Ways I am NOT Making Money as a Stay-at-Home Mom

Last week I worked on goal setting. My first goal is to make something more out of my blog – to actually write content and learn how to create a blog worth reading. I would love to create a blog that’s informative and meaningful, that helps and encourages moms – and not just stay-at-home moms, but all of the moms. We are all working as hard as we can to take care of our homes, our families, ourselves, and it’s not easy!

Ultimately, I would also love to use this blog as a way bring in extra money. But since building a blog takes a lot of time, I’ve also been exploring other work from home options, as well. And I thought it would might be useful if I shared my experience.

So far, the options I’ve found are not awesome.

I have made some money with these companies, but I’m finding that either the pay is too low and not worth my time, or it’s simply not doable as a stay-at-home mom. Now, I’m not looking to “get rich quick,” or even make a full-time income, but I would really love to contribute a little something to my family’s finances.

(I set a goal for this last week, too! It’s a small goal, but I’m hopeful that I can do it. I’ll keep you posted on this.)

If you’re also a stay-at-home mom looking for ways to work from home, DON’T waste your time on these!

Amazon Mechanical Turk

In the beginning, I thought this would be a great option. It’s flexible – log in and work whenever you want, as long or as little as you want. Sign-up is easy, and once you create and confirm your account, you can start right away. Working on Mechanical Turk involves completing HIT’s, or Human Intelligence Tasks. Most tasks are simple and mindless, like taking  surveys or entering data from a google search, but unless you have the typing skills of a court reporter it’s nearly impossible to even make minimum wage. The only pros are that you can receive payment directly onto your Amazon account, and they pay out every Sunday, without a minimum payout requirement.

I spent about thirty minutes on Mechanical Turk this week, to give it one more shot. My payout total for thirty minutes of completing HIT’s: $1.80.

Rev.com

Rev.com offers transcription and caption services. I also thought this could be a great option as a stay-at-home mom, because of the flexibility and that I’m a decent typist. I think Rev does have possibility and could work for some moms, especially if you already have transcription experience. But it did not work for me. I found it nearly impossible to transcribe audio in my home – between my kids, my husband, and my pets, my house is never quiet, and quiet is a necessary thing with transcription, especially with difficult audio. Applying to work on Rev isn’t too hard. You have to pass a test on spelling and grammar, and also transcribe a short video clip. After being notified that you pass, you move on to transcribing a few training clips, some are audio and some are video. You do get paid for the training, the average payout was 32 cents per audio minute. The payout after the training does go up, but my experience was that it did not go up enough to be worth my time to continue. They payout weekly through PayPal.

My payout this week: $0.

All of the Survey Sites

Ugh. I don’t even want to talk about these. So not worth my time, or anyone’s time. I’m embarrassed about how much time and energy I’ve wasted on these. There are some legit survey sites out there that do pay, but getting paid 20 cents for a 20 minute survey that makes my brain cells disintegrate is not worth it.

My payout this week: $0.

I know there are plenty of other work from home options out there – customer service rep, virtual assistant, tutoring – but I already know those would not work for me either. Most of them require at least a somewhat set schedule and no interruptions during that set schedule, and with a little one going through sleep regressions and teething that is not something I can commit to right now.

Please let me know if you’re a stay-at-home mom and have found a worthwhile and practical work from home job! And as my search continues, I’ll let you know as well!

~Nicole~