Online Business Ideas For A Stay at Home Mom

Are you looking for online business ideas for a stay at home Mom (Mum for our UK readers), stay at home Dad or just someone who likes the idea of earning a living from home, it’s time to start an online business!

But what should I do? What can you do to earn money online?

Well, there are numerous ways to earn money online, which is why I started this website!

The key thing to remember is that anyone can start an online business, but many can’t sustain it for long. Like any business, online or offline, it takes hard work and dedication. So, if you think you have the dedication, the drive and the passion to succeed, then there are a lot of opportunities to make a living online.

Ways To Earn Money As A Stay At Home Mom

1. Start Your Own Blog/Website

Why not start your own website or blog and write articles on what you are most passionate about. The more interested you are in your chosen subject, the more willing you are to put the work in to write on a consistent basis and build up your site.

Try if you can to pick a subject that both; you are interested in and is a profitable niche blog topic. If you can find a balance between the two, then you can potentially make lots of money by monetizing your website with things such as Affiliate Marketing and Advertising, etc.

But how do you actually go about making your own website?

Well, it’s actually easier than you might think to build a website. You only need 4 fundamental things;

1. Domain Name – This is the URL address of your website (e.g. OnlineIncomeTeacher.com). I use GoDaddy to register my domain names.
2. Website Hosting – This is where the information on your website is stored online, so people can access your website 24hrs a day! I use HostGator to host my website.
3. WordPress – This is how you will manage your website. WordPress lets you easily manage all the content on your site, e.g. articles, pictures, adverts, plugins, etc. If you don’t know how to create a website from scratch using CSS code, then you will definitely need WordPress.
4. WordPress Theme – You want people to view your site as a professional website, not an amateur site. A good quality WordPress theme can make your website/blog look a lot more professional. I personally use WooThemes for my sites, this very site runs on the Canvas Theme from WooThemes.

Once you have your basic website you can start adding regular articles and posts on your chosen subject. It’s important that you stick to your chosen niche, as this is what your readers will be expecting to read on your site. There would be no point in me writing a post about my holiday to Japan for this website as it has nothing to do with making money online!

With regular content being added, you can look at ways of attracting traffic to your website. Getting your site on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook & Google+ will help, but learning about On-Page SEO & Off-Page SEO, Targeted Google Keywords, link building and more will help in the long run.

Finally, with traffic starting to come in to your website, you can look at ways to monetize and make money with it. Now, there are many ways to do this and it generally depends on what your website is about, but some of the most successful ways include; Affiliate Marketing, Advertising, Product Reviews, Product Creation, Email Marketing, and many more.

2. Start Your Own Product Review Website

This method is almost exactly the same to the previous, the only difference is that instead of writing about all the things that are related to a specific subject, you write product reviews for a certain type of product.

For example, you may be a keen reader. You could create a website/blog and review books that you have read. Give your honest opinions on books that you liked/disliked and let your website visitors comment on whether they agree with you or not. On each review you can supply an affiliate link to Amazon to the specific book you are talking about. This way, when someone reads your review and decides to buy it, they can click on your affiliate link and buy it through that, which means you receive a commission.

It doesn’t have to be books that you review, it can be whatever you like. If you like movies like me, then start a film critic website and place affiliate links to the corresponding DVDs/BluRay products. You might have small children, you could set up a site reviewing children’s products, whether it’s toys, prams, clothes, etc. Write a product review and find an affiliate link for that product. You might love gadgets, video games, arts & crafts, cooking, whatever it is, you can write your own product reviews for them.

The good thing about this type of site is that people who visit your site are more inclined to buy via you. They are actively seeking a review of a product, so they find yours. If they read a glowing review of a product that you have written, they might buy it straight away. But equally if you tell them that a particular product is terrible, you may be able to inform them of a better one.

3. Start A Business From Home & Promote It Online

You may have your own business that you run from home. This could be; bookkeeping, consultancy, writer, preparing gifts, dog sitter, etc. It doesn’t really matter what it is, the point is that you could promote yourself to a wider range of people by having your own website.

Having your own home-based business can be a struggle to find a constant supply of clients, particularly if you are relying on local advertisements like the local newspaper. Having your own website can open up your opportunities and not rely on local business.

Perhaps someone on the other side of the world, or even just an hour down the road, could benefit from your services.

You could also combine this with any of the previous two examples with your site. Perhaps you run a home-based catering service. You could design a website to promote your business, whilst writing the occasional review of cooking equipment or posting the odd recipe. All this can help draw attention to your website and ultimately make you more money!

4. Work As A Freelancer

If you have a specific skill, such as; writer, photographer, web designer, etc. then you could work as a professional freelancer.

A freelancer is someone who is not committed to a particular employer on a long term contract. This allows you to split your time between a number of different clients whilst providing them with a service.

As a freelancer you can work from home whilst completing a project for a client. Generally, clients hire you based on a completion date, so you are free to work the hours you choose within the day. This is great if you have kids that you are running to school in the morning and picking up in the afternoon, as you are free to work whilst they are at school and in the evening if you choose.

Again, having your own website to display your skills can help in finding new clients. You can use it as a portfolio for displaying your previous work, so potential employers can see that you are capable of working for them.

5. Become A Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant (VA or virtual office assistant) is someone that provides professional administrative, technical or creative help to clients from a home-based office. Now, because VA’s are generally self-employed, clients are not responsible for any employee taxes, insurance or benefits that they would normally have to pay to regular in-house employees. This means that VA’s are quite in demand at the moment, especially as companies are trying to cut costs whilst we are still in an uncertain economy.

Working as a VA will help you to generate a steady income without the expense of commuting to work. Once you develop a good amount of experience, there is even the potential to create your own virtual office business at home and hire extra people to assist you.

6. Start An eBay Business

Yep, eBay is still going strong! Why not start your own business from home by selling things on eBay.

You may have already sold some things online, perhaps the odd bit of junk from the garage or loft that you no longer use. A lot of people turn this into a business by going round charity shops and car-boot sales to find items to sell on eBay. If you know what sort of items sell well, then you can make a nice amount from other people’s unwanted items.

You can take it a step further however. If you are going to start your own eBay business, then unless you have an endless supply of unwanted items, you will be needing stock! Pick a certain type of product that you are going to sell and go and find a supplier that sells them. Now there are two sources for getting stock; Wholesale and Drop-shipping.

• Wholesale – This method requires you to have the room to store the stock that you buy and the money to buy it in advance. The risk with buying from wholesalers is that you could potentially buy stock that doesn’t sell, but as long as you do research and make sure to check completed listings before you order anything, the risk here should be kept to a minimum.
• Drop-shipping – This method holds all the stock for you. When someone buys an item from you, your drop-shipper company sends out the item for you to the customers address. You only actually pay for the item once you have received payment from the customer. This method does require you to pay a membership fee to join the scheme in the first place though.

Whichever method you choose to go with, you can start selling larger quantities of stock on eBay. If you can find products that sell well, which nobody else is really supplying, then you have got a great business that you can run from home.

For more detailed information, read our post on ‘How To Make Money On eBay‘

These are just some of the various ways that you can earn money by staying at home. The internet is becoming more and more integral to our professional lives, so utilising it to promote yourself and/or making money online is a key skill to have.

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