In this day and age it is very difficult to run a household on one income. In fact, our world makes it nearly impossible with how much they pander to the double-income families. This article is meant to show you exactly what I have done to bridge that “nearly impossible” task to be a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) while also being a work-at-home mom (WAHM) to contribute to the family income – all with the goal to give you ideas to help you do as much – or as little – as you want to do to follow the same journey. Read this post to the bottom to read about my #1 way of bringing in extra income, which is currently 90% of my SAHM income. This is a gold mine for anyone!
In addition, this is a long post because I did not know how I could condense my current money-making tasks into a short summary and it be helpful for you. So there is a lot of information. But I have tried to make it as clear and helpful as I could in one post. Read the post carefully and follow the steps and it will be a very rewarding read. In addition, by reading this post, you can earn an easy $35 right away (and no online surveys).
The desire to be a SAHM is increasing dramatically every year. For decades, women tried so hard to find jobs and work outside of the home that this shift of wanting to be back home is the returning paradigm and it’s a tough road to get there once we left!
However, the idea of being a SAHM also seems to come with a stigma that we just sit around home all day. I can attest to you that this is rarely the case for any mom with any number of children.
Whether or not mom is bringing in income, she’s one of the hardest working members of the family, never getting a break, always on call, etc.
When my days get tough, I have often said to myself that “how nice it would be to leave and go to work to get a break.” Although I want to be home, it doesn’t mean that it is automatically covered with ice cream and chocolate pie. It’s the hardest thing I have ever done.
But it is even more difficult when you have a large family living on a one-income budget. Even if you are a perfect budgeter, it is nice to have a little bit of wiggle-room, vacation money, build savings, etc.
That’s why I love to find ways that I can use my “free-time” to make extra money.
Now the thing is, I am bringing in an average of $3,500 a month, but my working-at-home-journey did not start that way. I have built my opportunities over time and things have changed a lot in the many years of trying. And, even after what I share with you today, I hope that I can continue to grow and expand my opportunities so that I can bring in even more for our future.
There are also many things that have worked, some that worked temporarily, and others that have worked long-term. But regardless, I love being creative with my time with the result of helping the family economy in such a meaningful way.
There are many ideas I would gladly repeat, but on the other hand, many I would not touch with a 10-foot pole ever again. It’s honestly what makes the adventure of finding work-at-home jobs that much more exciting – the intrigue and suspense of not knowing if a new idea will be the next way to earn extra income!
I have done A LOT. But before I start sharing I want you to know that this is not my comprehensive list of what I have done but the list below are my current endeavors. For an idea of what I have done in the past and over 130 ideas to get the ball rolling for you, you can see the list of Over 100 Ideas To Earn Extra Income HERE and those few marked with a * are also ones I have done in the past that could be a great opportunity for you as well.
How I currently bring in an extra $3,500 per month (listed from the smallest to largest contributors and factors)
I get paid to “shop.”
What I mean by that is not a mystery shopper situation (I have applied for those but they have never worked out because they seemed to stop offering opportunities about as fast as they started). I am talking about apps for in-store grocery shopping and rebate sites for online shopping these days that pay you a small amount to do your regular grocery shopping and online shopping. They are shopping rebates. And they are fabulous because you take a picture of your receipt afterwards and receive money back on your purchases. I don’t change the way I shop or what I plan to buy, but many of the rebates apply to what I am buying. My favorite app for this is Ibotta because they allow me to buy “any brand of milk, cheese, produce” etc. and get paid for it. Most of our grocery shopping items are fresh items and this works well. My favorite online rebate spots are TopCashBack and Ebates, both of which just require a click to receive the rebate. It doesn’t bring in a lot, but $20 or so dollars per month. There’s also no reason to not double up on apps like Checkout51 and more. Get paid twice as much!
How much does it cost to start getting paid to shop?
Nothing. Period. They are free apps and websites. If you are buying anything in the store or online start today to receive money or 2-15% of your purchase back in cash back rebates for simply clicking or taking a picture of your receipt with your smartphone. $20 extra dollars per month is $20 extra dollars and takes me less than an hour per month.
How Do I Start (plus get $30 in Sign-Up Bonuses – $10 through each link below)
Simple. Register and then download the Ibotta app using this link HERE. When you do so, you will also get a free $10 from joining through the link provided after you redeem your first rebate. So $10 in your pocket right away just from reading this post. 🙂 Then just log-in before you go shopping and select which cash back rebates you would like to take advantage of. I can even do this while in the grocery store.
Second, register for both TopCashBack and Ebates. You also get cash back rebate bonuses of $10 for registering and completing your first rebates! Then before you make any online purchase check the compare the cash back rebates being offered by each and shop with the one giving the largest return for that merchant for that day.
And as a note, you can earn additional cash back from all of the above by referring friends. So a little extra cash in your pocket.
I Get Paid To Search The Internet
Yes, I get paid to do my normal Google searches, just doing them through Swagbucks. This is one thing I have done for 7+ years. I bring in enough to virtually pay for Christmas each year. That means I am bringing in around $50 per month. It didn’t start off that high, but has built up to that point. Sometimes I make a lot more too! It doesn’t take me a lot of extra time, in fact none after the few minute registration and set-up. I just do all of my internet browsing through them instead. We talked about this in more depth HERE.
How much does it cost to start getting paid to search the internet?
Again, another BIG FAT ZERO! It’s free to sign-up and anyone can. There are no requirements. I know people that pay a bill or two a month with the income from this, occasionally pay for a road trip or small vacation, pay for their baby diapers, pay for part of their groceries and more with the money they earn through searching the internet through Swagbucks.
How do I start (Plus $5 Sign-Up Bonus)
It simply requires signing-up through this link HERE, which only takes a few minutes. And by using the provided link, you will also receive an immediate $5 sign-on bonus. Then each day, log-in through Swagbucks before you start doing anything online, even get paid for going to Facebook! The pay you receive is in the form of gift cards – generally Amazon gift cards for my Christmas spending. They have gift cards to virtually everywhere. We’ve talked about it in more detail here. Again, $50 extra per month is $50 extra per month and this one does not take extra time after the initial 5-10 minute set-up. This is also another spot where you can earn even more by telling your friends and if they sign-up, you get a referral bonus.
I get paid to write articles for websites.
I am currently writing articles for two websites that each pay me $50 per article. I write 4-6 times per month and generate $200 – $300 extra per month. One website is a home decor business that runs a blog as the information shared in a blog keeps their content relevant, current and fresh. The second is a financial products and services site, that also has a blog for the same reason as the home decor site and many other businesses out there that maintain blogs to keep their business current and fresh online. I am not talking about blogs, I am talking about businesses that have a product or service to sale, but also have blogs on their websites to have closer communication with their customers.
How much does it cost to begin writing for businesses blogs?
Again, the answer is nothing.
How do I start.
This one is a bit more challenging for just anyone, but anyone can write for a site if they have the skills, knowledge and passion about a subject. The difficulty is that there are many more writers than available paid writing jobs. So you do need to somehow stand out. I was actually sought out for writing for these businesses websites because I already have an online presence through this site here and my active social media accounts. But, it is something you can see and pursue as well.
TheWriteLife has provided a helpful list of several places online that you can find and apply for online writing jobs.
In addition, a great way to start is by joining Fiverr HERE and grabbing some easy writing jobs for $5 each. This builds your reputation fast and is often a quick $5 at a time. Most writing jobs for the $5 would take about 15-30 minutes, producing at least $10 an hour to start. Read a reader review regarding Fiverr HERE.
Selling items around home or upselling used items I buy for cheap.
This one is a consistent project as there is always something to sell from furniture, clothing, home decor and many items that we are finished with including baby items, books and movies (which I sell to Amazon HERE) and many other items. Also, nearly year round, but especially in garage sale season, it is very easy to find items that are being sold for a great price that I can easily turn around and resell (what I call upselling) and upsell on Facebook groups, our local classifieds, etc. This is not a consistent income, but whatever time I put in is generally returned and not wasted time. Sometimes I am able to put a lot of time in and other times not so much. We’ve have talked about this extensively in other articles and in our ebook How to Find $1,000 in 30-Days HERE. With this particular method of selling, eBay is a great outlet as well. I have sold on eBay for several years and was making several hundred dollars consistently each month. But I have currently moved away from this and just do occasional selling via local classifieds and on Amazon because the last point in this article is giving me a much higher return on my time investment. But the last item on this list did not start producing a big income for the first several months, so this was a great in-between opportunity.
How much does it cost to sell my used items or to upsell?
This is a more difficult question to answer because you can start for free by selling items around your home and then reinvesting the money in other larger and pricier items being sold at garage sales. Or you can determine how much you can invest initially and get started and then reinvest a portion of your profits to build your inventory. But a word of caution, don’t build your inventory faster than you are going to sell because you will end up with a lot of junk on your hands. Take it step by step.
How Do I Start?
Well, honestly, you are going to love this! What if I could tell you that you start by completing the Decluttering Challenge here on our site and then turn around and sell some of the items that you discovered during the challenge. So getting your home cleaned out and making money at the same time? It is a double YES! Then, I have a spot located in my basement and garage for items I find while garage saling and even thrift store shopping that would be a good upsell item. I try not to store these for long because that will get into another mess. Our ebook HERE also has a section on upselling items that may be helpful.
Selling handcrafted items.
Selling handcrafted items is one of my favorite ways to bring in extra income. It is an opportunity for fun with my girls, my mom, my grandma and my sister. It is a joint family effort and so much fun! We enjoy the crafting time together and the opportunity to sell together. It’s been great for our girls as well. This is a seasonal job with high and low times, but in the high times, it’s great! With those high and low seasons, some months we don’t do anything and other months we are selling nearly every weekend. When we sell, we make a decent amount, which is great!
How Much Does it cost to sell my used items or to upsell?
Again, this is going to be a lot or a little based on what you are making to sell. We make jewelry and accessories from denim. But instead of buying denim by the yard, we upcycle old and used denim jeans that we have collected from our own collections or that we buy from the thrift store. This is our main expense. The tools and other items needed are low in our case. But I would say that we spent around $100 to initially get started with handcrafting accessories and jewelry from denim. We also had many tools on hand between all of us from past crafting experiences, otherwise it would have been more to start completely from scratch. The second big expense is the outlet used to sell our handcrafted items. This means the craft booth rental fees that can be from $10- $80. So the reinvestment expense is pretty high for this endeavor. This is the only route we have pursued for this particular craft, we hope to start selling on Amazon soon, but I don’t have experience yet to speak to this.
A picture from our Instagram account from one of our family handcrafted jewelry booths!
How Do I Start
Well, this particular “job” has been around classically for a very long time. For the most basic level of starting, just begin by researching and practicing creating handcrafted items. Then find craft shows, fairs, and other similar type events that you can rent a booth for the day of the event and set-up shop. You will need to get a tax ID from the state you live in and it is also a good idea to use a phone app that allows you to accept debit/credit cards that are pretty easy to use by connect a card swiper jack to your smart phone through SquareUp or ProPay (which also allows you to call in and no phone jack CC card swiper needed, although they have that option too). You could have a cash/check only booth, but in this day and age, having the ability to take a credit card will greatly reduce your chances of selling. However, it is still achievable. You can also sell your items on Facebook through a page a you setup. It’s a great outlet for the creative types. We have not tried Etsy, but many swear by it. This is more of a hobby that makes a little bit of money, but if I was committed to a more full-time job in this regard, I would consider Etsy – but we have heard the fees are quite high, so not a great fit for a hobby/crafting business. It really needs to be a serious crafting business.
Blogging – My #1 source of SAHM Income (about 90% of my total income)
Blogging is now my #1 money-making effort. I put most of my time and effort into this aspect of being a SAHM and the reason why is because this is and has been having the highest conversion rate of anything I have done yet. Meaning, the more effort I put in, the bigger the pay check. The other tasks are great, but it doesn’t change a lot with the time I put in. I have consistently brought in $2,000-$5,000 per month over the last couple of years. My average monthly income in 2016 already is $3,250 from this ONE source. I write about things I love: frugal living, recipes, tips and my passions. Sharing my passions has brought in a nice income for our family. Who knew!?!
I certainly did not start out blogging to make money, but to help others live a frugal, debt-free life with the tips and tricks we have learned from the school of hard knocks and our journey in paying off $100k of consumer debt quickly. But the fact that we are is a huge blessing.
And if I have learned anything in this world today, I know that EVERYONE has a story to tell. Blogging is the outlet to tell your story and it could very well become a full-time income for you one day.
How Much Does It Cost To Start a Blog?
That’s the great news. It doesn’t take a lot, which makes it one of the most affordable business ventures. In fact, there are only two things you really need: a domain name and a website host. You can cover this for 3 years for around $125 and that is all you really need. Sure, there are other things you could have like a fancy design to make your site look professional and a myriad of other products for bloggers – but you don’t need any of this for a time (the default templates and themes are perfect for someone starting out). In fact, don’t get those additional items until you have started and have begun writing for a few months so that you can justify those expenses when the time comes. And when that time comes, those additional expenses will be vital to turning your passion for sharing into a business. But in the beginning those are the only 2 actually needed things to start.
And the better news is that they are the more affordable parts of running a blog, which is great news because it does take a few months before you can start earning an income.
You can get a website host for only $3.49 per month through Bluehost. We like Bluehost because they are very affordable and family friendly. And, there is no need to go out and spend money on a domain name because hosting through Bluehost also gives you a FREE domain name registration for a year!
How Do I Start?
Starting does not need a complete list of know-how and a complete series to begin. In fact, I would recommend not starting a blog that way, but if you truly want to make money, just start writing as that is the core and the basis of your blog. You’ll find out the adage is true that “Content is King” as that’s exactly what you really need to run a business! Start now and start today. Then we can help and guide you into how to turn what you’ve created into a huge passive, extra income gig (and who knows, could become a full-time gig too).
If you have a passion, idea, life-experience, unique circumstances, expertise in any topic of any kind….you can start a blog. That’s all you need to start. Well, that, a host and many posts. You can literally write about anything! Just take your passion, hobby, expertise, where you live, whatever you do and write about it. There is nothing off the table.
The ONLY thing you need to do right now is to get your domain name (website name) and host. That’s it. The BEST thing to do is to sign-up through Bluehost where it will only cost you $3.49 per month to run your website through a special sale through THIS LINK HERE (this link gives you 50% off!). We have secured this super low price for our readers who are budding online entrepreneurs. You’re welcome. 🙂
They provide you with a domain name as well. Once you sign-up, they will walk you through the set-up of your site so that you can start writing and sharing. DO NOT DO anything else or buy anything else as you will not have what you need or be overbuying because there is nothing else you need right now. Just keep it simple and affordable!
So how do I make money blogging?
It’s multi-faceted and multi-fold, but I will give you a general idea and then we will start diving in deep to help our readers earn money off of sharing their passion and ideas online in upcoming articles (you will know about these articles by requesting our free online money making newsletter here)
- Ads – This is the basis and surefire way that any site can make money. Nearly every blog that you visit has ads of some kind, most starting with Google Adsense. How much do you make on ads? Well, it depends and we can dive deep into this in a later post, but as a general rule, it seems the average is around $4-$5 per 1,000 pageviews. So if you have a site that gets 10,000 pageviews a month, you can make around $40-$50 in just ads per month. We currently receive around 300,000 pageviews per month, which means our ads generate around $1,200-$1,500.
- Affiliates – Our ad income is pretty consistent. That’s a pretty measurable income. Affiliate income on the other hand is not so easily calculated, but you have the potential to make far, far more. What is an affiliate? It’s basically a company like Amazon that you sign-up to share a product from their site and if anyone clicks on your link to Amazon and purchases, you make a small percent of the sale (6.5-8.5% as an example). So if you end up selling $100 of items on Amazon and you make 7% = $7. If $1,000 of items sold through people clicking on your link then you would make 8% = $80. See how that works? You can even make a commission on talking about how much you love Amazon Prime (which we do) and the other services that Amazon offers. This is just one example of thousands of affiliates that are out there – but by far the most popular and profitable for most blogs and websites. This briefly explains how affiliate sales work. And we would recommend signing up for Amazon’s affiliate program ASAP. It is the first affiliate program to be a part of because they have everything and everything at a very low competitive price so no matter what you are talking about, you can refer people to the item on Amazon and potentially make some money too! But note, any time that a blogger is promoting an item or product, there is an extremely high chance that they are an affiliate with the company selling that product and so it is a great way for you to support these small businesses. ViralTag HERE is another good one!
- Sponsors – This is another way that many bloggers earn money. Plain and simple – sponsors! It takes time and site growth to get to the point where you can earn from sponsored posts or sponsored ads, but it is a viable source of blog income in due time. We will talk about the ins and outs of this in another post. But you have to have a blog with some great, consistent content before you can even start to do this.
- Selling your own products and ebooks – Having a blog is a great outlet if you have anything to sell. It is like a store, but online for the whole world to find and shop from. We have some of this on our site in our store.
There are some other ways as well, but these are the 4 main ways to earn money while blogging. The ads and the affiliates are ways that a blogger can earn money from the start! The others come with time.
If you are interested in starting a blog, all you need to start is your domain name and your host. You can do that through Bluehost HERE for $3.49 per month and you get a free domain name. They will walk you through how to set-up your site.
With this list of 6 things, I must say that’s a HUGE PAY INCREASE for a SAHM! It’s a huge blessing. But it has also required a bit of work too, so I am thankful that blogging, which started out as a passion and goal for others to stay out of financial difficulties, has proven to be a good income too!
How do you earn extra income from home?
Now that you have stuck around and read this very long post, I hope you have gained some new insights into modern day SAHM income opportunities (and your quick $35 above and your new website that you are going to share your passions through).
Alicia Hensley
Great information! Thank you for sharing!
Cassie
Yes, of course! I hope it is of help. 🙂
Susan frontera
Thanks so much for all this information. Very generous of you to put sooo much thought and detail in this. Sounds very interesting and i will give serious research time to look over all. I am a currently a licensed in-home daycare provider here in Michigan going on 20 years this September, but would like to try something new. I will pray and ponder all the above!
Cassie
If you need any help or suggestions, we are here. 🙂
Leah Sannar
I love these ideas! I’m blogging also, but haven’t yet begun to make a steady income. I hope to get there someday, but I love the other ideas that I can utilize in the interim! Thanks for sharing!
Cassie
Keep at it Leah! Blogging can become very profitable. If you need tips/ideas or a place to bounce off ideas, I am always here to ask. 🙂
Kathleen @blueeyedbabies
So many great tips!! Ima a SAHM and hope to make more money as the years continue. Thank you for sharing!
Cassie
Thank you for reading and I hope these tips will at least be a soundboard to generate more ideas!
Emily
These are some great tips! I will definitely be utilizing many of them. Some I already use.
Cassie
YAY! I am glad that you are doing some and wish you success with the others too!
Tess
These are all get tips! I’ll definitely be looking into swagbucks as well as a number of other things you mentioned. I’m currently trying to pay off my student loans and this would help immensely! Thanks for sharing!
Cassie
Yes, anything to help in any area has been a blessing for our family over the years. Even the attempts that have failed have been valuable. But Swagbucks is pretty fail-safe. 🙂
Megan
This was exactly what I needed to read tonight. I guess my question is how do you get people to red your blogs? Where did you post them?
Cassie
Hi Megan,
That is a great question. I am going to be writing a lot on the subject of blogging in the future, but let me give you some brief ideas now. First, you will want to share with your family and friends and ask them to spread the word. Second, you will want to comment on other blogs and link up on linky parties on other sites. 3. Guest posting on other sites. Basically writing unique content on a subject related to your blog on other sites that then include a bio and link to your site to introduce another sites readers to your site. If you want to do this on our site, please let me know. 4. Social media to the core – especially Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. There is literally a novels worth of ideas on how to grow your site using social media. But I would start with Pinterest as it is the easiest and fastest to gain followers and pin content from all over on specific boards and then pin your own content within those boards (and joining group boards like crazy). 5. Utilize the traffic coming from the other 4 sources to grow your email list, which becomes your followers and the best way for them to be connected with you is through email. The best way to get email subscribers is by offering a freebie or have a pop-up (I know they are annoying, but they are effective). In this blog market, you have to encourage visitors to your site to become readers. No matter how memorable you may be, they will easily forget you without being a part of your email list. That is a SUPER brief idea, but gives you an idea. 🙂
Jacqui
Thanks for the great ideas. I am about to start blogging so your article has been a great help!!!
Cassie
YAY! No problem! If you have questions along the way, we can try to help and answer!
Petra
Love these tips. There really isn’t anything we can’t do 🙂
Wendy
This is all great information! I’ve heard of Ibotta and Swagbucks but never took the time to check them out. Pinning this so I can refer back to it later!
Jared @ thehesitantchef.com
Thanks for sharing! You have some great info here! I’m glad that I’ve already started to implement some of them!
Sophie
This was a really great article. I love when bloggers share their income with other readers/bloggers. It really gives bloggers a boost to know that we can get to that level if we put in the effort! Thanks!
Taylor
So inspiring and some great ideas here! I’m just starting a career working from home and most of my income comes from freelance writing, freelance photography and sponsored posts on my blog. Love reading the ways other bloggers make their money!
T L
How would one know if their passion-turned-blogging would find a market?
Cassie
That is a great question T L and I think the first rule of thumb is that nothing is off the table. I have seen blogs on very specific topics that are even somewhat obscure. But, with the billions of people in the world, there will most likely be others who share a similar interest and want to read about it from someone else’s perspective. I will tell you, the more specific you are on a topic, the better your influence and the better sponsorships that you can receive vs. a more generic site. You can also research the topic to find out if someone is talking about it. This does not mean that you can’t it just simply gives you some ideas. The other perspective is that there may not be many talking about a topic you want to share, but you can create the interest in this arena. It also can’t hurt to try because the investment is so minimal to try! There’s hardly a risk involved.
What is so amazing to me in this day and age is that ANYONE can start a blog and start talking about something. You don’t need to write a book, then try and convince a group of elite publishers that your materials are worth investing in and presenting to the public. The same goes for youtube. Nowadays, any musician, comedic, talented individual can directly present to the world without a middle-man deciding who to showcase. In fact, we will be writing about YouTube careers and income in a future article. Another great outlet (but also couples perfectly well with a blog). I hope that helps!
Les
Thank you for all the helpful information. I love your ideas and your suggestions but I wonder how you write so many blogs and you write for companies when every newsletter has tons of typos. Is this acceptable when trying to make money at writing? I was wondering because I do a lot of typos and so I am afraid I won’t make any money if there are so many errors in the columns. I am no professional by any means. I think if I wrote blogs though I would check for typos because it’s frustrating to read with the errors. I read a lot of Ebooks and the same thing is happening. I know it is probably a time issue. Again thanks for the information.
Cassie
Hi Les,
You have made a correct observation in regards to time. I think most any blogger struggles with this as both time and resources become an issue. Most bloggers do not have editors and everyone knows that you really are not capable of being an effective “self-editor.” As far as the paid gigs for these sites, the articles are read by others before being published. Similarly to how the guest posts on our sites are read by us first, allowing us to then spot errors much easier as we are not so close to the content that the errors stick out like a sore thumb (again the self-editing issue).
However, this should be an encouragement to anyone. You don’t need a degree and you don’t need to be a professional to have a successful business. The true thing you need is something to share. Think of blogging as conversing or writing letters – you are just sharing what’s on your heart, in your mind and your experiences. The only cases in which I can see this to be a dire problem is in the case of a blog about professional writing or a grammar blog. It would seem quite odd to come across an unusual amount of typos. But again, everyone makes typos – it’s part of human nature. Hopefully that is of encouragement. I wake and write before my kids wake up and then share with you all! Just an everyday mom trying to help others and then one day discover that it also generates income. It even baffles me that I’m able to run this business in spite of not being perfect. 🙂
Angelle Marix an
Loved All of these great tips!! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Xoxo,
Angelle
http://www.dashingdarlin.com
Charlotte
Thank you for sharing! I am truly working on making money and staying at home, my hubby is also tired of the “daily grind”. We are hoping to start up our own business and also for me to continue blogging (hopefully making income with it). I am encouraged to read that other bloggers are doing it and can make a living from blogging and other stay at home activities.
I am determined to keep working at it and make my dream come true!
Vicky
Hi Cassie,
Thank you so much for all the detailed information on how to make money staying at home!!! This has been a huge transition for me as a new stay at home mom to my 3 month old daughter. I have always worked 50+ hours a week as a retail manager and now being home all day feels so different! Thank you for providing the information about Bluehost and the discount. Would you suggest getting the domain privacy protection, site backup pro, and site lock security find? Also, when I went on Bluehost they had the pro package for $5.95 month that has everything unmetered and unlimited, with $200 marketing included would that be a better package for me as a new blogger? This is exciting yet scary since I have no idea how much website space, sub/park domains, and email storage I need. Any further guidance would be greatly appreciated!!!! Thank you so much, I have been following your blog for years and I love it!!!!
Vicky
Cassie
Hi Vicky! I am so excited for you! I have chills because I know that working from home online works and is effective when you put an effort in. I am so excited that you have the opportunity to stay home with your precious baby!
Let me answer your questions: Privacy protection is really not needed. It might give you peace of mind, but honestly, being online is already putting yourself out there and people can find out who you are regardless. Second, site backup pro is really only needed when your site is to that professional point. It is not an expense I would say you need now, but when the time comes, you can upgrade. Same with the other extras. Asa new blogger, the $3.49 package has everything you need. You shouldn’t need more space, more domains or subdomains (unless you plan to start more than one site) until you get further along your blogging journey. Those are upgrades I would make when the time comes and when you are making enough money. Honestly, the $200 in marketing is not necessary either. We will be sharing how to market your site for free which will be far more effective. Note that if your needs change, you can make these upgrades at any time. The best thing to do is just get started and start writing. The other pieces of the puzzle cannot come together until you have some content to market and share. However, the decision is ultimately yours. If you have the money to invest, it could be worth it from the start, but definitely not necessary. 🙂 I would love for you to share your site with us after you get going. Thanks for asking your questions as they were great ones and others may have had the same. 🙂
Vicky
Thank you for the positive motivation and pointers Cassie! My husband is being so supportive, but I really would want to keep costs low until I start making money. It’s definitely hard now a days to live off of just one income. I feel a little more confident with starting now, thank you so much!!!!! I really do appreciate the time you take out everyday to help people (like me) and post such great things!!!! After I set everything up with Bluehost I will share my site with you. Again, thank you so much! 🙂
Cassie
I am excited to hear about your new venture!
Tiana
I enjoyed your post, thank you! I just started a blog but am having trouble with the technical stuff. I can’t figure out how to get a newsletter to send out to my subscribers, when it’s viewed from a phone my pictures come up side ways, how to back link & other “fun” issues. If you had an advice on even one of these issues, I’d sure be grateful! I’ll look forward to more posts on blogging as well. Thank you!
Cassie
YouTube is our go-to source for technical questions. We’ve been able to find a tutorial video on most any technical question we’ve had. 🙂
Jessica
Love these ideas! We have 5 kids so like you I try to use any “free” time I have to help generate some income for our family. I am presently bringing in about $2000 a month with Young Living (http://jessicabaker.marketingscents.com/ms/view?page=ms-abundance) and LOVE Ibotta. Have just recently looked at converting from blogging as a hobby to more of a business. Thank you for your advice!
Cassie
Yes of course! It’s a great way to also spread the word about your other businesses (like Young Living). We don’t have a direct sales business, but many that we know use their blog to promote it and then make the money from their blog and their business at the same time!
Gail Akeman
Thanks for sharing at Meandering Mondays. Thanks for the apps for me to try
Dottie Rubalcaba
I would love to start a blog because I need money and spend so much time on the internet anyway. I just don’t know what to blog about. I have so many different interests I wish I could be passionate about one thing. A jack of all trades, A master at none, comes to mind. I am an independent watkins consultant but don’t make money as one just buy the products. I am telling you that because the website listed is what they give us to promote the home based business. not that I am trying to recruit you. Its the only website I have. Any advice or opinion on my situation would be appreciated
Jenny
Thanks for the great info. I’m excited to try some of your suggestions. I’d like to read more, but the site keeps crashing and reloading. About half way through (after the third crash) I became frustrated and stopped reading. I started reading in Pinterest on my iPhone six. Then switched to Safari in both regular and reading mode. Site crashed in all situations. Thx.
L
I want to start a blog but I don’t know what to put because I have a lot of things I want to put… so thats been preventing me from starting a blog..
Samantha
I am new to this whole blogging thing and I am having difficulties gaining more traffic to my blog. I need to start making some money for my family and I’m having a really hard time. Please help me! This was a great post. I’m going to have to read over it again and make sure I get everything right but now I just need traffic. Thank you for your time.
hina
I just started my blogging business and am struggling as this is my first time trying something from home.
rebecca
i tried to sign up for swagbucks but after i put in an email and password to sign up, it took me to a page that said “there must be something wrong” – then i tried to log in with that email and password and it said that my account had been deactivated. i tried with 2 different email addresses 🙁
Cassie
Hi Rebecca – I have a contact that I can email and ask about this for you. Is the email address you tried to register with the same as the one you left your comment with (only I can see it because of privacy, but want to make sure it’s the right one).
I will let you know what Swagbucks says. They can probably re-set it for you. 🙂
Samantha
Thank you so much for the great information! This is one of the better articles I have read on the subject of working from home. I am a full time working mother, who once stayed home and would like to again! I look forward to reading more on your blog.
Aja @ PrinciplesofIncrease
Thanks for sharing this. I am a SAHM as, too. I am hoping my blogging and writing takes off to bring in more income. I also see classes on Udemy.com which helps. Where there is a will, there is a way!
Carrie
WordPress or weebly??
Myriam
Hi Cassie! You are an amazing women. English is my second language so sorry for mistakes in advance! I am a leather worker…..I would like to sell my items on etsy or some other websites. My concern is the price of shipping. When I want to send a handcrated bag from Montréal to Vancouvert it cost 50$…….the price of the bag is 200$. I think I dont sell anything because of that high shipping price. Please busy mom…….I need your advise!
Rebecca
Hello Cassie!
Have just tried setting up a blog from the link you posted but my end bill was over $200, is this how much you need to start off? I thought it would only be the $3.95 per month?
Alex
Hi Rebecca – Did you use the link above? If you did, it should be as low as $3.49 a month as this is the special pricing we have secured for our readers – which would be $125 for 3 years of hosting (see the description under How Much Does It Cost to Start A Blog).
Also, please see what we wrote in red above. They do sell other services, upgrades, add-ons, etc. but as we stated in the red, you don’t need any of these starting out. So perhaps with missing the $3.49 pricing and adding something onto your bill, this is why it would be higher. It shouldn’t be higher than $125.64 for THREE years of service. 🙂
Hopefully that will help. If you haven’t completed your purchase, go back through using the links above for the $3.49 pricing and just get the basic hosting, no additional services. Let me know if you have questions or more issues.
Thanks for your comment and seeking clarification.
-Cassie
Rebecca
Thankyou! I will try again in a moment, but yes I did select a few extras as I do not have much understanding but they do make the other click ons very convincing as *a must have*
Rebecca
Also, will I need to pay the whole amount $125 upfront?
Alex
Hi Again Rebecca,
To get the $3.49 hosting, it is pre-paid for 36 months for $125, or $3.95 for 24 months = $94.80 or 12 months at $4.95 = $59.40 – these are our discounted rates. Honestly, if you pay monthly, you will pay a huge amount. It is more than worth the cost to pay for one year to three years as it is deeply discounted. I am not even sure if I know of anyone or any site that pays monthly when starting out. 🙂 As your site grows, you will need more service – at that time, you will upgrade and many of those high traffic hosting options are monthly. Monthly fees are nearly as much as yearly fees. Hopefully that helps clarify!
Rebecca
This is for sure a brilliant post!
Sorry I haven’t thanked you sooner! Was just very eager (bit overexcited) to be honest to get some true answers (as you can’t believe everything you read on the internet)
That is a cost I can not cover at the moment but is certainly a goal I will start saving to achieve! I am a stay at home mum (due to no work available & also when I was working it did not cover my childcare costs)
Thankyou very much for all this inspiration & VERY detailed helpful post, & yet you STILL continue to help everyone out!
You’re very thoughtful, thankyou!
Lexi
I have been thinking about getting into blogging for some time and am so thankful for this post. I have read many “How To” posts about blogging but none are as clear and straightforward as this. The tips about other little ways to earn extra income are helpful too! Every little bit counts!
Estrella Lezcano
How long did it take you to make money on blogging? Do you remember how much you made the first few months? Just wondering , I know you need to start as hobby something you enjoy doing and not do it for the money so it can be real ?
Amber
Love these ideas! I have had my own outside-the-home business for almost two years, but was still working part-time at a store, and I HATED it. I recently started working from home as a virtual assistant and am working toward making income from blogging as well. Thank you for the inspiration!
SPA
Thank you for the information. Over the years, I have read plenty of “How to work from home” articles, but your article was the most detailed. I will be looking into some of these tools.
Penny
Thank you for taking the time to share your extensive knowledge on how to bring in extra income! I do dislike the ads on blog pages! Many a time those ads alone will cause me to leave a bloggers page. But when the blog is informative and enlightening such as yours, they are worth the annoyance!
Thanks for sharing!!
Becky
Your article gives me hope. My dream is to be a stay-at-home mom. I plan to start small since I currently work out of the home, and see what I can accomplish in a year. Thanks for sharing.
Amber H
This is by far the best article I have read about earning an income as a sahm! Thank you for this insight and making me want to start my blog up again!!
Karen
Yes, I would love some ideas to get started blogging!
Jennifer
Thank you for sharing. I want to stay home with my son and have been reading everything I can get my hands on for pointers. I appreciate the practical way you broke everything down. My hope had been revived!!!
Siobhan
I may be late for the offers you’ve given us, but I’m very glad I came across this article. Thank you so much for putting so much time and effort into elaborating on all these was to make extra money on the side.
I’m an advertising major college student in New York City. I’ve dated to makemy own webvomic for the lonest time but I felt like I wasn’t read for that. I wasn’t even sure how I would make money of the website so I could put more time into he website instead of another job. I really would like flexable hours she it comes to my career in the future. I hate the idea that I can’t devote my life to the study, review, craft and enjoyment of art.
Making a blog seems like a good way to start this dream I have! Thank you so much again for all he detailed information!
Jen
Do you know how to upload PDF files on a blog? Is that easy to do?
Shelby
Hi Jenn. I’m trying to figure out a way to be able to stay home BEFORE kids come. I love your article, and am currently trying to start a blog. I already have my domain, a few articles (am making more now), signed with a sense, and will be ready soon i hope to start generating money. But I do have tons of questions like when you need a picture, you jist use any picture on the internet right? And when you say “we” are you refering to a company you’re working for? Also how often do you write articles? On average, how many hpurs would you say ypu spend on a computer writing? Thanks a head!
Brooke
Great article!!!! I continue to struggle with monetizing my blog, and getting it to look the way I want it to look. I am not very tech savvy and it’s taken me a year to get where I am with it now!
Love your site, you’re such a down to earth person and I love that!!!
Elia Diaz
Great advice! I am a full time employee and mother of 3 and have been looking into ways to be able to transition back into the house. We are comfortable with 2 incomes so being able to still bring income without the 9-5 is great and I cannot wait to get started. Thanks again for all the information.