Traveling is a passion that many of us dream of pursuing full-time. The thought of exploring new places, experiencing different cultures, and meeting new people is exhilarating. But one question that often arises is: How can I make money while traveling? What are some of the top travel jobs that pay well? So this blog talks about different ways you can earn while travelling: as a travel blogger, influencer while working as a guide & more ways to find a travel job while.
Whether you’re looking to travel long-term or just want to fund your vacations, there are numerous ways to earn an income while on the move. From travel blogging and freelancing to guiding and other remote work opportunities, the digital age has made it easier than ever to fund your travels without being tied to a single location. Let’s explore some of the best ways to make money while traveling and how you can get started.
Travel Jobs That Pay You Well – Top Professions
Travel Blogging
Travel blogging, as a profession, is becoming more and more popular, and this is not strange because we live in the era of digital technology.
Blogging as a career is ideally compatible with travel as you can visit different countries, share your experiences with subscribers, collaborate with different hotels/brands, and make money while on the go.
But it is important to understand that to achieve success in the field of blogging, you need to be good. You need to be able to interest the audience and have decent editing and filming skills. We will discuss more about this profession later in the article (including my personal experiences).
Travel blogging is one of the most popular ways to make money and among the best travel jobs that pay you well. With the rise of social media and content-sharing platforms, it has become easier than ever to build a travel blog and share your experiences with a global audience.
How to Make Money as a Travel Blogger
Starting a travel blog requires a combination of creativity, storytelling, and digital skills. But the effort pays off in multiple ways:
- Affiliate Marketing: Many travel bloggers use affiliate marketing to earn money by promoting travel products, services, or accommodations. For instance, you can partner with platforms like Amazon, Booking.com, or Skyscanner and earn a commission when someone buys or books through your referral link.
- Sponsored Posts: As your blog grows in popularity, brands, hotels, and tourism boards may approach you to promote their services. Sponsored posts can be lucrative, as they allow you to monetize your content directly.
- Ad Revenue: Platforms like Google AdSense allow bloggers to place ads on their websites. When visitors click on these ads, you earn money. This is a passive income stream that grows with the traffic on your blog.
- Selling Your Own Products: Once you’ve built a loyal following, you can create and sell your own digital products like eBooks, travel guides, or photography prints.
- Press Trips and Sponsored Travel: Tourism boards and companies often sponsor bloggers to visit their destinations in exchange for coverage. This can cover most of your travel expenses and provide you with free experiences to share with your audience.
How to Start a Travel Blog
To start a travel blog, you’ll need a domain name, web hosting, and a blogging platform like WordPress. After setting up your website, focus on creating high-quality content, including destination guides, travel tips, and personal stories. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will help your blog rank on search engines, attracting organic traffic.
Building a social media presence on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest can also drive traffic to your blog and increase your earning potential.
Freelancing: Work From Anywhere in the World
Freelancing is another great way to make money while traveling. As a freelancer, you have the flexibility to work from any location with an internet connection, which is perfect for digital nomads and travelers.
Freelance Jobs That You Can Do While Traveling
- Writing: Freelance writing is one of the most popular options for travelers. Many businesses, websites, and blogs are constantly looking for quality content. You can write articles, blog posts, product descriptions, or even eBooks for clients in various industries. Websites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr connect freelancers with clients worldwide.
- Photography and Videography: If you’re skilled with a camera, you can sell your travel photos to stock photo websites or work with clients who need photography or videography services. You can also create video content for YouTube or other platforms, earning through ad revenue or sponsorships.
- Graphic Design: If you have design skills, you can work as a freelance graphic designer. Businesses often need logos, social media graphics, and marketing materials, all of which can be created remotely.
- Web Development and Digital Marketing: As a web developer or digital marketer, you can offer services to clients from anywhere. Businesses need help with building websites, improving SEO, running paid ads, and more. The digital marketing industry, in particular, is booming, and there’s a constant demand for experts in the field.
How to Start Freelancing While Traveling
The key to freelancing while traveling is building a strong portfolio and finding reliable platforms to connect with clients. Create a professional website that showcases your skills, and start bidding for freelance projects on popular job boards. You can also reach out to potential clients directly via email or social media.
With freelancing, you have the freedom to choose the projects you work on, set your own rates, and work as much or as little as you want.
Working As A Travel Guide
As you understand, this profession often involves travel. Your responsibilities will include conducting excursions to cultural and historical places as well as introducing tourists to the sights of a particular region.
However, such work requires knowledge of the history and culture of tourist places, and an excellent ability to communicate with people and interest them.
Another limitation can be working with a firm as a full-time employee. Nevertheless, you can travel and make money at the same time.
How to Make Money as a Travel Guide
- Local Tours: Many cities and regions have a high demand for local tour guides. You can lead walking tours, day trips, or even multi-day excursions. As a guide, you’ll get paid by the hour or per tour.
- Private Tours: If you have specialized knowledge about a destination, you can offer private tours to individuals or small groups. These tours often come at a higher price, allowing you to earn more per client.
- Online Guiding: In today’s digital world, you can also offer virtual tours or online travel experiences. This is especially popular during times when travel is restricted, and it allows you to guide tourists from the comfort of your home.
How to Start as a Travel Guide
Becoming a travel guide often requires some formal training, especially if you want to guide in historical or cultural destinations. Look for certification programs in the areas you’re interested in. You’ll also need a good understanding of the local history, landmarks, and culture to provide valuable insights to your clients.
To find clients, consider partnering with tour companies, hotels, or travel agencies, or you can market your services independently through your website or social media.
Also, working as a guide feels like a full-time travel job, unlike other professions.
Remote Jobs: Work Online From Anywhere
In addition to freelancing, numerous remote job opportunities allow you to make money while traveling. Many companies today offer full-time remote positions, which means you can work from anywhere in the world.
Remote Jobs You Can Do While Traveling
- Customer Support: Many companies hire remote customer service agents to handle inquiries and support issues. These positions typically require good communication skills and the ability to work flexible hours.
- Virtual Assistant: Virtual assistants provide administrative support to businesses and entrepreneurs. Tasks may include managing emails, scheduling appointments, and social media management.
- Teaching and Tutoring: If you have teaching experience, you can offer online tutoring or English language lessons to students worldwide. Platforms like VIPKid, Italki, and Preply allow you to teach languages and other subjects from anywhere.
- Data Entry and Transcription: If you have excellent typing skills, you can find remote data entry or transcription jobs. These tasks often don’t require much experience, making them ideal for those new to remote work.
How to Find Remote Jobs
Websites like We Work Remotely, Remote.co, and FlexJobs specialize in remote job listings. You can also search for remote opportunities on popular job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed. Having a professional resume and online portfolio will help you stand out to potential employers.
Working As Social Media Influencer
In today’s digital age, becoming a social media influencer is another way to make money while traveling. If you have a strong presence on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok, you can partner with brands, tourism boards, and other companies to promote their products and services.
How to Make Money as a Social Media Influencer
- Brand Partnerships: As an influencer, you can collaborate with brands for sponsored content. These partnerships can range from social media posts to dedicated blog articles or videos.
- Affiliate Marketing: Like travel bloggers, influencers can also use affiliate marketing to earn commissions on products they recommend to their followers.
- Product Sales: Many influencers create their products, such as merchandise or digital downloads, and sell them to their audience.
How to Become a Social Media Influencer
To become an influencer, focus on building an engaged audience by posting high-quality content consistently. Share your travel experiences, tips, and recommendations, and engage with your followers to create a loyal community. As your influence grows, you can start reaching out to brands or join influencer marketing platforms to find paid opportunities. Recently, working as a influencer remains the best and high-paying travel job.
Trading
The profession of a trader is becoming more and more popular, especially among young people. The main advantage of this profession is that you are not tied to a place or time because you can trade at any time convenient for you.
But there are significant wealth risks involved. Hence, I do not strongly recommend trading to pursue a full-time travel career.
Now let’s understand more about Making Money as an Influencer, based on my learning and experiences…
Travel Jobs I Do To Make Money
I work as a travel blogger and influencer. And that’s how I make money from travelling.
But before we discuss the particulars, I want to give a basic idea that there is more to this game than just hard cash.
For example, one of my blogtrips took me across Europe for two months (between March and May) and all I paid from my pocket was 70 thousand Indian Rupees — in buying a return flight from India and paying for my Schengen visa. Everything else was sponsored by local government tourism boards.
So, other than hard cash, travel blogging gives you a lot of free trips. I mean if I talk about my Europe trip, I spent only 70k Rupees. But if I add the value of all the free things I did in Europe (including a 15,000 Rupee Vatican Tour and a 10,000 Rupee per night hotel room in Frankfurt) I tried at least 20 Lakh worth of extra travel experiences.
So yeah, other than hard cash, you get a lot of other benefits too.
Brand/Tourism Board Partnerships
Based on how much influencer and experience you have, tourism boards either pay you or do a barter. Barter as in they offer free travel for promotion of their services/destination. Since I am a one and a half years old blogger at the moment, organisations want to work with me on a barter basis. They see less return on investment from my blog (but this will change as my reach increases over time).
In a barter deal, they offer me things like a free hotel stay, a free trip or a free flight ticket in return for promotions on my channels. It takes many forms, like sponsored blog posts, Instagram features, or newsletter mentions.
Again, at this moment, where my blog stands, most of the deal I get are barter deals — meaning, I don’t get paid to travel but my experiences, stay and transportation are taken care of by the brand.
Related Read: How to contact tourism boards for travel blogging sponsorships
But then, free travel doesn’t suffice and the question remains… what is the salary of Indian travel bloggers?
How much money do travel bloggers in India make? How much do I make?
So let’s talk about that, perhaps!
Product Affiliations
Sometimes when I share my favourite travel gear, photography equipment, or things I recommend, I include special affiliate tracking links to those products.
This means if you decide to click through and buy something, I’ll receive a small commission. The price remains the same whether you use my special link or not. Here’s a good example of a similar page I wrote on Motorcycle Accessories with affiliate links.
There are many companies including Amazon.com, Booking.com, WorldNomads.com, Skyscanner.com, and others, that offer affiliate programs in the travel industry. However the problem is, that many companies do not offer affiliate services in India, so make sure you read their terms before applying for their affiliate program.
Sponsored Posts/Trips
Brands pay you to post their ads and sponsored posts on your social media channels and blog website. Based on your blog-stats, a single post can generate as much as 1 Lakh Rupees.
For most established bloggers, sponsored posts remain the top income generation reason.
For me as well, sponsored posts remains the biggest revenue generator.
Freelancing
Freelancing helps in making money from time to time, especially during a blogger’s early days. So find a good source of freelance income.
During my initial days of blogging, I relied on freelancing platforms like Upwork and Freelancer to find any travel writing or photography-related work. With increasing credibility as a travel blogger, I now write for a couple of print magazines and an in-flight magazine.
Blogging Workshops
Teaching your fans about the art of travel blog, sharing all the knowledge you’ve acquired and charging money for it is another way how I make money from time to time. I also speak in colleges and travel forums as and when I get an opportunity.
So far, I’ve organised 5 blogging workshops in Delhi and 2 in Bangalore. I even have one blogging workshop planned in Mumbai. Often, I charge 1200 Rupees per person for a 3-4 hour blogging workshop and the total strength of the attendees is around 7 people.
I also run a hospitality business by the name of FOOTLOOSE CAMPS & RESORT where I offer staycations and luxury travel tours as part of my earning goals. Visit the company website FootlooseCamps & Resort. You can also visit our Instagram page for more photos. Check FOOTLOOSE CAMPS on Instagram.
I hope this article helped you answer the travel blogger salary in India, or how much a travel blogger earns in India. If you have any questions, leave a comment below!
Also Read: Different Ways To Make Money Travel Blogging
