Making Money Doing What You Like

So you’re a mom committed to learning how to make money on the Internet so you can stay at home with the kids – I applaud you. I made this decision two years ago, just after my daughter was born  and I returned to work a few short months later.  Someday, I told myself, I was going to be able to work from home and make money.   It took two years – two years of shoring up our finances, simplyfiying them and building an online internet business, but now I do work from home.  I work doing the few hours my kids are at pre-school to maintain and market my websites.  I sometimes log in some time at night, after they’re asleep, but in general I work a lot less than I did at my old job, and with my daycare, commuting and other expenses dramtically decreased, the money I make from my online business helps pay the bills.

So how did I do it – I got really serious about studying and finding out what worked.  I also thought about the requirements of my business.  I didn’t want to have to worry about shipping a lot of products (I didn’t want to have to pay for and store inventory, plus it’s not easy to run a warehouse with two little kids around).  I wanted it to be something that I liked and was good at – I wanted it to resolve around my interests.  The business would need to function pretty much entirely over the internet, with internet marketing tools.  Low start up costs, no employees (I do use independent contractors and interns for some things, but I am pretty much a one woman show….)

That’s why I settled on blogging and affiliate marketing.  I decided to start blogs around subjects I was interested in an monetize them by selling other people’s products for a commission.  For some of them, I also sell my e-book products.   The key is to not have to ship a product – I would rather take a smaller cut of a commission or advertising revenue than have to worry about running to the post office or tracking down a ship tracking number.

So how did I find out which areas to start my blogs in?  As you can see, I thought about the business I wanted to create and what attributes it needed – and then decided on the business model that would best suit those needs.   In my next post, I will talk about how to discover what areas are best for YOU (yes you, not me) to start your business in.