Some moms claim their mommy blogs — those digital diaries that recycle the same stock photos from the mid-’90s — bring in up to $2.8m a year.
But many money-making mommy blogs are built on top of other, less successful mommy blogs in a complex affiliate marketing web, reports researcher Kathryn Jezer-Morton for BuzzFeed News.
The profit is in the printables
Some stay-at-home moms (or SAHMs, as they’re called in the biz) make six-figure incomes as bloggers, reports Jezer-Morton, who is conducting her Ph.D. research on mommy blog monetization.
These women amass large audiences with relatable mom content (posts like “How to Organize Every Drawer in Your House”), and then sell courses and — the real cash cow — “printables.”
What are printables, you ask? They’re stylized printouts that range in length from single sheets to entire binders. Most printables are calendars, to-do lists, or meal planners — and they sell like gangbusters.
Multi-level mom-keting
As you might imagine, few moms become popular enough to make big bucks selling courses and printables. The other moms are focused, instead, on content marketing and SEO.
It’s all 1 big, well-decorated web: Mega-moms sell their printouts and classes through links in mini-mom blogs, offering aspiring mom-preneurs commission (and encouragement) in the process.
Some mega-moms even make their money more directly from their mini-mom admirers: One particularly popular mom-blogger sells a binder full of printouts about how to build a Shopify business… for $300.
