How to Make Passive Income While Travelling? 8 Best Ideas

“How to make passive income while travelling” sounds like a dream, right? Imagine you are making money while travelling across the globe, experiencing new cultures and sights, and your bank account grows independently.  That’s the magic of passive income while exploring the world.

In this blog, we will explore eight brilliant passive income ideas that will keep the money coming to your bank account while you’re off making memories. So, get ready to discover how to fund your adventures without missing any travelling adventures.

What is Passive Income?

Passive income refers to the money that you earn without your direct involvement in any activity. It is the opposite of selling your time for money, like in traditional employment.

Passive income is like setting up a money-making machine that works for you even when you are not actively involved. This income can come from various sources, like investments, rental properties, affiliate marketing, creating digital products, businesses, and more.

The key is that once you set up these sources, they generate money independently, giving you more freedom and flexibility to pursue other things, like travelling, while still earning.

Be sure passive income is only partially free from your involvement. Initially, it requires upfront work, dedication, and monetary investment. However, the goal is to create a system that runs independently, freeing up your time for other stuff, like travelling, family, and friends, without compromising your financial stability.

How to Make Passive Income While Travelling?

Yes, you can make passive income while travelling. It involves setting up sources of income that continue to earn money.

These passive income sources include a YouTube channel, blogging with affiliate marketing, selling stock photos, developing digital products like e-books or online courses, renting out properties, investing in stocks or real estate, and affiliate marketing.

These methods allow you to earn money while you explore the world. With careful planning and dedication, these income sources can provide a steady flow of passive income while you enjoy your travels. Let’s explore deeply some of these passive income streams.

8 Best Ideas to Make Passive Income While Travelling

While plenty of passive income sources are available for you, here we will discuss some of the most popular passive income ideas.

Here is a list of the eight best passive income ideas that make you free to travel while still earning.

1- Create Your YouTube Channel 

Creating a YouTube channel is the best passive income idea for making money. It needs your one-time hard work and dedication.

Brainstorm and choose a topic that you are passionate about. And getting started with that idea. You may think about how to get started. Sounds good.

Here are the easy steps to building your YouTube channel:

1. Google Account: Create your account (Gmail Account).
2. YouTube Studio: Go to YouTube and click on your profile picture. Select “Your Channel” and then “Create Channel.
3. Customize Your Channel: Add a profile picture, banner, and channel description. Make it appealing and reflective of your channel’s theme.
4. Upload Videos: Click on the camera icon at the top of the screen to upload your videos. Ensure your content follows YouTube’s guidelines for quality and copyright.
5. Optimize Your Videos: Add titles, descriptions, tags, and thumbnails to your videos. Use relevant keywords to help your videos get discovered in searches.
6. Monetize Your Channel: Once you meet the eligibility criteria, apply for the YouTube Partner Program to enable monetization.

5 Ways to Eran Passive Income from a YouTube Channel

There are several ways to earn passive income from a YouTube channel. Some are listed here:

• Through Ads Revenues
• Through Sponsorships
• By Affiliate Marketing
• Selling Digital Products
• By Crowdfunding

2- Set up a Blog

What is a Blog?

A blog is a website or an online platform where individuals, known as bloggers, share information, insights, and experiences on a specific topic or multiple topics. This is our second-best option to make passive income while travelling or wherever you want.

Blogs typically consist of written content but can also include images, videos, and other multimedia elements. The goal of a blog is to engage and inform a target audience, building a community around shared interests. How do you get started with a blog?

Simple Steps to Set Up a Blog:

1. Choose Your Topic: Select a topic you are passionate about and where you can offer valuable content.
2. Select a Blogging Platform: Choose the platform for your blog, like WordPress or Blogger, to set up your blog easily.
3. Domain and Hosting: Choose a domain name and hosting platform to build your blog, like Godady, Namecheap, or Hostinger. 
4. Customize Your Blog: Select a theme or design that aligns with your topic and customize it to suit your style.
5. Write Engaging Content: Start writing engaging blog posts that provide value to your audience.

5 Ways to Earn Passive Income From a Blog 

• Affiliate Marketing
• Display Ads
• Sponsored Content
• Sell Digital Products
• Subscriptions

3- Sell Your Stock Photos

Selling stock photos means licencing your photographs for websites, advertisements, and publications. Photographers can upload their images to stock photography websites where customers, like designers, marketers, or businesses, can purchase the rights to use those images for their purposes.

Selling stock photos is a lucrative passive income source. Here, we will discuss how it works and how to get started. Once you upload your photos to stock photography websites, they become available for purchase by individuals, businesses, or organizations worldwide.

Every time someone buys your photo, you earn a royalty (passive income). This process allows your photos to generate income continuously, even while you are not actively involved in marketing or selling them.

How to Start Selling Photo Stock: 4 Simple Steps

1. Capture Quality Photographs: Start by capturing high-quality, unique, visually appealing photos. Focus on diverse subjects or niches with market demand, such as travel, nature, business, or lifestyle.
2. Choose Platforms: Choose a reputable stock photography website like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Getty Images, or iStock. Each platform has its submission guidelines and approval processes.
3. Upload Photos: Create an account and upload your photos following the platform’s guidelines. Add relevant keywords and descriptions to optimize their discoverability.
4. Approval and Selling: Your photos will go through a review process by the platform’s moderators. Once approved, they become available for purchase in the platform’s marketplace; that’s all done.

Best Marketplaces to Sell Stock Photos

Several reputable stock photography websites cater to photographers looking to sell their images. Here are a few popular platforms:

• Shutterstock
• Adobe Stock (formerly Fotolia)
• Getty Images
• iStock
• Alamy
• Dreamstime

4- Create and Sell Your Digital Products 

Digital products are intangible goods or content that can be downloaded, accessed, or consumed online.

They exist purely in digital form. There is no physical existence. They include e-books, online courses, templates, guides, software, music, videos, and more. Digital products are an excellent source of passive income while travelling or sleeping.

5 Simple Steps to Create Digital Products:

1. Identify Your Expertise: Choose a topic or area where you have expertise or valuable knowledge.
2. Select the Product: Select the digital product that aligns with your expertise. For example, if you know about travelling, you might create a travel e-book or an online course.
3. Create Quality Content: Create high-quality content for your digital product. This could include writing an e-book, recording video tutorials, designing templates, or creating software.
4. Design and Labelling: Make your digital product visually appealing and user-friendly. Ensure it provides value and addresses the needs of your target audience.
5. Select Platform to Sell: Decide where to sell your digital product. This could be through your website, online marketplaces like Etsy or Teachable, or dedicated platforms like Amazon Kindle for e-books or Udemy courses.

4 Benefits of Selling Digital Products

1. Automated Sales: Once your digital product is created and listed for sale, it can be purchased and downloaded without your direct involvement. That is your passive income, and you are free to chill.
2. High Scalability: Your digital products have no physical limitations. It allows you to sell unlimited copies without additional production costs; that’s interesting.
3. No Inventory Cost: Unlike physical products, there is no need to maintain stock inventory
4. Recurring Revenue: If your digital product is subscription-based or has updates, it can generate ongoing income as customers renew or purchase upgrades.

5- Do Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketing is like being a matchmaker on the internet. You promote someone else’s products or services as an affiliate using special links.

When people buy something through your links, you get a commission on the sale or a fixed amount. It’s like being a middleman, connecting customers with products or services and getting rewarded.

It’s a way for companies to get more customers and for you to earn money by recommending stuff you like to others online.

Why Affiliate Marketing is Great for Passive Income:

1. Low Initial Investment: You don’t need to create a product or service. Instead, you promote existing products or services.
2. No Customer Service or Inventory: You’re not responsible for customer support or product fulfilment.
3. Flexible Work Schedule: You can work on your terms—no fixed hours or location.
4. High Scalability: As you grow your audience, your earning potential increases without much additional effort.

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing:

1. Choose Your Niche: Select a niche or industry that aligns with your interests or expertise.
2. Select Affiliate Programs: Research for affiliate programs related to your niche. Amazon Associates, ShareASale, ClickBank, and CJ Affiliate are the most common affiliate programs.
3. Select Affiliate Product or Service: Choose products or services you genuinely believe in and would recommend. Focus on those that provide value to your audience.
4. Create Quality Content: Develop quality content on blogs, social media, YouTube, or podcasts. Incorporate affiliate links naturally within your content.
5. Disclose Your Affiliate Relationship: Follow legal guidelines by disclosing affiliate relationships to your audience.

6- Rent a Property You Own

Renting out a property you own is a great passive income idea. Once you have found tenants, you will receive a steady income stream through their monthly rent payments without doing anything extra.

You can delegate day-to-day tasks to property managers, minimizing your involvement while the property gains value over time.

With tax benefits and the potential for long-term appreciation, renting out a property can be a reliable source of passive income, offering stability and diversification to your financial portfolio.

Benefits of Renting Out a Property

• Receipt of Regular Income
• Minimal Active Management
• Long-Term Investment
• Getting Tax Benefits on Property Income

7- Invest in Stocks 

Investing in stocks presents a pathway to passive income by allowing individuals to earn through two primary channels.

First, through capital appreciation, the value of the stocks can increase over time, potentially leading to profits when the stocks are sold. Second, some stocks pay dividends—regular payments to shareholders from a company’s profits—which provide a steady stream of passive income.

While investing in stocks involves understanding market dynamics and potential risks, it offers the opportunity for long-term wealth building and the chance to earn passive income through dividends and capital gains without actively working daily.

Essential Steps to Consider Before Investing in Stocks

• Educate Yourself: First, learn about the stock market, different investment options, and strategies. Understanding the basics of how stocks work, company analysis, and risk management is crucial.

• Define Your Strategy: Define where you want to invest. You may have options like individual stocks, ETFs (exchange-traded funds), or dividend-paying stocks.

• Research and Select Stocks: Research and choose well-established stocks. Look into their financial health, growth potential, and dividend history.

• Make a Portfolio: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Make a diversified portfolio. Diversification can protect your portfolio from the impact of a single company’s performance.

• Invest for the Long Term: Investing in stocks for passive income often requires patience. Be patient and wait to grow your investment steadily.

Best Stock Options to Get Started in The United States

1: Dividend-Paying Stocks: These stocks regularly distribute their profits to shareholders as dividends, like Coca-Cola or Procter & Gamble.

2: Blue-Chip Stocks: These stocks are shares of well-established, financially stable, and reputable companies with a strong performance history. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Johnson & Johnson.

3: Growing Stocks: Growth stocks are the shares of companies that are expected to grow fast as compared to other firms in the market. Amazon, Alphabet, and Tesla are often considered growth stocks.

4: Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs): These stocks track major indices like the S&P 500, NASDAQ, or Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Caution: While stocks can be a lucrative source of passive income through dividends or capital appreciation, they also carry risks. Doing thorough research or consulting with a financial advisor before making investment decisions is recommended.

8- Real Estate Investing

Ninty percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate

Andrew Cardegie

Real estate investing means buying properties to make money. It is considered the safest investment on earth. When you own a rental property, you get paid rent regularly, even if you’re travelling. You can hire someone to manage it while you’re away.

Sometimes, properties can become more valuable, so you make more money when you sell them later. Using platforms like Airbnb, you can rent your place short-term while travelling, making extra cash.

There are also investments called REITs where you can earn money from real estate without managing properties directly. Real estate investing can bring in money while you travel, especially if you plan and manage it well.

How to Start Investing in Real Estate

Investing in real estate can be done through various avenues while considering its potential returns. Here are some common ways to invest in real estate:

Buy and Hold Properties: Purchasing and holding the property is the best policy to earn passive income. Rent your property and earn a steady passive income. It’s essential to consider location, property condition, rental demand, and the potential for appreciation.

Invest in REITs: Investing in REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) allows you to participate in real estate without owning physical properties directly. REITs often pay dividends from rental income.

Buy and Sell Properties: Buying properties at a lower price and selling them at a higher price can generate profits. This method requires an understanding of property values, renovation costs, and market trends.

Real estate can offer opportunities for passive income and long-term appreciation, but it also involves risks. Consulting with real estate professionals before investing is recommended.

List of Other Valuable Sources to Make Passive Income While Travelling:

Here is a list of all the other ways that allow you to make passive income while travelling. These are all income-generating assets that fund your account while you are on vacation.

• Open High-Yield Savings Accounts
• Investing in Dividend-Paying Stocks
• Investing in Gold or Silver
• Cryptocurrency Investing
• Set up your own business
• Start Peer-to-Peer Lending
• Start a Dropshipping Business 
• Writing an e-Book
• Create an App or Software
• Royalties from Intellectual Property
• Create a subscription-based website 
• Investing in Crowdfunded Real Estate
• Advertise on Your Property or Car
• Start a Print-on-Demand Products Business
• Rent Out Your Equipment or Tools 
• Become a Social media influencer
• Rent out Your Car

Which Passive Income Source is Best for You?

It all depends on your interests, skills, resources, and how much time you can dedicate.  If you have a knack for photography, selling stock photos could work well.

Creating digital products, such as e-books or courses, could be ideal if you have expertise in a particular area. If you prefer financial avenues, real estate or stock market investments will suit you.

Consider your strengths, passions, and the level of involvement you desire, as each passive income idea has requirements and potential returns. Explore the options that resonate most with you and align with your long-term goals to find the best fit.

Final Thought

Congrats! You have explored how to make passive income while travelling. Making passive income while travelling opens up possibilities. From content creation on platforms like YouTube and blogs to leveraging investments in stocks, real estate, or digital products, there are numerous ways to explore.

The key lies in finding what aligns with your skills, interests, and resources. With dedication and smart planning, these passive income streams can serve as valuable assets. They allow you to fund your travels while building a sustainable source of income that works for you, no matter where you may be.

Ultimately, the journey to passive income while travelling begins with discovering what suits you best and taking steps to turn your passion into profit.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is passive income, and how does it differ from active income?

Passive income is money earned with minimal effort. It contrasts with active income, which requires continuous work or time input to generate earnings.

2. Can I make passive income while travelling?

Absolutely! You can create content online, invest in stocks or real estate, sell digital products, or rent out properties, allowing you to generate income while exploring different destinations.

3. How much time and effort must I dedicate to create passive income streams?

Initially, setting up passive income streams might require significant effort and time. However, once established, they can continue to earn money with less direct involvement, provided you’ve set up efficient systems or hired help where needed.

4. Which passive income idea is the easiest to start?

The ease of starting a passive income stream depends on your skills and resources. Content creation can be straightforward, like starting a YouTube channel or a blog.

However, simpler doesn’t always mean faster returns; other methods, like investing, might require less active work once set up but require initial learning and capital.

5. Are there risks associated with passive income streams?

Yes, like any investment or business endeavour, there are risks. These include market fluctuations, algorithmic changes affecting online content, or property-related issues.

It’s crucial to research, diversify, and understand potential risks before diving in.

6. How long does it take to see returns from passive income sources?

The timeline varies significantly based on the chosen method. Some, like stock market investments, might yield returns in the short term while building a successful YouTube channel or blog can take months or even years to generate substantial income.

7. Can I create multiple streams of passive income simultaneously?

Yes, many individuals have multiple passive income streams. Diversifying across different methods can provide stability and spread risk.

8. Do I need much money to start creating passive income?

Not necessarily. Some methods, like content creation or starting a blog, have low entry costs. However, more capital might be required initially for real estate or stock market investments.

9. How can I learn more about generating passive income while travelling?

Various online resources, including articles, courses, forums, and books, can offer insights and guidance on specific passive income methods and strategies for travellers seeking income sources.