Spread the word!

I get asked this question a lot. When I tell someone that I work from home, and I mention that part of my work at home income is from blogging it falls out of people’s mouths before they can even think. “Can you really work at home blogging?” Obviously, that answer is yes, since I’m doing it right now.

That said, blogging is far from the only work at home job I have since I’m not a big fan of keeping all your eggs in one basket. So far this year, blogging accounts for almost 25% of my income. This does not include any free products or services, this is just cash payments. Also, this includes my Young Living income because I only market the oils through the blog, and every commission I’ve earned has been directly because of this blog. The other 75% comes from my freelance writing and marketing. I’m hoping to get it closer to 50/50 soon, but the blog needs to grow a bit before I’ll get there. So now the question people actually want the answer to instead of the question they always ask.

How Can Blogging Bring You Income?

(Side note, if you’re looking to start a blog to create an income, I highly recommend getting a self-hosted site using bluehost. They’re who I use and they make the process easy and affordable!)

Ad Revenue

This is probably the most common and well known way to make money blogging. Ads can either be from an ad network, like Google Adsense (what I use), or private ads directly from brands. If you have a blog, this is probably the first way to start monetizing (making money). With Adsense you earn money for every view the ad gets, and more money for every click. If you don’t get a lot of blog traffic yet, you’ll probably earn pennies to start out with, but those pennies add up! This is one of the easiest ways to take your blog from a hobby to a work at home job. With any ads, private or through a network, the key is to incorporate them into your site as naturally as possible. If you overload your site with a million pop up ads, no one will stay on your site long enough to read your awesome content!

Affiliate Sales

Affiliate sales are one of the best ways to monetize a blog and take it from hobby to work at home job. An affiliate sale is when you (as a blogger) link to a product that you use and love, and when one of your readers clicks on that link and purchases the product you recommended, you earn a small commission that doesn’t raise their price at all. There are all sorts of affiliate programs available, but the most common is Amazon. As an amazon affiliate, I can link to anything within a post, and if anyone clicks on my link and purchases anything from Amazon in the next 24 hours, I receive a percentage of the sale as commission. To make affiliate sales work on your blog, naturally add links that your readers will find helpful. Talking about a specific supply for a craft? Link it. Mention your favorite homeschooling book? Give it an Amazon link. Don’t be spammy, just be helpful to your readers. Also be sure to notify when you include affiliate links! You’ll notice at the top of every post on this blog, I disclose that any post may include affiliate links. This is the LAW.

Sponsored Posts and Reviews

These are some of the most fun ways to earn an income from your blog. A sponsored post is when a brand pays a blogger to create useful and valuable content that features their product, and a review is when that post is, well, reviewing the product. It’s important to note that the sponsors are paying for the bloggers time and honest opinions, not a glowing review and sales pitch. A blogger is not required to post positively about a product, so you can trust what she’s saying even when the post is sponsored. Most bloggers only take sponsored posts from brands that they truly believe in and love already because the main point of a blogger is to post useful content. The pay rate for sponsored posts can be anywhere from simply receiving the product free to hundreds of dollars. How much you charge will depend on how much you want the product, your traffic (how many people visit your site), and a few other factors. A good rule of thumb is to keep sponsored posts to 20% or less of your content, anything more can seem spammy, and we don’t like that!

Direct Sales

This is really similar to affiliate marketing, but you have a bit more control. For me, I use Young Living essential oils. I post about them occasionally, and link to my landing page which explains the fabulous deal going during that month. When people purchase from me, I have the opportunity to earn commissions on those sales. I don’t do home parties and I don’t harass anyone or guilt anyone into purchasing. It’s just an easy and organic way to make some money. I am also looking into another direct sales business.. More info on that to come! I’ve seen bloggers have success with all kinds of these businesses. From Jamberry Nails to YouNique Mascara. With this, you really just find a brand that you are truly passionate about and sign up! Mention them when you naturally would and see the sales start to climb!

Creating Products

I’m including this one hesitantly because I haven’t personally done it yet, but it is such a great way to take a blog from a hobby to a work at home job that I had to add it in. As a blogger you have readers, and those readers need help with something. There is always something you can do that others can’t, and it’s usually so simple to you that you wouldn’t even realize people want help with it. There is no limit to what bloggers can create to sell through their blog. E-books, courses, lesson plans, printables, the sky is the limit! I will be launching a shop right here on This Outnumbered Mama in the near future that will host my e-book that I’m currently writing as well as a few more special products! So since I haven’t done this yet I can’t officially tell you it works, but I guess we’ll see this Fall!

So these are just a few ways I took my blog from a hobby to a real work at home job. Do you have a blog? Is it a work at home job for you?

About Kaylene

Kaylene George is an autistic self-advocate, author, and mother of five, including one autistic child. She realized her own autism as an adult shortly after her son received his initial diagnosis. Suddenly the parts of her that seemed so “weird” to society had an answer. Since then, Kaylene has passionately shared about her experiences with autism from both sides of the great divide between parents and autistic self-advocates on AutisticMama.com.