Tips for Working Holiday Makers

If you dream of living a nomadic existence, travelling the world for an indefinite amount of time, then the one thing that you need to figure out is money. Whilst you can travel the world on a budget living off dried noodles, at some point that money will run out if nothing is coming in. Of course you can work hard at home to save up money, spend it all on a whirlwind trip around the world, then come back with nothing and save it all up again. But what if you could find a way to make a living on the road, so you didn’t have to do that? There’s a new breed of nomad out there- the money savvy traveller who isn’t afraid to use a bit of ingenuity and make a living out of travelling the world.

1. Writing for the web

If you have a way with words and are good at writing, there are plenty of online travel magazines like Matador and BootsNAll that will pay for your writing. You can also make money as a copywriter writing articles, press releases and web content. Freelance websites like People Per Hour or Freelancer.com are a good place to start looking.

2. Start a travel blog

Travel blogging is one option to make money online, but it’s hard work and you won’t make money overnight. Buy yourself a domain name, set up Wordpress, choose a nice theme, then begin publishing quality articles that people would want to read. Market your blog through social media sites and network with other travel bloggers out there. Of course there’s no exact recipe for success, but once you’ve built traffic you can make money through google ads, affiliate schemes and private advertisers. There are plenty of ebooks and websites out there telling you how to make money blogging, but to start with maybe check out Problogger and Make Money Travel Blogging. 

2. Photography

The wonderful thing about travel is that there are so many photo opportunities of landmarks, people, food and scenery. If you’re a budding photographer and have the ability to capture stunning photos, then you can make money by selling your photos to publications. You can also make money by selling images on stock photography websites like istockphoto or shutterstock.

4. Web Design & Graphic Design

The brilliant thing about having a job that’s centered around the Internet is that you can do the work from anywhere in the world, as long as you have a laptop and internet connection. Everybody needs a website these days. You can make money by offering to make websites for bars, restaurants, villa rentals, surf camps...wherever you go you’ll meet people in need of a website or logo. Travel with business cards in your pocket and network with people in the place you’re staying. Look at job boards on freelance websites and check out sites like craigslist. 

5. Bar/Restaurant jobs

This is probably the easiest option on the list because you can get working holiday visas for countries like Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand and do some bar tending or serving. The best way to get a job like this is by walking into a bar and handing in your CV, or chatting to the bar manager. If you have a European passport then you can work in tons of countries across Europe. Of course, whilst I’m not encouraging this, there are plenty of bars and restaurants that will pay in cash for handing out flyers and bar tending. I know many people who travel around the world doing seasonal work too in hotels and resorts. They follow the snow and do a ski season in the Alps or Canada, then spend the summer working in the Greek Islands. With bar and serving jobs in some countries you can make more money in tips than from your actual wage.

6. Teaching English as a second language

This is still one of the most popular ways to make money abroad, particularly if you want to travel to Asian countries like Japan, China, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea. It can be beneficial to have a university degree and a TEFL or TESOL certificate, but not always compulsory. The best site to visit is Dave’s ESL Cafe to get you started.

7. WWOOFING and fruit picking

Fruit picking isn’t for the faint-hearted (believe me, I tried it and didn’t last very long) but there are plenty of fruit picking and packing opportunities, particularly in Australia and New Zealand. You can find work through an agency that will contact you to tell you of the work they have available, through websites like Anywork Anywhere and Picking Jobs, or by looking locally in hostels and pubs in fruit picking areas.  WWOOFING involves volunteering on organic farms in exchange for accommodation and food and you can search for opportunities on the WWOOF website.

8. Hostel Work

If you’re looking for some free accommodation, there are plenty of live-in jobs you can do, including hostel work. Talk to the hostel owner where you are staying and ask if you can do some work in exchange for free accommodation. You’ll probably have to do things like sitting on reception, showing people to their rooms, night shifts and making beds.

9. Crew

You can find crew jobs on boats, luxury yachts and cruise ships by looking at crew sites or paying a visit to the nearest harbour to ask about any jobs. You could be a deck hand, a steward or stewardess, an engineer, or a chef and you get to sail to some exotic destinations.

10. Ebooks/themes/apps

With the Internet there are lots of opportunities these days to create and sell products like Wordpress Themes, Apps and ebooks. Whilst you may have to put quite a bit of effort in to make it, once it’s done you get consistent passive income from it.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg and there are plenty of job opportunities out there. You could get a diving instructor’s licence, work in a trade, temp in an office or become a tour guide for the summer. Think about the skills you possess and how you could use them. Some people fall into a job by accident because they were in the right place at the right time, whilst sometimes people land a job by enquiring in advance.