When I first joined the stay-at-home mom club in early 2023, it didn’t take long before I found myself knee deep in the world of mom forums. Between What To Expect message boards and Facebook due date groups, I quickly noticed a lot of common trending topics among moms, many of which I was interested in learning about myself – when will breastfeeding get easier, how in the world do I get this thing to sleep, when will I feel like myself again? As a new mom I was merely an observer of most these conversations, but there was one trending topic I was actually able to help people with – how to make money online as a stay-at-home parent who barely has time to brush their teeth.
I’ve been writing this blog for over 5 years now, and stay-at-home moms are one of my largest demographics of readers. I know how difficult it can be to find any sort of remote work as it is, but when you add young children and around-the-clock care tasks into the mix, it limits your options even further. My son is almost a year old, and I can’t imagine having a job that involves talking on the phone or being ready for a Zoom meeting at any moment. It’s just not happening right now, so I need the type of work that allows me to go at my own pace and doesn’t involve reporting in at specific hours.
This list is for those of you who are in a similar situation. Everything on this list allows for the flexibility that’s required of full-time caretakers. I’ll make sure to include as many links to guides and resources that I have so you can fully explore your options and get started quickly.
(This post contains affiliate links, so I might receive a commission if you click something and make a purchase. A girl’s gotta eat.)
Creative Work for Stay At Home Parents
I’m starting with this section because this is the main way I make money online as a stay-at-home parent. I will say that these suggestions take more upfront work (and in some cases, more upfront money) than if you were to sign up and work for a specific company or website, but the returns are more worth it because you’ll own your own business that makes money whether you’re actively working or not. If you don’t have the mental energy for creative work or it’s just not what you’re looking for, the next sections will have other options that might be more suited for you.
Sell Digital Products/Printables
This is the first thing I recommend to moms (or anyone) looking to make money online because you can tap into virtually any hobby or knowledge base you have. The great thing about digital products is that you can make them once, list them for sale, and sell them an infinite number of times. You can make them in between other types of work to ensure you always have a source of revenue from one area. Once you have a few products made, you can use them as templates to create new variations and list even more products.
Here’s some examples of digital products you can create from scratch or by using premade templates:
Printable wall art
eBooks
Journal and notebook pages
Kid’s crafts, workbooks, and other activities
Business bundles (this daycare business bundle is awesome and can be customized to different industries)
You can sell digital products on any e-commerce platform, but I recommend beginners start by selling on Etsy. Make sure to check out these posts and resources to help you get started:
How to Make and Sell Printable Wall Art on Etsy
20 Types of Digital Products You Can Sell on Etsy
Open an Etsy shop and get your first 40 listings free
Sign up for my email list and get 25 free Canva templates
Start a PRINT-ON-DEMAND Store
Print-on-demand (POD) is when you create designs to sell on printed products like t-shirts, mugs, posters, pet products, and children’s apparel. POD is a great pairing to digital products – the vast majority of my business income is from a shop that sells both printable wall art and POD products.
This post will walk you through my exact process for getting started with POD.
Here’s my list of the best POD suppliers for your store.
Niche idea for 2024: politics. If you’re at all politically engaged, capitalize on the 2024 election by selling t-shirts and other political merch. This post goes through my best tips for selling political merch and the methods that helped me make $17,000 in a single day during a big news event.
Another niche idea: start a children’s clothing boutique. Use your kids and the types of clothing you want them to wear as inspiration for your designs.
I love POD because you can start selling physical branded products with virtually no upfront investment other than your time. You don’t pay for the products until you make a sale, so it’s a low-risk way to start a line of products.
For a more detailed guide, my eBook Printable & Profitable goes over my exact step-by-step process for opening an Etsy shop selling printable wall art and print-on-demand products.
Start an Online Wholesale Boutique
If you have money you’re ready to invest in products and you’d rather not make them yourself, you can start a wholesale business. This is also a good way to go if you don’t want to sell “handmade” products on Etsy and you’d rather start something like a Shopify storefront.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you share custom links to specific products so that when someone clicks and makes a purchase, the company pays you a small commission. This is how many bloggers and influencers make money without selling their own products. If you’ve ever seen someone on TikTok with an Amazon Storefront, that’s a form of affiliate marketing. It’s convenient because in many cases, you don’t have to have a large audience or certain number of followers before you can join a brand’s affiliate program. If you have products you use and share with any audience, check if they have an affiliate program and share those links on social media.
Learn more about affiliate marketing and find programs to join in this section.
You can make money sharing affiliate links right on your Instagram – it’s not required to be an influencer or content creator before you can start doing this, but it certainly does help, which brings me to my next suggestion:
CONTENT CREATION / BLOGGING
One of the most common ways for anyone to make money online is by creating content, either through social media or on your own website. If you prefer any particular social media platforms such as Instagram or Tiktok then it’s great to start there to grow an audience, but I always recommend eventually having your own self-hosted website that you own and fully control yourself.
Content creation is a great option for moms because so many of us are at different stages of parenting and life. If that’s a topic you want to discuss or a part of your life you want to share, you’ll always have an audience. Of course you can do other lifestyle/niche-based content that doesn’t involve parenting, but if you’re a stay-at-home parent there are always others in the same boat looking for connection or guidance from others.
Content creation also involves mediums like making YouTube videos or starting a podcast. I am not experienced in either of those things because I’m not interested in learning a whole new medium at this time, but also because written content is a more powerful tool. Contrary to what a lot of people think, blogging is not dead (this blog right here serves as a good example). If you use Google or Pinterest, you inevitably read blogs. Consider how many affiliate links I can include in a written post like this versus the caption of a video, podcast, or even a social media post. There’s no comparison.
Check out my blogging section for more of my posts on this topic.
The thing about this creative section of the list is that it involves creating your own profitable assets that you control. While they do take more upfront, unpaid work than getting a job that pays you right away, they are worth it because you’re getting paid whether you’re actively working or not. For me, it’s hugely beneficial to my finances and mental health when I can go to the zoo with my kid and know I’ll still make money.
For more information on how online business flows and how all these topics – from content creation to digital products – flow together and work in harmony, check out my eBook Go Hire Yourself.
I also recognize that these ideas can take work that you might not have the capacity for. If you’re not at a point where you’re ready to start creating digital products or blog content, that’s OK. Make sure to bookmark this website for when you are ready so you can use my tutorials to get started more quickly.
Freelance Jobs for Stay At Home Parents
Most of the creative jobs listed involve starting your own store or website, but I know that’s not everyone’s preference. If you have any type of skill that you want to monetize, you can sell it as a freelance service.
I first started working online as a freelance blogger and copywriter, which you can read all about over here.
Some freelance services you can offer:
Writing/Editing/Blogging
Graphic design
Data entry/annotation
Transcription
Consulting
The thing about freelance services is that you want to set yourself apart from a “generalist” by honing in on a niche or specific knowledge base. You don’t have to have a degree or be an “expert” in this niche, you just have to know more than the people who are willing to pay you. For example, if you love gardening every summer and know a decent enough amount to write an article titled something like “raised bed gardening tips for beginners”, you’ll stand out more for a client looking for a writer for that topic than a generalist who knows how to write but doesn’t know much about the topic.
Websites to search for freelance jobs:
Remote Micro Tasking / Data Jobs for Stay At Home Parents
These websites do not involve creative or freelance work, but they do allow you to work on your own schedule and set your own hours. You will have to go through an application process, but once you’re in you’re good to go.
TELUS INTERNATIONAL
Working for Telus involves rating Google search results to better improve the search engine’s performance. Last I’ve heard, they pay around $11 an hour and you’ll have to work a minimum of 10 and maximum of 20 hours per week, but you can do these hours at any time that works for you. They provide all the training materials, and the test is an open book exam. If you fail, they will likely give you another opportunity. I took the test out of curiosity and failed because my brain turned into a pancake after having a baby and I’m much better suited for my Etsy shops, apparently. I didn’t bother to reapply, but they did give me the opportunity.
The Telus subreddit is a helpful resource if you want to read about other worker’s experiences.
DATAANNOTATION.TECH
With this job you will be helping AI provide better results for prompts that users put into the program. This also requires no set schedule, so you can work during nap time. You will have to take an exam for this site as well, but it is MUCH shorter and less intensive than the Telus exam. It took me about 10 minutes to complete and took a few weeks to hear back (fortunately I passed this one, which helped my ego recover). Once you are able to start working, you’ll get access to a list of jobs that give an estimate of how much they pay and how long it will take. Some will only take a couple of minutes while others are more intense, but you have full control over which types of tasks you complete.
AMAZON MECHANICAL TURK
This program through Amazon allows businesses to request work for micro-tasks such as surveys or mini transcription jobs. You can also login to Mturk to work whenever you want and choose from a list of jobs based on how long they take and how much they pay. Some of them only pay pennies, but if you dedicate a few hours a week you can make a decent amount. The most I’ve made is about $15 for an hour’s worth of work.
REV.COM
If you like to type, Rev is perfect for you. This is another website that puts you through a test, then gives you access to a list of jobs you can choose from. These jobs all involve transcribing, so you’ll receive a piece of audio that you will have to transcribe or a video you’ll have to provide captions for.
Sell a Local Service
There are many websites that make it easy for you to sell services locally, such as Care.Com for childcare and Rover.Com for pet sitting. Those are great places to start if you want to offer care services for kids or pets, but there are so many other types of services you can sell from your home based on your hobbies and skills:
House cleaning/organizing/decorating
Cake decorating
Laundry services
Tutoring
Renting out baby gear
Sewing/tailoring
Handyman/woman/person services
Automotive detailing
The key here is to know how to do something that others are willing to pay someone else to do for them. I’ve paid for people to clean my house, hem my clothes, make cakes for parties, hang picture frames, and if I could justify it, I’d hire someone to do all my laundry as well because it’s one of my least favorite chores (let’s be real, they are all my least favorite).
One of the best places to find local clients is through your neighborhood Facebook or Nextdoor groups. That’s where I found a house cleaner, so make sure to join and promote your services or respond to people looking for a service you can offer.
This is another reason why having a blog or website is beneficial – you can create a services page to list what you offer and, if you’re ambitious, you can write blog posts that show off your work and share helpful information that encourages potential customers to trust and hire you.
If you’re not sure what you can offer but you’re willing to learn a new skill you can sell one day, check out Skillshare.com. They offer hundreds of online classes taught by independent professionals so you can either learn something new or improve on a skill you already have before you sell it as a professional. Here are a few that I’ve found particularly interesting:
Designing the life you want: exercises for clarity and motivation
Career switch: Use design thinking to find your dream job
Whether you want to learn how to write better content, how to master a specific skill or how to master the mindset of a successful business owner, there are plenty of classes out there that can help you contribute financially to your family without sacrificing your care tasks.
I hope this list has been a helpful guide if you’re a stay-at-home mom looking for work-from-home jobs. If you’re looking for some guidance or want to talk about your options more, I can always be reached via email at mandy@agirlsgottaeat.net.
If you have any other suggestions for high-quality remote work that’s ideal for stay-at-home parents, make sure to share it in the comments.
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