How To Make Money while you Travel

| January 13th, 2010 | Travel Tips

Making money while backpacking around the world has never been easier and there are so many different ways available depending on how involved you want to get, if your budget backpacking it can be a really useful way to keep traveling for longer and it doesn’t take a lot to get into. Trust me on this – If your traveling with a purpose then your experience will be so much more!
Here are a few suggestions:

-Blogging.

If your a budding travel writer or interested in on-line communities and want to use that to help fund your travels then Blogging is a great idea which gives you as much freedom as you want. To be able to make Blogging pay for you to go off backpacking you will have to take it seriously, but look at it this way – sitting on a beach sipping a beer writing about the culture of a beautiful place hardly seems like work!
Probably the best resource to get started with this is Nomadic Matt – a traveller who has been backpacking around the world since 2005 and pays for his travels with his Blog, he has all the info you’ll need to get started in his two ebooks – How to make a Travel Blog & Make Money with your Blog.

-Teaching English.

If English is your native language then there are plenty of good opportunities to make a bit of cash, not always heaps but enough to get by. If your TEFL accredited then the better paid placements will open up, usually they’re more for the long term (6 months) but this can be a great way to get to the heart of a place. If you like it then it could become a great way to see the world.
Getting TEFL accredited is easy, they offer a Free trial of their – Online TEFL course which can be tailored to suit anyone they also have a wealth of experience helping travellers find jobs in faraway places.

-Writing Short articles for Travel communities.

If you like the idea of writing and being paid for it but you don’t want to deal with the admin of keeping your own Blog then writing short articles for sites like Matador Or Boots n All Is a good option.

Matador is a massive on-line community of travellers doing just that, travelling – writing -getting paid -travelling some more. The MatadorU Travel Writing Course is for people who are serious about making travel writing their career and want a helping hand to get started. The community support is awesome and for bit of inspiration they offer a Free download guide of 15 Paying Travel Magazines that want YOUR travel writing.
These sites don’t always pay a fortune but if you’re in a place already then why not get paid to write about it!? Plus exploring a place with an angle other than sightseeing means you’ll most definitely enrich your experience and see things you would have normally missed.

-Using your Current Skills.

I’ve seen this make backpackers money time and time again, they leave home with a skill set that they never really appreciated but it turns out is extremely useful while on the road. The best money make I’ve seen is Hair Cutting, backpackers set up little signs on their beach huts advertising the fact they can cut hair and charge $5 a pop for a trim… If your staying in busy hostels and budget accomodation this can lead to a line of people all waiting for a trim and a cool $100 or so for your travelling fund! Other skills apply too – Web Designing, Building skills and Photography can all do well too.