Working from home can provide financial freedom and time to be able to travel more. However, it is sometimes hard getting started and finding what fits your style best. In this guide I am going to go over the different ways that I make money from home to be able to travel more with my family.
Before I continue, I want to let you know that every business takes time to grow and success doesn’t come over night. I know it may seem like that on social media but it takes years in the making and lots of countless hours in the beginning to get things moving forward.
Let’s dive in!
1. Through My Travel Blog
One of the most consistent forms of income is my travel blog. It has been bringing in a steady income for me every month for several years now. However, you have to be strategic when growing your blog. I like to make sure that each blog post I publish provides detailed information for my readers, value, good photography, and sometimes even a freebie that they can download.
When writing my blog posts I like to make sure that everything is SEO optimized, my images won’t slow down my website, and that each blog post is being pushed on all of my platforms, especially on Pinterest.
2. Being a Travel Agent
Another great source way to earn money online for me has been being a travel agent. In mid 2023 I decided to become a travel agent and over the months it has grown and continues to grow. I now book travels for others and continue to work this business alongside my travel blog.
Not just that, being a travel agent opens doors to many opportunities. If I don’t land a collaboration with a tourism board, I can still get paid commission for visiting that destination because I booked the trip myself. I also get commission for excursions, tours, museums, sports events, concerts, and so much more. I will never pay full price again for our travels.
3. Coaching Other Travel Agents
After being in the business for 6 months I decided to have a team. I now coach and mentor new travel agents and help them get started in this business. I teach them how to grow as a travel agent, find clients and provide a top notch service to them, as well as how to market themselves. My goal as a travel agent coach is to help you grow.
Want to learn how to become a travel agent and join my team? Read more here.
4. Pinterest Management for Travel Bloggers
Another great way of making money online for me is being a Pinterest manager. I have been providing Pinterest Management for bloggers for about 5 years now and absolutely love it. After learning how to use Pinterest for my own accounts, I decided to take a few courses to help me further learn about Pinterest marketing and even how to turn it into an extra income for me.
5. Create Basic Branding Packages for Businesses
Have you ever seen a small business or blog but they use all kinds of colors and fonts and things just don’t seem cohesive. They seem kind of all over the place?! That’s where I come in. I help businesses find their brand and I create a logo, favicon, find the best colors and fonts to make their brand stand out. I even go as far as creating templates for their social media, Pinterest, and even their blog and website.
6. Work with Tourism Boards to Showcase Their Destination
You can also make extra money by working with tourism boards to help showcase the beauty of their destination. When working with tourism boards you are creating a full package of deliverables with them. This can be Instagram Reels, Facebook posts, Pinterest pins and videos, emails to your subscribers, photography, videography, a detailed travel guide on your blog, etc… By creating these packages with my clients I have been able to monetize and bring in extra money.
7. Social Media Marketing
If you have a good social media platform, small or large, with an engaged community, then you can monetize it. You can collaborate with brands to create posts, carousels, Reels, and even stories to help promote a brand’s products, services, or destination.
8. Affiliate Marketing
Another great way that I make extra money online is through affiliate marketing. This is where I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you when you purchase using my link or coupon code. This is an easy way to earn money online through your blog or on your social media.
9. Website Ad Revenue
Over the years I have used my website to earn an extra income throug ad revenue. For every ad image or ad video that shows up every time a user visits my website, I make a little money. I am also able to customize it so it’s not an overwhelming amount of ads either but something placed randomly throughout my blog posts. While all of my resources and guides on my website are free to you, I do need to find ways to monetize it so I continue to provide free resources and guides to my readers.
10. Freelance Travel Writing
Freelance writing is another good one. I have reached out to numerous companies and blogs to write articles for them for a price. There are many websites that hire freelance travel writers to get their expert opinions and tips to share with their own readers and paying you for it. A lot of places pay for the full article, by the length of the article (1,000 word article), hourly, or by the number of total words.
In other words, you can write a 1,000 word article at .10 cents per word for $100 for a destination that you have already visited and know quiet a bit about.
11. Freelance Travel Photography
I also partner with tourism boards to sell them my images with a commercial license to use for their own marketing. They usually will pay me to visit their destination, I gather some content, go through a selection of image phase, and finalize the final images for them. This type of work can pay pretty good if you have a portfolio that’s amazing! However, don’t compare yourself to other big photographers. We all started at the bottom and worked out way up.
12. Designing Websites for Other Bloggers and Service Providers
And finally, I design websites for other bloggers, travel agents, small businesses, and service providers. Back in high school I loved learning about web design. My dad taught me some basic html and I pushed to learn more about it. However, my love for the creativity of a web design didn’t fully grow till I had to build my own website and put those skills to the test. It sparked a love for creativity and design. After taking a few courses for web design and WordPress, I then started playing with my own portfolio and designing landing pages for clients. That eventually grew to building full websites for my clients and even packaging them with a branding package so they have a cohesive look all around.
Other Ways to Make Money to Travel
There are many other ways that you can make money from home. Here are a few other ideas.
Sell Your Travel Photos or Artwork
You can print and sell your travel photos or artwork. If you are a photographer or painter then this is a great way to showcase the places you’ve visited while also making extra cash for your pocket. You can sell these on Etsy, your own website, or even at events like farmers markets or Christmas markets.
Become a Tour Guide
This is a fun one. If you are familiar with a place you visit often, you can become a tour guide for that destination. There are several ways to go about it and from what I’ve heard it’s a great way to meet new people while traveling.
Find a Remote Job That Works for You
This is probably one of the easier ones since it doesn’t require you starting your own business and building it from the ground up. You can search online for a remote job that fits your lifestyle best.
Open an Etsy Shop Selling Something You Enjoy Creating
Are you creative in any ways? Maybe you make jewelry or even create some fun printables. Or maybe you have a good eye for designing shirts with cool sayings on them. Etsy is a great place to sell these items. It can even be photography. Maybe you can print it on hats, shirts, mugs, bags, etc.
Become a Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant helps other businesses handle tasks such as Pinterest management, emails, blog posts, social media marketing, etc. Some virtual assistants just focus on a few things while others are more well rounded on the tasks that they do day to day. However, this is a great way to work from home and make some extra cash.
Pet Sitting at Your Home
Do you love animals? Have extra room in your home to pet sit? Then you have the perfect opportunity to make some extra money from home. You can pet sit a dog or a cat directly from the comfort of your own home while still working on another job from home.
How To Make Money From Home FAQ’s
I am sure you have many questions now running through your mind. I’m going to try my best to answer the most frequently asked questions on how to make money from home.
Are There Legitimate Ways to Make Money at Home?
All of the ways I have used above are legitimate ways of making money from home. They all have made me a consistent amount of money every month.
Do I Need to Invest to Make Money From Home?
Yes! Yes! and YES!!! Starting a job or a business always require some type of investment. Whether you are paying for new clothes, uniforms, a new laptop, Wi-Fi, licensing, LLC, etc. there is always some kind of investment. It is important to understand that when building your own business and finding the different streams of income for it, it will require time, patience, learning, and most of the time, some sort of financial investment whether small or large.
How Much Money Can I Make From Home?
To be totally honest with you, I hate answering this question. It can vary so much between business and the type of business you have as well as how new or well established you are. Let’s just say that the sky is the limit! You can make as little or as much money as you put your mind too.
How Can I Start a Homebased Business?
It all just depends on the type of business you are trying to establish but for the main components of any business I would recommend getting a business bank account, LLC, EIN number for taxes, and branding and website.
What Kind of Freelance Work Can I Do From Home?
There are so many options to choose from for freelance work. Here are a few:
- Photography
- Graphic Designer
- Web Developer
- Web Designer
- Virtual Assistant
- Data Entry
- Writer
- Consultant
- Videographer
- Tutor
- SEO Expert
- Coaching
- Content Writing
- Social Media Marketing
- Pinterest Management
Summary of How I Make Money From Home to Travel More
One thing to remember is that as you grow your business, so will the different income revenues for your business grow. You will find yourself expanding and growing in different ways. When I first started I used my Etsy shop for my old jewelry shop to pay for the business expenses I had for my travel blog. Overtime I was able to close that Etsy shop and continue to grow and pay for my business expenses through my blog’s income. Now I have expended to be a travel agent as well which has opened many other doors for me as a family travel blogger.
What I am trying to say is that we all start from the bottom and work our way up. We all also grow at a different pace. I have seen bloggers grow their blog faster than me while others never grow at all. It’s ok. We all have our own voice and our own journey to walk. The only thing you should look at is where you are at, where you were when you started, and where you are headed!
You got this! There are many ways to bring home extra money online. I hope that this article has helped you find a new way to grow your business or start your business.
