How to Make Money While Traveling

You may think it is difficult to make money while traveling, but with the Internet it has become easier to find location-independent work. Surely you have some skills that you will be able to leverage while traveling to make a little supplemental income, or even find a fully remote career or a job abroad. Don’t expect to get rich, but with a little patience you will be generating an income while you travel in no time.

EditSteps

EditSelling Travel Photography

Take compelling, high-quality photos with a good camera. Use a professional-quality DSLR, mirrorless, or advanced compact camera to capture images. Make sure all the photos you take are well-composed and well-lit.^[1]
- Look for unique people, places, and moments to capture. There is a lot of competition in travel photography, so it’s important to make your photos stand out from the rest.
- To make your photos compelling, try to capture images that have a good story behind them. Look for things like cultural events, less-traveled locations, and interesting local characters to take pictures of.
- Learn how to use your camera well and keep practicing to get better. The more you are able to use good technique with your camera, the better your images will look. Read books or blogs online to learn about photography techniques, or look for classes and workshops wherever you are.^[2]
Edit your images with photo editing software. Upload your photos to your computer and edit them to crop them, adjust lighting, sharpen them, and fix any marks on the images. Always export your images at the highest quality possible after you edit them.^[3]
- Make sure all of your images are straight, cropped nicely, bright, and well-exposed. Check for any spots that may have been caused by dust on your lens and erase them with the photo editing software.
- If you don’t have any experience with photo editing software, try to take a course or workshop to learn the basics.
Upload your images to stock photography sites at first. This method is one of the easiest ways to start selling photos because once you upload your images you don’t have to do anything to market them. Upload them to several sites that allow you to sell stock photography, and wait to receive money every time someone pays to download one of your images.^[4]
- Make sure you read the terms and conditions of any site you want to upload your photos to in order to understand their policies and how they pay.
- Most stock photography sites will require you to submit a few samples before they accept you as a contributor. Select your best work to upload the first time to increase your chances of getting accepted.^[5]
Try submitting your best photos to online travel magazines and sites. Editorials are always looking for new photos and content, but you will need to pitch your work well. Select some of your best images, and then write up a brief background story that tells about the travel experience that led to the photo.^[6]
- Look around the sites you want to submit photos to for contact info and any specific instructions they have for submitting images. Publications may have a specific editor or email to send photography to.
- It is best to wait to hear back from an editorial that they are interested before quoting any prices for your photography.
Create prints of your photos to sell. This is the hardest way to make money from travel photos, because you have to invest some money initially to print them out, and then do all of the marketing and find buyers yourself. Print out some of your best quality photos and use only high-quality printing and paper.^[7]
- One way to sell prints is to build up a social media following so that people see your work and want to buy it. This way you can print out your work on demand and ship it to people.
- Look around where you are traveling for a place that you could exhibit some of your prints, such as a gallery or cafe. You can also try selling your work to businesses like restaurants or hotels.

EditStarting a Travel Blog

Think of a good name and make sure it is an available URL. Try to come up with an original name that is catchy and easy to remember. Check hosting sites to make sure it is available in some form as a URL for your blog.^[8]
- There are tons of travel blogs out there already, so try to come up with a name and URL that stand out from the crowd. Choose something descriptive, for example, if your blog focusing on food and travel try to describe that with the name and URL rather than just picking a generic name.
- Avoid names that include words like “nomad”, “vagabond”, “backpacker”, “wandering”, and other similar things. Names that include these types of words are already very common so try to come up with something more unique to distinguish your blog. The more unique your blog’s name is, the easier it will be able to find in search results.
Set up hosting for your site and create your social media channels. Buy the URL and hosting services for your blog through a reputable hosting site. Create channels for your blog on all the major social networks.^[9]
- It’s important to create a presence on social media in order to promote your content, build a following, and create a strong brand for your blog.
Install a blogging platform on your site and choose a theme for your blog. Research to find the best blogging software to make money with your blog. Most hosting services have easy integration with the major blogging platforms, so just follow the instructions on their site to install it.^[10]
- When you install blogging software on your site, you will need to pick a design for your blog from the custom themes. Pick one that you like, but keep in mind you can always change this later.
Sign up for affiliate marketing and display advertising programs. Banner ads will give you a certain amount of money based on how many people see them or click on them. Affiliate links will take people to sites where they have the option to buy a product you mention in your content, and you get a percentage of the sale price.^[11]
- For affiliate programs you just need to sign up and start adding the custom links they provide you to the content on your blog. Display advertising will require you to add in custom HTML to the code on your site to display banner ads.
- If you have never used display advertising or affiliate marketing, read some blogs about how to use them efficiently to learn how to make money with them on your site.
- Keep in mind that you won’t make much money with banner ads and affiliate marketing right away. You need to build up a big audience to really start making money.
Start creating content and generating traffic to your site. You need to write lots of good blog posts to start building an audience. Keep writing about your travels, and try to write posts that are useful and shareable to generate traffic.^[12]
- Try to publish at least 2-3 posts a week. Look for cool cultural events, tours, and locations that you can visit to blog about. Make sure to take some good pictures to go with any posts you write!
- Don’t get discouraged if nobody is reading your blog at first. It is a long and slow process to build steady traffic to any kind of site.
- Read blogs about content marketing and SEO to get tips for how to build traffic to your site faster.
- Make sure to publicize your posts on social media every time that you write a new one.

EditFinding Remote Freelance Work

Determine what skills you have that you can offer as a freelancer. Skills like programming, design, marketing, and writing are all things that you will be able to find freelance work doing. Make sure your resume and online professional profiles are all up to date with your experience and skills.^[13]
- Some examples of freelance roles for programmers include web or app development jobs. If you have marketing experience you could find freelance copywriter or content marketer positions. Designers can look for graphic design, web design, or UI/UX design roles. If you are bilingual, there are also freelance translation positions available.^[14]
- Keep in mind that there is a lot of competition in the remote job market. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t find work right away.
Search online job sites for remote freelance jobs and apply. There are many online job sites that have remote job postings or are solely dedicated to remote jobs. Search using keywords for the type of job you want and the skills you have to find suitable jobs to apply to.^[15]
- Make sure that the jobs you apply to accept remote workers from where you are currently based. Some remote positions require you to be in a certain country or time zone.
- Think about whether you want to or are available to work full- or part-time. A part-time remote job will allow you more freedom while traveling.
- Make sure that you will have enough Internet access while you are traveling to hold a remote job.
Create profiles on freelancer sites and look for contracts. When you just want to find some freelance projects, then sites that allow you to create a freelancer profile are a great option. Create a strong profile that offers your most valuable skills.^[16]
- Freelancer sites are full of competition, so it’s best to offer your services at a low rate to start until you build up a portfolio and some reviews. Look at other freelancer profiles to try and get an idea of what their rates are, and you can offer yours at a slightly lower rate.
- To succeed as a freelancer, you should charge an hourly rate instead of by the project, as the amount of time projects will take can be unpredictable. Calculate the minimum income you need to survive, and then charge an hourly rate that will allow you to make at least enough to support all your basic needs.^[17]
- Depending on the site, you either have to wait for someone to offer you a contract, or you can post bids on contracts, or a combination of both.
- Some freelance sites are just for certain types of work, while others allow all types of freelancers to sign up.

EditGetting a Job in the Country You Are Visiting

Get a job as an English teacher if you are a native or bilingual speaker. Search for English academies or schools that need English teachers and apply for a job. Offer private English lessons while you are traveling, or find an online teaching job. ^[18]
- Get certified to teach English to improve your job prospects. There are several types of English teaching certifications, but the most common and globally recognized are the TEFL and TESL. Complete an online certification course to get qualified to teach English as a foreign language.^[19]
- Online TEFL and TESL courses vary greatly in price and duration, but expect to spend at least around $200 USD for a course that lasts 120 hours.^[20]
- Network as you travel and try to meet people who want a private English tutor. You will often be able to find people who just want to practice their English conversational skills, or learn English for business. You can also try advertising private English lessons on social media or print out flyers to leave around.^[21]
- Teach English online from anywhere. There are tons of companies that hire remote English teachers to teach via video-chat. Teaching online offers you tons of flexibility to teach while traveling.The easiest online teaching jobs to get are ones where you will teach students in Asian countries like China and Korea. Most of the time you just need to be a native English speaker to get a job through one of the online teaching companies in Asia.^[22]
Work in hostels to get free accommodation while you travel. Many hostels accept traveling volunteer workers in exchange for free accommodation and sometimes meals. Talk to hostel staff, or search online on hostel websites, and email or call ahead to try to find a job.^[23]
- Most hostels employ volunteers in reception and other miscellaneous jobs, so you won’t be likely to actually make money in one, but you will save money on accommodation and sometimes food.
- Hostel positions are in high demand among travelers, so your best bet is to try to network and make friends with hostel staff and owners as you travel to try to land a position in one.
Make money by teaching people a skill that you have. Things like scuba diving, surfing, dancing, or yoga are all skills that people are likely to pay you to learn as you travel. Try to organize group classes or offer one-on-one instruction.^[24]
- Network at hostels, events or on social media to try to find a venue to offer classes in, or clients that you can teach your skills to. Create business cards and flyers to leave at reception desks and hand out.
Work as a tour guide if you have good knowledge of a place. Consider looking for work as a tour guide with an agency or offering private tours when you have been in a place long enough to learn more than the average tourist. Keep in mind you may need to get a work visa to work for a tour company, so ask them if they help with that process.^[25]
- Short 2-3 hour walking tours of certain parts of cities, or focusing on a certain niche, are tours that you can offer as an independent guide.
Become an au pair if you have experience caring for children. You will have to care for the children of a family, and in exchange you will get lodging, food, and a small monetary stipend. Search online to find an au pair program and check what their requirements are to apply.^[26]
- Becoming an au pair is a good way to experience actually living abroad, as you will be staying put in a city most of the time, and you usually have your weekends free to travel around and see more of the country you are in or nearby countries.
- Au pair program requirements vary, but you need to have a clean criminal record, be between the ages of 18-26, have a certain number of hours of childcare experience, and be willing to commit to at least a year-long contract.
- You usually get 1-2 months of free time in the country to travel when your au pair contract is up. Try to save up some of your stipend money to spend during this time!
- Au pair programs will help you with all the requirements to get a work visa in the country that you decide to go to.