Tired of sitting at your desk and earning money to fund your travel goals? Ditch the indoors and discover ways to make money on the road!
Wanderers, lend us your ears! What was once fantasy, has now become reality. Ever dreamt of making a living while still being able to globetrot? Well, thanks to the ever-expanding earning opportunities available today, you can actually realise this dream.
But remember, nothing good is handed out to anyone on a plate. You need to learn the tricks of the trade to make your travel work for you, financially.
Are your wanderlust senses tingling? Read on, dear road tripper, as we share with you the best ways to earn money while you’re on the road.
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Brand yourself on Social Media
One way to break away from conventional work life is by turning your passion for travel into a profession, and the first step towards this end is to establish a brand for yourself. How do you this? Social media!
Yes, platforms such as Instagram are programmed to give you great visibility and reach, provided you’re willing to apply the right tools to realise your dream. You need to build a brand for yourself and make sure you come up with a unique name for your Instagram handle or Facebook page. You could also create a unique hashtag for all your posts and post every image on your page with top-performing hashtags relating to your genre.
For instance, let’s say you’re a wildlife photographer who wishes that big names such as BBC Earth notice your work on Instagram? Do your research on the hashtags that they recommend for you to be featured on their page. The hot hashtag on Instagram for BBC Earth is currently #EarthCapture. Adding this to your image description will ensure that your post is listed along with other posts that carry this hashtag, thereby making it more likely for BBC Earth to see your image. If they’re impressed, they’ll feature you and you may get a good boost in your followers thanks to their great public reach.
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Do a little financial planning
Before switching from full-time Joe to wandering Jack, it always helps to have a cushion to fall back on if things don’t immediately work out. For instance, let’s say you plan to go off the conventional work grid in about two years. To do that, you need to start saving NOW. In 24 months, you’ll have a decent amount of money stocked up in your Savings Account or Fixed Deposit until you get your new income avenue sorted out.
You can also fine-tune your budgeting according to what skill suits you best from the below list.
Skills that are in demand in the digital space
Here are a few things that have clicked for travellers around the world in their pursuit for a nomadic yet financially stable life:
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Travel blogger/reviewer:
A lot of youngsters who are inclined towards writing have been successful as travel writers and reviewers who capture their recent experiences in their own creative way. If you have a way with words and can come up with content interesting enough to gather a decent fan following on social media platforms, then you could certainly consider becoming a travel blogger or reviewer.
In fact, this segment is seeing bigger success every day. Well-established travel bloggers are now being invited by resorts to come and stay for free and write about their stay. Sounds like quite a deal to us!
Additional Reading: 5 Budget Friendly European Holiday Destinations
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Shutterbugs
If you’re good with a camera, you may want to consider establishing a dedicated social media page towards that end. Drawing from our example illustrated earlier about using the right hashtags to obtain maximum reach, you can optimise your visibility amongst your genre applying the right tools and following hot trends.
Additional Reading: Travelling With Your Card? Trip on this!
Once digital magazines and other publishing houses see your work and your portfolio of images taken across the country or even the world, there’s a good chance some of them will be interested in publishing your work. Over time, if your work stays consistently good, you may even be offered projects by these magazines wherein you’ll be paid to explore a part of the world with your eyes and your camera, of course.
Additional Reading: Prioritising your Investments As a Photographer
Another way a traveller who’s a photographer can make money is buy selling images online as stock images. Today, many online portals invite the public to contribute to their collection of stock images – with every download, the author, aka, you, will enjoy a royalty fee.
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Teach English Online
Well-versed with English? Here’s a nomadic idea that may work wonders for you! Let’s say you’re travelling across Europe and are connected to the internet at most times. A lot of online portals allow you to teach English online and make a few quick bucks while you’re on the move! Sounds interesting, right?
Additional Reading: Kickass Ways to Make Money While Travelling
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Freelance
Well, the concept of remote working is turning out to be quite a revolutionary change many spheres of work. If you have a good enough portfolio, experience and a skill set that can meet varied client needs, your first step towards leaving the traditional office desk and spreading your wings is by embracing the concept of freelancing.
Freelancers across the world view their beach shack or tree house as their office space. They’ve managed to find ways to stay connected to work and have built a good network of clients in their journey of fulfilling their travel goals while still being able to meet deadlines and expectations.
Additional Reading: 6 Smart Money Management Tips for First-Time Freelancers
A surge in demand for freelance writers, designers, developers and many other professionals is enabling more and more individuals to break free of their 9-5 work life and be as nomadic as they want.
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Get a mainstream job that takes you places
Let’s not ignore the one option that mainstream jobs still offer – a role that takes you around the world. If you like your profession and happen to land a job that involves international travel and projects in different countries, nothing could be better than that! Here, you enjoy the financial stability of a formal job while still being able to see the world.
So there you go, dear wanderer – we hope at least one of these avenues brings you financial freedom as well as freedom from office walls!
While we’re talking travel, care to check out some awesome travel Credit Cards that can be your journeys even more fun?