Of all the NuRVers I have met so far, one of the common threads has been our knack for creative income generation. The NuRVer doesn't appear to be the clock-punchers - the nine to fivers. 

So, the question is: what interesting things you have done for Road Money? 

Not real interesting, but I have been a distributor for an MLM company. We are not real go-getters with the product right now, but it is always great when we need a burst of cash (fuel money :) )  and we can push and sell some product. I have also thought that if my programming gigs ever give out, I could make a couple hundred dollars a day detailing coaches. Until my arms fell off, I suppose.

 

What do you do?

 

--kev

My reliable source of income is similar to yours - I help run a family software development business.  I just (like in the past week) cut back my role in the company by dropping the on-call support element. I've traded some of my reliable income for freedom to not have to be available during the day. I'll now be making just enough to make ends meet, but not enough to fund a bunch of fun stuff - which I wanted as incentive to explore other fun income producing stuff. 

Our sporadic income producing gigs we've taken on so far:

 - We helped launch a start-up iPhone application at MacWorld by developing a PR plan with the media, bloggers, twitter to culminate on a double decker party bus with DJs and beer on tap, roving around MacWorld.  We handled everything from PR, media interviews, getting some high visibility reviews, organizing the bus & DJs, setup, take down, staffing shifts, etc.  It was 6 weeks of intense work.. but oh so fun!   

 - I run a side little hobby business called 'Purge Genie', in which I help folks simplify their life by getting rid of unneeded stuff (you know, like we all did to hit the road!) and coaching them through the shedding process.  Sometimes I offer this in thanks for trailer parking, and sometimes I get paid by taking a cut of selling their higher dollar unneeded stuff on eBay/Amazon.  As we have limited space, I tend to only take high value small items - and keep a suitcase with my Purge  Genie items.  It's a nice little hit of cash, and I enjoy the 'game' of fetching sales on items - and helping people get rid of clutter. The business is scalable that I could, if I wanted, market myself to be able to come onsite for a month of so and help with estate size liquidations. 

- TripFilms.com commissioned us to produce a few short travel videos for them.  It was fun, and I got to learn new skills at video editing in the process. 

 

 

We also take on shorter term consulting gigs around strategy development for products, copy editing and other such random stuff.  We love projects that we can do in bursts and don't have a long term commitment. We're also exploring iPhone application development.   

 

 Great topic.. looking forward to hearing what others have done. And hopefully this thread will help others jog their brains for ideas of how to help fund their travels in creative ways!

 

 - Cherie 

Ok, our attempts at making a living on the road include:

running three different Wordpress MU online communities. The ad revenues are nowhere near enough to live on, but they're bigger drops in the bucket every day. for a while I was a digital scrapbooking reseller through Creative Memories. Made some OK money but not enough to meet their quotas. I'm not into the soccer-mom scrapbooking parties, and that's the best way to have huge sales. I'm looking for a new company to represent, which doesn't have such big quotas.
Jim does marketing consulting and design work for a few clientsI've been taking on some writing assignments that are increasingly bringining in some cash. This has been really fun for me.We workamp occasionally. Worked a few weeks at a ranch during hay season this summerI'll be working at Amazon in a few weeks. It's a temporary gig, which is about all I can handle when it comes to punching a clock!My newest endeavor is to be put to the test this winter, when I attempt to sell some handmade artsy greeting cards.

The biggest realization we've had since hitting the road is that the best thing anyone can do, RVer or not, is to have several sources of income instead of depending on just one. Been there, done that, and it really tied us down, as well as left us at the mercy of the economic powers that be. From now on, we've vowed to live with a little more uncertainty and not focus on running a single type of business, but instead will have our income eggs scattered in many different baskets.

Yep...I agree with Rene. Having multiple streams of income is key. Our main source of income is from my job. I currently work for my parents doing admin stuff for their company. I also do photography on a pretty regular basis, which is good money. I do nutritional counseling as well. Matt has owned his own repair business, and now will take it back on the road doing remodels of RV's and other homes. He is also learning how to install veggie oil systems in vehicles so he can do that too. Lots of little things. We prefer to work really hard for a short amount of time and then play :-)

Do you mind if I ask how you are making money in photography?