Are you looking for some income ideas as a stay at home mom? You’ve come to the right page. Here are 14 ways to get started – some are easy, some are challenging and some are entrepreneurial. Let’s find out which one suits you the most.
1# Sell Your Junk for Cash
As a busy stay-at-home mom, I am sure you’ll pick up many items – books, gadgets, clothes, utensils – that no longer serve any purpose. If this stuff can still be used, consider selling on eBay or list them on Kijiji (for Canadians). No way they are going to make you rich overnight, but hey, if we can convert the trash into cash, why not right?
It may sound ridiculous, but there’s a market for the second-hand economy and it’s growing. With the convenience of mobile apps, one can now easily sell unwanted items within minutes. Check to see if you can sell in any of these sites;
2# Become an Airbnb Host
If you love interacting with new people AND have got extra space in your cosy home, consider signing up to become an Airbnb host. Airbnb is a vacation rental platform that connects travellers in search of local accommodation to hosts who are interested to rent out their own homes or empty rooms.
Listing your property is absolutely free and you are completely in charge of the rules or regulations, the pricing, and booking availability. When a successful booking is made, 3% will go to pay the host service fee.
There is significant variance in regards to how much you can make; some earn a couple of hundred per month while others could make more. This very much depends on the size and quality of your space, location, booking frequency, and other additional services that you may offer.
Besides vacation rentals, you can also earn by offering local travel experiences such as food tours, guided classes on any type of topic, and even virtual sharing for those who can’t make it to the physical location.
3# Publish on Amazon Kindle
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) has totally disrupted the traditional way of publishing a book as we know it. If you’re an aspiring writer, this platform will enable you to self-publish faster and make your Kindle eBooks available online for Amazon buyers.
The first method of earning is through royalties. If a book is priced between $2.99 to $9.99, you make 70% and if it’s priced more than $9.99, you make 35%. The other way of earning is to enrol in the KDP Select and have your books included in the Kindle Unlimited (KU) selection and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL). Over here, royalties are paid based on the number of pages a customer reads.
There are several resources to help you with the publishing process. The most notable one is the free training offered by KDP University. Meanwhile, there are also many paid programs created by successful Kindle writers themselves to guide newbies like you, through the trenches.
4# Sell Crafts and Designs
If you love to keep yourself busy with craft, artwork, and design, you may consider this option as a side income. The good news is, there are many platforms where you can sell them. The three most notable are Amazon Handmade, Etsy, and Zazzle.
On Etsy, you can sell handmade or vintage goods as well as craft supplies to a worldwide audience. There is a $0.20 listing fee which is valid for 4 months, a 5% transaction fee, a payment processing fee, and 15% for ads if you wish to run them on the site.
In contrast, there’s no listing fee on Amazon Handmade, but they are quite strict with the selection of handcrafted goods sold there. You need to have a professional selling account that costs about $39.99 (for the US) and £25 (for the UK) and Amazon will deduct 12% to 15% in referral fee for every sale made.
If designing is your strength, then using a print-on-demand service like Zazzle is worth trying. Customers can buy your design and have it printed on the merchandise provided by the company such as T-shirts, mugs, pillowcases and etc. Sales profit is earned from the difference between retail and the base price for each item so there are no fixed royalties to how much you can earn.
5# Get a Gig Job
If you live in a bustling city, here’s another income opportunity. A side gig is basically a contracted job that pays by the hour for a service rendered. Most of these tasks require some kind of vehicle to chauffer passengers, deliver stuff to certain locations or render a service.
As long as you have a clean record and meet the minimum driving age plus a strong desire to do what it takes, you’re technically qualified for most gigs. This is a good alternative for moms who’re interested in non-skilled jobs with flexible hours.
While there’s no limit to the earning potential, the nature of these jobs is very much influenced by local customer demand and competition. It’s something you need to navigate wisely by factoring in your time and fuel spend on the road.
Find out if these gigs are available near you;
6# Advertise with Wrapify
Wrapify used cars for promotion just as billboards would. Consequently, they enable car owners to earn money by having their cars wrapped up in advertisements and drive around as they normally would. Signing up for the program is easy but you need to meet some requirements to become eligible. For example, you need to be able to cover a certain mileage before you’re qualified for the campaign offers.
Your earning is very much dependent on the ad’s visibility; how much you spend driving and where do you drive to. On the monthly average, a panel wrap pays about $84-$140, partial pays about $196-$280, and full wrappings about $265-$452.
7# Teach with Udemy
Udemy is a popular eLearning marketplace, suitable for teaching many topics under the sun. They have all the templates ready for you to create engaging written and video-based tutorials. So if you’re adequately knowledgeable in a certain field, you can certainly make money as an instructor.
Courses can be priced anywhere between $19.99 USD to a maximum of $199.99 USD. Your earnings will derive from multiple sources such as revenue-sharing, direct referral, or affiliate commissions, depending on which method you want to focus on. This site gets about 80 million unique visitors per month so that’s a lot of traffic to monetize from.
8# Teach on VIPKid
VIPKid, another eLearning site, gives children, ages 4 to 12, in China access to online English classes from qualified teachers throughout the US and Canada. These classes take place in a one-on-one format between the teachers and students enrolled in the program.
The requirements for becoming a tutor are quite strict though; you must be an English native speaker and possess a bachelor’s degree among others. During the application process, you’ll be interviewed, get to know the curriculum, and attend a mock class to make sure you get the drill.
If you qualify, you can set up a personal schedule after which students can book you accordingly. A VIPKid tutor can earn anywhere between $7-$9 for every 25-minute class depending on the level of experience and teaching performance. Apart from this, there are also several bonuses that you may be eligible for.
9# Become a Freelance Writer
Writing may not be necessarily fun for everyone, but if you have a strong passion for ideas and words, there are many ways to get started as a freelance writer. One option is to write for content mills. These are companies that hire large numbers of freelance writers from where they source content for their clients.
Although not recommended, it is easy to join and a great way to familiarize yourself with content writing even as you work to improve your skills and beef up your portfolio. Another option is joining freelance sites such as Upwork, Fiverr, and People Per Hour among others where you’ll be writing for clients directly.
Your earnings are usually calculated in terms of the words written per piece or the number of projects accomplished. There is a wide variance of how much one can earn depending on the sites or clients they are writing for, your experience, and the type of writing.
10# Sell T-shirts with Printful
Printful is an online service that facilitates an on-demand online t-shirt business. It does this by giving you the means to create, sell, print, and ship all sorts of customized t-shirts. To work with Printful, you first need to have an online store. You may choose to have a store in any of the e-commerce platforms that Printful is already integrated with or you can sign up and connect your store to Printful.
The platform lets you create custom designs on T-shirts using design tools available on the site and publish them to your online store. After an order is made, it is sent directly to them after which they handle the printing, packaging, and shipping to the customers. You will be charged for the fulfilment of each item at varying costs. What you earn therefore is the selling price minus the fulfilment fee. The more you charge, the higher your profit will become.
11# Get a Job on UrbanSitter
Urbansitter is an online platform that enables parents in need of childcare to find potential babysitters. To become a sitter, you need to subscribe to an annual paid membership. Your background will be checked thoroughly and your profile reviewed before you can apply for any jobs.
There are two ways to get a job; wait for parents to reach out to you through a booking request or search through the job boards for opportunities near you. Glassdoor records an average hourly pay rate of $16 for child sitters using that site but with good skills and experience, you could potentially earn more.
12# Join UserTesting
This is a user testing platform that lets companies test their products and services such as mobile apps, websites, and prototypes on real users. As such, you can sign up to become a tester and get paid for providing customer feedback.
You need to take and pass a sample test before you can join the panel. Testers are chosen as per the business requirements at hand, hence, your profile and demographic will determine the type of tests you’ll receive. Sometimes, you may also be required to take part in an evaluation to determine your suitability for a particular test.
For every completed user testing, you’ll earn $10 so the more tests you’re qualified for, the more you’ll make.
13# MLM Business Opportunities
Also known as network marketing, MLM is a popular independent business model that sells products/services directly to customers without a middle man. There’s a huge appeal for female products such as household, cosmetics, jewellery, essential oils, marketed this way, most likely due to the increase of women’s buying power over the years.
Another element to MLM is recruiting in which you’re taught that every customer is also a potential business owner. If they join your team and market the products, both of you will benefit too. The amount you’d make depends on each company’s unique compensation plan which will reflect the sales commissions, bonuses, and incentives as you move through the various levels.
In most cases, you just need to purchase some kind of starter kit to be a qualified distributor and undergo some training provided by the company to help with selling. House parties and product demonstrations used to be the predominant promotional methods, but nowadays, more people are taking to social platforms and blogging to do the talking instead.
MLM can be somewhat controversial due to their overpriced products and pushy recruiting tactics so do due diligence to find what’s right for you before investing. Here are some companies you may be interested to check out.
- Avon
- Agnes & Dora
- Herbalife
- Jamberry
- Kangen Water
- Monat
- Mary Kay
- Pampered Chef
- Scentsy
- Stella & Dot
- Tupperware
- Younique
- Young Living
14# Start an Affiliate Blog
One thing that’s really booming on the internet in the past few years is eCommerce. It’s obvious more people are getting comfortable with buying stuff online and who doesn’t? You can literally find anything without having to step into a physical store.
The good news is, more brands are providing their customers with this convenience AND launching affiliate programs to get regular people like you and me to help market their products/services online.
When a sale is made from a referral, you are compensated in the form of commissions that pays in variable percentages. In other words, it’s like selling something online except you don’t own the product AND you don’t need to communicate with the customers.
The beauty of this income model is that it’s suitable for many women-related niches – cosmetics, baby products, and fitness exercise, just to name a few – and it’s something you can totally execute from home.
With a blog out there, someone will find your content, read it, like it, and eventually click on your recommendation. As the process repeats itself, you’ll get more readers and more sales – the equivalent of more commissions. With a large dose of commitment, it’s not impossible to generate some passive income from a few years of blogging.
At least, that’s what I managed to achieve with this blog – all thanks to this awesome affiliate marketing training 😉
What’s Your Income Idea, Mom?
Phew, this is quite a list but I’m pretty sure there are other income ideas for stay at home moms that I’ve not covered here. If you know of any, feel free to chime in. I do hope these suggestions have been resourceful and push you to think out of the box somewhat. If you’re still feeling stuck, join this community for free to get more tips on how to make money legitimately online.
This is a helpful article, especially for those who are looking for an alternative income. If anything we could learn from the current virus pandemic is that even full-time jobs couldn’t guarantee you a stable income. It’s important to look outside of our comfort zone now, explore new opportunities, and take on something more rewarding than the 9-5 grind.
There are some useful ideas here for stay-at-home mom AND stay-at-home-dads in my opinion. Good suggestions to try if you’re planning to get out of the corporate world and start something worthy of your passion.
Timely information you have here. I had to quit my job immediately when we took the decision to sire kids and this is our very first, so I am still new to the know-how of becoming a work-from-home mom. I am looking for something that is business-oriented as a form of making money while starting my journey into motherhood. Some of these income ideas could work for me!
Hi Kimberly, glad you found this useful! 🙂
These are some good options I’m sure a mom (or any other person, for that matter) will find something viable to suit their longterm goals in becoming more financially capable. Being a stay at home mom is all about flexibility since in many cases you can’t follow the typical 9-5 schedule.
However, the flexibility should also extend to your earning potential. These options aren’t just good for making a few extra bucks but they can also become sole-propriety businesses generating full-time incomes if you want to take it that far.
This is a very resourceful article. Unlike before, making money online has become a very popular option because it’s convenient and accessible by many people. One important thing is that you should find delight and satisfaction from these jobs and that you’re aren’t just doing it for the sake of.
For example, if you don’t have substantial knowledge of a subject matter, you can’t just go and create a course on Udemy. Find something that aligns with your interest and skills and the job will certainly be more rewarding for the long term.
These are some inspiring ideas. My sister will be having a baby soon and I think she will like the idea of working from home someday. She has some experience working for a magazine company so freelancing sounds like something up her alley. An awesome list overall!