There are many posts about how to make money online as a nomad. Some ideas work pretty well for some people (freelance work – especially as a digital nomad, writer, bookkeeper, etc.). The biggest problem isn’t learning about these options (they are repeated all the time in many different places online) but actually making them work for you. It can be done and is actually easy for some people, for others it is a very hard (the biggest challenges are having the right skills, marketing and establishing a base of clients).
I have been paying much more attention lately to nomads in the USA which opens up income possibilities in addition to online income. More than I ever saw in digital nomads there are some people making a decent amount from YouTube (documenting the vanlife/RV-life and their travels) – still this is likely a crowded market and being successful will be hard (but aiming at providing a small bit of additional income may be an option for a larger group of people).
In this video Kev provides a good recap of some of the nomadic and location dependant options: getting day jobs through craigslist and temp agencies. Another popular idea is workcamping. These are essentially temp jobs specifically targeted at nomads (campgrounds, farming help often at harvest time) and some that get lots of interest from workcapers Amazon… seasonal hiring, etc. These often don’t pay a large amount of money but for people that have very low fixed expenses (no “sticks and bricks” to pay for as they travel and live in the RV/van) it can work.
Another potential source of income for earning money providing services to other nomads (work on vehicles, install solar/electrical, haircuts, etc.).
Another idea that can work is an etsy store such as the one Driving and Vibing have earned most of their income from.
Kev also mentions a digital nomad income source in his video: human intelligence tasks (mechanical turk). Find some of the better options; though these usually don’t pay very little.
Related: Vanlife in the USA – Housing Savings When Living as a Nomad – Golden Rules for Making Money – Nomadic Businesses in the Age of the Internet
For day jobs (manual labor, skilled labor, etc.) Wanderlust Estate recommends People Ready.
You can build up a reputation as you travel (the local offices are connected so that as you succeed on day jobs they capture that and you become more attractive to be hired for day jobs).
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Many good ideas here, although some promotional-blogging efforts generate frequent but small income streams. Which is fine… but I’d suggest that it would be good to add some promotions that yield less frequent returns but higher numbers. Like blog promotions of some unique financial services, on a commission basis.
For example – promotions on your blog, letting people know they can cash out their Life Insurance policy – if they have a Universal Life Insurance policy or other permanent policies like Whole Life or a Term Life Insurance Policy that is convertible into permanent life insurance. That’s one, that generates large commissions once you get some older folks, over 60, interested. It’s a popular thing for seniors these days, with rising costs of policies and scammy life insurance tricks. Research “life settlement” brokers & companies using that category on Google to choose a few you’d like to bring your older life settlement clients to, that will treat your clients fairly.
Another commission based business you can promote and operate from your blog are inheritance loans – fast cash advance financing for heirs that email or call you… you can get an inheritance funding company to fund all the inheritance loans clients you send them. Tons of broke heirs and beneficiaries out there, waiting for probate to end, a year, two years to get their full inheritance – and they need money. Once you talk with an heir, you submit them to one of the inheritance lenders that you feel good about – you wait 2, 3 days while the inheritance advance company approves and then funds the inheritance loan for the heir, and then you get a 5% or 6% commission check in the mail the same time the heir gets her or his inheritance loan, or probate advance. Average inheritance loans are $30,000 to $40,000. 5% works for me. Research probate and inheritance loans at https://www.loanstart.com/blog/inheritance-loan