Any Ideas for Earning Money back home while doing long-term travel?

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by DarrenS

Hi all, I was looking for ideas on how to earn money ($1000/month) from my home country (USA) while I did long-term travel. I know IT/TEFL are usually the big ones but what are some other ideas?

EXAMPLE: Let's say I wanted to live/travel long term to Guatemala or Thailand. I could live comfortably on $1000/month. There has to be a way to earn money while away, have it deposited into my bank or Paypal. What ideas are there for this sort of thing?

Obviously, it doesn't have to make a huge amount of money compared to 1st world standards. What are your thoughts, are there threads that cover this?

Thanks,
Darren

A few years ago I went to New Mexico to help out a guy with a 200 acre ranch, doing some chores for him to pay my way. The first day we killed a rattlesnake, and a nest of black widow spiders. After that, it was a piece of cake. So, you could offer to work a few hours a day for your room and board, or in the case of an AirBnB, maybe do a review for them, for a few days.

Also, when I went to San Diego I cleaned headlights. Don't know if you could do this in other countries, but they do have cars and lots of motor bikes.

Get a sponsor from a local TRAVEL agent, in exchange for pictures or a blog of your visits, maybe emphasize the little known, non-tourist gems you find.

As Dien mentioned, look for local products you could send home, when I was in Taiwan, I bought several cases of Tiger Balm and wish I would have bought scores more.

When I was in Thailand, I found some very nice and cheap wooden trinkets, which I sent to a few of my girlfriends. With the Internet, you could find the local story behind these products, like finding a local legend about fertility and all things of great sex; lots of American guys will shell out good money if they think it will help them get lucky.

When I was in Korea, I was able to get several varieties of Kimchi, a Korean food favorite. I think you could easily host a blog, with an emphasis on three things...

Pics (especially Royalty Free {membership?})
Dining and local recipes
Experiences and destinations for travelers.

A decent camera, some online free photo editing...and you could probably make your living money by taking pics.

You might find rooms in off the path hotels who might exchange rooms for some publicity.

I think in today's world, I'd have to have a blog set up before I left.

Of course, if you got your hands on some Kanye or Jordon sneakers from over there, you easily get your grand a month on ebay. Some yeezys are going for thousands of dollars. Perhaps you'll meet an 11 year old kid working in a Nike factory and you could trade her some trinkets for a pair of shoes, (it is what American's do with Natives, trinket them to death).

Good luck in your journey.

Gordon