Tour guide: earn money even when you're not guiding

A guide knows things you won't find on any sign: who lived in that house, why that street changed its name, what happened on that corner one particular night. Those stories are their work, but they only exist while the guide is telling them out loud. No group, no story.

An audio guide changes that. You create it once and people listen whenever they like: on a Tuesday at seven in the morning, in the off-season, while you're with another group or on vacation. It doesn't replace your in-person tours; it's another way for your work to reach the people who couldn't sign up.

In Spain, a guide employed by an agency earns between 18,000 and 21,500 euros gross a year under the sector's collective agreement, roughly 1,500 to 1,800 euros a month; base pay ranges from 1,183 euros with no experience to 1,354 with experience (figures from the travel agency collective agreement, compiled by iLERNA). Freelancers charge an average of around 10 to 15 euros an hour (Cronoshare).

Free tours work differently: the guide pays the platform for every person who signs up (GuruWalk, for example, charges 1 euro per attendee) and lives on tips, usually 10 to 20 euros per person, if the group decides to give them.

And all of that takes a physical toll. A study by Åbo Akademi University of 194 guides found voice problems in 11% of them, and research on guides' health points to long days, walking in all weather, and physical and mental fatigue. There's a limit to how many tours you can give in a day. An audio guide has no such limit: it can be played as many times as needed without you lending your voice or your feet.

Every guide on LightUp has their own page: lightuptours.com/profile/your-name. It shows your photo, a line about you, links to your website and your Instagram, the cities where you have audio guides, and all your audio guides as cards, each with its photo, description, price and the languages it's available in.

It's a link you can put in your Instagram bio, on your business card or in a QR code at the end of your tour. And it's not a hidden page: Google recognizes it as a person's profile and connects it to each of your audio guides, so someone searching for a place can end up finding you.

Each audio guide can be free or paid, and you choose the price. A free one helps people discover you; a paid one lets your work pay you even when you're not there.

From every sale you keep 80% of what's left after the fee from Stripe, the payment system. Same with tips: if someone leaves a tip on a tour that includes your audio guides, 80% is shared among that tour's creators.

Payments go through Stripe. You connect your Stripe account once, and from then on your share of every sale is transferred to your account.

If you make sales before connecting it, nothing is lost: the money is held in your name and paid out in full as soon as you connect.

Pick a place you know better than anyone. Tell it the way you would if you were standing right there next to someone. Add a photo, a short description, where it is and, if you like, a price. Submit it.

Every audio guide is reviewed before it's published, so that what people hear on LightUp is good quality. Once it's approved, it shows up on the map and on your page. For ideas on how to tell a great story in audio, read our guide to creating your own audio guide.

How much does my page cost? Nothing. Your page and publishing your audio guides are free; LightUp keeps 20% only when you make a sale.

How much does a tour guide earn with LightUp? 80% of every sale of their audio guides, after the Stripe fee, at a price they set themselves. There's no fixed salary: you earn from every person who buys it, even when you're not there.

How many languages is it published in? For now, each audio guide is published in one language.

When do I get the money? Once your Stripe account is connected, your share of every sale is transferred to it. Anything you sell before connecting it is held and paid out when you connect.

Can I make some free and charge for others? Yes. Each audio guide has its own price.