Nurturing Income Diversity: A Busy Entrepreneur’s Guide
I’m currently looking for new ways that I can add value to my business, my community, and my family. I bet all of us can relate to that. It seems like I’m constantly looking for new ways to optimize elements of my life, whether it’s home life, work life, or just life in general. But this is something I’m looking into right now — ways I can work smarter, not harder.
Being a neurodivergent mom of soon-to-be six, a homeschooler, and someone wearing multiple professional hats in the realm of parenting support, my journey as a content creator, service provider, and overall entrepreneur has been a whirlwind of passion, purpose, and juggling responsibilities. One of the most challenging yet rewarding aspects has been finding ways to diversify income streams while maintaining the integrity of my content and the sanity of my schedule.
Like with any company, I find that different areas of my business have seasons that eb and flow, which requires me to think of multiple income streams that I can utilize as time, the season, and life as a parent allows. I’ve noticed an uptick in other parents working this way lately, and I’ve seen several successful business owners sharing that this is the exact secret to their blossoming income. There are a lot of ways to do this, but I’m going to share the most attainable options you can use to cultivate a sustainable income while staying true to your mission. Remember, it’s not just about maximizing revenue—it’s about finding meaningful ways to add value to your audience and make a difference in their lives.
A huge thank you to Playwire for sponsoring this conversation. All opinions are mine alone and all information is for educational purposes only. #playwirepartner. Photos by Raising Love Photography.
Leverage Affiliate Marketing
When I first heard about affiliate marketing I was mainly generating income from traditional sponsored campaigns so I didn’t think it would be beneficial to my business. However, after hearing Jessica Turner’s Mom 2.0 Summit talk about the different types of affiliate options and how much revenue she had generated for her business I realized there was a lot of opportunity in affiliate marketing that I hadn’t tapped into yet. I went home and started applying to programs using the tips she shared and it has been a whole new stream of income for me ever since.
Affiliate marketing can be a game-changer for bloggers and influencers looking to monetize their content in a way that feels authentic and relevant to their audience. You may have noticed the dozens of Instagram accounts dedicated solely to sharing Amazon finds — they’re affiliate-driven accounts that create content purely for the commission they get when someone purchases something using their affiliate link!
By partnering with brands and products that align with your niche and values, you can earn commissions for recommending products or services that you genuinely believe in. Whether it’s baby gear, educational resources, or self-care products for moms, there’s a plethora of opportunities to explore. The key is to limit items to products and services you have tried (or still use all the time) and genuinely love because of how helpful they are. If I already use and recommend a product I might look for an affiliate link to use since I already recommend it, but I don’t let an affiliate link influence whether or not I recommend something.
My favorite part about affiliate marketing is that it makes it so easy for friends, family, and followers interested in your genuine knowledge to support you without paying anything outside of the cost of a product or service they want. It’s such a great way to support content creators you love, and I’ve personally found that it’s a great way to challenge myself as a content creator to offer fun and different content that my readers love but that also directly helps my family.
Create Digital Products
I started creating free digital products like pregnancy bump cards for my blog posts to boost content authority, offer value to my audience, and increase on-site ad income (we’ll talk more about this so keep reading) but I’ve also been able to add them to an Esty shop for an additional revenue stream. Honestly, “digital products” is one of my favorite revenue streams. Though I am due to create some more ebooks for my audience, virtual events and course creation have my heart. Not only because these options offer the opportunity to reach my audience in new ways while generating another type of income, but each one I create allows me to connect with so many amazing professionals in the parenting space that I might not have otherwise. My digital courses also allow me to reach families worldwide!
Consider creating digital products such as e-books, online courses, or printables that offer solutions to common challenges faced by the audience you serve. Because I serve expecting and new families, I’ve partnered with experts to create virtual summits about lactation, pregnancy through the first 5 years of a child’s life, and oral ties. I’ve also created pregnancy bump photo cards, DIY birth plans, an infant massage course, etc. I have plans for several different children’s books and even more courses and events, too! These digital assets require a lot of work upfront — and maintenance to ensure your information is always accurate — but overall allow for an income stream that can be a bit more hands-off, if needed. Digital products can provide passive income while adding value to your audience, which then also boosts your brand awareness.
Utilize Ad Networks
I’ve been looking into optimizing my ad layouts, and I’m really happy to take you guys on my journey with me as I look into what I can do on my site to create better visual and experiential ad content. I’m currently talking to Playwire about their offering, and I’d love to take you on the journey with me as I look into it and discover more.
Despite what you may have heard, owning your content is extremely important in 2024. Many brands are seeing more value than ever before in hosting useful, eye-catching product or service information via a blog for web search optimization. Personally, whenever I see someone promoting a product or service, I almost immediately look up their website to learn more about them.
While we saw a lot of bloggers move toward social media to create content in the early 2000s, we’ll likely start seeing social media-only content creators emerging in the blogging space soon, not only because they can better use affiliate marketing on a website they own, but also because ad networks like Playwire offer the ability to continue a seamless, non-intrusive reader experience on your website while also providing an additional revenue stream.
Maintaining a positive browsing experience for my audience is huge for me, so I was thrilled to learn about Playwire’s concierge onboarding, where a dedicated Account Manager met with me to discuss a variety of ad solutions, customized for my website, to ensure I can serve ads to my audience without the icky, spam feeling a poor ad strategy can provide.
With Playwire, I’m able to restrict certain types of ads that are not necessarily a perfect fit for my website or audience, choose exactly which sections or
pages on my website ads appear on–and how and when–and choose from a wide variety of display and video offerings. Between this customization, hands-on partner and technical support, and steady earning potential, Playwire makes ad management an essential monetization tool for creators to use.
Interested in learning more about blog monetization? The Complete Guide to Monetizing a Blog is a tremendous place to get started. Built upon Playwire’s nearly 20 years of expert knowledge, dive into the guide for the answers to all your most pressing questions about how to successfully monetize your blog.
Host Webinars or Workshops
If you really shine when talking to your audience LIVE and know they would find some of the information you have to share useful, a webinar or workshop is such a great option. It’s fairly hard for me to go LIVE sometimes so I tend to stick to pre-recorded courses, but when I have hosted these it was a lot of fun. You learn so much about your audience based on their questions, interaction, and feedback during a LIVE webinar and if you record it you can use it as a digital product that you sell or offer as a free opt-in to your mailing list! I recently offered a free LIVE postpartum planning workshop to my audience where I included a mini sponsor and affiliate links to generate income. Once the webinar was over I created an email opt-in for it so that more families could continue to benefit from the webinar and I could increase my email list size. After a while, I could also move this webinar to my website’s paid courses section!
Hosting webinars or workshops can be a lucrative way to share your expertise and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Whether it’s a live Q&A session, a workshop on baby massage techniques, or a virtual support group for new moms, webinars offer a platform to engage with your community while generating income through ticket sales or sponsorships. The only drawback to webinars is that you often need to host them frequently so your audience knows to expect them and they can take up a lot of your time LIVE. The recordings from these webinars work great as opt-ins or freebies for your email list, though, which allows you to gain a dedicated audience you can’t achieve on social media.
Explore Sponsored Content
Sponsored content was my main source of income for quite a few years! At first, my sponsored campaigns were for blog posts with social media but then eventually Instagram sponsorships became one of my biggest revenue streams. Just before the pandemic happened there was a bit of a shift in sponsored campaigns and a lot of companies moved to affiliates — sponsorships shifted from basically my sole income source to one of my income sources.
Many companies still offer sponsored campaigns, though, and they’re a great win-win way to partner with brands! Look for brands that align with your values and resonate with your audience, and then negotiate partnerships that allow you to create authentic, meaningful content while earning fair compensation for your time to create the work, expertise, audience, and any usage rights. Remember to disclose sponsored content per FTC guidelines based on the location of your content (social media or your blog) to maintain trust and credibility with your readers.
Monetize Your Expertise
Monetizing your expertise could honestly look like all of the above streams of income, but for me, I think of it as when you’re trading money for time like with in-person or virtual services.
For instance, I offer consulting services to both brands wanting to reach parents and parents who want to pick my brain. I also offer in-person mom & baby wellness sessions (CST, lactation, infant massage, baby-led sleep & whole body care) as well as virtual services like prenatal lactation appointments, baby registry help, etc.. I might also offer
I’ve been working on the best ways to optimize my content while offering sincere value to my audience for years and this is something that is truly always changing as the world of content creation evolves. I’m still learning new things — and will learn even more at the Mom 2 Summit in Nashville in April — but I’m so happy you’re on this journey with me.
