Ever dreamed of working from home while on maternity leave with your little one? Want to learn how to make money on maternity leave? I’ve got you covered. I’m going to share nine of the top ways to make money online to make the most of your maternity leave.
How to Make Money on Maternity Leave – The Top 9 Ways
1. Start Blogging
Now is the perfect time to start a blog, especially if you’re starting your leave before your little one’s birth.
Bloggers can make a lot of money, but it does take time to build things up. How much can you make? Some bloggers make $100K a month.
The truth is that I also started my first blog when I was on a maternity leave. This is the perfect way for new moms to make make money because you can work from home when your baby naps. You can write about how it’s to be a mom, or any other topic you like. Read my story here and how much money I earn from my blog today.
To succeed, you’ll need to:
- Research to find a niche (topic) that people are interested in and looking for information about online.
- Research keywords (search terms) that people will use to find your content on search engines.
- Create a content plan based on your research and start publishing posts. If you have a budget, you can hire writers – here are the best websites to find them.
- Stay consistent. Make sure that you’re publishing new content regularly.
- Get active on social media to build a following and drive more traffic to your site. Pinterest is a great way to get traffic to your site and grow your blog. Read my guide on how to drive traffic from Pinterest.
Creating a blog is a little technical, but the payoff makes it 100% worth it. Check out our guide on How to Start a Profitable Blog for a detailed walk-through on how to get started. Or sign up to my free email course here:
2. Start a YouTube Channel
Want to know how to make money on maternity leave by creating videos? Start a YouTube channel.
You can vlog your maternity leave to start building an audience and grow your channel over time by showing people life as a mom.
Or you can create a channel that focuses on anything you want. You can even create faceless videos for YouTube if you’re camera-shy.
You might be wondering, “How much money can you really make on YouTube?“
Well, quite a lot! Some YouTubers rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars each month.
But how is that possible? On average, YouTube’s RPM (revenue per thousand views) ranges between $3 and $7. A quick calculation shows that a video with 100K views can earn you between $300 and $700. And remember, that’s per video! The more compelling content you create, the more you stand to make.
Keep in mind, this revenue comes from YouTube AdSense alone. In addition, you can secure sponsorships for your channel, potentially doubling your earnings for each video.
I’m currently experimenting with a new revenue stream – a YouTube channel for recipe videos. The best part? I’m not even creating the videos myself! I found a who takes care of the cooking, filming, and editing. Pretty cool, right? All I have to do is upload them to YouTube and share them on social media.
I’ve already bought 10 videos, gained 503 subscribers, and logged 689 public watch hours. Once I hit 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers, I can apply for the YouTube Partner Program to start making money from my videos.
You can learn more about succeeding with faceless videos from Niche Pursuits:
YouTubers can easily make thousands of dollars a month, but like with anything else, you need to:
- Be consistent. Aim to post a new video at least once a week.
- Choose a profitable niche. Business, finance and tech are top paying, but travel and beauty are two other profitable and fun options.
- Improve your video editing skills and equipment over time. The more professional the production, the easier it will be to get views and subscribers.
My advice to you? Choose a niche that you’ll still love years from now, so you don’t lose that passion for creating new content.
3. Launch a Shopify Shop
Shopify makes it EASY to launch your own online store – no coding knowledge required. And you can sell virtually anything you want in your store.
How much money can you make on Shopify? The truth is, the sky’s the limit! Shopify is a platform for building online stores, so your earnings depend largely on your effort. The more you invest in and promote your shop, the more money you can make. It all comes down to having great products and packaging them into a compelling concept that people want to buy.
Check out Sara Titus (listed number 3) who built a million-dollar printables shop! In one of her income reports, she revealed that her online shop earned $925,773 in a year.
The great thing about selling through Shopify is that you’re in control of your store. You don’t have to pay extra fees like you do with online marketplaces. You set your prices, and you keep your profits.
The drawback? You’ll have to build everything up from scratch. That means:
- Being active on social media to build brand awareness.
- Optimizing your site for SEO.
- Using ads to drive traffic to your shop.
- Being PATIENT.
You’ll also need to make sure that you choose a niche and market where there’s demand for your products.
It will take time to build things up – just like with blogging – but you’ll learn so much and you’ll have a solid business that you can continue running long after maternity leave ends.
To set yourself up for success, read our step-by-step guide on How to Set Up a Shopify Store.
4. Sell on Etsy
You can’t have a list of how to make money on maternity leave without mentioning Etsy. There are thousands of sellers on Etsy, and many of them are making tens of thousands of dollars a year from their shops.
It sounds simple enough:
- Create a shop on the Etsy platform (it’s easy).
- Start creating and publishing listings for products (you’ll pay $0.20 per listing).
- Wait for the sales to roll in.
But the reality is that things are a little more complicated than this.
The key to success with Etsy is to:
- Find a market or niche where there’s demand but isn’t oversaturated.
- Price your products competitively.
- Identify your unique selling point.
Many Etsy sellers also use ads, social media and digital marketing to drive more customers to their online shops.
If you’re just getting started with Etsy, I recommend that you read our Ultimate Guide to Starting an Etsy Shop, where we walk you through each step of getting your shop up and running.
And here are a few ideas for amazing products you can sell on Etsy:
Best Selling Items on Etsy That Generate Over $10,000 a Month
Best Selling Digital Products to Sell on Etsy in 2024
How to Make $100K+ Selling T-shirts on Etsy?
5. Start a Gig on Fiverr
Do you have an awesome skill that you can sell? You can start a gig on Fiverr and start making money today. Here are easy ways to make extra $500 per month from home.
Fiverr is a gig marketplace where freelancers sell their services to buyers. There are thousands of sellers and even more buyers on Fiverr. It’s one of the biggest platforms for freelancing, and you can easily make thousands of dollars a month if you have the right skill.
Getting started is easy:
- Create an account.
- Create your first gig.
- Add a persuasive description.
- Upload your portfolio (if relevant).
- Add your credentials.
- Set your pricing and packaging.
It may take a little work to get your first few buyers, but after you get a few good reviews, you’ll find that new buyers will flood your inbox.
6. Write and Sell an eBook
Here’s how to make money on maternity leave doing something creative and fun – write an eBook and sell it.
It’s easier than ever to self-publish books, thanks to Amazon and other marketplaces. And you can write on just about anything you want, including fiction.
But if you want to succeed, you’ll need to do some major promotion or write on topics that people are actively searching for (how-tos, motivational, success-themed, etc.).
You can write the book yourself, or you can hire a writer if you have great ideas and aren’t confident in your writing skills.
Just be prepared to do a lot of marketing to get the word out and start selling copies of your book.
7. Create an Online Course
Courses make money. But you need to think long and hard about what type of course you’ll create. Why? You need to be really good at something – so much so that another person is willing to give you money to learn from you.
With this in mind, you can create a course on your:
- Favorite hobby
- Working from home on maternity leave
- DIYing a newborn’s bedroom
- Anything you’re skilled at
You’ll want to sit down and brainstorm the course you want to create, but you’ll quickly find that there are numerous options available.
And while you’ll want a site where you can sell your course to buyers directly, you can also use third-party sites, such as:
- Skillshare
- Udemy
- Many others
You’ll want to do your research and find courses that you believe will sell well and have a strong market already.
8. Sell Photos on Stock Photo Sites
If you’re a photographer or always have been really good with the camera and don’t know how to make money on maternity leave, why not sell your photos on stock photo sites? I recommend looking for your “niche.”
For example, people buy office- or professional-related photos all the time.
Why?
Because they fall into any niche and have a wide array of uses. I do recommend having a professional camera and not just your smartphone for this money-making opportunity. With this in mind, consider signing up for the following platforms:
You’ll want to read through each site’s terms to learn how licensing works, what commission you’ll receive and any limitations that exist.
9. Open a Print-on-Demand Shop
Print-on-demand (POD) is one of the best ways to begin making money because:
- Demand is very high
- Selling is easy
If you watch YouTube, chances are good that one of your favorite channels sells apparel, coffee mugs and other items with printed text. The text can be anything from the creator’s logo to one of their favorite catchphrases.
You can create and sell merch, too.
Just sign up for any one of the many platforms out there, such as:
- Teespring
- Threadless
- Many others
You upload your designs, create a listing and then the print company handles the printing and shipping. It’s not entirely hands-off, but the POD company even manages the shipping for you.
However, they do take fees and commissions on the sale, which you’ll know when signing up.
Find Your Passion and Roll with It
You’re on maternity leave, and your life is drastically different now than it was just a few months ago. A new little one in your life will take up all of your time, and while you can sell anything online, you want to have passion for whatever it is you’re selling.
Why?
Your job is raising your child right now. And when you sell something with passion, it makes a world of difference. For many new parents, their passions are an escape from the responsibilities they have, and if it makes you money, that’s even better.
