10 ways to make money
and travel
Looking for ways to make money and travel?
Then you’ve come to the right place! It’s never been easier to work remotely, which means you have the ability to travel and still make money. While there are a ton of options for ways to make money and travel, today I’ll be covering 10 proven ways that we know work from our own experience, the experience of fellow travelers, or personal friends. If you’re new to our site or channel, we’ve been traveling full time for two years in a fifth wheel. If you’re interested in learning how we personally make money and travel, click here.
1. Sell products online
Selling products online sounds like a really broad way to make money and travel because it is. That’s the beauty of it. There are a lot of ways to sell products and a wide variety of products to sell online!
Teaching Others/Online Courses: If you have knowledge on a topic you can share that knowledge with others while making money remotely. This can be a course you’ve created that will teach others how to do something; like this course on editing videos for Youtube from Nate and Kara (amazing full time travelers and vloggers). I also have an online course that teaches others how to invest in mortgage notes with Note Investing Academy. While Note Investing Academy isn’t our main source of income, every bit helps and it can be a viable income source.
Teachers Pay Teachers: I was a Kindergarten Teacher before I made the switch into real estate investing and traveling full time. Teacher’s pay Teacher’s is a godsend to any and all educators. If you’re unfamiliar with this awesome site, it allows individuals to create educational content that teachers can download, sometimes for free or paid. This can range from a one page handout or entire curriculums for specific topics, and ranges by grade level and subject. The best part – you create the content once and can get paid on that content for years. When I was teaching I purchased products and created products. While I didn’t focus too much of my efforts on creating, I still make a super small income from teachers pay teachers today – 3 years after I left teaching! I have a friend who was able to replace her education salary after just 1 year of creating products, 2 years later she surpassed her old teaching salary! While she doesn’t travel full time, she prefers to create content and spend time with her young children and family. You definitely don’t need to be a teacher to be on teachers pay teachers, you just need to know what the teachers are in need of.
Etsy or personal website
Maybe you have your own product to sell, wether it be handmade jewelry, custom designed prints like Drivin’ and Vibin’s Esty Shop the Wooden Earth, or personalized costumes and children’s clothing like our friend who travels 6 – 8 months out of the year on their RV, Heavenly Things. Whatever get’s your creative juices flowing chances are you can sell it on your own website or on Etsy.
2. Invest in Real estate
Real estate investing has been around forever. It’s a proven way to make money, grow wealth, and be able to run your own business (aka work for yourself on your own schedule). We started in real estate in 2012, knowing essentially nothing about investing but wanted a way to make money and travel. We learned all we could, bought a few formal classes, and eventually created a business that allowed us to leave our jobs and full time RV. If you want to know more about our specific niche of real estate, investing in notes, click here. It’s our favorite real estate niche because we can literally run the business from anywhere and we don’t have to deal with tenants! If you’d prefer to stay away from notes and stick to something more traditional, take a look at the interview we did with our full time RV friends Mike and Amy who invest in apartments while living in their RV and traveling the US.
3. online business
Being an entrepreneur is hands down the best way to make money and travel. Technically #1 and #2 of ways to make money and travel are entrepreneurial online businesses, but I really want to emphasize the opportunity to have your own SEO, Marketing, or website design company. I know a ton of full time travelers like New State Nomads who have their own marketing company while traveling in their RV full time. You can handle social media accounts for local or national companies, create and design websites, or do other forms of marketing as you travel.
4. create a blog
There are blogs on pretty much every topic imaginable. While growing a blog is a very long process which often requires a lot of dedication and man hours to get operating, blogging is a super feasible way to produce income. Even if you plan to travel, your blog can be on anything that interests you; food, health, travel, sports, mindfulness, parenting, teaching, etc. People want a place to go that they can learn from and connect with on topics that interest them. Heath and Alyssa as an example, were full time in their RV for three years before taking a break to welcome their baby. They grew their blog while traveling, and were able to make more than enough to support their lifestyle after about 4 years. Making Sense of Cents is another great example of a successful blogger that travels full time and makes over a million dollars a year from her blog!
5. become a virtual assistant
Have marketable skills but not interested in running your own business? That’s what virtual assistants are for! There are virtual assistant jobs for pretty much everything, and chances are your skills and experience in whatever the field may be could get you a job as a virtual assistant! You can conduct online research, work as a freelancer writing articles or blog posts, handle social media, data entry, SEO, clerical duties, cold calling or sales, and so much more. You can set the pay you desire, work independently, and on your own schedule. If you want to get started as a freelancer or virtual assistant, try creating a profile with Upwork.
6. flipping domain names
Flipping domains may seem like a crazy way to make money – but thanks to the internet and the demand for quality domain names, this is becoming a reliable source of income for many. We have a friend in Orlando that buys and sells domain names out of his retirement account (learn how you can invest in real estate, businesses or even domain names with your IRA here). You can make a few hundred or several thousand from finding a quality domain name, buying it and then selling it for a higher price at a later time. If you want to learn more about this way to make money and travel, click here.
*Personal Note: After learning about this niche from our friend, we almost bought several domain names for a company we had a feeling was going to grow and franchise. Being unfamiliar (and not wanting to lose close to $1,000 of our money on useless domaines) we hesitated on buying about 10 domains. After a month, we decided we should pull the trigger and buy the domains – but unfortunately the company that was franchising bought them! We missed a huge opportunity to make a profitable domain flip – don’t do the same!
7. Teach online (VIP Kid)
VIP Kid is a newer platform that has become a super solid way to make money and travel. I have at least 4 friends (remember, I used to be in education) that teach with VIP Kids. My very best friend Grace, who has lived and taught in several different countries and travels often, teaches with VIP Kids and love the freedom and flexibility of working online. You can teach english online to children across the world making $14 – $22 hours per hour (depending on how much you work and your background in education). They do require you to have a bachelor’s degree and an ESOL certification to teach with VIP Kid. If you are interested in teaching with VIP kid feel free to reach out to Grace directly. She can walk you through the process of applying, interviewing, and what it’s like teaching (gracielahogue@gmail.com) or if you’re ready to dive in, use code GRACI0017 to sign up!
8. Sell your professional photographs
Chances are, as you travel you’ll get some amazing shots of the epic places you visit. You’ll naturally want to share these photos with others, but did you know you can sell your photographs for money? There are several companies that will buy your photographs as stock photos. You also have the option of selling your own photos through a third party company that will put your photos on canvas or print, frame it, and ship it for you! If you’re interested in seeing what companies buy photos, Penny Hoarder did a great write up on it you can read by clicking here. Maybe you don’t want to sell your photos to a company and prefer to sell them on your own. Totally do-able! We have friends that traveled in their van for 2 years across North America selling their photos online. See their store here!
9. Work as you Travel
Maybe you have a trade that isn’t super marketable online or via the internet. You always have the option of finding work as you travel. We’ve known people who have “work camped” as RV’ers which means they host a campground, staying for free and working part or full time. We’ve also had friends that travel for a few months getting a local job, such as a bartender, work and enjoy the area for a while then continue on to their next location. You don’t have to work online to be able to travel and make money!
10. Keep your day job
I left this as the last way to make money and travel full time because it may not be an option for everyone. If you have a job that has the opportunity to work remotely, test it out. Ask your employer if you’re able to work from home one day a week at first to prove you’re able to produce as expected but from the comfort of your home. After a while, slowly build up to more time at home. Eventually you may (fingers crossed) be able to work out the opportunity to work remotely while traveling.
I’d love to hear if you have other ways to make money and travel, or if you do any of the ways above! Your options really are endless. Traveling full time and making money while working remotely is totally achievable. Figure out the way to make money and travel that works best for you, and get to working!
1 Comment
Liz & Dennis
ESRV Team
We’re two travel-loving, real estate investing, foodies exploring North America as full-time RV’ers. This blog is where we share our lessons learned, tips and tricks, and favorite places to eat, see, and RV across North America! We hope it helps you find your wanderlust, plan and prepare for RV life, and get out on the road!
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Great ideas! It takes courage to step out of your comfort zone, and the motivation to achieve your dreams. I respect both of you for doing just that.