9 Ways To Make Money While Traveling
A lot of people desire touring the world but hesitate because they wonder, "Where will I get the money?", "What about work?", "What about my boss?", "What about my business?"
So they wait for the time they'll save enough and afford the traveler's life. Or they wait for their two-week work leave. Or they wait for retirement. Or they kill their dream altogether!
Nevertheless, you don't need to wait for the perfect time to travel. You can make money on the road! You can make money while traveling.
How is that possible?
● One, create a list of all your knowledge, skills, talents, interests, hobbies. It's easier to make money with something that you truly love doing.
● Two, go through your list and check what things you can combine with travel, and how you could turn them into a business.
● Three, pack your bags ready to go!
Now you're probably wondering what are these profitable activities you can do while traveling.
I'll give you examples, but first, two truths you should know.
(a) You make money legally and honorably by giving value. By solving a problem using a good or a service.
(b) You can make money offline, requiring your physical presence, or online, working over the internet (on your phone, tablet, laptop).
In this post today, I share with you 9 ways you can make money while traveling.
Ready? Let's get started…
1. Freelancing
Freelancing is about selling your services to clients without a long term employment.
There is a vast amount of work that you can do as a freelancer, including:
● web design and development
● internet research
● data entry
● graphic design
● content writing and editing
● translation
● journalism
● virtual assistance
Examples of platforms you can work on are upwork and fiverr, and if you don't have a skill to sell yet, you can affordably learn one on skillshare.
2. Work exchange
As a traveler, you incur a lot of expenses on accommodation, food, drinks and transport.
Good news, you can decide to have your expenses sliced by doing a barter trade of services.
What does this mean? You make money by saving!
You offer to work as a volunteer at the places you visit (Airbnb, hostels, hotels or any other place your services may be required) and in return they give you a place to stay, eat, drink. Money saved is money made.
● When you're staying at a place for over two weeks, you can help the locals with their activities for favors
● You can serve in restaurants, bars, cafeterias
● You can even be a tour guide!
3. Consultancy, coaching and courses
After you make a list of your skills (what you can do to make an impact in someone's life), you can decide to begin teaching it wherever you go.
Whenever you reach a place, you can organize a 1:1 consultation or a group coaching or do public speaking or even sell courses.
There's diverse media sharing what you know.
You can teach language, photography, graphic design, videography, playing musical instruments, and so on.
To promote yourself, you send out a personal ad targeting your ideal prospects, telling them what you can do for them, how that will change their lives, and how much you charge.
For example, if you're a marriage counselor, you can organize a session to serve the people you meet where you're going. Your ad might be something like,
"In the month of December, I'll be lodging at Mombasa for one week. If you want to get a one on one marriage counseling session, which will help you discover how to live happily with your spouse, book with me here (link to website or your phone number). It will cost Ksh. 2 500 only for a 1 hour session."
When the interested persons turn up, boom, that's money in the bank for you to spend while you travel.
4. Sell goods
I understand not everybody can be a salesperson, but if you can, some of the goods you can carry with you and sell as you go from place to place are postcards, photos, jewelry, wares, guide books, etc.
Also, as you travel, you can deliver packages to people who are where you're going and get paid.
The downside with this is that you have to carry heavy loads as you go around. Therefore, it's practical when you have your own means of transportation such as a personal vehicle.
Even better, to alleviate this problem, you can choose to do drop shipping, where you connect people with what they want to buy, but you don't handle any of the stocking, shipping or delivery, and you don't even have to see the goods!
5. Stage performances
If you're an artist, you can entertain people wherever you go and get paid.
Examples are musicians, singers, dancers, player of instruments, acrobats, DJs, etc
However, you should ask for permission from the relevant authorities of the places you're visiting to avoid cases of breaking the law and getting into trouble.
6. Surveys and market research
There are research companies out there that are in need of field researchers. There are companies that need people to complete surveys online and test new products.
This is a cool way of making money as you travel, especially given the fact that it won't take you hours and hours gathering the data or filling the survey forms.
7. Blogging
I know it's not for everyone, but if you love writing, blogging can be a way of making money as you travel.
Even though this isn't quick, with decision, dedication and doing, it can turn out to be a sustainable way of making money.
All that you'll need is a laptop or smartphone (remember, you're traveling, so no heavy gadgets), an internet connection and the skill of putting your experiences into words.
As human beings, we're hardwired for stories, and there is nothing people love reading more than stories. In your case, you'll be sharing your stories as you move from place to place.
Here's a quick guide if you want to start a blog.
Now, how do you make money with your blog? There are several ways:
(i) Write an eBook, publish on online book stores such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble, then embed the link in your blog posts for people to buy if they want it.
(ii) Affiliate links
Affiliate marketing entails recommending goods/services to the target prospects, and when they buy, you're paid a commission.
For example, as you go from place to place, you can feature affiliate links in your blog posts, mentioning and recommending goods/services you have used, which your readers might want, and when they buy, you get a percentage of the sale.
(iii) Sponsored blog posts
Once your website has a sizable traffic, you can be contacted by tourism boards, hotels, and tour companies who will invite you on a trip to review their company/city in your blogs.
8. Vlogging
If you have a camera, and you're bold in front of one, you can shoot videos of the places you tour, taking people on a journey with you!
Then you edit them and upload them on YouTube. This is another way to turn what you do for fun into money.
There are many ways you can make money on Youtube, and you should explore the ones that work for you.
9. Influencer Marketing
If you like being in the limelight, as a social media influencer, companies pay you to travel by advertising on your social media accounts, brand ambassadorship programs, or newsletters.
You’ll need to build up your social accounts such as Instagram or YouTube so that you have the numbers and the reach that companies are looking for.
You use your influence online to promote a destination or a product. Many social media influencers are paid by tourism boards, travel brands, and other companies to promote them.
Other benefits is that accommodation, food, tours, and flights are all included and you receive a salary on top of this as well.
Even though this is not an exhaustive list, as you have seen, you can be a wealthy nomad. All it takes is being creative, just as you are recreative. There are a lot of things you can do to solve people’s problems and earn money as you travel. Gone are the days when you had to separate work and travel. So keep earning and keep moving…at the same time!