You want to start a blog. Or maybe you’ve already started one! And you’ve heard tell of people earning money with their blogs, but it seems like a bunch of bologna.
It’s not BS! Promise. If you can niche down and stick to your niche and then consistently put out high-quality posts that your readers find helpful, you’re well on your way to making regular money with your blog.
Here are a few ways people actually make money from a mom blog (or pretty much any blog, really.) A lot of these monetization methods are relatively easy… and you definitely don’t need to be a master marketer to do any of this. You got this! Let’s get to the list.
Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links, which means that I will get a small commission if you choose to make a purchase through one of the links in this article. You can read the whole affiliate disclosure here. I’ll only point you to products and services I use and would recommend to a friend. Thanks so much for reading and supporting!
1.) Affiliate marketing
This is one of the most common ways to make money from a mom blog. Moms always need recommendations for products. You’ll make a small amount of money by recommending products to your readers. When they buy the product through your affiliate link, you make a small cut of that purchase.
For me, as a new mom, I had 0 mom friends. So I turned to blogs and YouTube channels to help me figure out what the heck to buy for my first daughter before she was born. And I revisited them as she got older because I was also clueless about what to buy for her as a toddler.
You can expect to make 1%-50% of any product you’re an affiliate for. Your cut really depends on what kind of product you’re an affiliate for and what the profit margin looks like on it.
For example, if you’re an affiliate for a printer from Amazon, you might make 3% of that purchase. If you’re an affiliate for a small coffee roaster, you might make 5%-10% as an affiliate. But if you’re promoting an online course as an affiliate, you might expect to make 20%-50% of that course sale as your affiliate cut. That’s because the production cost of that course was a one-time thing, but every bag of coffee costs something to make.
Affiliate marketing makes sense for the creator of the product because YOU are the one who is sending traffic to the product. Without you, the product might not have reached the customer. Companies that have affiliate programs understand the value of reaching other people’s audiences. And that’s why they’re willing to pay you that cut of their product sale – it’s a thank you for referring that customer.
More about affiliate marketing:
- Products with a bigger profit margin (like online courses, ebooks, and other digital products especially) typically come with a larger percentage of the sale in terms of your affiliate fee. Physical products typically don’t have as big of a profit margin, so it doesn’t make sense for those companies to offer as big of a cut – but sometimes those products are easier to sell, so you can make up for that by making more sales.
- Some affiliate programs require you to apply before you can access your affiliate links and start making sales. It takes a little bit of manpower to manage an affiliate program, so smaller companies usually ask to see your blog and/or social accounts before they will accept you just to make sure it’s worth it to set up your account. They want to be fairly sure that you’re capable of bringing in some sales for them.
- Other affiliate programs and affiliate networks, like Amazon, Target, ShareASale, and Rakuten are easier to get into – you still have to apply, but there isn’t a specific number of followers or pageviews that you need in order to be accepted.
ShareASale is one of my favorite affiliate networks. It’s easy to apply for and you can get accepted as a new blogger or website owner. Through this network, you’ll have access to hundreds of different affiliate programs that you can sign up for and start earning commissions from. You can sign up for ShareASale here.
2.) Ads
Ads are a popular way to make money from a mom blog because they’re probably the most passive money-making method on this list. All you have to do is get the traffic to your site (the best way to do that is by posting consistently valuable content) and you’ll make a certain amount of money each month from the users who come to your site and view, click on, or buy from ads.
Your blog doesn’t automatically start running ads once you get a certain number of pageviews, though. You have to seek out an ad network and apply to them – then you can start running ads. Each ad network has its own requirements, but all of them want your site to be on solid legal ground (you have a privacy policy and website terms of service and any other required legal information on your site) before accepting you.
Here are some of the most popular ad networks:
- Mediavine
- Google AdSense
- Monumetric
- BlogHer
- Infolinks
- Ezoic
You’ll also want to consider whether an ad network is right for your audience and take a look at Google’s ad policies before you place ads on your site.
Most of the ad networks above require a minimum of 10k monthly pageviews before you can be accepted to serve and make money from their ads. (They have to make sure you’re going to make them money as well, right?)
Google AdSense doesn’t have traffic requirements, making it the easiest ad network to get accepted to. That being said, I tried it out once and hated it. I made barely any money from it and it made my site look super spammy, even when I limited the number of ads on my site.
Lots of bloggers choose to wait until they are eligible for a more premium ad network (like any of the other ones listed above) before they serve ads on their site. Once you have ads on your site, you can expect to make anywhere from a couple of dollars a month to a few hundred dollars a month. It really depends on your audience, your blog’s niche/topic, and the amount of traffic you’re getting to the blog on a monthly basis.
3.) Freelancing/selling services
This is exactly what it sounds like. And a lot of times, this is one of the quickest ways to monetize your blog. Monetizing a blog is a long term game, but if you need money ASAP then I strongly recommend selling services.
Here’s a few ideas for what you could sell:
- Content/blog writing (Here’s my guide for getting started with freelance writing!)
- Copywriting
- Web design (This is what I do!)
- Graphic design
- Pinterest management
- Social media management
- Instagram engagement services
- Video editing
- Photo editing
- Facebook or YouTube community management
- Book editing
- Transcription
- Podcast management
- Sales funnel design/builds
- Some kind of coaching
- Literally, almost anything I mention on this giant list of freelance work from home job ideas.
Selling services can net you… well, whatever it is that you charge. Minus your overhead and taxes, of course. As a freelance content writer, you might charge a package rate for a certain number of blog posts. Or, you might charge per word and take on posts one at a time.
For me, as a web designer, I have a package rate that I charge for a certain number of deliverables (5 website pages, tutorials for how to edit your site, lead magnet design, and email marketing form integration) and I usually try to book one or two projects per month to reach my income needs.
4.) Selling digital products
Here’s another monetization method that can take a little bit longer to set up, but once you have it working for you, it can make up a hefty chunk of your income. Some bloggers make the majority of their income by selling various digital products they’ve created.
Here are some examples of products you can create and sell on your blog:
- Social media templates
- Website or blog templates
- Digital planners
- Worksheets or checklists
- Courses
- Minicourses or workshops
- Ebooks
- Audio trainings
A major benefit of selling digital products is that they’re low-cost upfront. You don’t have any storage needs, as opposed to selling physical products. You don’t have to deal with shipping costs and issues like you would if you were shipping out your own products or even dropshipping.
You just need to create a product one time, then you can sell it over and over. You’ll need a way for customers to shop for your products and check out on your site.
You can use Woocommerce for this if you use WordPress. There are lots of other options, too – Shopify, Etsy, CreativeMarket, and lots more online marketplaces exist where you can sell digital products.
Digital products don’t make up a ton of my blog’s income yet, but I plan to expand on this in the future. Right now, I sell social media templates in my Etsy shop.
5.) Sponsored posts
You can work directly with companies to create custom, sponsored posts for your blog. They will usually give you a flat rate in exchange for a certain number of posts on your blog. Sometimes, it’s a package deal situation involving social media posts as well.
If you don’t have a social following, don’t worry. There are plenty of companies who will pay for just a blog post. If you do have a significant social media following, then that’s a bonus and you might be able to negotiate a higher rate.
A lot of bloggers win their sponsored post deals by direct outreach, meaning that they email companies directly and pitch their idea.
At the end of the day, the deal needs to be beneficial to both parties. So if you go this route, make sure that you’re reaching out to companies that really align with what you’re doing and what your audience is interested in.
Be specific, as well. An easy way for your email pitch to find its way to the recipient’s trash folder is to be generic and simply ask whether they will pay you xxx for “a post.” Instead, give them 1-3 ideas of what your post will be about and write a quick paragraph about why this deal would make sense for them.
There are also platforms that you can use to connect with brands and land sponsored post deals. Here are a few of those:
If you want to explore the idea of leveraging sponsored posts as a way to monetize your blog, definitely check these out and make an account or apply to the platforms that seem like a good fit.
Alright, so those were 5 of the most common ways bloggers make money from a mom blog. What’d you think?
Lots of bloggers use one or more of these to make money from their sites and I’d argue that most bloggers focus on 1-2 methods at a time until they feel like they’ve made good progress with those. It’s easier to focus on one monetization method at a time rather than spreading yourself thin by focusing on all of them, IMO.
Are you using any of these already? Do you plan to add another income stream to your blog in the near future? Drop your thoughts in the comments below – along with any questions you have about how to make money from a mom blog or any other kind of blog (a lot of it is the same stuff, really!) Here to help! 🙂
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Hey, what’s up? I’m Lucia, a work from home mom of three and a freelance writer. I’m here to spill the tea and tips on starting and growing an online business as a mom. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but it’s possible and I’m rooting for you!