So many more people these days are working from home. It used to be that only highly specialized professionals like doctors or lawyers had home offices but in the last ten years the internet has tremendously increased the ability to work at home. Now, with the addition of a struggling economy, concerns about conserving fuel and massive layoffs occurring in many large companies, people from all walks of life are jumping on the work from home bandwagon.

Even outside of starting home-businesses in response to a loss in household income, women are beginning to feel the need to do work that is more satisfying to them and where they have more control over their lives and incomes. Inspired by the many success stories of moms who have taken hobbies or new skills and made them into profitable home-businesses, more stay-at-home moms and women who work outside the home are jumping into the fray and figuring out how to use their passions, hidden talents and workplace skills to build their own companies. As a result, there’s been a huge spike in tele-seminars, books, CD’s and other products that demonstrate how to make the move from employee to entrepreneur.

So, what kind of business does a stay-at-home mom start? The choices are quite varied. But for the best chance at success, it’s probably better to choose something related to an interest you already have, rather than something that just seems like a good idea because everybody else seems to be making money with it.

That being said, direct selling is a popular choice among women looking to start a home-based business. The products chosen may often be because of the woman’s location and their close proximity to places such as fashion jewelry wholesale warehouses or designer clothing outlets.

A lot of moms also choose to start a blog. Mom bloggers, as they are often called, earn money by selling much coveted advertising space on their blogs. The can also make money by selling products from which they will get a percentage of each sale.

The types of things you could blog about are also quite varied. Many moms write daily logs that chronicle the challenges encountered in raising a family. Something as simple as a trip to Target to buy Kirkland glucosamine tablets can generate some amusing anecdotes about attempting to shop with small children.

The blogs will often be further monetized by the creation of ebooks, which might sell products, services or simply give information on how to make the best Halloween costumes – anything that might be of interest to blog owner’s regular readers. Of course, the hope is that the the blog readership will become the ebook readers and eventually, purchaser’s of the products contained within it.