4 Popular ways to make money as a digital nomad

Freedom means different things to different people; but the common theme appears to be that of having both the time and money to enjoy life on your own terms – to do the things you want to do, when you want to do them… and for a lot of people that is to live a life of travel.

Whether you want to travel the world, and live in a beach hut in Thailand for a few months or simply cruise along the West Coast in a cool convertible staying at hip places like the Hotel Republic San Diego… you’re going to need fuel to get there, and in this sense, fuel is money.

In today’s flourishing digital economy there is the opportunity to work remotely, from anywhere in the world, providing you have a laptop and a decent internet connection!  No doubt you’ll have heard the tales of someone giving up their daily grind in order to travel the world… where they exchange the shackles of the nine-to-five for flexible working hours and the congested commute for a pleasant walk from their beach hut to a local coffee shop.

The benefits of this remote working lifestyle are clear… there are plenty of people who, right now, have exchanged their office cubicle for a beach in Thailand, getting a foot massage for a few dollars, whilst working on their iPad.

The opportunity to work remotely, and live the freelancing dream is within your grasp – but unless you’re able to generate a decent income you could end up spending your time pacing the beach in a state of financial stress rather than blissful relaxation!

This article looks at a few tips for making it today as a digital nomad.If you are a freelancer trying to make a decent income, in today’s economy, the general advice is to develop a portfolio of ongoing projects rather than depend on one source of income.  The second part of this advice is to develop skills that are in demand, and in particular, skills where the demand is likely to increase in coming years; that is aligned with the freedom lifestyle.  Here are a few examples:

How I personally earn money:

Start a blog today

Most of what I’ve accomplished today comes from blogging. A blog is easy to monetize in a very passive way, so you can easily make some passive income with affiliate marketing or blog sponsors once everything is set up. Then start promoting your blog with PR & Free Publicity to gain followers.

Did you know that only 11% of all bloggers earn more than $30.000? So you better make sure you’re one of the top 11% bloggers! To be honest, it’s not that difficult, but you have to realize it’s not just blogging.

See, this blogger makes $50,000 (!) every month in a very passive way. Having multiple income streams is a start. I have collected over 50+ ways bloggers and online entrepreneurs can make money and many of the ways I have used to be able to travel the past three years. 

If you don’t have a blog yet, start one today. You know why? Don’t do it for the money. Do it to share your passion(s) and who knows what comes from it. The way we blog will change all the time, but having a large ‘resume’ or creative portfolio online is worth a lot! And let me tell you: working with your favorite brands is a reward and awesome on itself!

Here’s the easiest tutorial on how to start your own blog. The easiest way to monetize your blog if you already have a blog is starting with affiliate marketing. 

Already got a blog?

If you already have a blog or if you’re not interested in blogging, I suggest you create an online course for free with Teachable. The difference with other ideas to make a living online is that with a blog or an online course you can make (quick-ish) five figures without working harder or more, while if you’re doing survey’s for example, it will take forever and it will be a lot more work that’s less fun. You do the work once and sell your ‘work’ over and over again.

Create your online course now

Teaching people things you love and know about is so much fun! I absolutely love all my course students! I wish I’d started sooner with exploring my options to hosting an online course because I walked around with the idea for waaaay too long.

I didn’t know about Teachable and Udemy yet, so I just didn’t know how to technically create it. Now, you’ve got me. So create your own school on Teachable (or Udemy) for free now!

Get started with email marketing if you don’t want to create things (but sell!)

If you’re not a type that creates a lot, I suggest you get into email marketing, everyone can write emails right? Email marketing is a great way to stay in contact with people and building a following (who knows what you come up with later in life!) without creating something now. You can easily monetize your email marketing if you’ve got the right tools. I recommend Convertkit or AWeber to start with your newsletter and check out this post on earning recurring monthly income without a blog.

Video Editing

With the ever-increasing trend for user-generated content, and video explainers, the demand for video editing is booming and shows no signs of stopping; basic video editing is a skill you can pick up reasonably quickly, and the Adobe Suite of products doesn’t cost that much for a monthly subscription.

Web Design

Web Design is another booming market, and whilst, a few years ago web designers would require an understanding of coding language – today, there are plenty of WYSWYG website builders available, where it is as simple as dragging and dropping elements onto a page, without any need for coding.  Remember, you don’t need to be a designer extraordinaire, you just need to be able to facilitate the tangible outcome that the client wants.

Copywriting

Just as popular as web design and video editing is copywriting where you develop content for a client, whether that’s a blog post, advertising copy, or a description of the business or service.  The more specialized this is (e.g. business plan writing) the higher paid you will be, but someone with a general grasp of creative writing can produce compelling copy that converts website visitors into customers.

Where to find work

Several freelancing websites make popular tasks such as web design, video editing, and copywriting accessible to a global market of freelancers.  These are the most viable way of getting sta ed, unless you’re lucky enough to have ongoing contracts from previous endeavours that you have been able to migrate over.