Passive Income Streams

Passive income streams are essential to any digital nomad wanting to travel the world. Traveling takes money, a point that I doubt anyone would argue against. Saving up money and then traveling is nice and I currently do some of that myself but having income coming in as you travel is, in my opinion, the only way to go – and most of the professionals agree. Consistent money coming in allows someone to keep traveling without having to take breaks to work. It’s also a huge benefit to have passive to semi-passive income streams that free up your time to not only see the sights in locations your visiting but also spend that time adding other sources of income.

I have put together a little list of ways myself (Spencer) and Jason plan on producing our passive income. Some of these we already have implemented and others we are still looking into.

Etsy

We currently manage two Etsy stores, one has mainly books and one designed products on OCBookshoppe. The one with the designed products Decklededgesnet is more of the passive income type because everything is either downloadable or printed and shipped by a third party. With Decklededgesnet we have a minimum-overhead/minimum-maintenance stream of income so we can literally make money while we sleep.

Redbubble

Just recently, we opened up a Redbubble Store. It’s like our Etsy store, in terms of the offerings, but it’s even more passive-income friendly as it takes even less time to create your products. I am unsure yet if this site is a viable option currently because we’ve yet to make any sales. It’s a fledgling site in general, as is the shop for us, so, unlike Etsy, I am still unsure of the customer-base and its reliability.

Society6

This site is very similar to Redbubble in that you create products and they print and ship them. Again, we have yet to see the measurement of success with this site (if any).

Physical Store

I currently have a book/consignment store. The income from this venture mainly goes to support my mother and pay the basic bills at home. Though some people enjoy flying by the wings of their rucksack and have no home base of which to speak, I find that having a place to re-charge and reset is vital to my mental and spiritual well-being.

Airbnb + Rentals

Jason and I are always brainstorming new projects together because its important to keep seeking income in all avenues, cus you never know where the next viable option is to be found. One of the exciting projects I am working on when I am home is rental spaces. I’m currently in possession of some property close to my store which I plan to use partially as a retail space and another section of it that I am considering utilizing as Airbnb space. During our travels we have enjoyed a variety of accommodations with Airbnb and it looks to be a great way of semi-passive income. Its important to have someone around to upkeep the property and provide basic housekeeping, but with my mother at home (and on the payroll) we have an advantage for that prerequisite.

Travel Blog

The travel blog isn’t just a way to document all of our journeys but also a way to promote products or services through affiliates. As with most reputable brands, we value our reputation. We always have and will continue to provide honest information and never monetize or advertise without purpose. We earnestly want to bring you things that feel curated to your interests, not only in our posts and other creative content, but also with any ads and paid promos.

• Airbnb

We have had some of the best lodging experiences with AirBnB, which inspired us to plan future blog posts on some of our favorite, most unique stays and their hosts. This will organically create a platform for promotion of AirBnB almost as a happy byproduct, since we love the app and would recommend it regardless.

• Amazon

Amazon affiliate is fairly well-known but you may not have ever noticed these ads, this is because they are easily disguised as lists for top products or reviews for various items. The posts using Amazon’s affiliate program simply add their link to appropriate areas to take you Amazon.com to that item’s product page. This allows for you to, for example, a post on top travel blog cameras, select the one for you, then go and buy it – minimizing some of the work for you!

• Other Affiliates

There are tons of companies that are willing to let you have a piece of the pie when you send them your business and when we find some that we feel fit in to our site and would be of value to you, the readers, we will let you guys know.

• Other websites

I currently have a bookstore online and personal blog that we aren’t utilizing yet for income. There are lots of ways to make income with websites so figuring out ways to monetize those will help stretch our knowledge.

• Facebook Store

I mention this one because I have used the store feature once before on Facebook with minimal success but would like to at some point revisit it.

• Amazon Private Label

Another type of income I am very excited to get started with and was one of the first ideas I shared with Jason over a year ago. I’d easily forecast this revenue stream to be one of the most-used, top-earning of its kind in the future.

• Sponsorship

The ultimate “brass ring” for serious travel bloggers, is to have big hotel chains, airlines, and other tourism companies seek your brand out, hoping to exchange freebies for reviews and posts. What could be more advantageous to a digital nomad than to have less overhead and the credibility that comes with big names in the travel/hospitality industry.

• Credit Card Rewards

As long as you have good credit (which you’ll want to have before you go global with your adventures) you’ll have a plethora of options for credit cards. Don’t be scared off from getting one or two – a high credit line can be a lifesaver in those unforeseeable emergencies. Consider getting a credit card that gives air miles or other kickbacks that will be useful for your lifestyle as a traveler.

• Pick the Bones!

This refers to using the entirety of every piece of content you acquire, every opportunity, every photo or video, every blog post. Don’t discard anything immediately and only finally after you are positive that there is no more “meat” on the bones. Your random photos that are maybe great quality but are not usable for any of the applicable areas of your business can be filed away for later use or sold on stock photo sites. It may feel like gathering scraps or collecting cans due to the dull trickle of cash-flow this kind of meticulous recycling typically provides, however it is paramount to remind yourself that all the big success stories in passive income schemes explored many trails of penny.