Making Money On The Road: Top 5 Passive Income Ideas For Travelers
#2 Passive Income Ideas For Travelers – Dropshipping/Amazon FBA
These are two extremely popular options for mostly passive income, and fit travelers perfectly for two key reasons. First, relatively low barriers to entry, and secondly, next to no physical inventory is required on-hand, at least for the vast majority of the process. While these two ideas are similar in principle, there are key differences to understand before deciding to pursue one over the other.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping, at its most basic level, is a marketing and logistics business. A typical setup works like this:
- Find a dropshippable product to sell, and set up an online store (through a service like Shopify)
- Market your product, usually through digital ads or influencer marketing
- When a customer goes to your site and orders the product, you receive their money.
- You take that money and purchase the customer’s product from your product supplier, who then ships it directly to your customer.
- Your customer receives their product, without ever knowing the business that “sold” it to them never even touched the item.
Sounds pretty simple, right? In theory, it is. If you find a product from a reliable supplier, develop your website and marketing plan, and set up your order fulfillment systems (all big “Ifs”), this can be a relatively hands-off business and one that lends itself particularly well to automation and virtual assistants/freelancers.
The entirety of your success will depend on finding a product people are interested in, at an affordable price, from a reliable supplier. These products are generally smaller and lighter weight (to keep shipping costs low), and unique in some way. After all, you’re asking a customer to make a purchase from a store they’ve never heard of, based on an ad or influencer post. You’ll need that product to be something to grab their attention, and something they can’t (or don’t know they can) get easily on more trusted marketplaces like Amazon.
Since you’ll be relying on a supplier to do all of your actual packaging and shipping, you’ll need to find a reliable one who will ship quickly and affordably, communicate well, and consistently have your item in stock. Oftentimes, beginner dropshippers opt for Chinese suppliers to start due to their low prices, but find themselves frustrated by long shipping times and difficult or impossible communication with counterparts who may or may not speak English. Unfortunately, finding a good supplier can be somewhat of a trial and error process, at least to begin with.
On your end, you’ll need to worry primarily about the marketing and design of your store. At least a basic understanding of social media and Facebook Ads and Google Ads is required if you’re choosing to advertise via digital ads. Social media-savvy dropshippers have also seen increasing success in recent years with influencer marketing. Essentially, they’ll pay an influencer in the same space as their store to promote or mention a product, in the hope that the influencer’s large audience will make purchases. This can be a fraught process, between finding the right influencer with the right audience, and developing a compensation plan you can agree on, but has a very high upside if done correctly.
Amazon FBA
For a slight twist on this business model that also puts your product directly into the world’s most popular and trusted online marketplace, take a look at Amazon FBA. The process (short for Fulfillment By Amazon) is essentially dropshipping through Amazon. You’ll track down an appropriate product, develop and optimize a listing, and then ship your product to an Amazon warehouse, either directly from your supplier or with an intermediary labeling or packing stop with you. Amazon will list your product, and when someone purchases it, they’ll ship it directly from their warehouse to your customer, with no action needed from you.
However, for the privilege of storing your items, processing your orders, and shipping to your customers, Amazon will take a significant cut of your sales revenue. Depending on the nature of your product and how much work you’re willing to do yourself, costs can vary widely. This is also a competitive and cut-throat business, with various sellers fighting for the prized “buy button.” This is a classic example of the passive income trade-off – in exchange for the extra hands-off nature of the FBA process, you’ll have to accept a lower return. But if your ultimate goal is as little work as possible, this may be worth it to you!
#3 Passive Income Ideas For Travelers – Create an online course
Do you have some sort of skill that always has people saying, “wow, I wish I could do that!”, or frequently find yourself dazzling dinner guests or friends with your knowledge of a topic? You should consider creating an online course! Websites like Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare, or a handful of others all allow you to design your own course on just about any topic of your choosing! Each platform has varying benefits including assistance in creating your course or varying ways to display your content or market your offerings.
While you may not think you know anything well enough to teach a course on it, take a few minutes to really search your brain. What do you do better or differently than others, or understand in a special way? Even very niche courses can be successful with the right content and marketing, as you’ll encounter fewer competitors fighting for the same customers.
Online courses can be a very low-cost passive income strategy as well. Other than any fees to use your publishing platform of choice, your only other cost will be your time putting your course together. As with many low-cost passive options, you’ll need to be relatively “active” to begin with, dedicating however many hours are necessary to craft your product. However, once it’s published, you can generally take a mostly hands-off approach long-term, other than any marketing or community engagement you may choose to do.
#4 Passive Income Idea For Travelers – Write an e-book
Are you more comfortable behind the keyboard typing rather than in front of the camera lecturing? Take your knowledge and experience and write an e-book, another extremely simple and low-cost passive income option – though certainly not the easiest one. Publishing was once the domain of major companies, or those willing to invest large amounts up-front to self-publish. These days, that’s totally changed, thanks in part to Amazon’s Kindle and digital book library. With just an idea, a little know-how, and some straightforward techniques (many of which can be farmed out to freelancers), you can put together a professional-looking e-book that can act as a long-term income-generating asset.
Don’t get us wrong – writing a book isn’t a piece of cake! Even the most naturally gifted writers can struggle to produce a cohesive, interesting, or entertaining product. But with the rise of e-books came somewhat of a fall in standards, as well. Those purchasing an expensive hardcover book from a traditional bookstore or even ordering from Amazon expect a certain level of perfection for your money. For an e-book costing just a few dollars, especially one in a valuable niche, readers are willing to tolerate an errant comma, misspelled word, or slightly unclear section. Nevertheless, it’s important to approach writing as a craft, constantly editing and honing your copy and looking for ways to improve.
#5 Passive Income Ideas For Travelers – Advertise on your car
This one might not be for everyone, but if you’re spending lots of time in your car traveling around the country, why not make a few extra bucks doing it? There are a variety of companies that will wrap your car in ads for anywhere between a few weeks and a few years. There’s plenty of fine print, and you may not be comfortable driving a billboard everywhere you go. Still, it’s an easy way to make a few hundred extra bucks that could pay for some of your travel expenses.
How Much Passive Income Do I Need To Travel?
There’s no easy answer to this question! It largely depends on the kind of traveling you’re doing and your lifestyle, and how long you plan on hitting the road for.
First, let’s talk about time. If you’re simply looking for some passive income to pay for a vacation or two a year, you probably don’t need very much! Even two, weeklong luxury $3,000 vacations per year can be fully paid for with just $500 a month in passive income. If you’re considering longer-term travel or permanent nomadic life, you may find it difficult to replicate your full-time job’s income via passive income, at least at first. Therefore, it can be best to start by thinking of passive income as helping defray your costs in addition to a remote job or your savings. If you’re lucky and work hard, you may eventually be able to fund your entire lifestyle on passive income alone.
How you’re traveling will also make a huge impact on what kind of passive income you’ll need. Are you jetting around the globe, dining at fine restaurants, and staying at 5-star hotels? If so, you’d better be prepared to generate significantly more from your passive income sources compared to someone hitting the road in an RV, staying at state parks and public lands.
As with many other parts of life and traveling, figuring out the right path for you will require some trial and error. Passive income can take a long time to reach significant levels, but can quickly snowball once it does. That’s why it’s best to start as soon as possible with one of these passive income ideas for travelers – and you may be hitting the road with your trip paying for itself before you know it!