How To Make Money Online While Travelling: 7 Proven Ways, Personal Experience & Salary
This article about how to make money online while travelling may contain affiliate/compensated links. For full information, please see my disclaimer here.
Travelling is one of the most enriching, fullfilling, and satisfying activities on earth. I am sure you agree because you are probably reading this article to find out how to keep yourself on the road. Collecting experience, jumping out of a plane, meeting new people with various backgrounds, staying at some of the most unique places, and seeing the world’s wonders… But, I am here with you and understand that you don’t want to come back home, settle down, and get back to the routine. Travelling changes you as a person and most often it is hard to feel good once you come back home.
Read this article if you want to keep traveling, but your budget is getting smaller. I’ll give you creative options for how you can make money online while travelling.
1. Become ESL Teacher
Teaching English online as a second language is one of the most convenient ways to make money online while travelling. Now you might think, ooh, me as a teacher, no way. How will I prepare the lesson? What should I teach? And what about English tenses? I got you here.
Teaching English as a second language is a great way to make money online while travelling. You have two options. Either you can go your own way, find your students, and make your own schedule. Or you can get qualified for teaching and get employed in one of the English online companies.
If you don’t know where to start and want to be rather employed and get some guidelines, I recommend getting the qualification with International TEFL Academy.
What Is International TEFL Academy?
International TEFL Academy is one of the best companies that offer qualifications to teach English abroad and online. When you enroll, you’ll get personal support from one of their ambassadors. He’ll explain to you everything about the course and help you enroll. The course itself is great training and practice for your English teaching career online. You’ll get various resources to learn from, English grammar tenses, vocabulary practice, and a lot more. After the course, you’ll have lifetime support from them when it comes to a job search.
It doesn’t matter that you don’t know a lot about the grammar rules or phrasal verbs. This course will teach you everything you’ll need to become an ESL teacher online and travel the world.
After, you can either teach online or move abroad to one of their locations and teach English there while travelling.
Get Detailed Info About International TEFL Academy
My Experience With International TEFL Academy
I did my ESL qualification with International TEFL Academy as well, and it was an amazing experience. Although, I have to say that it is not always easy to get it and you’ll have to work for it. But once you have it, you’ll get many opportunities to teach online and travel.
The course itself takes 2 months to complete (8 weeks). You’ll learn independently and do some online tests and final projects at the end of each section. After, you’ll also have to complete a practicum, which consists of 120 hours of taught and observation hours. They’ll help you to find companies or places where you can complete your practicum hours. Of course, you can also do the practicum online. Either find your own students or check out My Culture Connect, founded by Luke Lin. He is organizing observation classes where you can participate. You only need Skype and an hour of free time to observe.
If you want to become an ESL teacher and need more information, check out my separate article about how to get ESL certified. It includes all the information for your ESL career, practicum, and personal insights and experience. To get the certification from International TEFL Academy, enroll in the TEFL course and start teaching English online while travelling.
Average Salary & Rates You Can Set
Working as an ESL teacher online can make you great money for your travels. The rates will depend on the company you choose to work with or entirely on yourself. Each English teaching business offers a different salary. You can start with 15$ an hour, but you can also make 20$, in some countries even 35$ an hour (e.g., Switzerland). Ask International TEFL Academy to give you work opportunities after you have the certificate.
If you want to go your own way, create a simple website and market your English lessons. Set your
own rates and share a link on Social Media to market your services. If you want to be independent, I recommend you check James Liu with his Teacher-Entrepreneur Network. In his program, he teaches you how you can earn even 100$ per hour teaching English online. I took his 21-day challenge (program). He teaches you how to start an online English teaching business, find clients, set your rates, and prepare your own English teaching lessons. It is great. You’ll learn so many things.
You can find him on Facebook under the name: Teacher-Entrepreneur Network.
Be Part Of Teacher-Entrepreneur Challenge
2. Teach Your Native Language Online
If English isn’t your first language and you are not confident in teaching it to others, use other platforms and teach your own language. Online platforms like iTalki, Preply, or Amazing Talker accept many teachers every day to work and earn money online on their platforms. They work with several languages, so I am sure you can find the language you want to teach.
Teach On iTalki
iTalki gives teaching opportunities even for non-qualified people. That means that you don’t have to have a certificate or a qualification to teach the language. You can become the so-called community teacher. With this status, you can have conversational lessons with everybody who books a lesson with you. However, you cannot teach more difficult parts of the language, such as grammatical structures or academic vocabulary. If you want to teach everything, you have to be certified.
Teach On Preply
With Preply, it is even easier to teach. They welcome everybody with a passion for teaching languages. You don’t have to be qualified for it. Just apply and teach your native language online, make money, and your travel dream comes true.
Average Salary & Rates You Can Set
When teaching languages online on these platforms, you can set your own rates. The average earnings per hour are between 15$ and 20$ per hour, depending on what you teach and the rates of other teachers. If you only offer conversational lessons, the rate won’t be as high as if you were teaching more specific, such as academic writing or technical vocabulary. Also, keep in mind the competition and see what rates they are setting. If you are too expensive, students will book a lesson with somebody else. So check out the competition and give an average price for your lessons.
If you want to teach other languages online and travel, read my article about how to travel and teach online your native language.
3. Work As A Virtual Assistant
Working as a Virtual Assistant is another great way to make money online while travelling. You’ll basically work for somebody who owns an (online) business. You can help them, for instance, with their Pinterest account, creating and uploading pins. Besides, you can manage their emails, phone calls, or Facebook.
The best part of it is that you don’t need a specific skill to work as a virtual assistant. Just find someone who needs help with their business tasks, gets in touch, and starts earning money while helping them. For example, learning how to create pins for Pinterest is easy, and any other task is easy to learn. Just be open-minded and ready to help.
As a virtual assistant, your workload extends but is not limited to the following tasks:
- Managing Social Media: Pinterest Account, Facebook or Instagram
- Writing and Editing
- Managing Email Box
- Organizing Files
- Booking travel arrangements
- Help with planning and scheduling
Required Skills & Salary
As a virtual assistant, you have to be initiative and able to start things on your own. Employers who give you the work expect you to work on the tasks independently and meet the deadline. So you should definitely be an organized person and a self-starter. Everything else is possible to learn on the go.
The average salary you can make as a virtual assistant is 15$ to 30$ per hour. So if you can find people to work for, it is a pretty great way to make money online while travelling.
How To Find Work As Virtual Assistant
You can either look for business owners who post their job offers online or market yourself as an assistant. Platforms like Fiverr and Upwork are great places to start off with if you don’t have much experience yet. After that, you can register and get in touch with somebody looking for help.
Another way is to market yourself as a virtual assistant on these platforms. You can also create your own website to have your own platform for marketing yourself. Then, every time you find a new employer, just send them a link with your experience listed inside, and you have a great chance to get the work. It will be like your CV online.
If you want to market yourself as a virtual assistant and create your own website, I recommend starting with Bluehost. Bluehost is the best Web hosting for beginners. They offer the cheapest service and are always available to help whenever you have an issue with your website. I use Bluehost myself, and I can only say good words about them. Whenever I had a problem, I opened their online chat, and they helped me with it. Also, it is very cheap, so you no longer have excuses to start your own website or blog.
Check out Bluehost and create your website on the best web hosting platform.
Start Your Website & Market Yourself
4. Become A (Travel) Blogger
Perhaps the most exciting way to earn money online is to have your own business. It can be either with your blog or any other online business. You are your own boss and can manage your time as you need. Besides, you want to travel, so getting into travel blogging is a smart option. When travelling, you are automatically generating new content and getting new ideas. Then you only have to write it, market it and have a good strategy to get visible.
I can say that being a travel blogger changed my life. Travelling is even more purposeful and enjoyable. I can share the experience with other online and even make money from it. Although it is quite difficult to grow it and be consistent with it, you’ll see results for sure once you sustain. The first year or two is challenging because you have to write a lot of content and won’t see results initially. But, just keep going and write. You’ll be successful. It only takes time.
You can start completely alone, create your website, and then only generate travel content. I did it all on my own and managed to figure it out. But after half a year, I also needed some direction. Someone who would push me and motivate me to see where I was heading. That’s why I’ve got myself a blogging course, which gave me a new perspective on blogging. So you can either do it all yourself, which will take much longer, or get help from experienced bloggers and see results in a shorter time.
If you want to become a travel blogger, check out my article about how to start a travel blog without travelling. Even if you cannot travel right now, you can still start a travel blog, and the article will explain to you how. It’ll also give you a full guide on setting up your own travel website and writing your first articles.
Learn How To Start A Travel Blog
Get FREE 15 Name Ideas For Your Travel Blog
The Most Important Skill To Succeed With Your Blog
SEO is the most crucial skill you must learn to earn money from your travel blog. It’ll also help you if you decide to be a virtual assistant.
It’s all about finding the right keywords for your articles to rank high in Google searches and get more visitors.
Get my full guide on what SEO is, why it’s important, the best SEO tools, and ways to find the best keywords for your articles. I’ll also teach you how to write successful articles that people will read and what mistakes you should avoid as a travel blogger.
Get my full SEO guide by clicking on the image below:
How Much You Can Earn As A Travel Blogger
As a travel blogger, you can establish various income streams. It depends entirely on you how much you’ll earn and how well your blog will perform. Youtube has many videos about blogging, how to get started, and what you should do first. After, I recommend you take a course from an experienced blogger to boost your performance.
The sources of income you can have as a blogger are, for instance:
- ads on your site (after reaching a specific number of sessions/pageviews per month)
- affiliate marketing – recommending services from others to your readers and getting commission once they purchase from your link
- your email list
- digital products
These are a few ways how you can make money from your blog. The most important part is often your email list and establishing trust with your readers through it. Once you achieve it, your affiliate income will increase, and also your pageview will boost.
Take A Blogging Course & Make Money Within A Year
When I started my blog, I watched youtube videos to figure it out myself. This took me way too much time. I lost 3 full months. At that time, I could’ve already had some articles and traffic on my website and earned a few dollars.
Only after I decided to sign up for a blogging course. Firstly, I was looking for a good course for one month. Then I decided to take on two adventure travel bloggers, Anna and Tom. They have a website called Adventure In You.
Their Fast Lane Blogging course teaches everything from starting a website to having the right mindset and keeping up when you feel down. They have an excellent strategy for how to make money with affiliate marketing.
This course also teaches you how to write a perfect blog post, how SEO works, and how to gain subscribers. Finally, they’ll also teach you about social media and how to create a great value gift to attract more followers.
If you want to start your blog and make money faster (within over one year), I highly recommend you take this course. It’ll save you time and get you started.
I took the Blogging Fast Lane Course and saw results in 2 months, which is amazing. You can get it by clicking the button or image below:
You can also watch their free webinar, where they explain you how this course works and everything you’ll learn. Sign up for the webinar for free:
Learn About Blogging Fast Lane Course Free
5. Start An Online Business
Starting your online business requires some time, equally as a blog does. I highly recommend you start doing so at least 2 years before you set off and go travelling full time. Whatever your online business idea is, make it happen right now and boost its performance. Once you see some results and are confident it will make you some money, then make your travels come true.
I suggest you start with building your website to market your services. After, start getting clients. It can be in the form of a newsletter or directly contacting them. You are free to do whatever feels right and good. Just start doing it and keep up with it.
6. Teach Your Skills Online
Maybe you don’t have an exact business idea and aren’t sure what you would sell. Never mind. You can still sell your knowledge and show your skills. Nowadays, you can teach people your skills. Either make an online course and sell it or register on a platform and teach.
Think about your experience and things you’re good at. What you’re passionate about. What your friends and family members come to you and ask you about or want some suggestions from you. You can make money online with all the things you’re good at.
Where You Can Teach Your Skills Online
Teachable offers opportunities for people with a passion for sharing their knowledge and skills with others. You can create your online course or offer coaching services through Teachable and earn money online while travelling. You can share anything from art, marketing to film-making, photography, drone-flying, sports, and anything else you think will be attractive to others.
7. Sell Your Photos & Handmade Things Online
Last but not least, if you don’t like to be in front of a camera or show your face in any way, I have something to make money online while travelling: You can sell things online. Platforms like Etsy or Shopify enable you to do so. You can sell anything from printables to handmade babies, clothes, paintings, decorations, and so on. The list goes as far as your creativity does.
How To Sell Photos & Handmade Things & Salary
Selling photos online can make you around 0.35 to 0.50 $ per photo. The best places you can sell them are, for instance, Shutterstock, iStock Photos, Etsy, Getty Images, Alamy, Zenfolio, or Stocksy. Research online and see which one would be the best for you.
Selling physical stuff might be more challenging as you’ll have physical goods somewhere and will have to manage them, pack them, and send them. But bear in mind that you can always make it somehow. Perhaps you already have so many things that you can sell that you can just hire somebody to pack and send them to your customers instead of you. Or your friends and family can do it. Just be creative and think about all options. The price will depend entirely on you. But first, check out your competitors to keep on track. See what they offer, for how much, and then set your own rates.
The Most Important Thing Is Your Passion
These are the best ways for how you can make money online while travelling. It doesn’t really matter what you want to do. The most important thing is to have a good idea, be confident about selling it, and make it happen.
Even if you are not sure about what you want to do yet, just start doing something you are passionate about. Businesses that people lead with their passions last longer. If you have passion, it is the essential thing you need to start. Don’t overthink it. Start doing it, and you’ll see results in some time.
If you want to travel full time, make sure you have something running. You have tried tutoring, or you have your TEFL certification to teach English. Or you’ve started your travel blog and seen some results. Success doesn’t come just like that. You have to first put some effort into it until you reach it. So before travelling, make sure you start some of these ideas, work on them. Then you can enjoy your travelling life anywhere you want while working online and earning money.
I wish you good luck with everything you’ll start. Remember that everyone can do it. You just have to believe in yourself, in your idea, and keep working on it.
