The 9 Ways I Make Money as a Solo Woman RVer

There are a lot of ways to make money as an RVer. I like to joke that I do ALL of them. Seriously, I have tried a lot of different ways to make money to support my RV travel. I like trying new things, experimenting and seeing what works and what doesn’t. I wanted to share the ways I make money to finance my RV travel so you can see if any of these options might work for you.

Listen to the podcast episode below or read on for more details.

1. Freelance Writing

I am the author of two books, one of which is still in print and earns me royalties twice a year. Check it out below! I wrote this book several years ago and it still earns me money, even though I’m not doing much to promote it. Writing books can be a great way to make money for RV travel because once the initial work is done, you can earn passive income. (Although I will say, writing a book is a lot of work!)

I also will occasionally write for business clients or for other magazines or blogs. I used to do this much more–in fact, I spent 10 years as a full-time freelance writer. These days, I write less, but I will sometimes pick up writing contracts. This can be a lucrative business, especially if you niche down and develop a good consistent group of clients.

Want to learn how to make money as a writer? I highly recommend these two courses. Scale Your Travel Blog is the course that is teaching me the steps to make money as a blogger.

Niche Sites Made Easy is also a great course, taught by Kristin Hanes who was guest on the Solo Women RV Podcast #74.

2. Selling Books on Amazon

Different than writing books, re-selling used books on Amazon is a way that I make money to support my RV travel. Selling used books on Amazon is a great business for RV travel for several reason. The first is that when you travel around, you will have access to thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales and library used book sales all over the country. As an Amazon FBA seller, you don’t have to keep the inventory in your RV or camper, you box them up and ship them to Amazon who handles all of the shipping, customer service and returns. Of course, they take a hefty percentage to provide this service. It’s Amazon, they’re in the business to make money.

As an Amazon seller, you have access to the biggest marketplace in the world. There’s a bit of a learning curve and some tools that you’ll need to get started, but I’ve found that selling on Amazon is a lot of fun and can bring in $1,000 or so per month.

There are a lot of places to learn this business. I recommend Romer the Roamer or The Bookflipper.

3. Customer Service for Travel Company

A lot of people have remote online jobs and I do too! I work as a contract employee for an online travel company. As a contract employee, I only work when the company needs some extra help. They bring me on 3-4 times a year for a few weeks or month. I work part time answering customer emails. It took a little bit of training, but with a background in online customer service, it was a job that I could step right into.

Customer service is something that I enjoy. It’s one aspect of my work as a campground host that I really like. I just enjoying helping people out and making their day better in whatever way I can.

I think if you like to help people, have customer service experience and are relatively savvy on the computer, a remote customer service job can be a great way to earn income to travel.

4. Wonolo is one way to Make Money with RV Travel

Wonolo is an app where you can find local jobs that you can assign yourself to. I first heard about Wonolo from some vanlifers I follow on Instagram as a way they earned money to stay on the road. I decided to check it out.

The jobs on the app tend to be things like warehouse work, hotel cleaning or merchandising jobs. I worked a few jobs from the app while I was still at my home base and didn’t end up ever finding any work on the road. You can read my review of my experience with Wonolo here.

5. Drive for Uber Eats

I tried out the food delivery platform Postmates–which is now called Uber Eats back in 2021 to earn a bit of extra money for my RV travels. While this was a good side hustle for me when I was home in my sticks and bricks house, it’s not something I would do on the road in my current van Squeaky because it just doesn’t get good fuel economy and it’s hard to maneuver around it tight parking spots. But if you have a smaller van or a tow vehicle you might enjoy picking up some shifts delivering food.

Tips are the thing that make driving for Uber Eats worthwhile. The few months that did drive I made around $20-$24 hour–before gas.

6. Sell on E-bay

Last year I decided to do a big house de-clutter before I hit the road. Over the years I’ve collected things like political and peace buttons, gay pride pins and t-shirts and some women’s basketball paraphernalia. I listed these on E-bay and was surprised and how much sold. I mean, I had t-shirts that were old and stained from gay pride marches in 1993 and people paid $25-35 for them! I even sold some old rusty peace buttons for $10-12 each. These were all things I kept for the sentimental value, but I decided I no longer needed them to retain the memories.

The most expensive thing I sold was a Keith Haring poster for $600. Now when I’m traveling and am already hitting up thrift stores to look for books to sell on Amazon, I will also check for small things that I can sell on E-bay.

7. Secret Shop

I signed up for an app called iSecretShop from a recommendation from a friend. While this isn’t a great way to earn a lot of money, it can be a fun way to bring in a few bucks here and there. Some of the shops pay very little, like $10 to evaluate a fast food restaurant and others can pay over $100 for a more involved shop.

Thus far, I’ve completed two apartment evaluations–where you pretend to be a person looking to rent an apartment. I called, spoke to the renting agent, visited the apartment and filled out an online evaluation of the whole process. I earned $45 for less than an hour’s work. Both apartments happened to be super close to my house.

8. Camp Hosting

Although my previous camp hosting experience has been volunteer, this summer I will work as a paid campground host near Mt. Hood in Oregon. This will be a full time job with pay and benefits and will probably be my biggest income source for 2023.

9. Blogging & Podcasting

Finally, I make money with this blog and by hosting the Solo Women RV podcast. I make money on this blog when you make a purchase of a product I recommend. I’m learning to write for SEO and have signed up to be an affiliate for some of the different products I recommend. Some people earn a pretty decent income from this strategy.

I did a podcast episode on how to make money blogging that you can listen to here.

And finally, my podcast brings in money through sponsors. While I create the content for free and will never charge you to listen to the Solo Women RV podcast, some people do send me a small bit of money each month to support the work that goes into creating the podcast every week.

Here’s a link if you’d like to sponsor for as little as $.99 per month.

Those are the ways that I make money to support my RV travel. I will probably try out new and different things this year, as I always enjoy trying new things. There are a lot of ways to make money to support your RV dreams. Don’t let earning money come in the way of following your RV dreams. If one things doesn’t work out, try something else. That’s what I do!