Most people love to travel but need more money, time, or both. The main issue is that to travel, you need money to pay for transport and accommodation; to make money, you need to have a job, and most jobs will want to be there from 9-5.
Some people find making enough money to travel impossible, even with jobs. In this blog post, I will share the seven best side hustles for travel so that you can fulfill your dream of traveling while making enough money to pay your bills.
7 Best Side Hustles for Travelers
I picked these seven side hustles because you can do them anywhere in the world, and I have done them with success.
You do not have to do all of them; pick one or two and start working on them in 6 months.
You should be able to make enough money to travel and pay your bills. Here are the seven best side hustles for travelers.
Start a Travel Blog
Starting a blog is the easiest side hustle for travelers. This is because you can write a blog post in a car ( if you are not driving and have an internet connection), in the airport, waiting for a plane, and even inside the plane.
Starting a blog is cheap. You need two things: a domain name that you can get for $10 per year and hosting that you can get for $11 per month.
Steps to make money with a travel blog:
Get a domain name.
This is the name of your side; don’t sweat about this. It can be your name or something like travelwithyourname. For example, if your name is Sara, your blog can be travelwithsara.com.
After you decide on your domain name, go to namecheap.com and register it. Here is a video on how you can do it.
Get hosting and install WordPress.
You can get a hosting account with Cloudways and install your side. Here is a video on how to do it.
You can follow up on the whole process of creating a blog here.
Create content for your blog.
After installing your blog, you need to start creating content for your blog. Just write about your travel, the places you visit, and the things you do. You can write reviews about airlines, hotels, and your destinations.
How to monetize your blog
Now, let us talk about money. To make money with your blog, you need to monetize it. The easiest way is to use display ads.
You can apply to the display ads network when your blog gets visitors. You can start with Adsense. They will accept you even if you get less than 1,000 visitors monthly.
When the traffic increases, you can apply for other networks like Adthrive. The reason I recommend Adthrive is because they pay you more money per visitor than Adsense, but to get accepted, your blog must have at least 100k pageviews per month.
If you dedicate a lot of time to your blog, you can reach this level of traffic within eight months to a year.
Become a Freelance Travel Writer.
If you do not want a blog, you can write for others. One way to do this is to find travel blogs and their contact addresses and send them a pitch you want to write for them.
You can charge between $50 and $500 per article, depending on your experience, the quality of the article, and length.
Another option is to join a freelance network like Upwork, Iwriter.com, etc., and start offering your services to people.
How to make money as a freelance writer:
Offer sample writing.
If no one knows you, no one will be able to pay for your services, so if that is the case, you can contact some travel bloggers, offer them free samples in exchange for testimonials, and use those testimonials to attract new paying customers.
Charge per article.
Now you have social proof, you can start getting paid customers and charge them accordingly. Ultimately, you can charge a small amount, and with time, you can increase the price.
Start a YouTube Channel.
If you do not like writing, you can use video to make money as a side hustle. Being a travel junk, I can admit that before traveling to any new place, I will try to find a video on YouTube to get more information about where I am about to go.
To start a YouTube channel, you need two things
A video recording device.
This can be your phone or a camera, if you have a good phone it is enough to record high-quality videos, I recommend using the back camera for better quality.
Another option is to have a camera that can help you to record high quality videos, these can get expensive but if you already have some money it can be a good investment.
You can get a relatively cheap camera from Amazon.
Video Editing Software
Recording a video is straightforward, but sometimes you can record things that you do not want everyone to see, the easiest way is to cut them off the video and the software I use for this is called Camtasia.
You can get a free trial of Camtasia here.
How to make money from a YouTube channel
When you get at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 view hours in a year, you can apply for the YouTube monetization program, and this is where YouTube will pay you for the ads that can be shown on your videos.
Also, you can sell your merch, promote affiliate programs and credit cards, do brand deals, etc.
Recommend credit cards
Travel is expensive, and here is where credit cards come in. Most banks, especially in the United States, will give you a referral bonus if you recommend their credit cards to other users.
A friend makes a living recommending credit cards and YouTube alone.
You can recommend credit cards to your friends and family first, and in the meantime, you can build a blog, YouTube channel, or social media; from there, you can start recommending travel credit cards to your followers.
When those followers get approved for the credit cards and meet the criteria, you will get paid in travel miles or cash, depending on the credit card.
Start a travel agency.
If you like to travel, you will most likely know how to get cheap tickets, and you can use that knowledge to start a travel agency.
Many people do not know anything about travel, booking tickets and hotels, etc., so you can start an agency that helps people with that and charges them for your services.
Start a travel newsletter.
If you are too busy and do not have time to create a blog, write articles, create videos, or run a travel agency, there is a simple solution for you: start a newsletter.
You can start a newsletter about traveling, all you need to do is to create a simple landing page and let people opt-in.
Then, once per week, you can send them emails about your journey, travel tips and tricks, etc.
On those emails, you can recommend airline rewards programs ( you get paid per referral), credit cards, car rentals, backpacks, and anything traffic-related.
To start a newsletter, I recommend Convertkit.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you are selling other people’s products. The good news about this option is that it does not have to be travel-related.
Affiliate marketing does not need a lot of initial capital; you can do it from anywhere, and it can be very lucrative if done right.
How to start affiliate marketing
For me, there are three steps to start affiliate marketing.
Find a problem that people are having.
Business is about problem-solving, and figuring out what people they need, this can be to get lean, to travel cheaply, to make money online, to get abs, to find a significant other, etc.
Build an audience around that problem.
You can start building an audience around the problem you picked in step 1. This can be through social media, blogging, video creation, etc.
Offer them a solution.
Now you have an audience and can offer them a solution to the problem in the first step. This can be a service, a course, or a mentorship.
If you can not build an audience for free, you can figure out where they hand out and pay the platform owner for access.
To learn more about how to get started with affiliate marketing, please click here.
Start X account
A new way to make money while traveling is using X (formally known as Twitter).
You can start an X account for free; give it a good username or just use your name and add a photo. I recommend a photo of Yourself.
You can start to follow people who have the same interest as you, if you like to travel, find big travel account, go through their comment, find out people who engage in those post and follow them.
Some people with start to follow you, this way you will increase your following.
Post at least three times per day, you can mix, personal stories, tips and fun comments, also remember to engage with people you follow.
You can connect with me on X here.
How to make money with X
Elon Must Twitter, aka X, will pay you for impressions in your account, but to be eligible, you need to meet a few criteria.
You need to have at least 500 followers.
You must have at least 3 million impressions in the last three months.
You need to be a verified user ( this costs you up to $15 per month)
If you meet those requirements, you can request their program and start getting paid for just writing short content online.
FAQ
How can I make $2000 a 2000-a-month side hustle?
Many of these can eventually turn into your full-time gig, but you can work on them on the side initially.
How can I travel and still make money?
You can travel and still make money by starting a business that does not require a specific location.
This can be affiliate marketing, content creation, blogging, becoming an influencer, etc.
I call this business model a freedom business, and you can learn more about how to start your freedom business here.
How can I make passive income while traveling?
You can make passive income while traveling by starting one of the following businesses.
- Make videos on YouTube.
- Affiliate Marketing.
- Become a Freelancer.
- Travel Blogging.
Final words
Those are seven side hustles for travelers; all of them work, but you will need time to work on them and start making enough money to be able to travel.
These side hustles can make you at least $100 daily if you work on them for six to twelve months. You need to do the work.
If you want help starting any of these side hustles, let me know in the comment section below or message me on my X account.