In response to my last post, I received some emails asking for more details.  So I am happy to share my response for those of you looking to supplement your income.

In the fall of 2011, after trying to make money from blogging for a couple years (and failing!!  Ha!), I joined a membership site HireMyMom.com and applied for four small jobs that didn’t require me to be available at a specific time.  As in, I needed to find something where we had weekly or monthly goals, but that I didn’t have to find childcare to have conference calls.  I just wanted to do something on my own time during nap times and evenings.  We were getting closer to Jackson going to preschool (then Hannah) and I wanted to find a way to pay for preschool without having to cut something from our budget.

Within a week, I had gotten three out of the four jobs.  YIKES!  This scared me to death, and I ended up only working for one.  The job was to write two articles a week for a website related to social media marketing.  The pay was $50 per article, and this continued for 3 months.  My editor recommended that I apply for an opening within our company.  It began as 10 hours a week, and I did this during Mom’s Morning Out times/naps/evenings.  But the work grew, and I was paid more, so we enrolled Jackson and Hannah in a morning Montessori preschool (this was actually one of my first goals, so this was fun to achieve, too!).

We have been doing this for several months, but last summer I decided to start a marketing company.  As fun as it is to work with my company, it is important to grow something for myself, too.  So I recently launched a business that assists companies looking to grow online (online marketing strategy, Facebook marketing, Facebook advertising, Facebook fan page design, Search Engine Optimization, web creation, social media, etc.)

I was able to reach the goal by working for someone else, and by growing my own company, both from home.  This can be a powerful mix because you get the momentum by working for a company, then you begin to see ways that you can create something for yourself, too.

Over the past couple of years, I have seen a variety of models for moms looking to supplement their income, and I think article writing is an easy way to “dip your toes into the water” to see what you have the time/space for in your life.  My position was posted on HireMyMom.com, but there are a number of sites like this.  If you’re interested, consider FlexJobs, eLance, Odeskand many others.  Don’t get sidelined by seeing how low people will charge for these services.  If you are a good writer, people will pay you a fair wage for this.

You won’t get rich writing articles, but it can get the ball rolling, if you need it.  In the coming weeks, I’ll share the other models that are becoming increasingly popular online.

Questions?  Ask in the comment field, and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Thanks!