Looking for online jobs for stay at home moms?

My husband and I have been self-employed for the last 15 years. Starting any self-employed business is tough and for the first 5 years or so it was really difficult financially. On top of that, our business was related to real estate and so it has a busy season and a slow season. So almost every year in the slow season, I got nervous so I looked for a way to make some additional money. Since I helped the business with some administrative and marketing tasks, I had more time available in the winter but not as much in the summer. So it ended up that I always found myself looking for online jobs for stay at home moms due to my priorities.

Priorities

Since we started our business years before we had children, my kids have never really seen me work outside of the home. One of my main priorities was finding a job that would still allow me to be with them before and after school, summer break, etc. Unfortunately, right off the bat, that eliminated a lot of possible jobs. I found that even most part-time jobs that I was looking at required some nights and weekends. However, this was one priority I wasn’t going to give up.

Now To Online Jobs For Stay At Home Moms…

Once I realized that most jobs outside of the home wouldn’t suit my schedule, I started looking online. Wow, you could search for days and days looking for an online job and I did until my head started to spin. My skill set was office related so obviously, I started looking for something in that genre. However, even when I narrowed it down to that, it still brought pages and pages of websites to look at.

As I started looking down the list of websites, I went through ups and downs. I came across multiple online jobs that seemed to fit my skill set. Awesome! Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard. Oh, if only it was that easy. But as I started looking into them, the optimism started turning to pessimism. First, I looked at online call center jobs. Although I would rather work in the background and on the computer, I could definitely take messages and make phone calls but most of the jobs I looked at still wanted evening hours and weekend. So cross them off the list. Next up, transcription jobs. Perfect! I actually enjoy typing, I have a high WPM (words per minute) and I can fit it into my schedule.  Very promising but then I looked at the pay. While it looks good at first, for me personally, the more I looked at it, it didn’t seem like a great deal for the amount of time spent. So while I could do it, I felt there was something out there that would pay better. So on and on the search for that perfect online job went.

Is This A Scam?

Is this a scam? I think that is the fear that most of us have when we are looking for online jobs. Whether it is a get quick rich scheme, you have to send money to start or you just give up lots of time to earn nothing, I find myself very skeptical when it comes to earning money online. I realize that is a terrible way of thinking since I had narrowed down my options to find a job online. As I was searching and scrolling through website after website, I came across affiliate marketing. Now, to be honest, I really didn’t know what it meant or if it was a scam, so I started doing more research online. Again, I didn’t want to waste time and money on something that wasn’t legitimate or that I wouldn’t make any money from. I was looking for extra income to keep afloat in the winter and pay off debts in the summer.

Affiliate Marketing – What Is it?

I looked up the definition of affiliate marketing and this is what I found. Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays a commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.

The company I had come across was Wealthy Affiliate. I read a little on their website and it piqued my interest so I searched to see if it was a scam. As my search results came up, all I really found were more and more people working with them. Okay, so my next thought was how do I do it? I don’t have a website or know how to make one and I definitely don’t have any special writing skills. English was the class I always dreaded in school. Did I have anything worthwhile to create a website on? Also, I think I understood the concept of affiliate marketing but how do I make money with it? Could I really do this? Would it really work? Well, you could sign up for free with Wealthy Affiliate so I figured, why not? It wasn’t going to cost me anything and it would allow me to do more research on the company and affiliate marketing in general.

So while still being a skeptic, I signed up for my free membership and logged in. My first impression was that I was shocked at the free training with step by step videos that they provide. Also, they weren’t pushing you to buy anything or spend money. It really seemed that their goal was to help you succeed. There is also a community of thousands of people that want to help you and walk this journey with you. After all, they are on the same journey and they really believe in helping each other out. Within 30 minutes of signing up, I was starting to feel more confident in my ability to do this and about the people involved with this company.

But Really, How Do You Do It?

The free membership I mentioned is the starter membership. This includes free training to get you started, two websites and many other tools to help you succeed. For seven days you also get access to some of the Premium membership tools. This really allows you to try it out, see what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer you and thus enabling you to make an informed decision about affiliate marketing and Wealthy Affiliate specifically.

One of the very first steps they walk you through is to find your niche. The definition of niche is a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. That may seem pretty wordy; but basically, this is something that interests you or you have knowledge about. Your website will be based on the niche you pick. I appreciated that the training encourages you to find something that you want to write about. Let’s be serious, no one is going to work at something that they have no interest in. Since this is not a get quick rich scheme, I believe this is the only way you will stick with putting the time and effort into it. Also, you don’t have to be a fancy writer or a perfect speller. (One of those great tools I mentioned that is included in your membership is a spelling and grammar check). Just write as though you were talking to someone – be relatable and personable.

Training also includes how to drive traffic (visitors) to your website. Once you have website traffic, you will then be able to make money by having companies pay you for your traffic using their link to make a purchase or clicking on their ads. If you aren’t a salesperson, don’t worry, that really isn’t what this is about. You will choose ads that are relevant to your posts so your readers will want to buy from them. Your website just needs to be informative in regards to your niche and the rest will build from there.

Other ways to earn

Finally, there is an additional way to earn with Wealthy Affiliate. If you have anyone sign up as a Premium member, you will earn income on their membership. You can market online or through your contacts. I’m sure we all know someone who wants to earn money, whether as a full-time job or just for vacation money. Wealthy Affiliate makes it easy with links to emails or banners to add to your website.

So what does this mean?

Honestly, if I can do this….you can do it too. You found my website, most likely through a web search or social media and now you’re here. I made this website completely through the training with Wealthy Affiliate and you found it in a search or social media! That’s the main basis of affiliate marketing! I did upgrade to a Premium member as I wanted to continue training and make my website even better to create more traffic and sales. Let me emphasize this though – this is not required! However, if you want to be successful you will probably want to upgrade but they will not push you as it is completely your decision.

I want to be completely open and honest with you. I know that is what I was looking for. Like any job that you are successful at, this absolutely requires time and effort. You should be prepared to commit to 6-12 months before you decide to give up or make a final decision. Since part of getting your website ranked so it shows up on searches is the length of time since the website was created, this period of time is critical.

It’s not a get rich quick scheme but there are thousands of people in the Wealthy Affiliate community to prove that if you work at it, you can succeed!

If you decide to start a blog, check out my post on how to promote your blog on Pinterest.

If you have any questions, please comment below and I would be happy to answer them. If you would rather email me privately, you can do so at [email protected]  I would love to help you make your financial needs or dreams come true.