If you are a stay at home mom who wants to earn some extra cash on the side, you are in the right place.
In this article, I am going to share 11 strategies you can use to generate income from the comfort of you own home. What’s great about all of these options is that they are flexible and they can work with your schedule and lifestyle. In fact, for many of these ideas, once you set them up, they can generate passive income for you, which means you will make money on autopilot.
To top it off, you don’t need any special licenses, education or formal training to do any of these things and they are free (or very affordable) to put in place.
Ok, we’ve got a lot to cover so let’s get into it!
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link and complete a transaction, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
The information contained in this post is for informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy or invest, and it is not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. You should seek the advice of a qualified professional before making any investment or other decisions relating to the topics covered by this article.
Number 1. Blogger (Or Freelance Writer if You Need Immediate Income)
Blogging gets the top spot on the list because, in my view, it is almost the perfect side gig for stay at home moms. Here’s why.
Imagine making hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month in your spare time (this blog, for example, generates thousands of dollars per month).
Unlike a traditional job or side gig, you don’t have any bosses or clients breathing down your neck.
You also won’t have to deal with hyper-critical customers, manage any inventory, or ever leave the comfort of your home. If you are watching your kids, you can devote your full attention to them because the blog is never going to tap you on the shoulder with an emergency that you have to handle.
Plus, “mommy blogs” are absolutely a thing. There are legions of moms who have become very successful bloggers writing about tips on parenting, schooling, child care, nutrition and other hacks that they have picked up during their journey as a mom.
One of the best parts of running a blog is that once you have articles written that are generating traffic, you can sit back and enjoy the passive income that comes from all of the work that you put in.
Don’t have a lot of money to put toward this? No problem. It’s easy and cheap to get started.
You can build your blog website for free using platforms like Wix.com or wordpress.com. But if you want maximum flexibility and money-making potential, you will want to spend a little upfront to get your own domain name and find a hosting provider that can offer reliable and fast hosting services.
I use namecheap.com to get my custom domain names and cloudways.com for my hosting. All in, I spend less than $150 per year for everything.
Cloudways is a bit more of a premier service and it allows you to run bigger blogs at a great price, but if you want a slightly more affordable option (at least in the beginning), check out Siteground. I used them when I first started blogging and they are a great hosting provider for new bloggers.
Now there are some things you need to get right to become a successful blogger.
The most important is performing solid keyword research. This is basically finding topics that have a good chance of ranking highly on Google search, so that your article on that topic will get tons of traffic. When it comes to blogging, the more traffic you get, the more money you make. That’s because advertisers will pay you based on how many people see their ads.
You’ll also want to write engaging content so that you can beat out the competition and take that coveted number 1 ranking on google search results.
Ok, now that you’ve learned a bit about the strategy, if you want to learn how to actually do all of this, I have written a detailed step by step guide on how to start a blog from scratch, which you can check out here.
What If I Don’t Have the Time to Do This?
If you have more money than time, you can short circuit a lot of the work involved in setting up your blog.
In fact, you can hire a service to create an entire website for you. Make Lemonade is a UK based firm that specializes in this.
I have used their content writing service to help me expand my blogs when I was running short on time, but they do offer a full service model, where they will create your website for you from start to finish and include content that has gone through their rigorous keyword research process.
Check them out here if you want to learn more.
Of course, if want to start making money right away, you can simply buy an already profitable blog of trusted platforms like Empire Flippers. Here’s an articie I wrote on how to buy a blog (and avoid some of the key pitfalls when doing so).
Another Option
Now, one drawback to being a blogger is that you won’t make money right away. It often takes months for a blog post to start ranking on Google and generating any significant traffic, so you will need to be patient.
If you need to start making money right away, you can become a freelance writer. You can offer to write blog posts for other bloggers on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork and make decent money doing it. You can also work the many content mills like textbroker, iwriter and writer access.
You can also market your services specifically to bloggers on sites like Problogger.com.
Number 2. YouTuber
If you prefer expressing yourself through video rather than writing, then you can become a YouTuber.
Like blogging, this is a side hustle that can be started in your spare time and does not cost much money at all to begin. If you’re on a budget, all you really need is a decent phone to record videos because actually posting your videos on YouTube is free.
As for how much you can make, that will depend on a lot of factors, including how many views you get, and how much advertisers are willing to pay to get slots on your videos.
But even before you get there, you will need to get at least 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers before YouTube will allow you to start making ad revenue. If that seems hard, it is. You will need to be laser focused on creating great content. You will also need to master the art of creating clickable thumbnails and compelling titles.
It’s a lot to figure out, but if you do, the rewards can be amazing.
Now, making money on YouTube does not typically take as long as it does for blogging.
For example, I started making around $4,000 within a couple of months of starting my YouTube channel. So it can happen really fast, especially if you get lucky like I did (one of my videos went viral). But I am not going to pretend that everyone is going to get that lucky.
Most people make no money at all on YouTube.
If you don’t want to wait around for your YouTube channel to hit it big, you can become a freelance editor in the meantime and start making money right away. When you start making YouTube videos, you are going to learn all about editing videos. You can parlay that knowledge into a part time job where you edit other people’s videos, ads, etc.
Like with blogging, there is a robust demand for these types of services on places like Fiverr and Upwork. Now I don’t want to ignore the elephant in the room. You can also make money from videos on Tiktok. I am sure you have heard of them. The difference is that YouTube specializes in long form content while Tiktok is geared toward shorter video clips.
Both can work, but I think YouTube pays much better. Just my experience, though.
Number 3: Rent Out Stuff You Already Have
Did you know that you can rent out possessions you already have and make a tidy profit in the process?
I am talking about things like cars, spare bedrooms, and even an extra closet or storage shed. Of course, that’s just a small sampling of things you can rent out. With the emergence of Airbnb and similar platforms, you can now rent out all sort of things, ranging from musical instruments, your swimming pool, your baby equipment, and much more.
For a complete list of these types of platforms including how much you can make, check out my article below on 15 ways to make truly passive income that require no money.
Personally, I really like the car rental option and the storage option.
If you use a site like Turo.com, you can rent out your car when you are not using it and make a decent amount of money each month. If you save up that money and buy another car for the sole purposes of renting it out full time, you can start making serious money doing this. I know of people in my area who own fleets of cars and rent them out through Turo.
They are now operating like a legit rental car business.
The same holds true for storage.
You can use a platform like Neighbor.com to rent out extra storage space.
You can start with something as modest as a closet or some leftover attic space. If you’ve got a big backyard, you can really start to grow this business by buying a storage shed and renting it out. According to Neighbor, a large shed can bring in $75 to $150 per month, with smaller sheds bringing in less.
That’s not bad considering how relatively affordable a shed can be. Once you make enough from one shed, buy another one.
You can grow fairly rapidly just doing this. And who knows, eventually, you can expand into actual storage facilities and become a bit of mogul. Not a crazy dream at all.
Number 4. Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is another great option if you are looking to make money as a stay at home mom.
The concept is simple. You are basically a salesperson for a particular service or product, but instead of knocking on doors or calling people up, you sell the product online.
How do you do this? You find a product that you want to promote and contact the company that sells the product. If they have an affiliate program, you apply for it and get a special affiliate link for that product that tells the company that the customer came from you.
When someone comes to a page that has your customized affiliate link and they click on it, you will earn a commission if the person buys the product.
A common method of affiliate marketing is putting affiliate links on your blog or YouTube channel. But you are not limited to just these options. You can even use your social media accounts, like Facebook, Instagram, and so on. As you can see, there is no pounding on the pavement here – you just put up the links once and let your traffic do the heavy lifting.
So where can you get affiliate links?
Amazon Associates is one of the most popular affiliate programs out there. Many people use amazon affiliate links because they can basically promote any product.
Of course, Amazon isn’t the only game in town.
There are many other affiliate programs out there. Just Google any product or company you want to promote and add the words “affiliate program” to the end. You’ll find that many already have an affiliate program in place. All you have to do is apply.
You can also find tons of affiliate programs for your affiliate marketing business through platforms like awin.com. flexoffers.com. cj.com. clickbank.com. and Rakuten.com.
Number 5. Online Course Creator
Another strategy is to sell online courses.
If you have expertise in an area and have a gift for teaching, you can record a simple online course that you can sell on platforms like udemy.com, skillshare.com, kajabi.com, teachable.com and many others.
Again, it will take some time and effort to create the course, but they don’t necessarily have to be hours long. I have seen simple little courses that only last thirty minutes or so on skillshare that are hugely popular and have tens of thousands of customers. That being said, most courses do last significantly longer than that.
Regardless of length, you need to provide real value in your courses, so make sure they are packed with useful information and insider tips and are presented in a clear and professional way. There are tons of tutorials on how to do this on YouTube and Google, so soak up the knowledge that’s out there and start generating some extra income.
It may be worth the investment to create a whole new revenue stream from your content.
Number 6: Data Entry
If you prefer something a bit less creatively demanding, you can make money by performing basic data entry tasks. As you can imagine, all you need for this business is a computer and internet connection.
Getting started is simple. Just go to popular online job boards like indeed.com and simplyhired.com and run a search for “data entry remote” jobs. You’ll see a ton of them pop up.
Once you have done this for a while and learned what these employers value and need, you can set up a full-blown business with employees that offers these types of services to companies and other large organizations.
Number 7: Virtual Assistant
Becoming a virtual assistant can be the perfect side gig for a stay at home mom.
If you don’t know what a virtual assistant does, they handle various administrative tasks for people or companies. This includes making travel arrangements, scheduling appointments, taking calls, and managing emails.
You can find virtual assistant opportunities through sites like Fiverr.com, Upwork.com and Flexjobs.com, as well as the regular jobs boards that we already mentioned.
Number 8: Become and Online Tutor
Everyone is good at something.
And these days, you can make money by teaching what you are good at to people who want to learn. Getting started is as simple as signing up with the various online tutoring platforms that are out there. They include tutor.com, skooli.com, and preply.com. Now I would note that some (not all) of these types of platforms will require a teaching certificate, so bear that in mind.
If you are a native English speaker, you can even get paid to chat with people in English. There are plenty of people around the world who want to improve their English and recognize the value of having natural conversation with native speakers. If you want to learn more about this laid back option, check out sites like cambly.com and spokenenglishpractice.com.
For more detailed information on this option, check out my article on How to Get Paid to Chat in English.
Number 9. Ebook Author
If you have always wanted to be a writer and share your creativity with the world, but never got started because you were worried that no one would be willing to publish your work, you don’t need to worry about that anymore.
Gone are the days when you needed to submit your manuscript to a bunch of huge publishing houses and wait for the wave of rejections. You can bypass all of that and just publish your book on places like Amazon KDP and Apple Books for Authors.
And if you want to make some extra money using your writing skills, you can always become a freelance writer (which we discussed earlier). In fact, there is plenty of demand for ghostwriters of Amazon KDP books on the platforms I discussed above.
If you want to learn more about how to make money being a ebook writer, check out my article on the topic here or check out my YouTube video on the topic.
Number 10. Print on Demand Designer
If you’ve got a creative streak or an artistic bent, you can make designs on your computer and sell them online through Merch By Amazon.
Now to be clear, you are not actually selling the designs themselves. You are using the designs in t-shirts, mugs or other merchandise and selling the merchandise. You get paid a cut of each item that gets sold using your design.
The reason why this is so appealing is because once you provide the design, Amazon takes care of the rest. They will put the design on the merchandise and ship it out to the customers.
In other words, once you provide the artwork, they handle the production, shipping and customer service all at no cost to you. Super low risk to you and you can make money in your sleep. Doesn’t get better than that!
For more information on how you can start a print on demand business, check out my full guide to doing this here.
Number 11: Remote Customer Service Representative
If you prefer to interact with people and have a knack for resolving issues, then becoming a customer service representative on the side may be ideal for you.
Like with data entry, you can go to indeed and simplyhired for these types of remote jobs, but you can also try sites like flexjobs.com, which specializes in remote work opportunities.
Conclusion
So there you have it – 11 great strategies for making money as a stay at home mom. If you want to learn more about how to make passive income from home, check out my complete guide to passive income, which you can find here. It covers more than 20 legit passive income strategies that you can explore.
