From running paid ads to publishing entertaining videos, there are as many ways to make money online as the dollars in the paycheck. While some of these methods don’t compare with full-time office work in terms of revenue, they’re often enough for earning on the side.
For a growing number of stay-at-home mothers, side hustles like these work well in their favor. The latest statistics found that roughly a quarter of more than 9,000 surveyed mothers have left their day jobs to spend more time with their children. Coupled with increasing dissatisfaction with work due to a lack of flexibility, it’s understandable why they opt to go down this road.
Thanks largely to the Internet, the husband doesn’t have to be the sole breadwinner. Two ways that have been gaining popularity recently are affiliate marketing and paid ads. Read on to learn the ins and outs of these approaches and whether they’re right for your situation.
What is affiliate marketing?
Imagine getting a cut of the sale from a seller if customers bought the latter’s products from your website. That’s affiliate marketing in a nutshell, and it’s basically everywhere in today’s business environment. Real estate is one, with agents earning every time they close a property deal.
However, in the online space, an affiliate isn’t limited to goods and services from a single seller like a salesperson. You can be the point of contact between multiple brands and their customers, allowing you to scale up your profit-making activities. It also has a lower risk and costs less to start than establishing a business.
As for how big the affiliate’s share is, it can either be a fraction of the product’s individual sale or a fixed price, depending on the terms. You’ll most likely start earning single figures in your first few years. But as you build your reputation, sellers will be more willing to increase your cut. Over half of affiliate marketers make less than USD$10,000 a year.
A website is the most common medium for affiliate marketing, but a YouTube channel, social media page, or podcast will also do. Once you have your platform, Step 2 is to join an affiliate marketing program, like Amazon Associates and eBay Partner Network.
If you can’t decide on one or aren’t too confident with your selling abilities, you can take an extra step before Step 2. You can enroll in a training course like Wealthy Affiliate, which you can see here for further info, or spend a few weeks comparing affiliate programs.
What are paid ads?
On the subject of making money online, the term “paid ads” pertains to the pay-per-click (PPC) model of digital advertising. It works like this:
- A business runs ads in search results or social media
- Users click on the ads and access the landing page
- The business pays the platform a fixed rate for the click
- If the click leads to a sale, the business makes up the cost
- Rinse and repeat equals consistent profit!
You’ve probably noticed that websites are rife with ads, and any attempt to block them (using ad-blocking plugins) will prompt them to explain that ads are how they earn. The PPC model is the foundation for most digital ads, ranging from paid search to seconds-long—and sometimes un-skippable—video ads.
But in this context, you aren’t the advertiser. You’re the platform.
Whether you run a website or YouTube channel, building your platform’s appeal and content is a great way to attract advertisers. If you have sufficient incoming traffic, businesses will be remiss not to tap into it, especially if the visitors match their target audience. For this purpose, you need an ad network service like Google AdSense and Media.net.
There’s no universal benchmark for success on this front, as it depends on your website’s niche and the kind of people visiting it. That said, you can command a higher ad price from advertisers if your site’s average traffic is measurable in the hundreds of thousands.
More than ad revenue, hosting paid ads can open other lucrative opportunities, such as starting an advertising agency. Naturally, this requires several additional steps and more hard work on your part, starting with learning from pros like Local Marketing Vault and others.
Are they right for you?
Now comes the million-dollar question. Are these moneymakers right for a full-time mother?
One thing worth keeping in mind, whether looking for side hustles or starting a business, is that the first few stages are often the hardest. As mentioned earlier, affiliate marketing will have you start on single-digit revenue; the same goes for hosting paid ads. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Despite being passive sources of income, these approaches demand you to be highly active in enhancing your platform. Advertisers won’t waste time and money on a social media page or website that gets little attention and seldom publishes content. All the while, you manage your daily household responsibilities: cleaning, cooking, and calming rowdy kids.
The answer here is more complicated than a yes or no. Dedication is as indispensable in earning online as in fulfilling your obligations at home. You have your work cut out for you, learning the ropes of building a niche website and creating engaging, optimized content, among other things. This endeavor will pay for itself in the long run with enough time, money, and energy.
However, it’s a good idea to temper your expectations. In the early stages, you may need to be smart about your finances to avoid blowing the family savings in this venture. More importantly, while it’s a race, success in this endeavor isn’t about who finishes first but who remains last in the running. With more businesses going digital, there won’t be a shortage of opportunities in the future.
Conclusion
A stay-at-home mother doesn’t have to give up making a living for the family. With the Internet and more enterprises harnessing it, you can find various profitable opportunities, such as affiliate marketing and paid ads. Although it’ll require as much from you as your former nine-to-five job, the results will be nothing short of satisfying when it all works out.
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