A 2018 study found that nearly 5 million Americans identified as digital nomads, working full-time while traveling the globe. To embrace this lifestyle, you need to find a way to earn money without being tethered to a specific location. Fortunately, you won’t have to look beyond this article for creative ideas.
At NicheHacks, we boast a community of over 150,000 travelers and digital nomads earning income through our website, email lists, and social media groups. Drawing from their experiences and feedback, I’ve curated twelve methods that can generate substantial income almost anywhere in the world.
The best part? You can treat them as side hustles or invest more time to turn them into full-fledged income streams.
Freelance Services as an Independent Contractor
Regardless of your location, if you possess skills that businesses or entrepreneurs find valuable, freelancing online is a quick way to start making money. It’s the fastest route to earning online and a top choice for digital nomads.
According to leading freelance platform Upwork, over 57 million Americans engaged in freelancing in 2019. Fiverr, another platform, reports that, on average, businesses spend more per order on their platform than ever before.
While listing all the services you can offer as a freelancer is impossible, I’ll share a quick overview to give you an idea:
- Writing/Blogging: If you can craft engaging and error-free content, countless blog owners are seeking writers in various niches.
- Copywriting: Write persuasive copy for landing pages, website content, email sequences, and become a copywriter earning thousands per month.
- Virtual Assistant Services: Save clients time by handling daily tasks like scheduling meetings, responding to emails, note-taking, and managing website operational tasks.
- Outreach Services: Connect with other business owners on behalf of your clients through cold emails to build a network.
- Programming/Coding: Develop software, mobile apps, websites, etc., potentially earning a six-figure income.
- Software Quality Assurance: Audit software, helping developers optimize their code.
- Graphic Design: Create logos, banners, and website designs for a living.
- Voiceover Services: Offer voiceovers for marketing videos if you speak fluently.
- Video/Audio Editing: With the rise of video content, demand for video and audio editors is increasing.
- Project Management: Marketers, agencies, or even large companies often hire online project managers to handle remote teams and complete tasks.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Learn SEO and earn hundreds of thousands by driving traffic to clients’ websites.
- Guest Blogging: Help website owners and marketers build brand awareness by featuring on leading sites in their respective fields.
- Translation: If you speak multiple languages, offer freelance translation services.
As a freelancer, your income correlates with the strength of your brand image and the quality of your portfolio.
Start a Blog to Make Money Online
Starting a blog is one of the best ways to break free from the 9 to 5 grind, earning life-changing money while traveling the world. The reason is simple: people love reading useful and engaging blog content.
Once your blog starts attracting regular traffic, there are limitless ways to monetize it. The best part? Most of it is entirely passive income.
- Advertisements: Use Google AdSense, Ezoic, Media.net, Bidvertiser, or any other ad network to make money when your readers click on ads.
- Affiliate Marketing: Promote products from Amazon, ClickBank, CJ, and other affiliate networks, earning when your referrals make purchases.
- Sponsored Content: Charge relevant brands to publish articles on your blog.
- Membership Exclusive Content: Create a separate, membership-exclusive section on your site, charging a monthly fee.
- Digital Product Sales: Sell e-books, video courses, and other digital products to your audience.
To build a successful blog, you need to understand the needs of your target audience and create high-quality content that comprehensively addresses their questions, surpassing competitor offerings.
Become a Website Flipper and Renovation Expert
The website flipping model operates similarly to real estate renovation: buy, improve, and sell.
Unlike starting and growing a blog from scratch, becoming a website investor involves purchasing an already established site with lower-than-expected profits.
Enhance the website, increase its revenue, and then sell it to another investor for a price between 24 to 48 times its monthly profit.
This means a website earning only $1,000 per month can be sold for $24,000 to $48,000.
Platforms like Flippa, InvestorsClub, and EmpireFlippers facilitate the buying and selling of websites.
Start a Vlog for Life-Changing Money
You already have a passion for travel. Why not share your experiences with fellow travel enthusiasts and make thousands of dollars each month?
I’m talking about starting a travel vlog on YouTube.
YouTube isn’t just the world’s largest video streaming platform; it’s also the second-largest search engine globally.
If you can create interesting and engaging content on YouTube, you can quickly attract a large following from around the world.
Louis, a full-time travel vlogger, is a prime example. His channel boasts over 23 million subscribers eagerly awaiting his daily vlogs where he shares his travel experiences.
Building such a massive subscriber base takes years, but you don’t need that many subscribers to start making money on YouTube. You can begin earning money with just a few thousand subscribers through ads and sponsored content.
Promote Third-Party Products as an Affiliate Marketer
I’ve mentioned affiliate marketing in the blog monetization methods, but it’s such a vast industry that it deserves a separate mention.
Affiliate marketing is a billion-dollar industry with an incredibly low barrier to entry. You don’t need massive investments, infrastructure, or advanced skills to start affiliate marketing.
That’s why it’s one of the most popular ways to make money online.
Starting with Blogging
Digital nomads particularly love this industry. For instance, Michelle is a personal finance blogger living and traveling in her RV, earning a steady income of over $50,000 annually through affiliate marketing.
Blogging isn’t the only way to make money as an affiliate marketer. You can find a problem, create a niche website around it, and make money as an Amazon affiliate member. In some areas, you don’t even need a website to make money as an affiliate marketer—you can sell products directly from your email list.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how to do it:
- Identify a need or problem with sustained consumer demand. For example, thousands want to lose weight to feel good and live a more positive and healthy life.
- Find products on Amazon, ClickBank, CJ, or any other affiliate network that can help people solve these problems.
- Instead of directly selling these products, create a lead magnet for a potential customer base—for example, a free e-book or video tutorial sharing advice on weight loss, healthy living, fitness, or any topic that addresses your audience’s core problems.
- Put the lead magnet on a landing page with a registration form (check out this detailed guide on creating highly optimized landing pages).
- Create an email autoresponder series, sharing free advice and recommending suitable products (with your affiliate links) to your subscribers.
- Use Facebook ads to promote your lead magnet.
When your Facebook ads go live, the entire process looks like this:
- Drive traffic from Facebook to your landing page.
- Visitors download the lead magnet by joining your email list.
- Once they become email subscribers, they start receiving emails containing product recommendations.
- Every time your subscriber buys a product you recommended, you make money.
Engage in Paid Online Surveys
Participating in paid online surveys is an easy way to earn extra pocket money each month. As long as you can spare 1-2 hours daily, you can answer surveys and potentially earn hundreds of dollars monthly.
You can learn more about maximizing survey income methods and discover dozens of paid survey sites in this article.
Sell Online Courses
Online learning is one of the fastest-growing industries globally. Millions purchase online courses to learn new skills, increase income, and achieve various goals.
If you’re passionate about a particular subject, you can create an online course and sell it on platforms like Teachable, Udemy, Skillshare, and more. These platforms attract millions of visitors each month, meaning you won’t struggle to find students for your course.
However, to receive positive reviews and attract more students, your course quality must be top-notch.
Become an Online Tutor
No time to create an online course? No problem.
Start as an online tutor, earning thousands each month from anywhere in the world.
Here’s how:
- Join an online teaching platform like ClassGap, Preply, or TutorMe.
- Highlight the subjects you want to teach.
- Connect with suitable students.
- Get paid for teaching.
You can also find students for different subjects on Craigslist and Upwork and teach them directly through Skype or other video call solutions.
Start a Dropshipping Business in E-Commerce from Anywhere
E-commerce is experiencing rapid growth worldwide. According to Maryville University data, global retail e-commerce will exceed $48 trillion in 2021.
Dropshipping is the simplest way to enter the e-commerce market without spending any upfront costs.
Here’s how the dropshipping business model works:
Unlike traditional e-commerce stores, dropshipping requires no inventory or previous investments.
- List products on your e-commerce store and drive traffic to your site.
- When you receive an order, purchase the product directly from the cheapest supplier and have it shipped to the customer at your price.
- Automate the entire process with Shopify and Oberlo.
Build a Branded E-Commerce Business Using Amazon FBA
Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is a service where you can build a multi-million dollar e-commerce business.
Here’s how it works:
- Find suitable products to sell on Amazon, ship them to their warehouses, and focus on product marketing.
- Amazon handles logistics, payments, customer support, and returns.
Start an On-Demand Printing Business
On-demand printing is another e-commerce business model you can operate from anywhere.
It’s similar to dropshipping, but you have better control over product design and quality.
Here’s how it works:
- Register with on-demand printing (POD) companies like TeeSpring, Printful, or Shopify.
- Create or upload designs for T-shirts, hats, mugs, and other accessories.
- Add the final products to your e-commerce store.
- Drive traffic to your website using Facebook ads, SEO, and other traffic generation strategies.
- When customers order your products, the POD company prints your design and ships it to customers, paying a portion of the product price to your account.
Sell Photography Online
If you’re a travel enthusiast who loves exploring new places, you can easily earn a substantial income by selling your photos online.
The process is straightforward:
- Register on photo-sharing sites like Shutterstock and Adobe Stock.
- Upload your photos, and every time someone purchases one, you earn a portion of the sale price.
Here’s an article that shares how a photography enthusiast turned his hobby into a full-time income by selling photos on Etsy.
Ready to start your next side hustle?
Earning income online and living on your terms has never been better than it is now. With so many different money-making options, there’s no need to stay in a job you dislike. Even if you’re not ready to quit your job, you can try the side hustles I’ve shared in this article to see how much money you can earn in a few months.
If you fully commit, you might end up making several times more than your full-time job.
+ There are no comments
Add yours