Moving to Spain as an English Speaker: 3 Ways to Earn a Living Beyond Teaching English

By Patricia Cedeño

 Tell someone you are moving to Spain, and sooner or later they will ask, “So, are you going to teach English?”

It is a fair question. For decades, teaching has been the first answer offered to any English speaker in Spain, and for some people it is a genuinely good fit. But if you have spent years building a career, a business, or a professional reputation, being pointed toward the classroom can feel like being offered a smaller version of your own life.

I have been on both sides of that conversation. I moved to Spain six years ago and now live in Vigo, on the Atlantic coast of Galicia. My background is in tourism and hospitality: I worked in front-office roles, property management, and rural tourism consulting. Alongside that career, I built an affiliate marketing business that allowed me to work across borders and eventually became my full-time work. The skills I learned there now also support The Galicia Life.

This article looks at what sits between the classroom and starting over: three ways an English speaker in Spain can earn a living without teaching English, why Galicia is a particularly interesting base for any of them, and what building my own taught me.

Why Teaching English Became the Default Answer for an English Speaker in Spain

Teaching English became the default answer for a simple reason: it is visible. Academies, private lessons, and school programs are easy to find and easy to explain to family back home, and they give a newcomer a reason to be here from the first week.

That visibility is also its limit. Teaching can tie your income to a local employer, a local timetable, or a local pool of students. It often makes little use of the expertise you built over a career. And if you already have a professional life, the question is not how to find any work in Spain. It is how to keep growing your own work while living here.

That is a different question, and it has different answers. For an English speaker in Spain with an established career, the useful shift is to stop asking, “What does Spain need from me?” and start asking, “What can I do from Spain that I could not do from where I am now?”

Spain as a Base, Not Just a Market

Teaching English sells your language to the Spanish market. The three paths in this article do something different. They treat Spain as a base and sell your skills, your knowledge, or your audience to a much wider market.

The three paths are:

• Build an online income stream by recommending products or services that already exist, which is the route I took
• Take your existing professional expertise to clients or employers abroad and keep doing it from Spain
• Create an asset you own, such as a publication, a community, or a digital product

The first path is built around recommending products or services created by someone else. The second is built around work you already know how to do for clients or employers. The third is about creating an asset of your own, which may later earn through products, subscriptions, services, or relevant partnerships. 

They can overlap, but they are not the same thing, and you do not need to pursue all three. Some people will be better served by a stable remote role; others may prefer to build a business gradually alongside existing work.

Why Galicia Works as a Base

Vigo sits on a ria, a deep estuary that opens onto the Atlantic, with the Cíes Islands visible from parts of the coastline. It is a working port city of manageable scale, where markets, cafés, and daily errands tend to sit within a short walk of each other. For someone whose work happens on a laptop, that can change how a week feels. The day has edges. For an English speaker in Spain working online, that everyday rhythm can be part of the appeal.

Beyond the city, the Rías Baixas, granite villages, and a food culture built around the sea are all within easy reach. You do not have to plan a holiday to find a different rhythm. It is already part of the surroundings.

There is also a quieter signal worth noticing. According to the tourism cluster of Galicia, international visitors now account for nearly 30% of tourism demand in the region, and visitors from the US and the UK grew by 10.4% and 14.6% in 2025. That is a snapshot of tourism, not of relocation, so it deserves a careful reading. But it suggests that English-speaking audiences are paying more attention to Galicia, and wherever attention grows, there is room for people who can explain, curate, and recommend in English. For an English speaker in Spain, that is an opening.

Path One: Build an Online Income Stream by Recommending Products or Services

How affiliate marketing became my second profession

I did not set out to become an affiliate marketer, and nothing in my background pointed that way. My career was in tourism and hospitality: front desk, property management, tourism consulting, and years of hosting guests in vacation rentals that I developed myself. When I started affiliate marketing, I had no experience in it, and it had nothing to do with any of those roles.

That is the appeal. Affiliate marketing does not ask you to be an expert, and it does not ask you to build a product from scratch. You use something that already works, a product or service that is already built and in demand, and you focus on learning the skills that connect it with the people who need it. 

You create useful content for a specific audience, you recommend something that solves a real problem for them, and you earn a commission when your recommendation leads to a purchase. The product belongs to someone else. The skills and the trust are yours.

What I did not expect was how much the process itself would teach me. Five years in, the commissions are only part of the return. I learned to write for search engines and for human readers at the same time. 

I learned how an audience forms around a subject, how an email list works, and how to read what readers do rather than what they say they want. I learned to test an offer and to walk away from one that does not fit. Those skills belong to me, not to an employer or a country.

That portability is what I mean by freedom. It is not the freedom of a laptop on a beach. It is knowing that your income does not depend on one employer, one city, or one conversation going well.

The Galicia Life came after, and it exists because of those skills. Writing, audience building, search, and trust now run a blog, a newsletter, and a community built around Galicia.

I want to be straightforward about the timeline. I made my first sales within my first two weeks, which gave me a reason to keep learning. But those first sales were not the same as a reliable business. It took a few months of testing, improving, and consistently applying what I was learning before I began having consistent four-figure days and was able to make affiliate marketing my full-time work. 

That is my experience, not a typical timeline or a promise of what someone else can expect. This is not a quick or guaranteed route; the early months can feel quiet, and income can fluctuate even after you start making sales.

The Galicia detail came later, and it shows where the skills can lead. Once you have them, you can point them at any subject you know well. Because I live in the place I write about, my recommendations come with context that someone writing from a distance cannot easily replicate. That advantage is available to anyone who becomes genuinely knowledgeable about where they live.

Affiliate disclosure: This is an affiliate link. If you choose to purchase a product or program through it, The Galicia Life may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I recommend it because it relates to a business model I have personally built and understand; that does not mean it will be the right fit for everyone.

Path Two: Take Your Existing Professional Expertise Abroad

If you already have a profession, the most direct option may be the one you are already good at: continuing to work with clients or employers outside Spain, from Spain. Consultants, advisers, designers, marketers, finance and legal professionals, technology specialists, and senior executives can often keep serving the organizations that already value them, from a different postcode.

What changes is the structure around the work. Whether you stay employed by a foreign company, work as an independent consultant, or run your own company with a team affects which residency route may be open to you, how your income is taxed, and how contracts and social security are handled. 

These questions have real consequences and no single answer, which is why I would settle them with a qualified immigration and tax professional before you move rather than after. TGL coordinates with trusted professionals in its network, so you have one clear point of contact while the specialists handle their part.

If you work with an international employer, clients in several countries, or a team spread across borders, contracts, onboarding, invoices, payments, and payroll can become harder to coordinate. 

Deel offers tools for managing international contractors and, through its Employer of Record service, can help eligible companies employ people in countries where they do not have their own entity. It may be worth exploring if you or a company you work with need that kind of operational support. The right solution depends on the countries and working arrangement involved, so check the current services and pricing and discuss your situation with qualified professionals.

Explore Deel’s international hiring and contractor tools →

Affiliate disclosure: The Galicia Life may earn a commission if you sign up through this link. Deel is an operational tool, not a visa service or a substitute for immigration, tax, or employment advice.

The question that is easier to underestimate is not legal at all. It is rhythm. Working with clients abroad from Spain means your calendar and your surroundings no longer match. Some people find that a relief. Others find they need to design it on purpose. Galicia tends to suit people who want that separation, because a working day here can end with a walk along the water instead of a commute.

For an English speaker in Spain whose career is already built, this path is about continuity. Nothing about your expertise needs reinventing. You are changing where you do it, and deciding deliberately how to structure it.

Path Three: Build an Asset Around Something You Know Well

The third path is to build something of your own around a subject you know, an interest you want to explore, or a challenge you understand well. You could become a content creator, offer coaching or consulting based on your professional experience, or develop digital products for a specific audience.

The advantage is that your business doesn't have to be tied to your new location. As an English speaker in Spain, you could serve an international audience through your existing expertise, share content about a subject you're passionate about, or help others solve a problem you've already navigated.

Some models can also grow beyond one-to-one work. Articles can attract readers long after they're published, an email list lets you build relationships directly with your audience, and digital products allow you to share your knowledge without delivering the same service to every customer.

The starting point is finding a subject that connects your skills or interests with something people genuinely value. From there, you can explore which format makes the most sense, whether that's content creation, coaching, consulting, or a digital product. The best choice isn't necessarily the one that looks most profitable, but the one you can see yourself developing while meeting a real need.

Why the Three Work Better Together

Each path has a weakness when it stands alone. Client work is limited by your hours. An online income stream takes time to mature. An owned asset takes time before it earns anything.

Combined, they cover for each other. Client work provides steadiness while an audience grows. The audience creates opportunities that can bring better clients. Affiliate income and your own products add a layer that does not rise and fall with your calendar.

That is the part I wish I had understood earlier. I started with one path and used it to build the skills the others required, then expanded from there. The question was never which one to choose. It was how to sequence them.

A Working Week, Pictured from Vigo

Picture a week where the three sit side by side. Mornings start early, with the city quiet and the ría flat, and your client work gets the best hours of the day. Midday belongs to an unhurried lunch and to whatever the Atlantic is doing outside. Afternoons go to the slower asset: an article, an email to your readers, or a recommendation you are researching.

None of this is exotic. It is an arrangement in which no single source of work has to carry everything, and the place you live is part of the reason it holds together. That is how an English speaker in Spain can end up with a working life that feels steadier, not looser, than the one they left.

Three Mistakes Worth Avoiding

Expecting the timeline of a salary

An employer pays you on the last day of the month. A client base, an online income stream, or an audience builds more slowly, and the first period can feel out of proportion to the effort. Plan your move so that your finances do not depend on those early months.

Choosing a subject only because it pays

Audiences notice. The paths that last are attached to something you could talk about for years without getting bored.

Treating the legal and tax structure as an afterthought

How you earn affects how you can live and be taxed in Spain, and the rules change. Rely on qualified professionals and official sources, not on a forum thread.

Language and everyday life

Spanish is not required to work online for English-speaking clients, but it changes how Vigo feels. Galician is part of daily life here as well. Learning even the basics shapes how quickly the city starts to feel like yours.

Galicia’s climate

Galicia is green because it rains. A grey afternoon is a good working afternoon, but if you want warm sunshine every day, other regions of Spain may suit you better, and I will tell you so.

Discover if Galicia belongs on your shortlist

Whether you're just beginning to consider Spain or comparing places to call home, choosing where to live involves more than finding somewhere beautiful. It's about understanding what everyday life could look like, which locations suit your priorities, and what practical considerations deserve your attention.

Through a Clarity Consultation, we help you assess whether Vigo and the surrounding area fit your lifestyle, preferences, and plans, and identify practical next steps for your situation. And if the answer sits somewhere else in Spain, I will tell you that too.

Book a Clarity Consultation →

The Galicia Life is a community and relocation ecosystem based in Vigo, Spain, working at the intersection of intentional living, cultural integration, and relocation support for internationally minded people building real lives in Galicia.