Are you a single mom struggling to take care of your kids in these troubled times? Are you looking for sources of income to help lighten the burden? If yes, then you have come to the right place. My name is Francisco, and I am the owner of Planet Marketing, a Digital Marketing Agency. My company specializes in Facebook Marketing, Google Marketing and remarketing. I have been in business for over a decade and I am well versed in income generation ideas. Through my company, Planet Marketing, I make thousands of dollars every month using the ideas that I give in this article. So, you can be sure that I know what I am talking about. If you are a single mother and you are looking for ideas to make money from home, then this post is for you. In this article, I am going to;
- Show you the difference between passive and active sources of income.
- Give you 10 ways through which stay at home moms can make money.
Passive vs Active Sources of Income
So, how can single mothers make money from home? To better answer this question, we first need to define passive and active income sources. Just to summarise, active income is what the whole world does, while passive income is all about gaining freedom;
Active income sources
Most people get their income actively. If you go to work and are formally employed, then you have an active income source. Even if you run your own company, that source of income can be regarded as active, as long as you actively engage in the day to day running of the company. The majority of people in the world get their income actively. However, this is not something that’s always a choice for stay at home moms. Taking care of kids is a full time occupation on it’s own! So, you may need a more flexible way of generating money.
Passive sources of income
On the opposite side, there is passive income. Passive income is something that almost everyone should be on the hunt for. Tired of that annoying boss of yours? If you truly want to be free, passive income sources will help you get there. But what is passive income?
Definition
Passive income is income that is generated without you having to put in regular work. The money comes in on a regular basis, but you don’t need to do regular work.
Does passive income mean you don’t do any work?
People think that passive income means they do not entirely need to work. That’s actually not true. Even with passive income, you do a lot of work, particularly at the outset. Chances are that you will probably also need to put in some work every now and again to maintain your passive income sources.
How I know about passive income
Okay, I don’t want to make this another long drawn article that appears detached from reality. I have already told you that this is a subject that I am very familiar with. Why? Well, my company generates a large chunk of its income passively. I will show you how this happens in the rest of this article.
10 tips on how to make money from home for single mothers
So, how can single mothers make money from home? How can they generate income in a way that allows them to comfortably raise their children?
Affiliate Marketing
This is the first way through which single moms can make money from home. Affiliate marketing is a subject with which I am very familiar. I have already noted that I generate a lot of passive income using my website, planetmarketing.com. Much of that income comes in through affiliate marketing. But what is affiliate marketing and how can single moms use it to make money from home?
What is affiliate marketing: An example?
If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, feel free to check out my article on the subject. To better understand affiliate marketing, we are going to use examples. Let’s assume that your company has come up with a kick-ass course teaching people how to make money online. This is a very popular subject, by the way. Anyway, now that your course is ready, the next step is to put it onto the market so people can begin buying it. You have a number of options in this regard;
- Businesses can sell their products and services using their own websites.
- They can also advertise on Google Ads to give your course greater visibility. Check out my Google Ads setup plan if you need help getting started on the platform.
- Advertising can also be done on Facebook or on any other digital marketing platform. I also have a Facebook Ads setup plan so check it out.
- Brands can also hire other people to do marketing on their behalf for a commission.
This last option is what is referred to as affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing compliments all the other forms of marketing that a brand can use to get a product on the market. Selling your product via your own website is probably something that all businesses should do. Where possible, you could even run an ecommerce website. The problem, however, is that doing your own selling means you will not be able to reach that many people, unless you are a very popular brand.
Advertising on Google or on Facebook is also great, save for the fact that the moment that you stop advertising, leads almost immediately dry up. You are also not really sure of the results. So, you could end up forking out money without generating that many leads.
Advantages of affiliate marketing
As a stay at home mom, the following are some of the advantages of affiliate marketing that you need to be aware of;
- Affiliate marketing is a great source of passive income. Once you are set up, money will begin rolling in without you having to do a lot of work.
- Some companies offer recurring income to affiliates. Under this model, you will continue to get money for as long as your reference is active. I personally still get money from people who I referred to various companies several years ago.
- Affiliate marketing can be done at any time. This flexibility makes if suitable for single moms.
How single moms can use affiliate marketing to make money from home
So, how can single moms make money from home using affiliate marketing? Thing is, affiliate marketing is not that complicated. However, there are a number of things that you are going to need to know and do in order to make it work;
- You need to have an affiliate marketing channel. This could be a blog or a vibrant social media profile. I talk more about blogging in the next section, so you may wish to refer to that. In order to do affiliate marketing, you need to have a blog or a social media channel that you can use to reach out to your target audience. Affiliate marketing works best where there is a big network that you can use to market various products and services. As an example, I use this website to market products and services for various companies to my readers. The more readers that I have on this site, the more the chances that I am going to convince some of them to buy these products and services. So, you need a blog. You also need to be present on Facebook, Instagram or any other social media platform.
- Find relevant products to market: Once you have your channel set up, the next thing that you need to do is find relevant products and services to market. This can be tricky, particularly for beginners. People make the mistake, when they are just starting out, of trying to join every affiliate marketing program that’s out there. However, you are not going to have much success this way. You should, instead, find products and services that you are familiar with and stick to them as far as marketing is concerned. As an example, I use Shopper Approved for reviews for my business. So, I know what this company is all about. I am also a Shopper Approved affiliate. I have been able to refer hundreds of people to them over the years because my articles are relevant and well informed.
Create a blog
This is another way through which single moms can make money from home. Blogging is all the rage at the moment, and thousands of blogs are created every single day. A large chunk of these end up being abandoned after only a few months, because people tend to do it wrong. Anyway, as a single mom struggling to raise your kids, there are a number of things that are peculiar to your life that people out there are willing to pay to read about. Creating a blog is simple but involved. If you don’t know how to do it, you may wish to get in touch with me and I will be happy to get you set up (for a small fee of course). The following, in any case, are the steps for creating your own blog;
Decide on a topic for your blog
This is probably the most important step when it comes to creating a blog for single moms. Get it wrong on the topic and focus of your site, and you will not have much success using it as a source of income. There are many potential blogging topics for single mothers who are looking to make money from home;
- Raising kids
- Cooking
- Housekeeping
- Being a single mom
- Decorating your home
- Baking
- Any other topic
Don’t generalize
One mistake that people make when it comes to creating blogs is being too general. Truth is, you are never going to be able to write about EVERYTHING. You need to narrow your focus on a particular topic and concentrate on that. That way you will be able to create a dedicated audience of people who are interested in that particular topic. Let’s assume that you have chosen to create a site that gives housekeeping tips for single moms. You should focus on this particular topic in your content. You may think that this would needlessly restrict you, but that is not the case. And such a topic is very monetizable, as you will see.
Choose a domain name
The next thing that you need to do as part of creating your own blog is decide on what your domain name is going to be. To be fair, you can call your blog anything and you don’t have to obsess over this issue. You will find, while researching your domain, that there are some people out there who sell domain names for tens of thousands of dollars. You don’t actually need to buy these. A domain is only as good as the content that’s on your site and you can create a perfectly good website using ANY name.
Anyway, most people use their names as domain names when it comes to personal blogs. You can also use the topic of your site as part of your domain name. An example would be raisingbrats.com. You will then fill your site with tips on raising your children. Domains cost around $12 per year. However, I recommend that you get yours at the same time as your web hosting plan. That way you can get a discount on the first year. Most companies offer the first year free for domains when signing up for the first time.
Choose a web host
You can check out my web hosting reviews to find out what’s the best web host for you. Single Moms and startups do not need to get fancy web hosting. You can sign up with a company such as Bluehost or DreamHost and you should be good to go. Get shared hosting. You don’t need a dedicated server or a VPN this early on. The good news is that should your business grow, you can always move to a “better,” hosting plan. Anyway, you can get a great web hosting plan for as a little as $3 per month.
Create and launch your website
Once you have bought your domain and have signed up for a web hosting plan, you now need to create your website. Again, if this is something that you don’t know how to do, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and I will make it happen for you. It’s something that you can learn, but being a single mom and with all that running around raising your kids, you may not have the time.
Create your content
All the steps above have been leading up to this. Now that your site is up and running, you need to create content that attracts readers. Not only that, but having great content is a good Search Engine Optimization tool; allowing you to become more visible to search engines such as Google. If you have created a focused blog, then this is where you will include your affiliate links in your content. As an example, I gave you my web hosting affiliate links above. So, if you sign up using my links, I will get a nice commission.
Make money through YouTube Videos
Creating videos is another great way through which you, as a single mom, can make money from home. Even while raising your kids, there are thousands of things that are interesting around your life. You can use these to create and run a YouTube channel that attracts loads of readers. Creating a YouTube channel is a lot simpler than creating a blog. However, the idea is the same. You want to be focused on a particular topic so that people who are interested in that topic can follow you on the platform. Once you have created a viable following, you can turn it into a passive source of income through affiliate marketing and by running ads on your YouTube channels.
YouTube topics for single mothers
There is no end to the topics that you can focus on for your YouTube channel. Most of them are similar to what you would focus on for your blog. The following are but a few of them;
- Raising your kids
- Cooking
- Housekeeping
- Decorating
- Fitness for single mothers
- Any other topic
Generate income through Social Media
Yes, social media can be used to generate income. If you are a stay at home mom, this is definitely something that you may want to look into. As is the case with any other digital marketing channel, social media works best if you have a high number of followers. You are probably not going to make that much money if you only have ten or twenty followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These, by the way, are the most popular social media platforms.
How to have a great social media following
It’s not easy to get a huge social media following. It takes a lot of time and work. However, you can get there by focusing on areas that are of interest to people. Your approach here should be the same as with blogging and YouTubing. You could very well create a page on which you engage your friends and relatives. However, to get beyond your mother, father and high school friends, you need to have something extra. Let’s say you talk about fitness for single mothers. Fitness is a very popular topic. So, it’s something that you can use to get a large following. Once you have a following that runs into the thousands, you can monetize it using affiliate marketing or direct sales.
Make money through Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates is related to affiliate marketing. This is another great way through which Single mothers can make money from home. Amazon Associates should be thought of as the affiliate program from Amazon. The trick, as is the case with all affiliate marketing, is to get your links in front of a relevant audience. Not only that, but you also need to make sure that your audience is big enough to sustain your project.
How does Amazon Associates work?
To do Amazon Associates, you first need to create a blog, or to have a viable Social Media presence. Once you have that, you can join Amazon Associates and get links for various products that are on Amazon. These are the products that you will promote on your site. As an example, if you have created a site that focuses on cooking for single mothers, you can write a post titled; “Essential equipment for a single mom’s kitchen.” You will then feature various products, such as air fryers, blenders, mixers and juicers in your post. If the people who read your article are interested in buying any of these gadgets, then can then go to Amazon where they will buy the products. And once someone has bought something, you will get a commission.
Why Amazon Associates works for Single Moms looking to make money from home
The best thing about Amazon Associates is that once you have produced your content, it will become a passive source of income for you. Once you have written the article that we mentioned above, you will get money from it for a long time. That’s all going to depend, of course, on whether or not the article is popular. So, it’s a passive source of income, but you need to do lots of work to set up it up.
Amazon FBA
This is another way through which single mothers can make money from home using Amazon. Amazon FBA is something that I have previously dwelt on in depth, so you may wish to check out that article. All I can say here is that FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. The thing to note is that with FBA you need to have a sizable startup capital because you are responsible for procuring the goods. Amazon handles storage, packaging and shipping on your behalf. But the inventory remains yours, so if you don’t have any sales, the risks remain yours. You also pay operating fees to Amazon. The following is how it works;
- You buy a product from suppliers and ship it to Amazon warehouses.
- You then promote the product.
- People buy the product via Amazon.
- Amazon packs and ships the product.
- Amazon handles returns and customer issues.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is another alternative for single moms who are looking to generate income from home. Dropshipping is more or less similar to Amazon FBA. The difference is that you don’t ship the goods to anybody. Instead, they are shipped directly to the customer from the supplier. The following is how dropshipping works;
- You create a ecommerce store selling various goods.
- You promote these goods.
- Someone buys from your store.
- You then buy from the supplier.
- The supplier ships to the customer.
Create and sale branded T-Shirts
If you are good at marketing, then this is another great way through which you, as a stay at home mother, can generate income. T-Shirts have evolved over the years to be canvases on which people who have something to say (and even those that do not have anything to say), can have their say. If you are one of these people, then herd over to Teespring to create and sell branded t-shirts. The great thing is that all that you need to do is come up with a design and they will do the creation and shipping on your behalf!
Create your own online store
Other than a blog, you can also create your very own online store if you have something to sell. The products that you sell on your site do not need to be physical. You can also sell digital goods, such as my DIY Facebook Ads Marketing Course. Let’s assume that you are a stay at home mom who is into painting. You can create a store on which to sell these and other crafts using ecommerce platforms such as WooCommerce or Shopify.
Become a Freelance Writer
Are you good with words? If yes, then you can generate money while taking care of your kids at home by becoming a freelance writer. There are thousands of people out there who are looking for writing services, either in the form of content writing or in the form of ghost writing. So, this is something that stay at home moms can do while their kids are at school as a means of generating money. There are various platforms out there that you can use to get freelance writing work. The most known are;
- Freelancer
- UpWork
- Guru
Get other freelancing work
Freelancing isn’t limited to writing. There are various kinds of work that you can do for people across the globe. If you go to platforms such as UpWork, you will see that people are on the looking for a wide range of professions, including programmers, web developers, copywriters, photography and much more. Most of these tasks can easily be tackled by stay at home moms.
Write books
Writing books and novels used to be exclusive to an elite club that made millions. Today, it’s possible for almost anybody to write and publish a book. You can get published on Smashwords or Kindle Direct Publishing and you do not need to be that good or to do that much editing. Of course, it pays to produce something that’s readable; otherwise it’s going to fall flat. The great thing about books is that they are a real source of passive income. Once it’s out there and if it’s popular, it will continue generating money for you well into the future. And you can promote your book on your website on Facebook, YouTube or any other social networking platform.
Sell Photos
Single moms who are into photography can generate income from home by selling photographs. There are many stock photo sites on the web on which you can sell your photos. There following are some of them;
- CanStockPhotos
- Dreamstime
- SmugMug
- Getty Images
Make money through transcribing
This is another way for single mothers to make money. If you are a good computer typist, then this is something that you can do as a way of generating income. Of course, this type of work is work, but the good thing is that it’s often flexible. Your hours are not regular, and you work whenever it is convenient for you. You do not have to stick to particular hours.
Teach online
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in demand for online teachers. If you are good at one particular subject, then this is something that you can do to make money. Again, the great thing about teaching online is that you work flexible hours. You can arrange to teach when your own children are at school.
