Have a goal of traveling the world, but need to make a living while you do it? The ability to travel the world at an early age is one of the top goals among people today, and the availability of remote work is making that more possible now than ever before. Not everyone can be a super popular travel influencer, at least not in the beginning.
How many times have you daydreamed about packing up your life into a van and hitting the open road? Or quitting your job to travel the world indefinitely? While travel is an amazing opportunity, it’s not always feasible to quit your job and travel full-time. Unless you have a trust fund (lucky you), you’ll need to find ways to make money while traveling. So in this article, we’ll go over 5 practical ways you can make money as a writer while continuing to travel the world!
1) Become a freelance writer on Upwork
If you’re not familiar with Upwork, it’s a freelance platform that helps freelancers connect with clients to get high-quality short or long-term projects. The platform allows freelancers to set up a profile, list experience, feature a full portfolio, and host client testimonials. With Upwork, you also don’t have to worry about invoicing or contracts because it handles all of that for you.
All you have to do to get started with Upwork after you create an account is search for writing-related projects that interest you. You’ll find companies looking for bloggers, sales copywriters, journalists, proofreaders, and beyond! If you need help creating a winning proposal to land gigs on Upwork, check out these proposal writing tips!
2) Find freelance writing gigs on Fiverr
Fiverr is another freelancing platform designed to connect freelancers to projects. This platform is a little more challenging to find top-paying work on, but it can be a great way to supplement income when you’re in a tight spot. Unlike Upwork where you can search for open jobs, Fiverr features projects in fixed-bid only format. Additionally, there can tend to be a lot of “freelancer crowding” on the platform, so it can be tough to land projects initially. With a little persistence, though, you can certainly land solid writing projects on the platform!
3) Become a writer or editor on Reedsy
Reedsy is one of the absolute best resources for those looking to break into the writing or editing fields. The platform is designed specifically for freelancers in the writing, editing, author, and publishing space. Since its inception in 2014, Reedsy has proudly built a community of over 1 million authors and 2,500 freelance professionals!
By creating an account on Reedsy, you’re able to connect directly with the clientele that matters most to your writing and editing career. The platform will give you access to clients who need help ghostwriting, editing, or even designing the cover of their books! Check out some Reedsy freelancers on LinkedIn and you’ll find that many freelancers on the website have been working successfully for years!
4) Write guest articles for established blogs or businesses
This route is going to take a little more legwork on your part, but can often be extremely rewarding and pay quite well. Established blogs often pay contributing writers to write content for them, especially if you have direct experience with the topic/theme of the website. If you’re traveling the world, you should probably start by reaching out to the editors of travel-related blogs.
You can also reach out to businesses who need SEO blog content for their website. A great example of guest writers being used on a business website would be the blog for PODS, an international mobile storage company, which uses content from many different writers. Start by reaching out to small and medium-sized brands to see if they need help writing content, and then you can branch out to large companies as you build your portfolio.
5) Contact marketing agencies for writing work
Marketing agencies are always looking for content writers to help create compelling copy for their clients. One of the best things about working with marketing agencies is that they often have long-term projects available, which can provide you with a consistent stream of work and income.
Additionally, working with marketing agencies can help you build a strong network of contacts within the industry, which can be extremely beneficial as you continue to travel and freelance. There’s no shortage of marketing agencies out there, so just start looking them up in various cities. Reach out to them with a friendly email and some writing samples, and let them know your rates. If you need help setting your writing rate, check out this article.
If you’re looking for a way to make money while traveling the world, it’s possible to do so through writing. As long as you can connect to the internet on occasion, and you have a laptop available for typing, that’s all you need to be a traveling writer!
Mel Beasley has a bachelor’s in creative writing and journalism from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He brings 9+ years of digital marketing and writing experience to the table by writing for publications such as Lumina News and Encore Magazine. He spent 2 years as a college-level writing tutor, and is a certified writing tutor through the CRLA, which is a prestigious cert recognized by the Association for the Coaching & Tutoring Profession. He is a professional SEO blogger with experience writing for brands such as Boardworks Education and The Greater Wilmington Business Journal. One of his latest website and marketing projects has been building the website for the now New York Times Bestselling author, Nina de Gramont.
