Learn how to work at home as a mom blogger!
Hey future mom blogger!
Are you thinking about wanting to work at home as a blogger? For me, it’s been the absolute BEST decision of my life.
I’ve been doing this for only three years and I don’t see myself stopping.
I started my blogging journey in 2015. At this time my twins were around 16 months.
My maternity leave ended after one year and I needed to find a way to contribute to our finances. This is the path I took to work at home as a mom blogger.
I make a full-time income being a work at home blogger and I know you can too!
Step 1: Learn How To Make Money With a Blog
I had no idea what I could do online to make money. I knew nothing about monetization strategies online. But, my husband did!
His business is online and he knew about affiliate marketing, products, sponsored content and things like that.
What he suggested for me though, was more of a service-based business.
He mentioned being a virtual assistant.
I read up on what that was and knew I didn’t want to do that! He then said to look at other mom bloggers and see what they are doing. I soon learned that some of them were freelance writing.
I was hooked.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE writing and found that blogging was perfect in between diaper changes and playing with my twins.
Freelance writing online means you write a blog post – or any type of content like an email, landing page, About page etc.. – for a business (or blogger, or brand or a solopreneur) and then you get paid for that work.
So, I spent time learning about freelance writing and made some mistakes along the way, but eventually started a blog. This was a service-based website with a blog (years later I moved my blog to a new place).
Step 2: Set Up My Blog for a Business
When I started my blog, my intention was to make money from it. This might be different than what other mom bloggers do.
But, I have no shame in saying that I started a blog to make money 🙂
I had to set up my blog as a business blog. This meant I needed certain pages like:
- Hire me page
- Services page
- Testimonial
- Portfolio
- Contact page
I had to convey on these pages that I was a legit freelance writer – without any experience!
So, I needed to gain experience first. This is usually the first thing people do when they start a service with their blog. You can usually do this easily by trading your service for a testimonial.
In my situation, though, I could just create samples of my writing by writing a blog post or guest blogging (publishing your post on someone else’s blog).
With some experience behind me, I could start focussing on the pages of my blog to convey that I was the writer for small business. I made sure to mention
- What services I do
- The work process
- Revisions/edits
- Promotion strategy
Step 3: Find Freelance Writing Jobs
Since I was blogging to make money, I had to find gigs and I did that by looking at freelance writing job boards. Yes, those exist for this service!
I was fortunate to find some good quality freelance writing jobs using job boards. Then clients started contacting me and the rest is history! 🙂
In the three years of freelance writing, I collaborated with big brands, small businesses, mom bloggers and solopreneurs! I LOVE helping others grow their business.
Step 4: Diversify My Income Streams
I was doing great with generating enough income with freelance writing. I was only writing part-time and making a full-time income doing this.
But, I wanted to help other writers.
I was getting a lot of emails from new freelance writers wanting help in finding their first clients.
This was the main reason I moved my blog to a new place as a way to focus on this audience.
When I had time, I worked on a course for people wanting to be a freelance writer. It took me like 6 months to write the lessons since I was doing client work, writing blog posts for my blog and taking care of my twins.
But, I launched Write Your Way to Your First $1k and made a nice side income. This course has had a lot of updates and continues to be a popular course for those wanting to freelance write!
Over time, I wanted to share other parts of my life – like being a mom blogger!!!
So, I decided to start Twins Mommy!
Step 4: Branch Out
The great thing about working from home as a mom blogger is that you can have more than one blog!
I’m a serial blogger (I mean, this post is on ANOTHER blog of mine – Smart Mom Ideas!) and I love sharing my ideas and connecting with others.
Twins Mommy started as a way to share my experience working from home.
I couldn’t really share that on my freelance writing blog since people went to that blog to learn about freelance writing tips (not to learn about a mom with twins working from home!).
So, a lot of my first posts on Twins Mommy were about working from home.
But, something changed.
I decided that I wanted to try my hand at “traditional blogging.” To me this meant using traditional monetization strategies like affiliate marketing, creating products like an online course or sponsored content.
So, I wrote a post on how I was going to grow Twins Mommy and from that point on I started attracting other mom bloggers wanting to do the same thing!
I was branching out and connecting with a new audience.
Step 5: Affiliate Marketing
The first way I started making money on Twins Mommy was with affiliate marketing. At first, I was just placing links in various blog posts. There was no rhyme or reason.
I had no strategy.
It wasn’t until several months later that I sat down and wrote targeted income-generating posts based on my affiliates.
The first month – $200 – and then the next month – $2000! I was hooked.
I pumped out more posts that focussed on my affiliates and doubled my income.
Step 6: Introduce a Course
I was getting a lot of emails from mom bloggers wanting to know how I was growing my blog traffic. I was sharing my traffic reports on the blog and others wanted the same success.
So, I created a course – Ready Set Blog for Traffic.
This is a nice little seller too!
I recently opened it up to an affiliate program so I’m looking forward to seeing how this will help in growing my brand!
Step 7: Create More
Most bloggers that create eBooks or courses don’t just have ONE product – they have many.
I created another course and a Pinterest masterclass.
I was hooked on creating courses and even more interested in creating trip wires – my masterclasses.
A tripwire is a low priced offer that is shown early on in the buyer’s journey.
With the success of my Pinterest masterclass on Twins Mommy, I created another masterclass for my freelance writing blog.
It’s been a little over a month since I launched my freelance masterclass, and I’ve already made over $1k (and it’s a $7 product!).
My Plan Switched
Up until this point, I was on the plan to create at least two more courses for Twins Mommy. These would be my signature courses or at least big comprehensive courses.
But, things change and I’m no longer working on that business plan. Right now, it’s all about growing the blogs we have and monetizing them.
I mean, with hundreds of thousands of visitors per month (combined), it’s crazy not to take advantage of this!
The Not So Fun Things About Blogging
I’ve been doing this for three years and I don’t plan on stopping. I’ve seen bloggers start later than me and they are no longer blogging.
I also have seen bloggers start after me and making more than me.
Blogging is definitely a hard thing for many of us!
1. It’s Time Consuming
I’m not going to lie – I am in my business almost all day.
I personally have a hard time disengaging from my work, but I’m getting better. I don’t have the whole FOMO as much as I did when I first started 🙂
I don’t ever have my phone when I’m with the twins or we go to the park. I’m engaged and mindful of what I’m doing.
But, if I’m cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping, dropping my twins off at school, at the gym, before bed, watching TV, cleaning the bathrooms etc.. I’m thinking about my blog and business.
2. You Don’t See Results as Quick as You’d Like
When you see other bloggers that started around the same time as you (within a month) and they are in the same niche as you and they BLOW you out of the water in terms of income growth, email list growth and traffic, you get a little upset!
You wonder why that’s not happening to you.
Something you have to learn – and that I’m learning – is that you can’t compare. Your blogging journey is YOURS. You have your own path to success. So stick to it!
3. People Will Copy You
As soon as you start growing your blog and brand, other bloggers will take notice and copy you. They may not realize it or they may do it intentionally. I’ve learned to let it go and forget about it.
The content online isn’t unique. There are only so many make money blog posts or Pinterest blog posts or how to start a blog posts. They are all the same! The only difference is YOUR voice and how you spin that content.
I’ve had blog posts copied, pins copied, and even Facebook Lives copied!
4. It Can Be Scary
Once you start making an income from blogging, you’ll start getting a little freaked out by it.
You want to ensure that the money keeps coming, that you make sales every day, that your traffic isn’t dipping, that your popular posts are still popular or that you are still growing your email list by x every day.
As soon as one of those changes, you can lose your whole business.
You Need Thick Skin to Blog
The behind-the-scenes of a mom blogger making money looks different than what we see online. This is a business and working from home as a mom blogger may be un-balanced, lonely at times and upsetting.
But, you know what?
There are about a million great things about blogging.
Both my husband and I work from home and can live practically anywhere we want. We have two amazing children that know nothing different of dad and mom staying home every day.
We can go to the gym when we want, stop work in the middle of the day and go out when we want and make as much income as we desire!!
Starting a blog did that for him, it did that for me, and it can do that for you too!
Here are 63 more ways to live on one income and stay at home as a mom.
Ready to work at home as a blogger?
Tell me how you started working from home as a blogger! I want to hear YOUR story.
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