I'm a stay-at-home mom who makes up to $1,500 a week from side hustles while my kids nap. Here's a breakdown.
· Business Insider
Lindsy Jolley
- Lindsy Jolley, a stay-at-home mom of two, started multiple online side hustles in 2025.
- She typically makes $500 to $1,500 a week from focus groups, affiliate marketing, and more.
- Jolley chooses her own hours while avoiding childcare costs, but she struggles to find balance.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lindsy Jolley, a 30-year-old stay-at-home mom from Utah. It's been edited for length and clarity.
Visit chickenroad.qpon for more information.
In 2025, we had just had our second baby when my husband totaled his car.
My doggy day care business had been slowing down quite a bit, and my husband's orthodontics job wasn't bringing a ton in for our family of four, so we needed to make more money. At the same time, I didn't want to leave my kids to get a job, and I plan on homeschooling soon. I needed a non-traditional role.
One night, I went to Instagram and searched for side hustles for stay-at-home moms, and I came across a page about just that. I bought some courses and decided to take a chance on some of the suggestions. Now, I typically make anywhere from $500 to $ 1,500 a week doing work in the moments when my babies sleep.
Some online courses were worth it — others weren't
If you have the free time to spend on figuring out how to get into a side hustle, you absolutely do not need to buy a course. However, as a busy mom, it was worth it to drop some money.
I started with a roughly $100 digital course on focus groups, and it was gold. It went over best practices about how to set yourself up to be selected for as many focus groups as possible and keep track of the money you owe for taxes. It also offered a master list of vetted sites for focus groups. It would've taken me forever to figure it out and sift through scam sites, so it was really worth it.
I also took an Amazon Influencer course for about $150, which felt like a lot of fluff. Looking back, it's something that I could've figured out on my own pretty easily.
Focus groups are my favorite, but there's a caveat
I spend about 30 minutes every day on focus group websites filling out screeners, which are quick questionnaires to see if you qualify for studies.
I usually get selected for a few focus groups a week, which take anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. Some are written questionnaires, while others are private or group Zoom sessions. They usually pay me anywhere between $50 and $200.
I haven't filled out screeners for several days, but when I was doing them every day, I was making over $1,000 a month. The caveat is that I get paid in Visa gift cards.
The actual focus groups are really fun. I've tested products, given feedback, and even provided input on commercials that popped up on my TV months later. The funniest one that I ever did was helping a company choose a mascot. I've also done some boring ones. The other day, I did one on purchasing tires for my car.
This is definitely my favorite side hustle, and it pays the most for the time put in.
The Amazon influencer program has become oversaturated
As an Amazon influencer, Amazon pays me to post video reviews of its products to my Amazon storefront. I can message sellers to try their products, or they can reach out to me on social media.
I also pay $70 a month for a Chrome extension for the Amazon influencer program, which helps me identify products with strong earning potential. I feel like the Amazon influencer program is more saturated and competitive now, so I don't think it's worth doing without an extension that can help identify products.
I made $800 in my second month, without many videos posted, but my earnings have gone up and down since then.
Referral links don't bring in much, but are easy to share
I post on Instagram and TikTok about my side hustles, so I put referral links in my bio. I currently have links for things like the Chrome extension I use and the high-yield savings account I have. I've been really diligent about looking to see where I can share a referral link.
The earnings are often pretty low and capped, but they're easy to add to my social media profiles.
I make the most money from affiliate links
I do affiliate marketing for the side hustle courses that I took, meaning if someone buys a course through my link in my social media bios, I receive a percentage of the sale.
My income from affiliate links ebbs and flows. I only sold one course one week, so I made about $50. But a few weeks before then, I made over $800 in a week when a TikTok video of mine gained traction.
I never want to be the type of person who's pushing courses onto my audience. It's really nice that I can share my experience and just say, "If you're interested, here are the courses I took." It's as simple as that.
I get to control my time as a side-hustler, but it can still be hard to find balance
The best part about my side hustles is that they don't require a lot of time invested. I can make money while staying home and mitigating any childcare costs — and I choose when I work.
I try to save work for when the kids are napping or in bed, but in the moments when I'm trying to get work done while they're awake, I end up getting really frustrated, and it's not fun for anybody. It's been hard to find a balance between the two.
As a mom, I always hear people say that if you are excelling in one aspect of your life, you're usually failing in another. For me, it's been about juggling multiple responsibilities and being OK with letting something else slip momentarily.
My advice is to take on side hustles one at a time
It can be really daunting if you jump into multiple side hustles at once and try to learn them all. I was overwhelmed with information in the beginning, and I wish I had started with one.
My advice is to pick one side hustle, master it, then move on to the next. Pretty soon, you'll be able to juggle however many you want.
Additionally, a lot of people expect their side hustles to replace their full-time income. It's possible, but it might not happen. You may have to stack side hustles if you really want to do them full-time. I've learned that a side hustle that works for one person might not work for another, but you get what you put in.
Do you have a story to share about making money from side hustles? If so, please reach out to the reporter at [email protected].
Read the original article on Business Insider