An RV offers an ideal way to lead a remote lifestyle. It gives us the freedom of traveling whenever we feel like doing it, plus the comfort of knowing where to rest our heads when darkness falls. With this unique lifestyle, many questions arise concerning how to make a living and support the lifestyle.
So, what are some of the ways to make over $8,000 a month while living in an RV? While boldly answering this question is daunting, there are several ways anyone can make money while traveling.
Our progressively connected world makes it technically easier to earn a living while on the road. If you are not afraid of making a career change, it is possible to make money working remotely as you explore the beauty of our mother nature.
If you belong to the community of digital nomads like me, you can be a money-savvy traveler. In this article, I will share with you various ways you can make a top dollar while traveling the world.
Table of Contents
1. Start a blog
Although starting a blog was not my first step, it is what I do to earn a living while RVing, so it is no surprise I’m giving it a priority. Before starting, I never imagined making as much income online as I do right now. Although blogging is not a get-rich-quickly scheme, it is a great way to make money when living the van life.
Blogging requires a little bit of creativity, a lot of persistence, and enough time. If you’re interested in blogging as a way to make a full-time income, all you need is to proactively adopt a positive problem-solving approach to everything in life. Blogging is all about writing. Even though it will take quite some time to make money, publishing premium quality content that your target audience wants to see will rapidly grow your audience.
Interestingly, starting a blog is super cheap. You can start a blog for as low as $3.49 per month or even less. If you work at it, you can make over 6-figures income in blogging. You can start your blog right away. If you have no idea where to start, create an outdoor traveling blog and start sharing your personal experience.
2. Sell your services on Fiverr
If you are passionate about writing, you do not necessarily need a blog to make money while living in an RV. You can make a lot of money working remotely as a freelance writer. Indeed, this is where I got my very first dollar after joining the digital nomad community.
Regardless of your skill, you will never get disappointed working as a freelancer. If you don’t have your own blog, you can sell your services on freelancing platforms like Fiverr and write for bloggers and other websites. Now that many businesses are moving online, there is a myriad of freelancing opportunities out there.
You can work as a freelance writer, designer, SEO consultant, virtuals assistant, or sell any other service you are good at. Thanks to the powers of the internet and smarts devices, you can make money by selling your services from anywhere.
3. Create printables and sell them on Etsy
If you are lucky enough with a hobby that you can sell, you can use it to supplement your income while RVing. Etsy is by far the largest peer-to-peer marketplace where you can benefit from the vast audience of buyers by selling artistic and crafty printables.
Creating printables is an excellent business idea for any RVer who is excellent at creating graphics, and you can also make a bank from doing it. Thankfully, you need to create a printable once and sell it unlimited times. Being a digital product, printables and other handcrafted items are available on-demand, and you will not incur any shipping costs.
If creating graphics is your thing, you can capture seasonal trends in Etsy printables and continuously make money.
4. Design fonts and sell them on Creative Market
Creative Market is built to support amazing creative designers like you and me. Alongside freelance writing and web designing, I could set time to do what I love most – designing fonts. I never thought it could be such a successful business until a friend mentioned Creative Market, a marketplace with many opportunities for designers.
If you are obsessed with fonts, creating beautiful, handcrafted letters can greatly supplement your income to support your unique remote lifestyle. Typeface design projects are big-ticket items to generate revenue while RVing.
To get a top dollar, you can sell fonts on the Creative Market and add the same fonts plus relevant elements in templates and list them as printables in your Etsy shop. With seducing fonts, opportunities to make money are limitless. You can also design fonts for different clients who want their web pages to feature a unique look.
5. Design websites
Many digital nomads, I included, praise freelancing. If you live in an RV, you are not an exception. In our increasingly connected world, any talent or skill can be monetized.
One of the ways you can make money online is by designing websites for clients. Since many companies, businesses, and individuals resort to web designers for a one-time job, you might need another source of income to keep you as you get into freelancing. This is because getting a job to design a website without past references can be tricky.
Web designers are in high demand, making this job a lucrative opportunity perfect for van lifers. With a little dedication, you can learn how to code and start making money by designing websites for designing stylish and informative websites for different clients. Designing websites is one reason many people are quitting 9-5 jobs.
With web designing, you can sell your fonts and themes to clients with ease because you already have a ready market.
6. Create an online course
How many times did “Check out this awesome course on how to … (make money while living in an RV)” appear when reading blogs? Have you ever stopped to think about who writes all these courses bloggers tell you to read?
When I started blogging, I wanted to fulfill my passion for sharing information about van life. Although I haven’t created an online course about the subject, I will work on one.
To monetize your skills and make a living while on the road, you can create online courses on any topic of interest and choose your favorite platform to sell them. As an RVer, it is good to create something related to outdoor traveling, photographing, or any subject for which you have broad information. Keep in mind that a complete course should comprehensively discuss the topic and offer relevant examples that will help the reader.
If creating courses is not your thing, you can invest in yourself by checking out various courses that will give you an idea to make money while living in an RV.
7. Teach English online
Are you a host of natural teaching abilities? If the answer is an awesome YES, then you are already rich without money. The adamant of the internet has really made it easy to make money while on the road. I simply mean you can make money by teaching English online without compromising on your van life.
To generate revenue teaching online, all you need is to sign up for your favorite teach English online platforms and enjoy your career. You will be paid for teaching students how to read, write, and speak English fluently. Besides, you can assist students with homework, assignments, and exams.
Some top platforms, like iTutorGroup, BlingABC, VIPKid, and Qkids, allow you to create and sell online courses, making them more useful. This allows van lifers and RVers to sell courses as they teach to generate more income. There are many teaching opportunities since some places like Asia are constantly looking for English teachers.
8. Start an Amazon FBA business
For us, who specializes in blogging, our websites generate revenue mostly through Amazon affiliate links. But what about starting an Amazon FBA business? Through Amazon FBA, you can make more than a 6-figure gross income. However, it is noteworthy that selling on Amazon is not as easy as it used to be sometimes back. Amazon FBA business is simply not for beginners.
Amazon FBA, “fulfilled by Amazon,” is a unique method of crowdsourcing its inventory from individual sellers like you and me. Besides benefiting from the platform’s world-class logistic network, Amazon FBA allows you to tap into the vast audience of buyers.
Whether you are selling as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced (wholesaler), I recommend that you use Amazon FBA to manage your inventory. Although it will cost you more fees, it is worth it. Amazon will store your inventory in their warehouses and ship it for you when a customer purchases.
Besides, starting an Amazon FBA business gives you an advantage since your products are highly likely to sell. The easiest way to get started is sourcing profitable inventory locally, then sell it through Amazon.
9. Become a digital marketer
I really love the job of digital marketing. If you’re obsessed like me, you can work remotely as a digital marketer and make some good cash every month. Digital marketing is primarily meant to help a company grow and reach its target customers by driving traffic.
If you are interested in digital marketing as your source of incoming while RVing, you need to understand some of the things you will do, including email marketing, influencer marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, Search engine optimization (SEO) marketing, pay-per-click (PPC), and affiliate marketing.
You can do digital marketing to promote a brand you own or a brand belonging to a client. Although it feels like a hobby, it is something you can do to make a living.
10. Sell stock videos
If you are a budding photographer or filmmaker with a fancy camera, living in an RV gives you plenty of opportunities to make money. While many RVers are accustomed to selling their stunning photos to publications and other stock image websites online, there are other money-making opportunities.
With your camera, you can create or record nice videos and sell them as stock footage. All you need to get started is an iPhone or fancy camera. Since stock videos save filmmakers a significant amount of time, money, resources, you are sure to get some bucks for every video you create.
If this is your option, you will find many stock imagery agencies ready to pay in exchange for your stock videos.
11. Write on Medium and get paid
Are you passionate about writing? You can make money by doing what you like most. Medium is the only platform allowing anyone to quickly sign up, post an article, and get paid for their content. Thankfully, you don’t need a niche, ads, or affiliate marketing to get paid. However, you can include affiliate links if you want.
Medium is the “YouTube” of writing. The primary metric of earning money in Medium is the viewing time – you earn when paying members read (view) your content. The secret behind making a top dollar by writing on Medium is consistency.
If your goal is to make a full-time living, treat writing on Medium as a full-time job, and you will never get disappointed. Have fun as you make money and explore the world by building a robust side business that doesn’t affect your traveling schedule.
12. Invest in real estate
No one doesn’t like earning a passive income, and investing is the only way to make money from a one-time job repeatedly. If you have some money to invest, you might consider real estate as your favorite investment. There are many opportunities for digital nomads like you and me to invest in real estate.
Renting your home can be an excellent way to make money provided the rent services the mortgage, utilities of the house and leaves enough for you to cover your lifestyle. Another lucrative opportunity any RVer can benefit from is flipping. Although flipping requires a lot of money upfront, it is worth investing in. The quick profits can accumulate faster once you get at the heart of flipping.
Besides investing as an individual, you can also take advantage of crowdfunded real estate opportunities. I’m a big fan of this right now. Just like regular real estate investment, we pool money to purchase property and share profits the property makes.
13. Become a lender
If you have some extra income from businesses you do while RVing, you can use the amounts to build more passive income while helping others out. The only way you can do this is by becoming a lender. For me, I like investing with ‘friends”, so it is no surprise I’ve invested in crowdsourced loans.
While it sounds like a dream to many people living in an RV, becoming a lender can earn you over $8,000 per month. Thankfully, you don’t struggle to get started. There are many companies that ultimately help you to begin peer-to-peer lending.
Regardless of the amount you want to invest in lending, platforms like Lending Club, Upstart, Funding Circle, and Prosper make it easy to get started. Once the loan is paid, you get back your principal plus interest, with room to reinvest an unlimited number of times.
14. Become an affiliate marketer
If you own a website, the chances are that you are not new to affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is linking to other people’s products to get a commission. It is one of the most lucrative ways to make money while on the road.
Affiliate marketing is very simple. For instance, when you buy any product by clicking the links appearing on this post, I may get a portion of your purchase with no extra cost to you. And thank you so much for supporting my site by purchasing through these links!
One reason I like affiliate marketing, you get paid for items that you use and like. You can also be paid for products to create to sell and sponsored posts from top brands.
15. Write an eBook
Living in an RV can be a uniquely exciting experience because not everybody feels like you. As an RVer, you can better van life experience by writing how it feels like living on wheels to make money.
You can be a money-savvy traveler by writing and publishing eBooks. The secret of receiving money in your account every month while relaxing is is creating an eBook on a less competitive niche. If you’re successful, it can supplement your income with extra efforts.
Keep in mind that writing eBooks require you to invest a bit of your time, effort, and work a little bit on your writing skills.
Final thoughts
The key to getting things done and being successful is consistency. Alongside leveraging your skills and freelancing to make money while living in an RV, you can check out any positions specifically designed for digital nomads.
From my experience, I advise you not to rely on a single source of income if you want to increase cash in your pocket and reduce financial risks. Working remotely while enjoying van life makes the world an oyster, and nothing will make you quit living on the road.
I’m confident you can combine various methods I have shared above to make dollars to support your lifestyle.
If you found this article helpful, check out my other articles on making money while living on the road.
