How do most Stay at home moms make extra money?

Many women who are stay at home mommies (SAHM) want to make money from the comfort of their own homes, while raising their very young children. I've found (just through our group) that these women are intelligent, highly motivated, organized (you have to be with kids) and really need to bolster their families income.

They don't want to open up "daycare" centers in their homes, and take on more kids ~ although for sure, there is money to be made in this. Most of the sahm's I know wanted to devote themselves to their children, not other peoples children.

There are many of them who have signed up for MLM business ideas (they used to be tupperware, cleaning products and kitchen gadgets) but more and more have gotten into makeup, perfume and cleansers, Passion Parties, Candles, Books, Kids Toys and more... They have to actively find customers, advertise, do home shows, and really "hustle" for a living. This is a lot of work, and quite frankly, to be successful in it, you have to spend a lot more hours on it than you would if you just went back to work full time!

Some of the smarter ideas that stay at home moms have come up with are web based, involve very little investment up front, or take them away from the kids and the house.

Most of these women have taken to selling off their used baby gear, clothing and accessories online at sites like Craigs List (which is free to use and involves no fees for selling), or setting up online auctions at Ebay. The nice thing about these ideas are that they can do them anytime of the day, or night, during naptime or on weekends! They do have to be fairly organized to stay on top of their listings, and shipping.

Some stay at home moms start setting up websites on various topics that are valuable to others. The easiest ways for them to make money at this point is to have some kind of advertising or affiliate program on them.

The majority of website owners have implemented Google Adsense on their sites. AdSense is simple to join. It's easy to paste a bit of code into your pages and it's free to join. Google provides well written, highly relevant ads - chosen to closely match the content on your pages.
It allows the blogger to be free to concentrate on providing good content and Google does the work of finding the best ads for your pages from 100,000 AdWords advertisers.

Others choose to use Amazon's Honor System. This is a safe and easy way for anyone to support their favorite Web sites. Amazon.com has successfully completed hundreds of millions of online transactions and has more than 25 million customers. Now, the Amazon Honor System lets you use Amazon.com payment technology to make payments to Web sites as small as $1.00.

Web sites and blogs use the Amazon Honor System to collect voluntary payments from their readers. In many cases, the Honor System is the only way a Web site can economically collect small payments. In others, the Honor System allows the Web site to raise money for continued operations without resorting to intrusive banner advertisements.

Going from two incomes to one income means that many stay at home moms choose to live "frugally" - although for most of us, this is not a nice word. They clip coupons, cut their cable, shop on sale, buy at consignment stores, and know which restaurants offer "kids eat free" meals. By doing this they can save thousands of dollars a year (which is then counted as their income)..

Other moms with a creative flair have been able to make money with: Gift Baskets, Painting & Stenciling furniture or even murals, becoming event/party planners and interior designers.

Some moms who are great at staying organized and on top of everything have turned that into life coaching, running errands, organizing or cleaning other peoples' homes, dog walking, dog daycare (and even pooper scooping)!

Perhaps you're always being told that you make the best cakes around -- you could start making them for birthday parties. Maybe you're a gym nut, who could start some personal training amongst girlfriends to get going? Next thing you know you have your own clientelle whose homes you go to daily to work out.

You've probably already "baby proofed" your own home - how about being paid to do other mom's to be? How about becoming an inventor? Look at the mom who created the snack cup lids so the cheerios don't fall out! More recently, what about the owner of Baby Einstein who sold her invention to Disney for 25 million dollars!

A lot of being a stay at home mom requires quick thinking, and I know that if you toss around a few ideas on our group, or with your friends, you'll come up with a great idea of your own, that fits your schedule, and brings in some extra money on the side!!