Stay at home mothers are starting more blogs than ever and most of them are incredibly competent writers who have a compelling story to tell. However, more than anything they struggle with monetizing their content.
Before you try and find a way to generate revenue from an audience, you need to understand the composition of that audience truly. For SAHM blogs, the majority of the readers are going to be other mothers who have children around a similar age.
Banner Advertisements
Traditional banner advertising has existed for almost as long as the internet itself. You see ads on the vast majority of websites that you visit, and those ads usually operate on either a CPM or CPC basis.
CPC stands for cost per click and is the most common form of banner advertising. For every person that clicks on one of your ads, you get paid a certain amount. That amount will vary depending on your website, the page and the content of the ad itself.
In many cases, you might only get paid half a dollar, but over thousands of clicks per month that can quickly add up to a full-time income.
Although you can find companies privately to strike deals with the easiest method is to use a network like Google Adsense or Media Dot Net. These networks work with thousands of advertisers, and all you have to do is include a piece of code on your website so that they can serve the ads directly to your audience.
Banner advertising is exceptional at generating revenue from un-targeted traffic that is merely interested in being entertained rather than being sold to. This often, but not always, the case with SAHM blogs because the majority of readers are likely relaxing and looking to read stories from other mothers, not make purchases or solve a problem.
Sponsored Posts
Another form of advertising that has become much more common in the SAHM world in recent years is sponsored posts. This when you as a blogger write an article in which you mention a product, being compensated for the mention.
Many companies will try to compensate you purely in products, but you should resist this. You can’t pay for your groceries or your clothing with products from those companies.
There are hundreds of agencies and PR companies that represent brands, reaching out to SAHM blogs and offering to pay you for a post. In general, the easiest way to get these kinds of proposals is to set up a page on your website where you advertise that you’re accepting them.
Products or Services
As a SAHM you might have a product or service that you can offer your audience. You might be a fantastic writer and provide writing services, or you could teach people how to create their own SAHM blogs.
Whatever it is, offering a product or service is a great way to generate income on your terms with your specialized knowledge. To monetize your blog in this way you should create a page advertising your services and make sure that it’s on your menu bar in a prominent position.
Unfortunately, thisn’t always enough to find clients. Instead, be proactive in reaching out to companies about the products or services that you are offering on your blog.
Affiliate Offers
Finally, and possibly best of all, are affiliate offers. Some of the biggest names in the world like Amazon, Target, and BestBuy have affiliate programs that you can sign up to and generate a percentage of their revenue for recommending products.
As a SAHM you could create an excellent guide to preparing for a newborn baby, including all of the products that you recommend. Then, if any of your readers purchase those products, you will get a percentage of the revenue for recommending them the products.
This can be an excellent way to monetize a SAHM blog because mothers spend such a tremendous amount of money on their families.
