If you a looking for how to make money while travelling there are lots of options available. These can be online jobs for travellers, jobs where you travel or securing travel jobs in new locations.
Making money by taking up a travel job or finding remote work as a digital nomad is the best way to be able to afford to travel and extend your adventure.
Here are nine ways to make money while travelling:
- Teach English
- Freelance online
- Sell digital items
- Make things to sell
- Sell Print on Demand items
- Teach your skills
- Seasonal work
- Hospitality or retail work
- Agency work
In this article, I will cover the nine ways to make money while travelling including ways to get started today.
Teach English
Teaching English in person can be one of the fastest ways to start travelling because you will be earning straight away and often have help with finding accommodation, some programmes even provide flights, accommodation and visas.
Teaching English is a great way to get into travel. This is often called TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). You can teach English online or in person.
You can teach English in person in many countries around the world, especially in Asia, South America and mainland Europe.
The requirements for teaching English vary greatly depending on the school or programme you are teaching with. Some may require you to be a native English speaker, have a bachelor’s degree and have a TEFL certificate. Others may require some or none of those conditions to be met.
Ways to teach English include through government-sponsored programmes such as:
- EPIK (teach in Korea)
- JET Programme (teach in Japan)
You can also work with agencies and companies who specialise in recruiting and placing English teachers such as Educate Abroad Thailand
You can find opportunities online, such as in Facebook groups, these ofen have the lowest barriers of entry so are a good option if you don’t have a TEFL qualification or are looking for more flexibility.
Indeed, you can also find opportunities in countries when you arrive.
Teaching English online can done as a freelance but to get started quickly without having to market or build your client base you can work through platforms and networks.
Remote Freelance Work
Offering your skills to others as a freelancer is a great way to fund your travels.
We all have skills that other people are looking for! Make a list of all your skills and qualities and see what ones you may be able to offer. Or browse some freelancing websites and see what other people are offering. If other people are successfully offering the same service as you it is a sign that people are willing to pay for it!
You can start your own business or sign up for freelancing platforms such as:
Popular freelancing skills include:
- Design and Graphic Design
- Marketing
- Administration/Virtual assistant
- Data Analytics
- Copywriting
- Content creation
- Photo Editing
- Video editing
- Data entry
- Transcribing
- Animation
- Translation
Sell Digital Items
Selling digital downloads is an income with a low barrier to entry. If you have a laptop or smart phone you can create digital products.
Digital products people sell incldude:
- Online courses
- Planners
- Ebooks and PDF downloads
- Graphic and digital art
- Downloadable guides
Think of a topic you know a lot about such as a hobby or special interest or perhaps there is something people always ask you about, you are the go-to person on this topic. Use that as an inspiration to create your digital products.
You can create your website to sell your digital products or list them on marketplaces where people are already browsing such as:
Make Items to Sell
Perhaps you are a crafty person, good with your hands or an artist. Use this to your advantage. You can do what you love, create, and earn money to fund your travel.
Jack Mitchell, a jeweller, set up a mobile workshop in the back of the van he was living in while travelling around New Zealand. He works with natural objects and stones he collects on his travels and the video below shows how he can compact his tools into a briefcase to travel light and continue his business.
How to make a living while backpacking: inside a travelling jeweller’s briefcase
Sell Print On Demand Items
Print on demand is a process by which a company creates physical items such as mugs, sicks, tee shirts, and posters and prints your design or branding when you make a sale and ships them directly to your customer.
This is great for people who are travelling very light, perhaps backpacking or moving quickly between places. There is no inventory, no tools, posting or packing or dealing with returns.
There are many companies available to provide print-on-demand services:
Teach Your Skills
What are you passionate about? What could you spend hours reading about or talking for hours about? This is the perfect thing for you to teach and share your knowledge about!
Teaching through online courses has become super popular in recent years. There are lots of ways to teach your knowledge. There are platforms like:
Which pays you based on how many people do or buy your course.
People even sell courses through private videos on TikTok or member sections of their website.
Seasonal Work
How about a ski season in the French Alps? Harvest season in the Australian wine regions? Summertime in Alaska? Scuba diving season in Honduras?
Seasonal work is all about going where the work is based on either the tourist peak seasons or agricultural seasons.
Seasonal jobs can usually be found on job websites such as Indeed, on Facebook groups or by getting the area first and finding the job second.
Specific websites for seasonal work include:
Hospitality or Retail Work
Hospitality and retail work can be great for travellers. This is because these jobs can usually be picked up quite quickly with an immediate start and they are not expecting a very long commitment from you. These jobs are also great for building a local community among your co-workers and customers.
You can find these jobs on usual job websites like Indeed or Google Jobs. I have also had some luck just going around the town with my resume and calling into shops I like the look of, ones with and without help wanted signs!
Agency work
Employment agencies link you up with an employer who is usually looking for an immediate start, non-permanent position. When travelling I have used agencies to get temporary administrative and reception roles. They can also be used for construction and labouring roles. Again these can be great for for both the traveller and employer because they are not looking for a long-term commitment and you can start working straight away! To find these roles it is best to research local recruitment agencies in the area.
In Summary
To sum this all up; there is no one right or wrong way to make money when travelling the world! There are numerous ways but I think that as long as you are enjoying yourself and able to sustain yourself financially that is the most important thing. Use a mix of approaches until you find the perfect one for you and change it up when you need to!
Also, know that you can save money before travelling and reduce your travelling costs to help you extend the adventure!
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