Do you often ask yourself “How can I make money while I travel the world?” Do you look at long term travelers and want to know how they can afford it?
Usually, traveling and making money are two separate things. You work hard, save up some money then go on a short term vacation, before returning home to your job. But, what if you could make money and travel at the same time?
On this website, I am constantly preaching that you can make money while traveling, but I wanted to highlight some of the REAL ways to make money and travel. The list of opportunities for paid travel is endless, and constantly growing.
These are just a fraction of the options, but hopefully, they can give you some insight into how you can make money and travel at the same time. Try out some of these options on your next adventure and let me know how it goes! If you have found any ways to make money when traveling and want to share, feel free to get in touch.
25 Ways to Make Money While Traveling
Hostel Work
Hostels are always looking for fun-loving travelers to work in exchange for cheaper accommodation or cash. Hostel Workers help organize social events, manage the front desk, clean, and prepare the dining areas for guests. When you plan your trip, organize hostels to work at along the way. Websites like HostelWorld and HostelJobs are two leading platforms.
There are always short-term opportunities available at hostels, perfect for travelers who don't plan on staying too long in one place. 4-5 hours of work a day will get you free accommodation, saving you serious money on travel. Doing extra hours on top of this will provide you with an income, helping you to make money while traveling.
Superyachts
One of the best paid-travel jobs in the world. You travel the high seas, hopping from country to country aboard a luxurious yacht. You will get to see how the one percent live, gaining insight into the world of billionaires, and the mega-rich. It’s not all luxury and comfort unfortunately, it is extremely hard work with long hours. But come knock-off time, you will be on the yacht's deck, parked at idyllic location after idyllic location, watching the sunset on the ocean. It's one of the best ways to earn while you are constantly traveling.
Ski Instructor
Do you love winter travel? A lot of travelers often skip the cold seasons in search of perpetual sunshine and summer. But, that means you miss out on seeing mountain ranges covered in snow, the crisp winter air hitting your lungs, or sitting around a log fire after a day on the mountain. If you love these things and want to earn money while you travel, why not become a ski instructor?
The pay might not be amazing (expect $12-$25/hr, depending on location and experience), but the benefits and lifestyle make it more enticing. Skiing is an expensive hobby and often out of travelers' price ranges. When working as a ski instructor you often receive free mountain passes, discounted snow gear, cheap accommodation, and meals are often provided.
If you aren’t a skilled skier, there are plenty of job opportunities in the snow season. You can work in hospitality. Try hotels, bars, cafes, and hostels. You could even get a job driving the snow plow and preparing tracks. There are lots of paid opportunities to make money while you travel in ski season.
Surf Instructor
More of a summer person? Prefer the sun, beach, and warmth over cold, snowy mountains? You could try your hand at surf instructing instead. Millions of people around the world want to learn to surf, but there aren't enough people to teach them. If you have knowledge and experience in surfing you will easily find jobs while traveling. The pay isn’t great (Expect $9-$20/hr) but you do get to live the beach bum life, soaking up the sun and constantly in the water. You will be able to find jobs at surf shops, surf camps, or surf schools.
English Teacher
Non-English speaking countries are always in need of native English speakers to teach English. English is taught worldwide so you can find jobs all over the globe. The highest demand is in Asian countries like Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan. Here, you will earn between $2000-$5000 USD a month, a solid salary for anyone looking to make money traveling. Head to CIEE, for more information on teaching English in a foreign country,
Working Holiday Visa
If you do not have a work visa you are not legally allowed to work in most countries you travel to. Fortunately, working holiday visas aren't too hard to come by, depending on where you are going. Working Holidays give travelers a unique opportunity to make money and travel to a new country. These visas are intended to give travelers an insight into what working in a foreign country is like, travelers can fully immerse themselves in a culture and see a side of people they would not normally. As I write this, I am on a J1 working holiday visa in the United States, which has allowed me to travel the US while making money.
Camp Counsellor
The perfect option for any traveler looking to spend their summer in America. As a camp counselor, you look after children of all ages, organizing a constant stream of activities for them. These include watersports, horse riding, sporting events, and a range of outdoor games. You make $1800 a month while receiving free accommodation and food. There is nothing to spend your money on when you are at the camp so it almost all goes into savings. Spend your summer at a camp in the US and you can save $5400 for future travels. Invest it in your online travel business, or spend it on a US Road Trip after the camp finishes.
House Sitter
To ensure their homes are safe and protected, homeowners worldwide are looking for responsible people to live in the home rent-free. House Sitting creates peace of mind and added security for homeowners while they are out of town. It is an amazing opportunity for people to save and make money while traveling. It provides travelers with luxurious, comfortable places to live in while exploring new countries. Trusted House Sitters has been our favorite site for getting free accommodation around the world.
Pet Sitter
Much like a House Sitting situation, you will look after someone's home, while also caring for their pets. Any animal lover is perfectly suited to this travel job. You get free accommodation and cash to play with cute pets all day, taking them on walks and giving them love. You can find open Pet Sitting opportunities here. Pet owners are desperate to find Pet Sitters as it keeps their precious fur baby out of the kennels.
Au Pair/Nanny
If you are great with kids, becoming an AuPair or Nanny provides a fantastic way to make money while traveling. Your agency will match you with a family in a country of your choosing. Your main tasks are looking after children and helping out with household tasks. It's a great option for solo travelers wanting a comfortable and safe place to stay while earning money. Like a work exchange or work visa, nannying helps you truly immerse yourself in another culture. You get to see how the family construct works in foreign countries and truly live like a local.
Masseuse
People all over the world want massages and are willing to pay for them. If you are an experienced or skilled Masseuse you may want to put your services to use and make some side money while you travel. You can find jobs at any popular tourist locations, resorts or hotels. Or try freelancing and find your own clients. It can be hard to make decent money in Asia as you can easily find a quality massage for $5USD. In most western countries, the going rate is at least $40USD per session.
Construction/Laborer
If you don't mind hard physical work and aren’t afraid to get dirty, then construction could be an ideal job for you to make money when you travel. Laboring work is perfect for travelers that don't want to stay in one place for months. Often, companies only want short term temporary workers, so it's perfect for travelers that don't plan on hanging around long. A lot of these companies will pay their workers in cash ‘under the table’. If you don’t have a work visa, you can still make money while traveling, and it won’t be taxed. I worked a range of short term laboring jobs in the US earning between $17-$25USD.
Web Developer
Potentially the Highest Paying online job you will find. Web Developers and Computer Programmers are highly sought after and anyone with these skills is paid a minimum of $50 an hour. Coding is a crucial skill if you want to be a more hireable prospect in the future, or if you want to create your own business. You can get a grasp on coding in a few months if you dedicate yourself to it.
Further Reading: Valuable Insights on How to Get Into Coding
Social Media Manager
Nearly everybody nowadays knows what it takes to run a social media account. It's a wonder that there are so many openings for remote social media managers. You can find over 1000 of them on Upwork. As a social media manager, you will do research on your client's target market, create social content, regularly post, engage with followers, and grow your client's audience. In the world of digital marketing, every business needs a strong online presence. The huge demand for social media managers demonstrates that. Entry-level social media manager jobs start at around $20/hr and rapidly increase with experience and results.
Writer
Freelance writers come a dime a dozen. Everyone with a pen or a keyboard can be a writer. The best thing about being a writer is that there are always job openings and many of these require no writing experience. It is one of my favorite ways to make money when traveling as there is so much downtime to write while on the road. Pay for freelance writers starts as low as $0.01 per word. If you can write 1000 words in an hour you make $10. It all depends on how fast you can write while ensuring quality. Growing your portfolio and earning good reviews will help you rapidly increase your pay rate. In less than one month on Upwork, I increased my rate from $0.01 to $0.14 per word. Improving my hourly rate from around $10/hr to over $30/hr, here's how.
Logo Designer
Every new business needs a logo or brand design. All the work can be done remotely, providing you with location freedom. You can make some great money while you travel if you have some artistic/design skills. If, like me, you don’t, Canva is an amazing, free site that I use for all my visual design. Wix has an awesome, free logo maker that can make customized logos in minutes. Fiverr is a popular place for freelance logo designers to find work and designers earn anywhere from $10 a pop to $800 a logo.
Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate Marketing is everywhere online. If you have an online following, it is a simple way to make money while you travel Don’t worry if you don’t have a following, it’s easy to grow one. How Affiliate Marketing works is you recommend products and services to your viewers, and every time someone buys these products or services you earn a commission. They just have to click on the unique link you provide. Often these commissions recur monthly, so there is a huge potential for passive income. You can earn anywhere from a few cents per link click to thousands of dollars per sale. There are thousands of affiliate marketing programs you can join and make money traveling. Amazon’s Affiliate program is the most common, but my favorites at the moment are AWIN and CJ Affiliate.
Influencer
Like Affiliate Marketing, it helps if you have some sort of audience when you start as an Influencer. Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest are the best platforms for travelers to build a social following and make money as an influencer. Influencers make their money from companies that pay them to promote their products/services. Due to the $4.6 billion and growing industry, influencer marketing is in nearly every big companies marketing budget. As a general rule of thumb, you can earn around $10 per post per 1000 followers but this exponentially grows as your audience grows.
Blogger
The easiest and cheapest online business you can start. As a blogger, you can write about whatever your passions are, there is a niche for almost anything. You just have to find it. Travel blogging is one of the best ways to make money while traveling because all you need to do is write about your travel adventures and provide useful content to your readers. Once you have some content on your blog and a small audience, you can begin to monetize your blog. You can monetize your blog through Affiliate Marketing, Digital Products/Services, paid ads, or an online store. Building a blog that makes money is a long, slow process. It can take months, even years to get paid. But as your blog grows, the rewards quickly become far more lucrative. There are 10’s of thousands of bloggers online who started with no audience and now make a full-time salary from their blog.
Trade Stocks
A more volatile and risky way to make money while you travel. You will need a strong insight into how the financial markets work and how to pick successful stocks. Robinhood makes trading extremely easy for the everyday trader. You can try a wide range of trading techniques to make money when traveling. Day trading is a high risk, high reward strategy. Whereas value investing is a long term investment strategy that lowers risk in the hope of consistent positive returns. Whichever option you choose, you will need money to invest. You can start for as low as $10 on Robinhood, and if you sign up here you will receive a FREE STOCK worth up to $500 to get your portfolio started.
Sell a Digital Product
A digital product is only sold online and has no physical form. It is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to earn money when traveling. When you create a digital product, you will never have to worry about inventory or storage space. There are hundreds of types of digital products you can sell: like courses or masterclasses, software, photography, online tutorials, and web elements like website themes. The digital product you choose to sell comes down to whatever you are skilled or experienced in. This way to make money while traveling is a great way to build a passive income and all the work can be done remotely.
Online Store
One of the most popular side businesses for anyone looking for a way to make money for travel. The ease of setting up an online store has given people the ability to build and run their own business. Online stores are easy to start on platforms like Wix and 3DCart. All you have to do is list your products, add details, photos, and a price. Now you have your own online business that will hopefully make money while you travel. You are responsible for shipping and dealing with customers if you run an online store. Instagram recently released a new service called ‘Shops’. They aim to make it easier for businesses to sell products directly through their Instagram storefront.
Dropshipping
The next level up from running an online store. Start by thinking of potential product ideas, find a supplier that can produce your product, have them ship the product directly to Amazon Warehouses, list the product on Amazon, and start selling! You do not have to worry about packaging, deliveries, or storage space. It allows you to order thousands of units of products without needing a place to keep them. FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) is the most popular platform for dropshippers. When a customer buys your product from Amazon, it is shipped directly to them from the FBA warehouses.
Amazon can be terrible to deal with when setting up your shop. If you have any issues, it often takes days to get a hold of Amazon customer service which can be frustrating. But once your FBA store is launched it requires minimum work to maintain. Dropshipping can be a great option for anyone wanting to know how to make money while traveling. If you set up your dropshipping store well and maintain you can build an impressive online income.
E-Book Author
One of the best ways to build a recurring passive income. Once the E-Book is written and published, all the work is basically done. E-Books can continue to pay you for years in the future, making it a great option for making money while you travel. If you are an expert on any topic or have a deep understanding of something, write a how-to guide on it. There is a market for every niche, you just have to find it. Nowadays, you do not need a large publishing firm to launch your book. Anyone can publish a book with Amazon or Kindle Publishing and sell online.
Corporate Job
Many professionals are looking for ways to expand their careers. Often those coming out of university will be looking to move into the corporate world, but this doesn't have to be in your home country. Expand your horizons and look for high paying, challenging jobs overseas. Time for travel can be limited when working in a demanding corporate job, but working in a different country is a travel experience in itself. Plus you can always travel on your days off or holidays. China, Singapore, and the US are popular hubs for professionals who want to work in the corporate world and make money while they travel.
Comments