Moving to Spain just a few short years ago was a daunting prospect, the country was belly-up with economic trouble and I had a sinking feeling I might not find work. I was pretty scared, wondering how to make money while traveling rather than return home in a cloud of embarassment. Here are the routes I took to find flexible work, starting in Madrid and Barcelona for 1 year, and then other European countries.
One of my biggest pet peeves with these types of posts is the lack of actual concrete information and details of where to find work, but I hope that this post could go the extra mile in that respect.
Research
Before any new location, take a little time to research and learn the language. Your first place to start could be Lonely Planet for a base understanding, government travel advice and then local sites about your new city such as the airport’s destination guide. The BBC runs a number of free language resources that are fun and painless.
Generating a Stable Daily Income-
Tutoring
Digging through my temporary internet files, I’ve located the sites that gave me an income as a budding private tutor in Spain- but note that with a little Googling, or asking the locals, equivalents will exist around Europe.
Tusclases Top-ranked on google and offering damn near every subject you could think of! Fast setup, no fees.
MilAnuncios This is Spain’s answer to Gumtree/Craigslist. Talking to locals, it’s honestly the biggest place they look for things and (although you should keep one eye open) there’s plenty of genuine options in amongst the scammers.
Although these are the particular sites that funded my travels, an identical setup could be used in any country within Europe to get started.
The final, basic tip is really a crucial one. When googling anything insert the suffix ‘es’ in Spain or ‘pl’ in Poland to get local results, this will direct you to where your clientbase is searching.
Keen for more ideas? Take a look at these other great travel income sources.
Just because you’re not on holiday, doesn’t mean you don’t need long term travel insurance, son!
Going International-
I discussed the concept of online lessons via Skype with all my students, and though not all were interested, I was able to achieve a core base of students that could transition with me to new countries.
- Purchase a professional webcam and mic headset.
- Use a shared Google doc sheet as a kind of interactive blackboard for simultaneous notes.
- Regularly review each student’s progress and examine their improvement- students who are genuinely seeing a difference will stay with you.
Supplementary Income-
Blogging and Online Copywriting / Reviewing
Copify is a site that hires blog writers and matches them immediately to projects. The rates remain not overly high, but the great advantage for me is in removing the time consuming step of pitching for work and building trust with clients, which forms so much of a hurdle to average freelancing jobs. Depending upon the speed you work at, this could be a serious option for budding writers.
English at a very high level? Locate the nearest university, target their English department and offer proofreading to the students. Needless to say, stay within the rules of the university and don’t help any student cheat on their assessed work.
Weekendnotes is a review site listing information about local attractions, thus perfect for travellers. It’s not only a platform for getting your writing skills noticed, as they pay a bulk rate for views on your article, but they also pay for promotion of their articles around the web.
Field Agent is a winner for any traveler with a phone, paying users a fair wage to check prices and review the conditions of local shops. If you’re already exploring your new city, why not get paid to rate it? In terms of how to make money while traveling, this is one of the simpler options. Available for both iPhone and Android.
Looking for more options, check the most professional and flexible work that I’ve found in 4 countries so far- and you’ve likely never heard of- the perfect travel job.
Happy travels! Please leave me all of your questions and let me know, what’s your best advice on how to make money while traveling in Europe or the world?
Feature image via @Flickr CC BY SA from Proflowers
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These are great tips. I have done a little online tutoring for Nursing students here in the U.S. and made some extra money. It worked out great for me. I’ll have to look into the blogging sites listed here. Thanks!
These are some great idea for boosting your income. I have been looking for a way of monetizing my free time. I do take writing jobs from brands here and there, but I could do with some more and reviewing shops sounds like a great idea.
I haven’t heard of some of these sites/services. I’ll be checking out Weekend Notes immediately. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intrigued.
So many novel ideas for me to check out. Thanks
Teaching abroad is a great option, and we’re living proof of that! We’ve lived in South Korea for a year and a half now, teaching of course 🙂 Teaching abroad can be a fantastic way to save money for traveling, especially in a country like South Korea where your housing and meals may be accounted for!
Thanks for sharing! I sometimes teach Norwegian lessons in Paris to french people who want to learn my native language. Obviously the demand is not as high as for English, but I’ve had luck 🙂 teaching English is probably not an option for me as I’m not a native English speaker and have a bit of a foreign accent.
Some great tips here thanks. I’m on the road and looking for ways to make a bit of extra money. These tips have inspired me thanks.
Great tips for making money while traveling! I dream of traveling long-term one day, and I would want to make a little side money while I’m at it. It’s great to know that these resources exist!
For some reason, I have been thinking that making money online is mostly either very hard or you get scammed. I did live in Spain for a year and worked online while doing so, so I know it’s doable! Looks like there are great many possibilities listed here too and I am very interested in the app FieldAgent! Going to check it out now! Thanks for writing down all these tips!
I love slow travels. I’m doing that myself after quitting my job, but yet to figure out a source of income for me. Thanks for sharing these tips
Great tips! I have a good number of people who travel to countries, work as English teachers, then use their earnings travel around the country and neighboring regions every week. I wish I did that when I was much younger.
Too bad Field Agent is iPhone only 🙁 I have two Samsungs, hope the company moves into Android market some day!
Me too! I love an Android, and am happy to say that the app is now available on Android!
Cool! Please post if it comes out! 🙂
Some great resources here I wasn’t aware of – many thanks for sharing them – things out there move so quickly that by the time I hear about something new it’s usually disappeared – so these are very welcome!
Great tips! I have spent most of the past 12 years abroad, living and working all over the world. I sometimes found jobs locally, sometimes volunteered and more recently started making most of my income online. These tips are really helpful to find ways to make money and still be able to travel.
Hey! It’s the first time I hear about these websites! Thanks for the tips!
Some really interesting ideas in this post and companies that I have never heard of before. thank you so much for bring these to my attention. I leave next week for full time travel and its always good to have other bits to supplement my income.
I was not aware of these websites . Definitely going to be looking these up. Thanks for sharing these tips.
Lots of sites I never heard about, will check them out. The key issue so far has been to find a proper internet connection that allows us to fully connect and leverage these sites. That’s life of a digital nomad!
Great post. Thanks for sharing! Apart from mil anuncios.com I also use tablondeanuncios.com and sometimes the former segunda mano now Vibro.com those are the biggest players in Spain to place an Add
Cheers!