How do Moms Make Money Blogging?

Just how much money a mom blogger makes has always been a controversial and tough topic.  In actuality, there isn't a solid way to calculate a monthly or yearly figure since it all depends on the blogger, their time investment, traffic and monetization techniques. However, it is possible to generate an income from your blog whether it's extra pocket change or a full/part time income.  It does take a lot of time and work to make money off your blog and that is something that people do not have patience for.  Generating an income from your blog will not happen quickly, it's something that will build up over time.

That said, not every mom blogger makes money -- despite a popular belief and stereotype.  Some mom bloggers just blog for the passion and emotional outlet, others are review bloggers and rather test products than generate an income, some just plain don't know how to monetize their blogs and settle for just testing products and writing for the emotional outlet of it all.  There are moms who do not want to work on their blogs full time either, some do not see it as a way to generate income. (Then we have those journalists who criticize mom bloggers for making any income or testing out products - they don't think our opinions and articles should be considered a "job".)

Blogging is a business to some moms and just like any brick and mortar store, the business with the most traffic always makes money.  Let's say that your blog has about 500 readers per month, well the blog with 1,000 readers a month or 10,000 readers a month will definitely make more money than the smaller underdog.  Is it possible to up that income and traffic?  Of course it is.  There is always room for improvement and that's what we will focus on.  Try not to compare your blog to another blog, however.  Trying to analyze how many followers they have, how many monthly hits they have and how much they make will discourage and depress almost anyone.  Focus solely on your blog and how you can make it better.  There is always competition out there, but you do not want to base your ideas off another blog.  That always leaves you open for copyright infringement or plagiarism.  We definitely do not want that to happen!

So, how can we make sure that we can earn the full potential income of our blogs?  

• Design
• Niche
• Content
• Frequency of content

These are the most important factors.

Design - You want to make sure that your design is easy to navigate, easy to read and easy on the eyes.  You want your site to be attractive to the visitors/readers and not be difficult for them to find content or read your content.  Branding is also a part of design and that would be to have one uniform design, font and logo throughout every aspect of your business. (Blog, E-Mail List, E-Mail Signature, Business Card, Print Outs, Etc...)  Your brand has to be easy to notice and something that, at first glance, would bring your business to mind quickly and easily.  If you can't achieve a great design on your own, there are low-cost independent companies that can help you with that!

Niche - This has been a controversial topic since most people feel that if you have a general "mom blog" you don't need a particular niche.  I'm very back and forth on this topic because I, personally, don't mind blogs that talk about different topics that are important to the author, but many people do mind it.  Many professionals say that if you narrow your niche and write only in your niche you will make more money.  This isn't proven but it's always important to put out there to any blogger.  Take or leave this piece of advice, but keep it in your head.

Content - It's never quantity but it's quality.  I know that sounds so cliche but it's true.  If you can bang out 100 blog posts in one day it sure will look like you're productive, but they probably won't be quality posts.  It's more important to take your time writing a blog post, doing research to get your information correct and to make sure that your grammar and spelling is correct than to post more than one post in a day.  You also don't want to clutter your blog or overwhelm your reader with new posts.

Frequency of posts - I don't mean bombarding your reader with 5-10 posts a day but keeping up with your blog.  Things get busy and missing 1,2 or 3 days of posting is normal for a mom blogger but don't neglect your blog or your readers will disappear.  If you only post once a month or once every few months, your readers will think you forgot about your blog and will "unfollow" you or forget that your blog even existed.  Every day or week you do not post is really missed income that could be made, since new posts generate the most hits to your site. (Generally speaking.)  Make sure you keep steady with 1-2 posts per day or bi-daily.  

Ok, so we got that down, but how do you actually make money off of your blog?

º Google Adsense is one of the most popular and well known ways to generate an income from your blog.  While it isn't the most efficient way to make tons of money, it can generate a small income for you.  How does it work?  Bloggers sign up for Google Adsense and place the code for their ads on the bloggers sidebar, top of the page or between posts.  The ads that are shown on the site cannot be chosen, however the ads that will appear will use related keywords for their content.  For example, if you write about fashion the Google Adsense ad might be for Macys, Bluefly or Urban Outfitters.  If you write about parenting you might get a Toys R Us ad or Parenting.com ad.  With Google Adsense you generate money by CPC. (Cost Per Click)  Meaning, every time someone clicks on the ad on your site you get a small commission.  The commission varies by advertiser and blogger but the norm for a blogger would be $0.01-$0.5 per click. (Some make more depending on their traffic and google page ranking.) Most people do not make the majority of their revenue through Google Adsense, but it is entirely possible.

º Paid Posts are very common as well.  You can either join companies that allow you to bid for writing a paid post or companies that will assign you paid posts depending on your content or individual companies can contact you to ask you to write them a post.  If you're writing paid posts through a site like Pay Per Post or Social Spark you'll generally get a set amount. (Usually $5-$15)  If you're writing for a company that specifically hired you, you may be able to negotiate a higher amount by charging per word. For writing a paid post privately, I would charge about $150-$175.  That would definitely either go up or down depending on your skills and how well you can write that post.  

Make sure you talk to the company or read the outline of what exactly they want.  See if they want any specific links noted, products noted, photos used and so on.  Some companies are very specific about what they want in their paid posts.  You want to keep up a good relationship with the companies that you work with - for sure!

º Affiliate Marketing is another very popular way of making an income through your blog.  When you place an ad on your site for a product or offer and one of your readers click through to that site to fill out an offer or buy a product, you are given a commission for that lead or sale.  There are many companies out there that allow you to sign up to view the affiliate marketing ads available to you.  Most are very well paying as well! Logical Media has some of the best paying ads to place on your site and you can earn an income quickly through them! 

º Placing ads on your site is also important.  However you really can't start to do this until you have a steady flow of traffic to your site.  Once you establish your site and have some great traffic, you can advertise those statistics and let advertisers pay for prime space on your site.  Prime space would be the leader-board ads at the top of your page or the skyscraper or square ads on the top of your sidebar.  They would be considered the prime spaces because their placement quickly gets them noticed before anything else on the site.  

There are many more ways to monetize a blog but we don't want to overwhelm you all at once.  Remember, monetizing your blog and making an income takes a lot of patience.  As you gain more traffic you will see your income grow monthly a little at a time depending on how much work you put into making your blog your business.