Have you ever wanted a job that provides you with the freedom to travel the world? There are so many remote work and passive income opportunities that you can do while traveling, and there are many ways you can make full time travel possible for your life! If traveling is your thing and you want to do more of it in 2021, here is a list of ways you can make money on the road.
Making money and working while you travel creates a more sustainable way to combine traveling into your lifestyle! Look you only live once so might as well live it the way you want in a sustainable way, so then it becomes your lifestyle rather than a once a year vacation!
Even if you do not want to travel full time, having multiple streams of income is very valuable. Ask yourself this – how reliable is your income right now? If you answered very reliable and you also work for someone, well it’s not as reliable as you might think.
You can lose your job at any given moment. But, if you have multiple streams of income you’re not depending on the one source. If one falls through, you have other streams of income.
Disclaimer – This blog post is not sponsored, though it does contain some affiliate links. This means I get a small commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!
So here’s a run down! Let’s get into it:
- Teaching English Online
- Social Media Manager
- Online Virtual Assistance
- Freelance Your Skills
- Work At a Local Coffee Shop
- Brand Collaborations
- Sell Digital Files on Etsy (Passive Income)
- Closed Caption Writer
- Dividend Stocks (Passive Income)
- Real Estate (Passive Income)
Teaching English Online
Teaching english online pays between $10-$25 an hour depending which platform you use. Learning english is in demand in several countries, and there are many remote opportunities for teaching english online! What better way to share you knowledge then by full out being a teacher.
Just note that some platforms to teach english online require a degree and some do not. The platforms that require a degree generally pay more.
Here’s some platforms that are worth checking out:
- VIPKID: most competitive rates but accepts fewer people. Check our their website for more details!
- Cambly
- Qkids
- SayABC
Social Media Manager
If you know the ins and outs of Instagram or have an eye for curation, it is worth considering social media management.
This one is one of my favourites because I enjoy curation and content creation. I have done this for a bit in the past and the beauty is you can work remotely from anywhere in the world, and you get to create your own schedule!
Here are some things you may have to do as a social media manager (you may not do all of these or you may do additional things – this is just a rough list):
- Plan a monthly grid for the businesses Instagram feed. You can use apps like Planoly or Later to schedule daily posts.
- Post stories daily
- Engage with the audience of the Instagram account through comments, stories, and direct messages
- Strategically plan giveaways
- Track the analytics of an Instagram account
- Utilizes Instagram’s newest features and create photography and video content
- Write captions for each Instagram post
- Edit new content that will be posted
There are several social media management jobs that are promoted through Facebook groups. All you have to do is search “remote work” or “digital nomads” on Facebook and tons of Facebook groups related to these things will come up. Indeed and LinkedIn are also great websites to find social media management jobs.
Another way to be considered for a remote social media management position is to reach out to local brands you know of that their Instagram account is not really active or it looks like they need help with the curation and reach of their Instagram.
Online Virtual Assistance
A Virtual Assistant is generally self-employed and you can work from anywhere in the world. It is someone who provides professional administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients remotely from a home office.
Some tasks you may do as a virtual assistant include scheduling appointments, making travel arrangements for the business owner or individual you are working for, making phone calls, or managing incoming emails.
You can find virtual assistance opportunities on:
Freelance Your Skills
What skill do you have? What are you really good? You can freelance these skills using websites like Upwork and Fiverr. These websites are a marketplace for online freelance services. You list the skills you offer and set your price. It is as simple as that.
There are freelance opportunities that are anywhere from website designer, voice overs, graphic designers, to administrative assistants or blog writers. It is a great choice for making some side income or becoming full time when you get enough clients!
Work at a Local Coffee Shop
This opportunity can not only make you money but it can give you the opportunity to meet people in the local neighbourhood – and potentially some new pals! Note though, this opportunity is more for someone staying long term (at least 2+ months).
Brand Collaborations
If you have an engaged audience on one of your social media platforms or blog (Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube) you can collaborate with brands and they will pay you. Your role would be to create content for that brand for marketing purposes and to promote their product to your audience.
Don’t sell yourself short on brand collaborations. Think about it – before social media and the digital age, brands would use advertising agencies and pay $1000+ to make an advertisement or commercial. You are essentially doing that for them and giving them access to your audience.
So price your services at a suitable rate and don’t settle for anything less. Remember to include your time, gas, and any other resources you may be using into how you price your rates. Depending on your audience, how many followers you have, and how engaged your followers are you can make anywhere from $75-$20,000+ on one post, story, YouTube video, or blog post.
Some influencer platforms to find brand collaboration deals:
Sell Digital Files on Etsy
Etsy offers remote work and passive income through selling digital files! I have been selling on Etsy for years now. You won’t make a ton of cash if you don’t consistency work at it. But, if you want some side cash to cover some of your travel expenses, Etsy is very low maintenance once you have your products up and running.
Here are some things you can sell on Etsy:
- Photography: You can sell digital files or physical files of your photography or artwork prints.
- Photography presets: A preset is a photo filter, a saved combination of settings of how you edit your photo. You can make your own preset in the Lightroom mobile app or Lightroom on your desktop computer.
- T-Shirts: This is personally my favorite but just note that you would need the space required to do this. Depending how you are traveling this may not be suitable for everyone.
The best part about selling on Etsy is you can get creative with it and it is a great platform to get your artwork seen to people. If artwork and creating digital or tangible items is up your alley then I strongly recommend Etsy for you!
Closed Caption Writer
If you’re a fast typer, then this one is for you! A closed caption writer is essentially the person who writes the subtitles of YouTube videos or other businesses videos that need subtitles made for them.
You can’t really make a living off this one as they do pay quite less depending how fast you’re typing. Usually the platforms employing people for closed captions pay around $1.25USD per minute. To clarify this is not per minute of you working but per minute of the video. So, if you are doing a 5 minute video you will make around $6.25USD.
It takes longer than you would expect to make money online in this way. You have to type out all of the words in the video and then later match all the words with the people talking in the video. I have tried this and I was going nuts because it was quite a long process matching all the words. But hey, it may be for you!
Popular closed caption platforms to get started:
Dividend Stocks
**Disclaimer – I am by no means a financial advisor lol so definitely do your own additional research**
Dividend stocks are stocks that you can buy that pay out a dividend (a small portion of earnings back to shareholders). Most companies usually pay out their dividends on a quarterly basis, but there are some companies that pay out monthly dividends.
I’ll admit investing in the stock market can be tricky and definitely do your research before investing! There are plenty of resources on Youtube that you can watch that teach you step by step how to invest in the stock market.
Some of my favourite resources for investing in the stock market are:
- Project Life Mastery
- Nate O’Brien
- I Will Teach You To Be Rich – by Ramit Seth
You can start investing with a big bank or there are other platforms that are available with lower commissions. I personally like Wealthsimple because you have free trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
- You can sign up to Wealthsimple in minutes using this link and we will both get some free money. Who doesn’t love free money! (Canadian based)
- Questrade (Canadian based)
- Robinhood is also another popular platform for investing in the stock market (American based)
Real Estate Rental Properties
Probably the most popular form of passive income that has been around for years even before the digital age. The traditional way to get started in real estate you would need a generous amount of money for your down payment. Although, there are other ways to reduce this cost of your down payment.
Some great resources to get started with this is:
- The book – Rich Dad Poor Dad. Okay this book is highly talked about, but there is a reason for that! In my opinion it is one of the best finance books I have read. It talks a lot about real estate investing and a general overview of money mindset. Truly a book that should be recommended to everyone, even if you aren’t getting into real estate investing.
- The YouTube channel – BiggerPockets. This channel is very informative and they also have a podcast, online forum, and weekly webinars! Very useful resource and highly recommend. I also recommend their webinars – there is a ton of valuable information in there!!
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