Authored by Danielle Ditzian
Running out of money while traveling can be a nightmare. And for most travelers this means having to head home. But what if you could earn money while traveling, without having to worry about work visas, and it was enough to keep you on the road?
As luck would have it, there are always ways to earn extra money so long as you can find an internet connection, from filling out surveys, to online tutoring jobs. Broke on the road? The following websites let you earn cash online!
We highly recommend Sharon Gourlay’s “How to Make Money From Blogging” – She details strategies for monetization and the exact methods she uses to make an annual $150,000 income.
Legitimate Ways to Make Cash Online
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Upwork
Upwork is a freelancing site which lists everything from administrative tasks to voice overs, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
The site is crazily competitive, so you really have to undersell yourself for a couple of jobs just to get some good reviews; afterwards, you can easily raise your prices, and find some regular clients.
But you can also browse and seek inspiration; once I’d decided I wanted to work as a transcriber, I scoured the internet and contacted around 100 online transcribing companies. While only two or three got back to me, the money was high enough and the work consistent enough to earn a decent living while on the road.
Cambly and NiceTalk Tutor
These two sites function essentially like Skype; you’re connected with someone in a different country who’s looking to practice their English skills, and you just have a conversation with a stranger, helping them along the way with any grammar, pronunciation, or other issues they may have.
The great thing about this is you don’t need a TESL certification; all you need is to be a native English speaker. Both sites pay $10 per hour, but there can be long waiting times between calls. This means you may average anywhere between $5 and $10 an hour, depending on the time of day.
It’s worthwhile playing around with to see when more people are online in your time zone to maximize earnings. Click here for Cambly, and here for NiceTalk Tutor.
Clickworker/UHRS
This is no get rich quick site, but can help you earn a bit of extra cash. These sites have micro tasks, meaning you do a tiny job, like evaluating whether search results to a given query are good or not, that pays between 1 and 20 cents.
It’s important to note that to access the UHRS portal, where there are quite a few jobs, you must first sign up to Clickworker, and then do the UHRS assessment. Afterwards, you’re set.
Some jobs on UHRS take too long or just pay so little that they aren’t worth it, and oftentimes you’ll find that’s the case. However, I did manage to find a job once that paid 7 cents per task, and was averaging $10 an hour doing so. Not bad money for while you’re travelling!
Mindswarms
This site can be great, but unfortunately rarely has jobs. You basically log into your dashboard periodically, and apply for any open tests. The tests consist of seven questions in which they film you answering them.
While tests are few and far between, each one pays $50 for around 15 minutes of your time. It’s one of those sites that’s worth signing up for to get that occasional boost – now you can suddenly afford that tour you were dying to go on!
Usertesting and Usability Hub
There are a ton of user testing sites out there, but Usertesting itself I’ve found to have the most gigs. For both Usertesting and Usability Hub you’ll need to keep a tab open to wait for tests. The site will make a little *ding* noise when a test is ready for you.
Usertesting always has screeners, and to be quite honest, you usually won’t qualify for the test. However, each test you qualify for takes about 10 minutes and pays $10, so they’re worth taking when they’re available. I earn around $50 a month on these.
Usability Hub is a bit different; once again you need to keep the tab open to wait for tests, but these only take a minute to complete, paying 10 cents each. It takes a while to earn the required $20 for withdrawal, but hey, if you’re sat at your computer anyways, why not have the tab open and complete the quick tests when they’re around? Huge money? Definitely not. Extra beer cash at the end of the month? Heck yes!
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Photo credits: Video chat by tyle_r.
20 Comments
Great post! I have tried Upwork. But here are so many new things that I have not heard of before. Thanks for sharing! I’ll try some of these :)
Glad we could introduce you to some additional options for work :) Happy travels!
You don’t know how much I appreciate this post. I’ve been regularly searching for jobs on Upwork, but only spamy blog posts and nothing else at the beginning. I will check mindswarms definitely. I pinned your post to my pin board with useful links.
So glad we could help Iuliana :) Happy travels!
O wow! I have never heard of a lot of these. The usertesting sounds like a good one for me since I am always online anyways. Time to keep that extra tab open :)
Glad we could help! Happy travels :)
This is a great list! I have heard of a few of these but there are some new ones as well. I like how you gave the positives and the negatives about each. That really helps sets peoples expectations when they are choosing which path to take.
Thanks Chantell! Glad you found the post helpful :) I think setting people’s expectations is important, we don’t want to recommend anything that might end up wasting someone’s travel time!
Hello Danielle,
Awesome Post, I know about upwork even I worked on it. I never heard about Cambly and I am going try this.
Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked the post Mahesh! Let us know how you go with Cambly :)
Agree with the other comments, I haven’t heard of most of these besides Upwork.I’d love to see a freelance writing post or a sponsored post blog like this in the future ?
Glad you liked the post Danielle – noted on the freelance writing post or a sponsored post blog for future – in the interim, Sharon Gourlay has published a really fantastic book on how to make money blogging, and it has some great practical advice for making an income through sponsored posts, affiliates, etc.
She made $150,000 last year from her blog, and details exactly how she did it, so highly recommend the read: https://gumroad.com/a/421344371
Awesome post! I appreciate your work and efforts in your post. I never heard about Cambly…. Great job! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Thanks Agra, glad the post was helpful :) Let us know how you go with Cambly!
I experience almost running out of money many times during travel. it really left me with traumatic experiences :)).. but I survived on sponsored posts on my blog and clients I found on odesk that is now upwork.. currently, I have created a service website so I can help others find quick errands and get paid to do it. ^_^
Glad to hear that you pulled through your travels with online work … sorry to hear about your traumatic experiences. No more of those!
Which one was your favorite of the options? it is always nice to see several more ways to earn money here and there.
Hi Anwar :) Our personal favorite from here is Upwork, and as Dani mentioned it’s also a great way to browse and seek inspiration for different jobs you could pitch, and check out what other people are charging :)
Happy travels!
Thanks, I have tried Upwork. Thanks for sharing! I’ll try some of these ?
Glad we could help! Happy travels :)