At the start of last month, we began trying to answer the question ‘how can you make money on the road?’ Today, we want to expand our running list of possible ways one could make money on the road.
As a reminder, we haven’t tested most of these. This is our brainstorm list, and, over the coming months, we plan to research and test these various possibilities and update this blog accordingly.
If you already have experience with one of our possible ways to make money on the road, we’d love to hear about it in the comments!
ShopKick
We talked about mobile market research in our previous post. This is kind of similar. Basically, the idea is, you download the app, you get points for visiting big box stores, scanning bar codes, scanning receipts, etc. You can then redeem those points for gift cards.
I’m skeptical that you can make very much money doing it, but if you’re going to big box stores a lot anyway, this could be a good way to get a free CD or a new shirt or what have you out of it.
Beta Reading
If you love reading, this could be a good one for you. Basically when authors are in the process of revising their books before publishing them, they often get feedback from people called beta readers, just like beta testers for new software.
You need to be able to read their works in a timely manner and then give insightful feedback on what you thought worked and didn’t work. Serious writers will typically want to get the opinion of a large number of people in order to get a better sense of how their writing is likely to be received.
Most beta readers don’t get paid, and those that do don’t make a lot. But if you love to read anyway, and like the idea of helping young writers and maybe even being part of literary history (maybe), this could be a good way to make a little extra on the side.
Sell to Consignment Stores
All over the country are consignment stores willing to pay for everything from clothing to toys. The hard part, of course, if finding good quality stuff at a low enough price that you can re-sell to consignment stores and still make a profit.
Estate sales would be one place to start. You can also take advantage of the fact that you’re living on the road by buying in one place (say, a cheaper or more saturated market) and reselling in another.
Collect Seeds for Reforestation
We’ve heard stories about people making money by wandering off into the wilderness to collect rare tree seeds for reforestation. We’re not sure yet if this is a real thing or not, but it sounds insanely cool and we look forward to exploring it.
Participate in Online Focus Groups
You give companies and organizations your opinion, in return for some money. Seems like it could be interesting work, and very flexible. But we’re not sure that it pays all that well most of the time.
Camming
We would not personally be comfortable with this one, and don’t necessarily recommend it. But we try to keep and open mind, provide information and let our readers make their own decision.
Admittedly, there is significant money in it…
Basically, camping involves being a virtual stripper/DIY porn star. You run your own live webcam show, and do however much or however little you feel good about. And people pay to watch or else leave tips.
Some do it as couples, some do it by themselves. Many performers gain a fan following and end up making some pretty decent money, from what we hear.
We won’t personally be trying this one, but we’d love to interview someone to learn more about it.
Sailing Jobs
There’re whole websites now that just function as job boards for the yachting community. These include entry level positions. For the entry level jobs, some pay, some don’t. But you get experience, room/board, and you get to travel around on a yacht!
Agent Anything
Agent Anything is a site that lets people “outsource” small gigs. Some are virtual, some are geographically specific. Seems like a nice way to make a little extra money.
Newspaper Classifieds
We already wrote about finding short terms gigs on online classifieds site Craigslist, but we wanted to remind you that, for the time being, you can also find short term gigs in the old timey newspaper. Though, admittedly, there will probably be less opportunities than on Craigslist and they probably tend to be with old people (we’re guessing?).
Ticket Scalping
This is legal in some place, illegal in others, so do your research first. Basically the idea is, you keep tabs on up coming concerts, shows and sporting events, you figure out which are likely to sell out, and you buy up tickets. Once it sells out, you resell the tickets for a markup.
You can easily lose money doing this, as well. But if you’re smart about it, it can be very lucrative indeed.
Our sense is StubHub has made this a lot easier.
Resolution Research
We first came across Resolution Research when doing research for our ‘making money with online mock trials’ article. But it turns out Resolution Research is primarily not a mock trial site. They have lots of opportunities to fill out surveys for extra money, though it seems they aren’t known for paying well, and in an industry (online paid surveys) that’s already not known for paying well.
Amazon Flex
Amazon Flex is a new program rolled out by the e-commerce giant that allows for much faster delivery in select markets. Basically, it works a bit like Uber. You’re an independent contractor, with a car and a cell phone, and you pick up packages from Amazon and deliver them to people’s homes.
They reportedly pay $18-24, which is pretty good.
Teach English Online/In Person
Teaching English is a long running favorite way to make money on the road, for Americans traveling abroad. It pays relatively well, and doesn’t require a lot of experience, and can be done all over the world.
There’re also apparently some opportunities to teach English remotely via the internet.
Become an Independent Sales Rep
Independent sales reps, also called manufacturers sales reps, are freelance commission sales people that usually represent a portfolio of brands in a particular industry.
For example, you could be a gift shop sales rep, and you would have a relationship with a variety of different companies that make products that gift shops might be interested in. You then go around and meet with different gift shop owners and try to get them to carry some of the products you represent. If they do, you earn a commission.
Some sales reps make pretty good money, from what I hear.
Do In Person Focus Groups
Companies all over the country, indeed all over the world, want to get feedback on new products and other important business decisions. By participating in focus groups you can make money just for sharing your opinion. In person ones may be harder to find than virtual ones, but are likely to pay slightly better per hour.
Design for CafePress or Zazzle
Companies like CafePress and Zazzle let you break into the t shirt, apparel and other printable merchandising business with no overhead. You create designs, using Photoshop, GIMP, Adobe Illustrator, or whatever your software of choice is, and then you upload it and pick which products you’d like to put it on.
If anyone orders your product, CafePress (or Zazzle) will print it and send it to them, and send you a commission.
There absolutely are people making money on these two sites, and since you never have the touch the product yourself, you could do it from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
Realize, however, that it isn’t easy. Since the bar to entry is low, there are many, many designs on both sites, and you may have to do a bit of promoting (FaceBook posting? Tweeting?) just to get your product seen.
Because of the print on demand model, your products may end up costing a little more relative to their mass produced counterparts, and you’ll make a little less per sale than you would if you hired a printer to produce them in bulk.
But hey, it’s no overhead and they handle all of the details!
Online Survey
Online surveys are one of the more talked about ways to make money online (and therefore on the road). While it’s true you can make some money doing them, you’ll often end up making well below US minimum wage, so this is generally not a good sole source of income. But it is a way you can make a couple extra bucks if you’re in a bind.
Run a Food Truck
This definitely requires a lot more capital than the other things on this list, but if you’ve got a couple grand in the bank, or a rich uncle, why not start your own food truck? You could do a great American road trip and sell tacos (or hot dogs or falafels or Indian food) all along the way. It seems totally plausible that you could cover all your expenses and make a profit beyond that.
Jon Favreau does something like this in the 2014 movie Chef.
Host a House Concert
It won’t technically be your house if you’re doing it on the road, but it seems totally plausible that one could organize house concerts at wherever you’re staying, say Airbnb (with permission from the owner, of course) and make money doing it in each town.
PredictIt
PredictIt is a site where US citizens can invest in something called political futures. Just like how oil futures are tied to the future value of oil, political futures are tied to future political events, such as Trump becoming the Republican nominee for President, or Obama hitting a certain percentage in the polls. If you’re a political junkie, with a stomach for a bit of risk, PredictIt may be worth exploring.
I’ve been active on the site for over a year now. Sometimes I’ve made money, sometimes I’ve lost money, but it’s always been interesting.
Soon after signing up I wrote some brief notes on PredictIt for one of our sister sites which you can read here.
I’d like to do another more in depth post about PredictIt now that I have more experience with the market.
Day Trading
On a related note, you could also make money day trading other things, like stocks. Be warned, this is not as easy as it’s often made to look in movies, and it takes a big portfolio (IE- a lot of up front capital) to really make a living at it. But if you’ve got the head for it, and some extra money sitting around that you can invest, some people make quite a lot doing it.
All kinds of things can theoretically be day trade. Stocks of publicly traded companies, foreign currencies (FOREX trading), futures, bitcoins, to name a few.
It’s a serious business, though, and not something you should jump into before first doing your own research.
Enter Video Contests
You could enter any kind of contest, really. Video contests take a little more work to enter, but that also tends to mean there’s less competition. OnlineVideoContests.com is routinely updated with a variety of video contests, including some with five and six figure cash prizes. MOFILM is another resource that specializes in branded videos, which means commercials, like this one I did for Chevy back in college.
MOFILM contests are competitive, but often have substantial cash prizes.
Work on Independent Films
You don’t tend to make a lot of money doing this, but it’s super fun, you meet interesting people, sometimes you make a little money and you usually get free food!
If you have acting experience, awesome. If you have filmmaking experience, awesome. If not, consider being an extra, or working in a “non-skilled” position like a PA (production assistant).
Southern Casting Call is a great resource if you’re in the southern US. Otherwise you could try Craigslist, Mandy, Backstage, or a host of other casting and crew up sites.
Backpage
Last month I did a post about making money on the road with Craigslist. I thought I’d mention that, while Craigslist is the more used option, Backpage is another option. Same basic deal. Online classifieds. Be warned, they are also known as the country’s biggest online broker of prostitution. But there’re plenty of other perfectly legitimate sections to choose from.
Self Publish a Book
Self publishing a book is now cheaper and easier than ever before. You could write a great novel, or a non-fiction book on whatever your special skill is. You could then have royalties coming in while you live on the road. Or take it one step further and make your trip a book tour. Stop at independent book stores, book clubs, libraries, etc to meet with people and promote your book.
Be a Search Engine Evaluator
I’ve touched on this before. Basically you be the human element behind the machine. You give search engines feedback on what should come up when people search for a certain thing.
Instacart
It’s not clear to me yet whether this is something you could actually do on the road. It seems you may need to be committed to a particular place, but it’s an intriguing opportunity, so I figured I’d mention it anyway. And maybe at the very least you can use it if you decide to stay put somewhere for a few months.
Basically the idea of Instacart is you work as someone’s personal shopper and/or delivery person. People tell the app what they want from the grocery store and you go get it for them.
In the spirit of Uber and the sharing economy, you get to work for yourself and make money when you want to.
Sidecar
Sidecar is another new fangled, app based, delivery self employment opportunity, but involves more than just groceries. You may end up delivering all kinds of things for local businesses.
Anyway, hope you found something on this list helpful. Best of luck on your continued journey to live large and make money on the road!