UPDATED: July 26, 2021

Pregnant women undergo many physical and emotional changes during their pregnancy and much focus has already been given to all of these. However, what is always being overlooked is the effects of the maternity leave itself on a woman’s mental health. These effects are more severe for workaholics and career-driven women.

If you are going from a full-time employee that is actively pursuing her career to a full-time mother that is staying at home during her maternity leave, it will be a very big change on your part. This, along with the anxiety of being replaced on your current job can be enough to put much stress on you in this situation. However, staying at home during your maternity leave does not automatically mean that you stop being productive.

This article discusses many different things that mothers can do to maximize their maternity leave and have an additional income.

As a mother on maternity leave, your mobility is very limited. Do not worry, however, because there are still a lot of ways for you to do to still be productive and earn money at the same time through the internet. These include being a freelancer and taking jobs, starting your own e-commerce business or selling online, starting your own blog or vlog and other little ways to earn money like answering surveys and doing small tasks.

Freelance Jobs

Freelancing is becoming more and more common as countries all over the world become more and more connected due to the internet. In fact, it is estimated that there are now around 57 million Americans in the freelance economy, and this number has been steadily increasing over the past few years. The freelance economy also contributes around $1 trillion to the country’s economy, accounting for almost 5% of its total gross domestic product (GDP).

There are a lot of freelancing platforms that are available on the internet right now like: Upwork, Fiverr, Toptal, Simply Hired, People per Hour, etc. These platforms aim to connect freelancers that are looking for jobs to people that need to hire people for some type of work. These jobs are perfect for you if you are on your maternity leave as you will be able to work right in the comfort of your home. Also, being a freelancer allows you to control and manage your own time. This means that you can easily adjust the amount of work that you will receive based on your current physical condition.

These Are Currently The Most In-Demand Freelance Skills:

Web and Mobile Development

the rise of e-commerce and the need for businesses to have an online presence has significantly increased the demand for web and mobile developers.

Internet Research

this covers a wide variety of fields and disciplines, which includes research about different topics on various online resources and data analytics.

Data Entry

this is the simplest, easiest and most common skill on this list. Despite this, it is still one of the most in-demand freelance skills today and has one of the highest potentials for income.

Accounting

every business in the world, no matter what industry they are in, are required to have at least basic accounting functions in their office. Small businesses often turn to freelancers for this when they still can’t afford to hire a full-time accountant.

Graphics Design

this skill is also one of the most commonly in-demand in the freelance market and this demand is only expected to continuously increase with the developments in the different media that businesses can have their presence on and the technologies and software programs used to create these graphics.

E-Commerce/Selling Online

Mothers on their maternity leave can use this time to set up their own e-commerce business. Once successful, it can be a source of continuous income for many years to come. However, it is not easy to get traction with it and produce a steady source of income. It is not as simple as setting up a brand name and listing products online for sale. Unfortunately, it might take some time for this to be successful and because of this, it might not be for you if you are looking to make money quickly.

To start a successful e-commerce business, you must follow these steps:

1. Be informed about the basics of e-commerce businesses.

As with any type of business, it would be best to be equipped with all the basic knowledge and information about the specific business before going into it. For an e-commerce business, you would need to learn how it works and the intricacies behind it and how some brands become successful at it. There are also different business models of e-commerce to choose from like dropshipping, white labeling, subscription selling, and affiliate marketing. But most importantly, you should be able to do some market research regarding what product your customer wants and needs.

2. Choose the specific niche that you will target.

Since you will probably start small, it is better to choose a specific niche that you can target and focus on. To do this, you must be able to “scan” the existing market and take note of the different brands and products that are sold. It would be best to avoid competing with major brands. However, the lack of competition can also indicate that there is no market.

3. Specify your target market

The most common error that people make when setting up their e-commerce business is starting with their product. However, it would drastically increase your chances of success if you start by identifying your target audience and their needs. Focusing on your customer’s needs makes your brand about helping them and not just about earning money. This makes the brand more genuine and allows for a deeper connection with the customers.

4. Selecting your product

Now that you have identified your target audience and their needs, you can already select a product that can meet these needs. Do not forget to consider your market’s purchasing power and the latest trends when doing this.

5. Establishing your brand

It is very important to establish your brand first before selling. Your brand is what connects you to your market, creating deeper and longer-lasting relationships with them. This step also includes registering your business and applying for all necessary permits.

6. Creating your online store

Once you have finished all the steps above, it is now time to create your online presence through your online store. This includes web design, registering your domain name and any redirect URLs.

7. Marketing

Having an online presence is good, but it is of no use if people would not be able to see it. You will still need to make some efforts in marketing your online store. There are many ways to advertise your online store, but since you are just starting it and you probably still lack resources to do that, you can start doing it through social media like Facebook. You can create a Facebook page for your online store and share it with your friends for free, and start to gain traction and build your following from there.

Blogging

Blogging is a discussion started by an author that is in the form of diary-like entries. Bloggers usually focus on writing about a specific topic to engage a more specific audience demographic. If you are the type of mother that enjoys expressing your emotions, views, and opinions through blogging, it might be a good idea to utilize it to make money also. Nothing is better than earning by doing what you love, right? If you already have your own blog and already have a following, you would be able to make money more quickly with blogging. However, if you are starting from scratch, you will definitely need some time to establish your blog and your audience first before being able to make money. To do this, these are the steps that you should follow:

1. Placing ads on your website/blog

There are generally two types of ads that you can incorporate on your blog to earn money. CPC (cost per click) or PPC (pay per click) ads are those that you in your blog. With this type, you are paid every time a reader clicks on the ad. CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) ads, on the other hand, are those that pay you based on the number of readers that have viewed the ad.

2. Private Ads

Private ads are those advertisements that resulted from advertisers directly contacting you and asking you to place their ads on your blog. However, this only happens when you already have a huge following and audience.

3. Affiliate Links

Affiliate links are basically you getting a commission from selling a certain advertiser’s product on your blog. You will be given an affiliate code that your viewers will use when buying that product for the advertiser to know that these buyers knew of their product because of your blog.

Answering Online Surveys

Some companies nowadays offer people money by answering online surveys. You can usually earn from $1 to even up to $20 per survey, although most of them fall on the lower end of that range. However, the problem with this way of earning money online is the availability of surveys. There are many platforms out there that claim that you can earn a lot of money by answering surveys on their platform, but only have few of these surveys available for you in a day.

Doing Micro-Jobs

Micro jobs are simple tasks such as transcribing audio files, image tagging, moderating contents and many more. There are quite a few websites out there that offer this kind of service One of the biggest of these platforms is Remotasks. You have to be careful, however, before dedicating your time and effort to it as you should first make sure if the earning potential is worth it relative to the difficulty of the tasks. With Remotasks, people with average skills make $30-$50 per month working a few hours per week. With more difficult tasks, however, the earning potential also increases.

We now live in a very well-connected world where opportunities abound to those that have the drive to pursue them. If you are a pregnant mother that will be on maternity leave for quite some time, be sure to not waste this opportunity to still be productive and earn some money on the side.