance writing jobs with a simple Google search. Simply search “get paid to write” and have a look through the results. I used to do this on a regular basis as opportunities are posted and updated regularly.
6. Write Your Own eBook
Publishing a book used to be a difficult process requiring authors to succeed in getting a publishing house to review, publish and market their authored work. Thankfully, that is largely a thing of the past and thanks to online publishing platforms such as Amazon you can quite easily publish your book and have it accessed by your target market in almost no time at all.
A few years ago I started publishing my very own romantic eBook series on Amazon and it was a huge success. I’ve always been a huge fan of the romance genre so it wasn’t really an issue for me to write, in fact, I loved doing so. Anyway, they did extremely well, so today I have continued to add books to the same series in my spare time.
How to Write a Book & Self-Publish
To get started all you need is a simple word processor such as Microsoft Word or Google Documents. As a guideline, a short novella is considered to be around 50,000 words in length, while a novel doesn’t have to have any word limit at all. However, you don’t have to limit yourself to just fiction, you can just as easily write a non-fiction guide on popular topics like cooking, recipes, style, investing and more.
Once you have it written, you will need to format it, which is easy enough and all of the specifications are outlined Amazon’s website quite well. What’s great about Amazon is that you can sell it as both an eBook and in paperback format.
The key thing to remember is not to neglect the marketing side of things as this really let me down when I first started. Things like keywords in titles and descriptions can have a huge impact on sales, as can the book cover and category you place the book in. I learned a lot about this through the Kindle course, and after putting what I learned into practice my listing and my sales grew rapidly.
7. Join a Graphic Design Contest
If you have some experience with design software packages such as Adobe Photoshop or illustrator then this money making idea is a good option to consider. You simply have to create designs such as logos, brochures, product packaging and submit them to contest websites such as 99 Designs and 48 Hours Logo.
The contest operates by people requesting a certain type of design e.g. a website logo. You can easily submit a few different designs each day and you have a chance to win the contest and be paid.
How to Join a Graphic Design Contest
Contest design websites are easy and completely free to sign up and take part in. Once you a member you will be able to browse, search and enter any competition you choose.
You submit your design making sure to follow the proposal’s outline and if they choose you as a winner, you will get compensated. There is always a chance you might not win, but if you are confident with your design skills and abilities, it’s definitely worth giving it ago.