The Best Side Hustle For Stay At Home Moms
Blog writing seems to be the one side hustle that no one actually talks about, but if you’re trying to figure out how to make money as a stay at home mom, you’re in the right place!
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Why I Started A Mom Blog
Frankly, I feel like writing blogs gives me that sense of “adult conversation” that im lacking when I spend all day talking to toddlers. I spent a few years doing freelance writing for other blogs, and I made decent money doing that, but then that got me thinking.. if these people can afford to pay me to write these blogs for them, they must be making pretty good money right? Why don’t I write for my own blog?
How I Find Time To Blog With 2 Toddlers
Well, it’s not easy, but I mainly do all of my blog post writing on my phone. I just find my phone to be more easily accessible when I’ve got a few minutes of downtime, and it’s always with me so if I’m not at home, I can still write if I have the time.
Most of my computer work is done during nap times or after bedtime, but really that’s all I need! I don’t find blogging to be demanding several hours a day out of me, really, I only need MAX 3-4 hours a day to get everything done. Remember this is talking in terms of having your blog as a side hustle, if you want to make it your full time job, you may need to devote more attention to it.
The Learning Curve: What I Wish I Knew Before Starting
I had a great background with writing and understanding how to format a blog because I previously did freelance blog writing as a side hustle. I even had some experience working with WordPress and sort of knew my way around the website.
I was lacking a lot of knowledge though, especially when it comes to Pinterest marketing strategies, how to choose a good hosting site, and where to source my pictures so that they would be copyright compliant.
I wish I would’ve known that Pinterest is a search engine- NOT social media. You need to treat Pinterest as such, and work hard to make your posts show up in the feed for as many keywords as possible. I’ve learned about a strategy that teaches you to make 5 Pinterest boards for every content pillar your blog has, then for every blog post you write, you need to be pinning that post 5 times to those 5 Pinterest boards.
When you are a brand new blogger and you go out to search for what hosting site to sign up with, you’ll automatically see hundreds of blogs recommending Bluehost. I personally don’t use them and I don’t recommend them. I’ve had my own bad experience with their customer support, but beyond that there are just some really scary horror stories out there on places like Reddit and Facebook. Most bloggers will recommend Bluehost to you because they have an incredibly high-paying affiliate program, and really those people only care about the payout. I use Hostinger (and I’m telling you this without a link to be incredibly clear that this is not for any profit of mine). Hostinger actually came out to be cheaper for me, but I believe they may have had a sale going on when I signed up.
How Blogging Gave Me A Sense Of Identity Beyond Motherhood
Writing truly gave me my voice back. I get to talk to people about the most important aspects of my life, and I can do so using “big words” rather than short sentences and baby talk. My audience understands me and i finally feel heard, despite having just told my kid for the 5th time to put his shoes on!
Really, the point here is, Im finally something outside of a mom. And when people ask me “what do you do” i have more to say than just ” oh im a stay at home mom.” now, im actually pretty proud of my blog, i love sending people my links and having them see just how hard I’ve been working to make something for myself.
Was it a bit humbling and embarrassing in the beginning? ABSOLUTELY! But listen, it’s only crazy until it works. People will talk, and people will have their judgement, but they can only say so much until that first check comes in and they see the literal numbers that show it’s working. It’s not so crazy anymore when you’re holding your first $1,000 check.
The Biggest Challenges I Face As A Blogging Mom
Ill be honest, blogging isn’t easy, and if you’re looking to get rich quick its probably not going to happen with a blog. When you’re first starting out, most affiliate commissions are low and ad payouts are going to be low as well, especially as you are growing your monthly viewers. Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. The real key here is bulking up your website so there is more content to draw in more views. Your first few months blogging will be filled with a lot of work to build up your website and create a good amount of content that viewers actually want to see.
Most importantly though, you do want your website to be filled nicely with a lot of content, but it must be good content that people actually care about reading. Without readers, your blog will crash and burn. The clicks to your webpages are not the only metric you should focus on, and be prepared that it’ll naturally take some time to get a large number of monthly viewers.
Google itself really won’t push your blog to many viewers for at least 6 months if not a year or more, so that initial year will be filled with you trying to funnel in new viewers from various social platforms. Pinterest is a huge key to this though, especially if your target audience includes moms or women.
