How You Can Make Money While RVing: 6 Easy Ways
If you are living your best life traveling in an RV, it can be hard to have a “normal” job that requires you to spend five days a week in an office from 9 to 5 o’clock. On one hand, that’s great because you have more freedom. On the other hand, you could be worried about how you can actually get a steady job that will sustain your RV lifestyle.
Luckily for you, there are many different options that range from telecommuting to becoming a book author. Without further ado, here’s how you can make money while RVing in six easy ways depending on your personal preferences.
#1 Telecommute While Working at Your Current Job
The first option is the best one for someone who currently has an office job. Many companies allow their employees to telecommute instead of spending entire days doing their work in the office. Essentially, when you telecommute, you only come to the office to submit the results of your work, but you can do the work itself from anywhere you want.
Telecommuting is quite similar to working remotely, but while being a remote employee usually means you never come to the office, telecommuting usually requires you to show up from time to time. Still, you could either ask for telecommuting or for a remote setup from your company and see if they go forward and allow you to continue working that way.
#2 Start Offering Your Services as a Freelancer
Another option is to become a freelancer and start offering your services independently. Obviously, being a freelancer gives you way more freedom to decide how you want to work and with whom. However, you might struggle to find clients at first before you build a good client base and your reputation. When it comes to the kinds of services you can offer, there are quite a few to choose from:
- Writing – Writing, editing, and proofreading are very popular services offered by freelancers. There are also many experienced writers who specialize in ghostwriting, especially when it comes to books. You can write anything from web content, social media posts, fiction and non-fiction books, academic assignments, and so on.
- Design – Graphic and web design services are also commonly offered by freelancers. Moreover, you can choose to specialize in very specific types of design such as logo design or book design. Likewise, you can choose to do photo or video editing instead.
- Development – Web and software development are in-demand right now, so if you have the right qualification for this kind of work, then you should definitely consider offering such services as a freelancer.
- Tutoring – A lot of parents hire private tutors for their children to help them catch up to their peers or prepare for exams. You don’t necessarily have to visit the child in person and instead simply organize online classes via video calls. Similarly, you could consider tutoring teenagers or even adults.
- Assisting – Virtual assistants are just like regular personal assistants, but the difference is that you do everything online. It’s another great option for becoming a freelancer and offering your services.
- For more freelance ideas, check out this article from the RVer Job Exchange.
#3 Open Your Own Online Store for Selling or Reselling
If you have an entrepreneurial streak in you, then you will probably get quite excited at the thought of opening your own online store for selling or reselling different products. With the popularity of e-commerce and the availability of e-commerce tech, it has become easier than ever to open your own store and start earning well with it. Here’s how you can do this:
- Sell Your Own Products – If you create products of your own, you can sell them in your online store. These can range from home décor to clothes to paintings among other things. If you create digital art, then you can use one of the print-on-demand websites like Redbubble to offer different products with your artwork.
- Start Dropshipping – To have your own online store, you don’t necessarily have to be the one creating the products you sell. Dropshipping is a practice when you pretty much collect orders from customers and redirect them to manufacturers who ship the products directly to customers. Dropshipping has become particularly popular in the past few years thanks to the rise of platforms that connect predominantly manufacturers based in Asia with international e-commerce store owners.
- Resell Antique Products – One more option is to make the most of your RV lifestyle and combine it with your store. You can buy products (e.g. antique items) wherever you go and then resell them through your online store.
#4 Find Work On-Site Wherever You Are
Speaking of finding opportunities while you travel, one more way you can earn money while RVing is by finding work on-site wherever you are. In some cases, this will be seasonal work. In other cases, you could be offering your own services as a freelancer but offline. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Workcamping – Workcamping is a practice when RV owners camp somewhere (and often also get payment) in exchange for working on the site or close to it. For example, you could do some work in a camping park. Alternatively, you might manage to get a spot next to a construction site and camp there while working on-site. You can find more options for workcamping here.
- Cleaning/Cooking – Cleaning and cooking are both services you can offer when you arrive somewhere. If you are offering these services at a camping park, then you could consider them as a type of workcamping, but you can offer them to anyone and everyone.
- RV Maintenance – Leading an RV lifestyle requires you to keep your RV in a good state, manage it correctly, and possibly even learn about its technical side to fix things when they get broken. Use your skills as an RV expert and technician to their fullest and offer your services to other RVers.
#5 Become an Independent Writer and Publish Books
As explained earlier, you can start offering different writing services as a freelancer. However, you can go a step further and become an independent writer in your own right and start publishing books. Here are some things you can do and ways you can earn money as an independent writer:
- Start Your Own Blog – Set up your own blog to connect with readers and earn some extra cash by hosting ads on your blog.
- Sell Books on Amazon – Write and publish your books independently by selling them on Amazon. The website is quite straightforward when it comes to setting up your author profile, so you will easily get started in no time.
- Become an Affiliate – If you want to earn more with your blog, you can become an affiliate and earn commissions every time someone purchases products through your affiliate links.
- Grow Your Influence – As an author, you will want more people to buy and read your books. If you open your social media profiles, you could eventually have a big enough audience to start earning from brand sponsorships.
#6 Rent Out the Things You Already Own
Last but not least, carefullyassess the things you already own and how you could use them to have a source of passive income. More specifically, you could rent out some of the things you own that you aren’t using while traveling in your RV.
For example, if you own real estate, you can let people rent it while you aren’t living there. Likewise, you could rent out your car if you have one that you aren’t using while traveling in your RV. Moreover, even when you take a break from your RV lifestyle, you can let someone rent your RV for a few months and earn money that way. (In this webinar, one of the founders of RVezy answers some common questions about renting your RV!)
To summarize, there are definitely quite a few options for you when it comes to choosing a job for your RV lifestyle. Consider all these opportunities and choose the kind of work you want to be doing.
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Author
Cynthia Young
Cynthia Young is an academic writer with a wondrous love for business literature and travel. She starts her day reading articles in her favorite business magazines and ends up writing her own. For several years she has been working with a team of writers Trust My Paper.