Is money super tight around your house? It always has been in ours! From the beginning, I knew that raising my kids would be my “work” in my life. My husband and I agreed that I would stay home with the kids and raise them as we pleased. But with that comes a HUGE sacrifice. As much as we wanted to be a one income family, it’s often a struggle.

While other moms bring in a steady income, I never did. This was all okay because my husband made a pretty good living and we were blessed in the housing department. We have always been able to pay our bills and have a little bit of spending money but I dreamed of more wiggle room. I wanted to experience life with my kids while they’re still young. Sometimes that meant going to homeschool days at local dinner shows. Other times that meant going on last-minute vacations. I knew if I wanted more, I had to start making some money on my own.

**The kicker was that I wasn’t willing to leave my house and go to work. I knew I could make money from home, while homeschooling my kids. The problem was, I wanted a steady income.**

I’d tried selling stuff on Ebay, earning gift cards through Swagbucks and even selling handmade items on Etsy. All of these did bring in an income, but it wasn’t steady and certainly wasn’t adding up to much of an income. My goal was to make $1,000 a month. Because do you know how many times you can treat your kids to pizza with that much money!?!

For years, my husband has told me to write a book. He knew I loved writing and even had a few works published while I was in high school. In fact, had I not married and started a family right out of high school, I probably would have ended up as a creative writing major in college.

One day, while browsing Pinterest, I stumbled upon a pin that introduced me to Elite Blog Academy. Up until this point, it never really occurred to me that bloggers made money for what they did. Let alone, triple digit incomes! But that wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to run a business. I simply wanted a little extra cash. But with so many people make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, I knew I could make $1,000 a month.

But HOW did these bloggers make such big bucks?

I knew they all had one thing in common: Elite Blog Academy. It’s a blogging class designed to walk you, step-by-step, through the blogging process. They cover all the necessities without adding in all the fluff.

I knew I had to join but Elite Blog Academy (or EBA for short) only opened for enrollment for one week a year. Thankfully, that one time was only a few months away. I had time to save up the money to actually enroll in the class.

This class, EBA, it wasn’t cheap.

Not at all. But I knew it was exactly what I’d been looking for. I knew that if I didn’t sign up for this class when it opened, I would be kicking myself for the next 12 months. So, I got to work. I sold stuff on Facebook Marketplace. I fed my neighbor’s dog while they were on vacation. We even stopped going out to eat and put that extra money towards my savings. I did everything I could think of to save up enough money to purchase the class. And it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.

IS ELITE BLOG ACADEMY RIGHT FOR YOU? TAKE THE QUICK & EASY ASSESSMENT!

For the next few months, I worked through EBA with incredible intensity. At the time, we were adding on to our house, I was still homeschooling my kids and coaching 2 soccer teams. To say it was hectic is an understatement. But I did it! Those first few months were crazy-busy! I was at my computer every chance I got. Within 6 months, I had established a quality blog structure and figured my way around the blog a little bit more. I eased up on the blogging and only blogged for about 10 hours a week.

To this day, I only blog about 5-10 hours a week. Obviously, if i worked on my blog more, I could make a way better income. But money isn’t everything to me and I’ve hit my goal of steadily bringing in $1,000 a month. Not only am I able to splurge more on making memories with my kids, but I also am able to pay our car payment and often sur house payment, with my income.

Lately, I’ve had a LOT of people asking me how to make money blogging, so I thought I’d share my story and show you exactly where my income comes from. I don’t want to brag. Simply put, I want to open up doors for you. I want other struggling mammas to know that it IS doable! You can stay home with your kiddos and bring in a part-time income to help out with finances.

November Income: $1,205.39

People are often puzzled about how bloggers actually make money. There are 3 main ways: Ads, Affiliates and Sponsored Posts. Here’s a breakdown of how I make $1,000 a month from home.

Ad Network: $385.40

My current ad network is Monumetric Ads. A few months ago, I switched from AdSense to Monumetric and I’m really pleased with them! The company places ads of my blog and pays me based on how many people view the ads, as well as how many click the ads. The best pat is that these ads aren’t offensive or vulgar. In fact, they’re “smart ads,” which means they already know what the reader has been looking for and offers ideas based on that!

Affiliate Programs: $169.99

Amazon Affiliate Income: $98.66

Affiliate Income: $71.33

What is an affiliate program? It’s a program that’s designed to pay the blogger for telling you about a product or service. I include helpful links in my posts, you click on them and purchase the product and the company pays me a small fee for sending you their way. Clicking on an affiliate link doesn’t cost the buyer any more but it does help the blogger.

Being in the homeschool niche is a bit of a struggle. If you want to make the big bucks, don’t blog about homeschooling. Blog about fitness or money or cooking… anything but homeschooling! I don’t say that to discourage you from your passion but the homeschool niche is notoriously hard to make a profit.

This month, my highest paying affiliate was 7SistersHomeschool, with a whopping $30 payout. Thankfully, I managed to make several smaller affiliate sales from other programs that added up to about $40.

How Do People FIND My Blog?

Most of my traffic comes from Pinterest or search engines. (Meaning there must be a lot of people Googling “educational shows on Netflix.) But one thing I’ve really been focusing on is my email list. I’ve noticed that when I send out an email to my subscribers, my pageviews skyrocket that day. I’ve always been pretty terrible about sending out emails because, to be honest, I feel like I’m babbling and not providing enough value for my readers. So, I just ignored them. But once I started really focusing on emails, I discovered why people swear by it!
Even big companies send out emails to their subscribers, so why wasn’t I? Once I discovered Campaign Monitor, I didn’t struggle anymore. They make it easy to communicate quickly and efficiently with my followers. Their drop-and-drag design feature saves me hours of time each week, making email creation painless. I no longer have to wonder if my readers love my content. I know they do! Campaign Monitor helps me present my email in an attractive and professional way. If you’re already a blogger and struggling to get pageviews, try sending emails on a consistent basis. It really does make all the difference!

If you’re like me and just want to make $1,000 a month while staying home, check out Elite Blog Academy. You won’t get rich overnight but you can quickly generate a steady income by working for only 10-20 hours a week! If you can’t afford the class right now, check out some freebies that will help get you started on the right track!

How I Make $1,000 a Month While Homeschooling My Kids

**The kicker was that I wasn’t willing to leave my house and go to work. I knew I could make money from home, while homeschooling my kids. The problem was, I wanted a steady income.**