Are you a stay-at-home mom looking for a way to make money online? It’s the perfect scenario; you can be at home with your kids, but still have a side hustle. It really is the best of both worlds. Learn how to start an online business from home in 6 steps.
In my opinion, one of the best online jobs for stay-at-home moms is affiliate marketing. Work while your kids are napping, on play dates, or at school. Over time, your consistent work and dedicated effort will eventually lead to a thriving online business that will serve you for years to come.
When my kids were young, I was a family and wedding photographer. Although, I enjoyed it, and had a small studio in my home, many times I would be gone the entire day. I wished I had known about online marketing. Follow the steps below to set up your own affiliate marketing business. In the world of internet marketing, it’s more than possible to earn a living online, and all from the comfort of your own home.
Table of Contents
How To Start An Online Business From Home In 6 Steps
1. Identify Your Target Market
To get started making money online, you first need to identify the segment of the population you’ll be marketing to. This is referred to as your niche. If your niche is gluten-free cooking, your target audience would be those with Celiac disease and gluten intolerance. People with autoimmunity could also be included within this niche.
Choose a niche you have expertise in, or at least want to learn more about. Your job going forward will be much more enjoyable if you are passionate about your niche. It’s pretty difficult to write about a subject you have no interest in. If you have Celiac disease, for example, you will be a wealth of knowledge to those also struggling with this condition, and your experience and expertise will be invaluable. Share your story in all its detail; how you got diagnosed, what changes you needed to make, and how you feel now that you’re on the other side.
[Read More: How To Pick A Profitable Niche For Your Online Business]
This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, with no cost to you, if you make a purchase through one of my links.
2. Get A Free Website And Domain Name
To create content, you must first have a website, and that website will need a domain name. I like building websites on the WordPress platform. It’s free and the customization options are amazing. There are thousands of themes and plugins to choose from. These will enable you to build a site that is uniquely yours. Having your own website is exciting. It’s like owning your very own piece of real estate.
You’ll need a domain name for your site that correlates to your niche. If we stick with the niche we talked about above, your domain name could be myglutenfreesite.com, glutenfreecooking.com, or theglutenfreekitchen.com. Stick with a .com as it’s the default extension, and the easiest to remember. Play around with different domains until you find one you love, and that is available.
[Read More: How To Find A Domain Name The EASY Way]
3. Find Affiliate Networks
Now that you have your niche, your website, and your domain name, your next step is to find an affiliate network. This is how your website and content will generate income. Affiliate networks are companies that work with groups of merchants within a variety of niches. My favorite is Share-A-Sale. Check them out here.
I like working with affiliate networks because all the merchants are in the same location. As an affiliate, you’ll earn commissions when someone clicks on one of your links. The merchant you’re promoting will also make a commission. We’ll talk about this more below.
Affiliate marketing is a matter of choosing products you want to promote, grabbing your unique link, and promoting that link in the content on your blog. Keep in mind, the products you promote must be relevant to your content and niche.
The more traffic you have coming to your site, the more potential there is that people will click on your links, making you a profit. Your links are placed within your content. That’s why blog posts are so essential to a successful online business.
4. Blog Weekly
With all the previous steps completed, it’s time to get to work. Your main objective will be to write engaging and informative blog posts every week. This is how you’ll promote affiliate products and make money. Within your content, focus on solving a problem that those within your niche may be facing. In the example above, providing gluten-free tips and tricks would be a solution to those who are gluten free.
The more your readers come to know, like, and trust you, the more likely they’ll be to buy from you. The more content you provide, the more authority and trust you’ll build with your audience. Build up a significant following, and watch your sales soar.
At some point, you’ll want to start building an email list your readers can subscribe to. That way they’ll automatically receive your weekly content directly in their inbox. AWeber is user-friendly and easy to set up. And by the way, they just initiated a free plan for email marketing and landing pages. Click here to learn more.
5. Promote On Social Media
You’ll want to promote each and every post you write on social media. Being active on social media allows you to take advantage of free marketing. Don’t forget this step, it enables your content to be exposed to thousands of people. The goal of social media marketing, is to direct those who read your content, back to your site.
Once on your site, they’ll have the option of reading more of your content, or purchasing a product or service you’re selling. And don’t forget, blogging is amazing for search engine optimization or SEO. This is super important because it’s how people will find your content and website while they’re browsing the internet.
Once you’ve gotten into the groove of writing weekly and promoting your content on social media, you’ll want to automate your posting schedule. This not only saves you valuable time and energy that you can devote elsewhere, automation also streamlines your business, resulting in more conversions and more sales.
PromoRepublic is an awesome automation platform that enables you to store and create content for your networks, while running ads and managing clients or locations. You’ll have access to thousands of social media templates, visuals, and advanced reporting tools. Learn more here . You can also create an account for free.
6. Rinse And Repeat
Now that you know the steps to become an affiliate marketer, rinse and repeat until you have built a business you’re proud of. You can do this with more than one site if you’re ambitious.Choose a niche – Build a site – Select a domain name – Write informative content – Place your affiliate links – Promote on social media = Recipe for success!
That is affiliate marketing in a nutshell. Of course, there will be many twists and turns as you progress on your journey, but it’s exciting to be able to make money working from home, and is particularly awesome, if you’re a stay-at-home mom!
Make It Easy On Yourself
I learned my affiliate marketing skills by joining Wealthy Affiliate Online University. You’ll learn everything you’ll need to run a successful online business. It’s completely free to join, and you won’t have to hand over your credit card. With a free account, you can create two WordPress websites on the siterubix.com platform.
The training is incredible, the community support is indispensable, and the hosting is lightning fast. One of my favorite things about joining Wealthy Affiliate is all my website logins are in one convenient location. This makes it easy to login, without having to remember passwords, which drives me crazy!
[Read More: Is Wealthy Affiliate The Real Deal?]
If you’re serious about affiliate marketing, there really is no better platform out there. Joining was one of the best decisions of my life. It’s one-stop shopping, where you’ll learn how to write engaging content, build a website, join affiliate programs, and optimize your site for SEO. The training is comprehensive, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised, how easy it is to digest the concepts. Plus, you’ll get to enjoy live video classes every week. Create your FREE account here. If you decide to take the leap, I will be beside you every step of the way.
Watch this video to get a feel for what the training is like at Wealthy Affiliate.
Key Points
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online, and is the perfect solution for moms who want to stay home. The first step is to get your website up and running.
After this, your job will be to create content to those you’re marketing to. Learn the skills you need to succeed online by joining Wealthy Affiliate. There’s a whole new world out there just waiting for you!
Are you a stay-at-home mom? Have you been looking for an opportunity to work from home? Let me know in the comments:)
I just recently joined Wealthy Affiliate, and it’s also my number one recommendation. I have achieved a lot with Wealthy Affiliate in just one week. I have been able to create a strong foundation for my online business all thanks to this amazing review.
Wealthy Affiliate seems to have a caring community and I wish the best to anyone who decides to go into Affiliate marketing with Wealthy Affiliate. Thank you!
I’m so glad you joined Wealthy Affiliate Solomon. You won’t regret your decision. I have learned so much, and the skills are easy to implement with the help of the community.
It’s definitely my number one recommendation for anyone wanting to achieve online success!
These steps should pretty much be chiseled into granite for anyone looking to build a successful online business. Nicely written post and great advice here. I found your site and post as I was explaining affiliate marketing to a friend. This is how you turn Google into a tool that works for you instead of a time waster. I really enjoyed your article!
It’s so nice to hear you enjoyed my article. Thank you so much for reading and commenting Eric.
I really want Google on my team!
Awesome. I guess every stay at home mum must read this. Starting with Wealthy Affiliate indeed allows more people to start their small business at home.
I too will be joining the stay at home mom club in another few months thanks to Wealthy Affiliate.
It has indeed bring me closer to achieving time freedom.
That’s awesome Florence that you’ll be able to stay home. I love hearing that!
Thank goodness for Wealthy Affiliate! Thanks for commenting.
This is just awesome. This article had everything I needed to know before starting an online affiliate business. It was so easy for me to understand the process because this article had step by step instructions on what I should do to start an online affiliate business.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thank you for reading and commenting. The process is easy to understand if it’s broken down in steps.
Hello Holly! Thank you very much for this post. Yeah, having the best of both world seems like a dream. But I have heard good comments about affiliate marketing. Thank you for laying down the basics concerning how to earn money online through affiliate marketing.
That’s cool that Wealthy Affiliate helps us to get started with this. I’ll check it out.
You’re welcome Henry. Affiliate marketing takes time and effort, like any endeavor, but it has amazing potential to make your dreams come true!
Do check out Wealthy Affiliate. I can’t say enough good about it!