Who says you can’t earn money while traveling and exploring the country (or even the world)? Hey, it’s December 2, 2024, and internet connections are available almost everywhere and on many devices. Becoming a digital nomad is no longer a distant dream but a possibility.
You need to learn what opportunities you can tackle and pick and choose based on your skills and traveling situation (such as if you’re open to staying in one location at a time or not).
20 Ways to Earn Money While Traveling
1. Get Paid to Teach
Probably the easiest thing you can do is to teach another person something you know, including:
- English: Teaching people how to speak English is one of the most popular online jobs. During your downtime, you can do this as long as you have your computer, a stable connection, noise-canceling headphones, and some experience teaching English. (You’ll need more experience if you’re teaching kids). Rates run between $10 and $40 per hour, depending on which website you’re hired on.
- Sign language: This teaching gig can be done entirely online.
- Specific subjects (as a tutor): Become a tutor to students worldwide and pay for your travels. You have to know your stuff—your students will rely on your knowledge to understand their falling behind in subjects.
- Swimming, surfing, and scuba diving: You need to teach people these water-based activities on-site. You’ll earn an average of $15 to $20/hour.
- Sports: Like swimming, teaching sports are better face-to-face. Go to community centers and clubhouses where you’re traveling and check for seasonal teaching jobs in tennis, basketball, or other sports you know.
- Yoga: You don’t need a certificate to teach people how to do yoga, but you’ll have the edge over your competition if you do. This can be done both online and offline.
- Singing and Dancing: Share your singing chops or dancing/choreography skills and earn money as you go. You can make about $75/hour teaching people how to sing and between $50 and $140/hour teaching people how to dance.
- Musical instruments: Are you great with guitars? Ukulele? Piano? Drums? You can teach people of all ages, both online and face-to-face.
Mastered pottery? Calligraphy? Jewelry-making? Knitting? You can get paid to teach any of these things if you have the knowledge and experience to share and bring value to your students.
2. Become an Influencer
The dream of many kids these days is to become an influencer. Who wouldn’t? Endorsing a product on one picture here, wearing sponsored clothes there. It seems like such an “easy job.”
But the reality is that only a few influencers make stable money. And it took a lot of work for them to get there. However, if you accept these truths and you’re ready to work hard to become an influencer, here’s how you can earn money this way:
- Monetize your social media
- Partner with other influencers and brands
- Develop and push content on every platform possible (your website, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.)
- Continuously find opportunities for partnerships
Do you know the common thing about successful influencers? Aside from doing the four items above, they consistently put out content and give value to their audience.
3. Write for Cash
If you have a passion for writing, you can have a steady income writing for other people’s websites, press releases, books, and different types of content.
Your writing doesn’t necessarily have to be about your travels.
Some people write product reviews on Amazon.
Other people write social media captions scheduled to be posted daily to build a brand’s online presence.
Beginner writers can earn between 1 to 3 cents a word, but senior writers could make up to 10 cents a word.
Some people write for their websites, then monetize them through Google ads, affiliates, direct selling, and other methods.
Read more: 14 Frugal Living Tips You Can Implement Today and Save Thousands
4. Apply to Work on a Cruise Ship
You can apply to cruise ships or yachts if you want to travel the world with free accommodation and free fare.
The positions vary wildly, from housekeeping to kitchen crew, bartending and waitressing to entertaining (singing, dancing, hosting). Of course, some are responsible for keeping the ship safe and on schedule.
The hours are long in cruise ships, and contracts last months or years, but you have downtime every time the ship docks one port at a time. You enjoy each stop and earn a salary while you’re at it.
Check the job postings on All Cruise Jobs, Cruise Jobs Guide, or CruiseShipJob.com.
5. Learn Affiliate Marketing
What is affiliate marketing? It’s promoting someone’s product. Then, you earn a commission when a reader clicks your link and buys.
In some cases, like with Amazon affiliates, this customer doesn’t have to buy the product you were promoting. They have to click your link and purchase something within 24 hours after clicking (This period is called the cookie period and varies among e-commerce sites).
The potential to earn cash with affiliate marketing is always possible. But before you make your first dollar, you might need to work without compensation for the first several months (and sometimes years).
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that it could be a source of passive income. Once you’ve started earning, you can leave it and let it make you commissions even when you’re sleeping.
6. Rent Out Your House
Let’s say you’re set on going traveling. And your house will be left empty. The easiest way to earn money while you’re off exploring the world is by renting out your home.
You need to be thorough when choosing who to rent your property. Not only because that is your home you’re entrusting to a stranger, but also because the rent would be a big part of your travel money. Being in another country, unable to return home or afford accommodation because the rent you expect hasn’t come in can be a nightmare.
To be sure, ask for advance payments and do background checks.
7. Drive or Deliver for Cash
If you’re traveling across the country and planning to go on a massive road trip, one way to earn money (without actually working a computer-based job) is to deliver packages. You can even plan this out to match your itinerary, so the delivery isn’t bother your road trip.
So, where do you start? Try Roadie (if you’re traveling across the US) or Briddgy (if you’re traveling internationally).
8. Publish an Ebook
The process has become friendlier thanks to ebooks (or digital books) for writers who want to publish books. Unlike before, when you need a publisher to go through with book publishing, you could write and publish an ebook entirely on your own.
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple iBooks Author, Kobo: Writing Life, Barnes & Noble Nook Press, Draft2Digital, Smashwords, and other similar platforms accept ebook submissions. If your ebook passes their respective guidelines, they will carry your book in their online bookstores. Of course, these publishing platforms will get a cut for every copy of your ebook sold.
Everything, from writing to editing and publishing to marketing, can be done regardless of location, so you can enjoy traveling while becoming an established ebook author—and earning money!
9. Become a Tour Guide
What’s great about this gig is that you don’t need to be a resident of the place you’re touring. You must love telling stories, meeting new people, and talking to strangers. If you have a massive amount of trivia under your belt, try to become a local tour guide.
You have two options:
- Join a company: Tours by Locals, Rent a Local, Shiroube, and Withlocals are just some examples of companies hiring people to host tour guides. There are also niche providers like Traveling Spoon, which focuses on touring local cuisine and restaurants.
- Sell your tour guide service: Use a resource like FREETOUR.com to create your service and market it. You can also build your website or stick to social media platforms (like Instagram, Yelp, Facebook, and so on).
10. Sell Photos or Videos
You can still use your skills to earn money while traveling by selling photos and videos.
Mix and match these methods to maximize your earnings:
Sell directly: Take pictures of your travels, then sell them to resources like Adobe Stock, Foap, Shutterstock, or 500px.
- Go freelance: Get hired to document a wedding, birthday, or any other event where you stay. Do projects that require video production or professional photos.
- Compete: If you have what it takes, join competitions like GoPro Awards. The prizes could help you fund more traveling in the future.
You can also go the influencer route; if you’re already good at taking jaw-dropping photos or catchy videos, there’s a good chance you’d be able to attract many people who would gladly join you virtually on your travels.
11. Apply for a VA Job
A VA (or virtual assistant) is a jack of all trades. It’s more than just a secretarial position, though. For eCommerce, social media marketing, or digital marketing, VAs can perform a wide range of tasks, from transcribing to sending emails, writing content to answering live-chat support, and so on.
Some VAs have a more specific job description. For example, a social media VA will handle Facebook or Twitter accounts, while a graphic design VA will create a logo and other graphics, edit photos, and perform other creative tasks.
General VAs earn $10 to $25 an hour, while technical VAs (programming VAs) earn double or triple.
12. Become a Farmhand
Here’s another job you can earn money while traveling to rural areas like Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. It’s seasonal, pays well enough, and doesn’t require technical skills.
You’d have to be happy getting your hands dirty since you’ll work outdoors at the farm. Depending on the job you land, you can apply as a fruit picker or work helping out with farm animals.
Some of these jobs may even include free accommodation, so this route may be ideal if you wish to explore one country at a time.
13. Explore House-sitting
Imagine living in another country rent-free and enjoying the local community a few hours a day. The catch?
You have to keep the house you’re staying in clean and safe.
That’s what house-sitting is all about. Sometimes, the homeowner even doubles the duties of the housesitter by adding pet-sitting into the mix while they travel to another country for several weeks or months.
It can be a win-win for someone interested. Make sure you agree to the terms, though. Some do not pay any compensation (but offer a free stay). And others offer only minimal pay.
Start by checking available gigs on Trusted Housesitters, Mind My House, Luxury House Sitting, and Housecarers.com, among others.
14. Get Part-time Jobs at Resorts and Similar Places
Here’s another job that often provides free accommodation, but you’ll have less time to explore. If you’re happy exploring on your day off, you can get a job to earn money at a local resort, beach house, hotel, theme park, summer camp, and other similar places.
Jobs here are similar to jobs on a cruise ship—you can find positions on the kitchen crew, entertainment, housekeeping, lifeguard crew, security, etc.
If you’re lucky and you land a job on a beachfront property, you can enjoy the views of paradise for as long as you work there.
Just check your contract before signing, especially for summer camps, since some positions may require you to stay on the property throughout your contract. If you’re forbidden to explore the local community, keep looking.
15. Apply for a Home-Based Customer Service Job
A laptop or tablet to bring with you anywhere can be the only investment you need to fund your travel and keep a job while enjoying every destination.
Imagine working four to six hours a day answering customer inquiries online, then spending the rest of the day lounging on the beaches of Bali or exploring a particular country. It’s possible with home-based customer service jobs.
You have options such as:
- Voice customer service jobs: You’ll need noise-canceling headsets, good communication skills, and a genuine desire to provide support.
- Live-chat customer service jobs: For optimal performance in customer service jobs that involve the use of a live chat widget, you’ll need good writing skills, fast typing skills, problem-solving abilities, and interpersonal skills.
Both types require stable internet connections and a quiet spot you can work in. Salaries range from $10 to $40 an hour, depending on the company and your experience.
16. Become a Translator
Do you know of another language aside from your own? If you do and would want to use this skill to earn money while traveling, you can become a translator. To start, try applying for translator jobs.
Translators get paid by the word (or per audio minute), so if you can translate chunks of text quicker, you can work on more and potentially earn more.
Audio minutes get paid between $2 to $7 per minute of translated audio. Expect to earn around 1 cent USD per word if paid per word. Although you rarely find translation jobs paying hourly, you can earn $17 per hour if you land a more permanent job.
17. Get a DJ Gig
You’ll find DJs in bars, hotels, beach resorts, and other party venues. And, if you know how to DJ, you can find a place to serve as the house DJ for several weeks or months. Doing so allows you to enjoy a stable salary throughout your stint.
If you want more flexibility, you can offer your DJ services and book gigs based on your networking. It would require a lot of work on your end. But if you’re good at what you do and show your talent, you’ll keep 100% of the earnings.
18. Do Other People’s Taxes and Other Finance-related Gigs
For those with an accounting background or who love bookkeeping, you can offer several kinds of services online, such as:
- Financial planning: Help someone get out of debt or reach a financial goal by creating a realistic financial plan.
- Bookkeeping: Manage and help other people with their taxes so they can submit their books on time.
The amount you earn would depend on how many clients you accept.
19. Take on Freelance Gigs
There are hundreds of freelance gigs available online that you can leverage to earn money while traveling. It’s impossible not to find one that fits your skills and preference. Aside from the gigs above, you can also check out freelance gigs in the:
- Transcribing
- Graphic design
- Consulting
- Legal (law gigs)
- Podcasting
- Marketing
- Programming
- Product testing
- Illustrating, animating, tattoo designing
- Web Designing
- Research
- Lead generation
- App development
- Game development
- Voiceover
- Closed captioning
- Video editing
- Data entry
- Game or website testers
- Email marketing
- Life Coaching
- Online recruiting (headhunter gigs)
- Forum Posting
- Creating meal plans or lesson plans
- Font creation
- Fortune-telling
- Secret shopping
Of course, the fees you earn from taking on short jobs or freelance gigs vary. In some cases, such as on Fiverr.com, you may have total control over pricing your services.
20. Play Online Poker or Day-Trade
I categorized these two in one entry because while there is a potential to earn BIG, the methods are risky, even for professional online poker players and day traders.
It can be easy to win $1,000 in one virtual table, but you can also lose that much or more as quickly as you earned it.
It is also true for trading on the stock market. The risks are always there. And the more you invest, the bigger the risk and the bigger the potential reward.
If you’re willing to deal with the stress and have in-depth knowledge of poker or stock trading, I say go for it. You can do both these activities online, technically earning from them wherever your travels lead you.
Final thoughts
Living the nomad life means you have to be flexible. You’ll survive traveling while earning money if you’re open to new ideas.
People who used to work office jobs now get to explore the world by becoming fire dancers, singing at local bars, painting portraits for other tourists, and becoming camp counselors. None of which would ever be possible working a 9-to-5 job.
Consider talking to your current company about turning your job into a remote position. Of course, this won’t be possible with ALL kinds of jobs since many still require you to be there in person. But technological advancements allow us to connect from any part of the world. And with devices you can bring with you anywhere, earning money while traveling is possible.
