Working Mothers: The Essential Guide – book review
Five minutes with Samantha Price of Angels and Urchins
Build a marketing campaign
Accounting software: how it could make your life easier
Five minutes with Venita Dada Anthonij of SheNovate
Guest blogging for business bloggers – where to start!
I started a business when expecting: Stefanie Shedd of Itsy Bitsy BargainsTell me more… Online shops are a popular choice for mums who want to run their own business. Alternatively, you could create a website that provides information. This might be…
- A listings website showing what’s on in your local area
- A blog – blogs (‘weblogs’) are websites which started out as online diaries, but many have now developed into websites that provide information, news and opinion on a specific subject or to a particular community.
- A social network or membership site where members pay a monthly fee to receive information, training or coaching on a particular subject. This could be as a video, podcast, e-book or e-course.
- A website selling an information product such as e-books and e-courses.
You can earn money from an information site by…
- Selling advertising space, much like a magazine
- For a directory site, you could charge people to list their business or sell advertising space (or both).
- Google Adsense – Google will pay you when a visitor to your site clicks on an advertiser’s link (there are other similar programmes too).
- Affiliate links – you are paid commission when visitors to your site buy from a site you are affiliated to.
- Selling an e-book, e-course or other information product on your website.
- Becoming an expert in your subject could lead to delivering courses, selling print books, coaching or being a consultant.
- Ebuzzing
What are the benefits?
- You can work whenever and wherever you want
- It’s cheap and easy to get started
- You can write about a subject that you love and get paid for it.
Things to consider…
- It’s very easy to start a blog which means there are millions of blogs out there. Getting large numbers of people to visit your site will take a lot of work, including networking, driving web traffic to your site and writing lots of content plus some knowledge of search engine optimisation and social media. You’ll also need to write great content that will bring people back to your site again and again.
- Getting people to spend money on your website will mean you need to convince them that what you have to sell is of value to them and that you’re an expert in your area. This can take a lot of trial and error to discover what works for your audience, as well as giving away lots of information for free.
Further information
- Examples of information websites run by mums:
Business Plus Baby – this site is a blog. Parent Pages is a website giving local information and things to do for parents. Become a Mumpreneur is a membership website.
- Want to try blogging?
You can start your own blog for free using WordPress or Blogger. To make money from blogging you’ll need to move on from a free blog, but this is a good way to see if blogging is for you. To learn about making money online, see Entrepreneur’s Journey and ProBlogger. For advice on writing content, see Copyblogger.
Not convinced that running an information website is for you? Take a look at other business ideas for mums.
How Long Until I Get Paid?
What to put on a website: Online business basics
Before You Hit “Send”: Email Marketing Dos and Dont’s
December’s blog carnival is live!
Business blogging: What’s the point of your post?
I started a business with a baby: Jill Taylor Ali of Tulahberry Mother & Baby
Save The Children: No Child Born To Die
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Great information because it makes it clear that making money from infomration sites takes a lot of hard work and is not a get-rich-quick scheme.
My advice to new starters is to develop great content first and forget all the money-making schemes. This will give your site credibility, make it easier for you to get listed in directories and push you up the search engines. Once you are established then you can monetise the site.
http://www.lullaby-babies.co.uk/blog
Unusual Baby Gifts
I don’t usually post on blogs but had to on yours. You have a very easy to read writing style. A lot of people don’t have that touch, they just drone on and on in the most boring way. But not you – thanks! Don’t have time to read everything here at the moment, I found your site while looking for something else on ask.com. But I’ve bookmarked your homepage and will visit it regularly to read the latest. I really learn from reading web sites about how to succeed at working from home. It’s such an exciting subject. I started working from home about seven months ago and I have learned a lot in that time. I also started a small site about it myself. Seems like there is something new to learn constantly. Please visit my blog at http://www.LinkThe.com. Thanks again for a very educational web site.
Richard, I’m sorry this has taken me so long to respond to your comment, I thought I’d done so soon after you posted. I agree, all the advice I’ve read is to concentrate on great content first and monetise later.
Greg, thanks for the really positive feedback! I’ll take a look at your blog and I’d like to wish you loads of success in your website and in working from home.
This is a great site for inspiration and to find out that there are others out there who are trying to build up a business around a young family. In my quest for to do so, I’m trying to get to grips with Word Press, there are plenty of offers from experts to help but I’m on a bit of a budget and, besides, I’d really like to learn for myself. Anyone out there got any useful tips for me?
Hi Sabi, thank you very much! A few people have now asked me this, so I’m going to do some research and write about it next year.
I totally agree there is a market out there for info websites- afterall I run one- BUT i also agree with Richard.. it is not easy and while one would expect it to be flexible.. it is actually the most time consuming thing I have ever done.. people have high expectations.. advertisers even higher and with so many directories popping up everywhere you really need to find a way to differentiate yourself.. For example- there isnt a great website that does all of Sydney- there are ones that do bits of it but nothing major- there is a gap. Where as in Melbourne there are already 3 well run websites 4 depending on who you ask and so why would you start another? and if you did how will you be different? the only reason I have survived to prosper is because I would do this for free- the irony is that it is this passion that has allowed me to be successful.. so if the motivation is for money.. then I would suggest another start up to be more lucrative in the medium term
- if you are thinking of starting one and you want some advice feel free to email me xNgaire
Hi Ngaire, thanks for your comment. It’s great to hear from someone who has such a lot of experience. I agree, anyone who is looking for an easy business to run around the kids in in for a shock! Earning your living online from advertising very is hard work and that’s one reason why I decided not to go too far down the advertising path here on Business Plus Baby. Having said that, I do know people who are doing quite well, but there’s no doubt it’s a business like any other – you’ve got to find your place in the market and offer what your customers (advertisers) want, then deliver great customer service.
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