How to Fund A Life of Travel

How To Fund A Life Of Travel

How to Fund A Life of Travel

This has to be one of the most commonly asked questions and one that I came most obsessed about prior to our life changing attempt to become Digital Nomads ……. Just how are we going to fund our life of travel?

After reading numerous blogs on the subject it was clear that most digital nomads are funding themselves through the power of blogging and social media, freelance remote working or having a website selling products, advice or both!

And how we fund our Location Independent lifestyle has been from building niche blogs and websites, along with pet and house sitting to save heaps of money on accommodation! We’ve even done matched betting for 8 months and earned £5000 tax free. And I’ll be completely honest with you, all of which I had no previous experience of ….. so if I can do it anyone can!

OK then, so how do I get a piece of that action? ….. Excellent question!  ….. And one I hope to answer in an honest and realistic way!

An Introduction To Blogging

Firstly lets delve a little deeper into blogging and how money is made from it.

In a nutshell, someone sets up a blog on a particular subject, “in our case The Travelling Pet Sitters” is our blog”. They then write “interesting” blog posts “in our case this one” …..  OK give it time as it will get more interesting I promise! 

So, within that blog post they include links to affiliate programmes “in our case lets give you this link – Join The Largest Pet Sitting Website in the World“. Now when you are reading this blog post and come to the interesting link we’ve given you above, you might click on it and find it interesting enough to want to join “The Pet Sitting Website”. If you join it then “Ka-ching” …… we get a small payment and we can eat tonight!

OK, brilliant, so we now know how money is made through blogging but how do we go about setting it up?

Blimey, I thought I’d finished the blog post as you’d clicked my link “and joined the pet sitting website” …… but I’m pleased you’re still with me …… I told you if you gave it time this blog post would get more interesting!

Right then, lets crack on with how we go about setting up some kind of website/blog with links on it that generate some cash for you if someone clicks on those special little links!

Coming Up With An Idea

Possibly the most important thing to think about is to try and choose something that you are really interested in to form the basis of your blog or website.  As an example, say I’m interested in fishing …….. from that idea, I could build an online business that included links to fishing tackle shops, fishing books, fishing holidays, advertise fishing lakes and probably a few more if I really thought about it.

So firstly then, think of a business and write down ideas of what kind of things you could sell, as I have above.

OK then, let me guess …… you’re going to set up a blog on fishing?   No …… oh good, that means you’ve really thought about it and you’ve come up with a great idea. So lets move on and help you get building that idea into a business!

To continue head on over to our blog “Setting Up A Blog“, where you’ll be able to find a guide to setting up your first blog absolutely FREE!

Also pop your head in at our blog “Setting Up An Online Business” for more tips on setting up affiliate businesses!

Finally take a look at our post “SEO Tips For Bloggers” that helps you with getting your blog noticed online!

Just one more thing before you head off …….. I did say I would be honest, so here is a bit of advice …….. don’t expect to set up a blog this week and be earning anything from it straight away. Earning money from a blog takes lots of time and effort, but having said that you certainly can make money, so work hard at it and with a little luck success will follow!

So Now You’ve Told Us It Might Take Ages For A Blog To Make Money, How Else Could We Fund Our Life Of Travel?

Still here then!

Well, OK, if you don’t have time to build a blog then lets go through a few more ideas of how you might be able generate some funds to keep those travels going!

There are lots of ways of earning money online, some need plenty of computer coding or design experience, but others anyone can turn their hand too!

So lets go take a look at just what’s out there!

Good At Fancy Writing and Spelling, Then Maybe Copy Editing Could Be For You – this entails reviewing written material and checking for factual accuracy, spelling, grammar and readability. So if you’ve got an A in English Grammar or can read and spell good this might be for you! To find work as a freelance copy editor or proof reader, you can check out major job sites including LinkedInFlexJobsMonsterZipRecruiterCareerBuilder and Indeed. You can also research freelance sites, such as FlexJobsFiverrUpworkFreelancerFreelancedPeoplePerHourFreelanceWritingGigsSuper Copy EditorsMediabistro and Global

Can You Speak A Second Language? Well How About Translating – use your language skills to translate audio recordings, written documents and videos. Most of the job sites listed in the previous section also list translation work, but also check out the following translation specialist sites Proz, Unbabel, Gengo, Upwork, Lingosaur, Stepes and Speakt

Are You An Expert Or Have Loads Of Experience In Any Field? – maybe you have one of them fancy degrees and could make use of it by coaching or consulting in high-skilled areas, such as accounting, marketing or a host of other possibilities. Check out the Freelancer Marketplace, Clarity, Zeqr, JustAnswer, Fiverr, TaskRabbit, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk , Amazon Home Services and Upwork

Can You Speak A Second Language? Well How About Translating – use your language skills to translate audio recordings, written documents and videos. Most of the job sites listed in the previous section also list translation work, but also check out the following translation specialist sites Proz, Unbabel, Gengo, Upwork, Lingosaur, Stepes and Speakt

Are You An Expert Or Have Loads Of Experience In Any Field? – maybe you have one of them fancy degrees and could make use of it by coaching or consulting in high-skilled areas, such as accounting, marketing or a host of other possibilities. Check out the Freelancer Marketplace, Clarity, Zeqr, JustAnswer, Fiverr, TaskRabbit, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk , Amazon Home Services and Upwork

Share Your Wealth Of Knowledge, By Creating An Online Course – how about creating online courses in your area of expertise (e.g. personal finance, public speaking, life coaching, financial literacy) on one of the many online learning platforms, such as Udemy, ZeqrSkillshareTeachable and Uscreen

Sharing That Wealth Of Knowledge You Have May Also Be Possible Through Writing An E-Book On The Subject – It seems to me a great opportunity this one and I’m going to try it out myself pretty soon, Head on over to Amazon Kindle Publishing to take a look at how it works

Had Some Teaching Experience Or One Of Them Sneaky TEFL Qualifications Stuffed In Your Bottom Draw? – virtual teaching has become a popular way to work remotely using FaceTime, Skype, Google Hangouts and other technologies to communicate with students. Some English tutoring companies to research are VIPKid, EnglishuntTopic-TimeTwosigmasLingodaFunbulous and Verbling

Gotta Bit Of Computer Admin Skills, Then Data Entry Work Might Be Up Your Street – quite simply this involves putting info into a computer – create a profile on freelance job
sites, such as FreelancerAmazon Mechanical TurkUpworkThe Smart CrowdFiverrWorking SolutionsClickworker and Microworkers

Like Me If Your Prepared To Give Anything A Go Then There’s Matched Betting – this is a clever technique where you can make money from bookmakers promotions. I’ve actually done this and in 8 months earned £5000 – read all about it here

Are You Pretty Handy With A Camera And Got An Eye For A Good Photo Or Video Clip – then why not consider selling them online to the worlds largest creative community. Head on over to Adobe Stock and Getty Images to find out more

I’ve Put This Way Down The Bottom Of The List, But You May Have Heard Of “Paid Online Surveys” – you can earn extra income for completing surveys and various questionnaires. Now the reason I’ve put this so far down is that I’ve actually tried these and to be honest I reckon you might be able to earn enough for a couple of beers each day if you work on them all day. It’s not really a big money spinner, but when in need. Check out Inbox Pounds, Pinecone Research, Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, Prizerebel, Survey Club, Panda Research

Similar To Doing Surveys, This Could Be A Way Of Earning A Few Quid Working Remotely – these companies pays you to test out websites and apps and record your results. I’ve not got round to trying this one out yet, but if you fancy taking a look and do give me your feedback if it earns you any cash. Check out Usertesting, UserlyticsTryMyUIUserfeelTestingTime

If Your Interested In Music And Fancy Being Paid To Review Unsigned Bands and Artists – this company pays you for the reviews. I’m informed it can take a while to  build up your reputation and the payments are pretty small, but this along with other things could bring in a few quid a month. Check it out at Slicethepie

Like This Post? Pin It!

You might also like to read these:

Disclosure:  Please note that some of the links in this blog post may be affiliate links meaning that, with no extra cost to you, we earn a small commission if you make a purchase. We recommend only products and companies we use.

About The Travelling Pet Sitters

Our Story

We are Julie and Jonathan, who gave up our secure fairly well paid 9-5 UK jobs and sold our home along with most of our belongings for a life in the sun. With our little Vauxhall Corsa packed to the rafters we headed off into the sunset!

After 11 amazing years of “Living the Dream” spending winters in Southern Spain and our summers in a little apartment on the Baltic coast and a bit of the UK in between, life couldn’t be better!  Like many people, we would often chat about visiting other countries that were on our bucket list and wondered if one day we might win the lottery and our dream of travelling the world would become a reality. Sadly our 6 numbers and bonus ball have never come up!

In Spain, our regular haunt on a Friday evening was Rocky’s Arena –  a not so Spanish bar but with a large sea view roof terrace, friendly staff and Happy Hour at €1.20 a pint, what’s not to like!

This particular Friday afternoon Jonathan had a real spring in his step – yes, he knew the beers were half price, but something felt different as we headed to the Tapas Bar. Now I’ve known Jonathan long enough to know when he’s up to something, this was one of those moments, but what exactly had he been up to?

A cold beer arrived and this was his moment to spill the beans!  Out of the blue, he blurted out his latest idea …… he suggested we give up our dream life of a safe and secure roof over our heads and warm temperatures all year round!   “To do what?” –  I asked, thinking he was having a mid life crisis.  ” To travel the world” he said. It took me by surprise to say the least and I really did wonder if he was going mad!

He’d obviously been putting a bit of thought into this as he had brought along a spreadsheet of how we might be able to afford this nomadic life style visiting those countries on our bucket list. Now, anyone who knows Jonathan is well aware that he is the king of spreadsheets, so I knew he was really serious about this proposal!

After another round of happy hour drink and an hour of discussions, with the philosophy of  ‘you’re here for a good time not for a long time’  and  ‘you only live once’  firmly planted in our minds, we agreed that now was as good a time as any to take the risk and try and make it happen!  We hurried back to the apartment and immediately emailed our “leaving notice” to the landlord.

In the morning, as the reality of what we’d actually done the night before sunk in, we wondered if we’d been a little bit too keen!

But, the seed was sown and there was no going back, two months later we left Spain and headed back to England to organise the first part of Jonathan’s big plan.

The first place on our bucket list was Thailand and as we new this was a popular destination for backpackers, it seemed like a good place to start.  So it was settled and our first backpacking adventure would begin with 2 months travelling around Thailand, 48 hours in Kuala Lumpur, 72 hours in Singapore and our final leg would be a month in Australia.

Going to Thailand

In November 2017 we left for our Asian adventure travelling through Thailand and on to Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. This trip would be a test to see if we could manage a nomadic lifestyle and earn a living whilst on the road!

Phi Phi Islands
Phi Phi, Thailand
Singapore
Krabi, Thailand
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Bangkok Palace
Bangkok, Thailand
Sydney, Australia

With some pretty decent pre-planning, the trip was awesome, super successful and we had an absolute blast.

Towards the end of our Thailand leg while enjoying a few days on the amazing Phi Phi Islands, somewhere we had both only dreamed of visiting. We discussed again the idea of travelling indefinitely, embracing a peripatetic lifestyle, a life on the road, visiting all the other places on our bucket list!

Living The Dream
In the words of Bill Bryson "There is something about the momentum of travel that makes you want to keep moving, to never stop".

So on our return to the UK we put our heads together to try and work out a way that we could travel the world on a budget.

After trawling numerous blogs we came across a website that offered a service where people could house and pet sit for people around the world.  Because of our love of animals, the idea of pet sitting while travelling the globe sounded amazing.

So we signed up and The Global Petsitters was born.

You might also like to take a look at these: