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I’ve written at length about how to make money while traveling, how to start a digital business, and how to retire before you turn 30.
People have been consistently asking for a list of digital nomad / independent jobs though. So here’s a repost of a great video from Practical Psychology about the 8 most common digital nomad jobs.
We’re going to be launching a remote job board soon, so make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter if you’d like to get notified when we launch our job board!
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Table of Contents
The Written Version:
Digital nomads are taking the world by storm. In fact, a number of countries have begun to create visas just for location independent people who want to travel the world and work straight from their computers. These nomads have the freedom to live and work wherever they are allowed. It’s not uncommon for people with this kind of lifestyle to flock to Bali, Chiang Mai, or California to enjoy great weather and cities with exciting potential. If you can do your job remotely, you can start living life as a digital nomad.
The digital nomad you meet in Chiang Mai or metagame may have one of the following common job titles, but that isn’t to say you can’t make the digital nomad lifestyle work for you, whatever your job is. The following are some suggestions for remote and freelancing jobs that can allow you to go digital, but they’re not an exclusive list of just digital nomad jobs.
1. Web Developer
So, let’s move on. Number one: web developer. Someone has to create and understand the ins and outs of the online world. Web developers and web designers make great digital nomads. After all, their entire job requires just a computer and an internet connection. If you can offer great advice or create great products for your clients, you can set up a profitable business as a web developer. Now, it’s really easy to get started. In fact, there are tons of free online courses. Also, I want to say many digital nomads run their own businesses. Often they will produce a product, maybe like a website design, for example, a theme that is available for purchase. And if you can set up an online business delivering these types of digital products, you will be all set to live the digital nomad lifestyle because you can make money whenever you sleep.
2. Digital Marketer
But let’s move on number two is a digital marketer. Many retail businesses are making the switch from brick and mortar to e-commerce. Many business-to-business businesses are making the switch from outbound traditional marketing strategies to inbound digital marketing strategies. Leads can find the solutions you are looking for with just a click. They don’t need to be coached by the door to door salesman or face to face meetings. And this is where your expertise comes in.
Digital marketing strategies can be created, implemented, and tested from any location in the world. As long as you have access to the right software and a good internet connection, you can manage marketing strategies and create content from anywhere on Earth. Under the realm of digital marketing. You can find many different job opportunities and titles.
For example, Digital Marketing and SEO consultants often recruit a collection of remote workers with different areas of expertise. If you have experience working as a content creator, maybe a social media manager or a copywriter, you might find yourself working under a digital marketer and helping businesses execute their online strategies.
3. Virtual Assistant
Number three is virtual assistant. Implementing a digital marketing strategy often involves a lot of grunt work, stuff like scheduling social media posts, sending out and responding to emails, or even just creating simple graphics to be used in marketing materials. Strategists don’t always have the time to complete these more mundane tasks. So they just hand off their checklists to a virtual assistant.
Now VAs, as they’re called, get paid to do some pretty simple jobs from their computer. Busy professionals don’t just hire virtual assistants to help schedule Pinterest pins. Some VAs don’t even have experience in digital marketing. People may hire virtual assistants to complete tasks like scheduling medical appointments, sending gifts, answering phone calls, data entry, maybe booking some type of reservation, testing links, and scheduling dates.
I’m not even kidding. Tim Ferriss used a virtual assistant to apologize to his wife. Apparently the virtual assistant sent his wife some flowers. Now if you’re interested you can look for virtual assistant jobs on freelance platforms or traditional job posting sites like Craigslist.
4. Consultant
Number four is to be a consultant. So what do clients need from a consultant? Well, they offer expertise and advice. Consultants can deliver this advice from anywhere in the world, it doesn’t matter where they are. Consultants, like many digital nomads, create their own business offering advice to clients. In fact, there are actual digital nomad consultants who help coach clients to transition to the digital nomad lifestyle.
Now this is a great opportunity for people who may have this skill-set of a typical digital nomad. If you have years of knowledge and experience in a certain area and have the ability to teach and communicate that knowledge and information in an engaging and unique way, kind of like how I’m making these videos, consulting may be the best career path for you.
5. Customer Support Representative
Number five is something really simple but it’s customer support representative. Now this is another job title that serves as an umbrella for other positions including virtual assistant. Customer support representatives help buyers make their purchase through a very variety of channels, maybe over the phone, through instant messaging softwares, or other stuff like that. As long as you can help the person on the other end of the line, you can successfully work as a customer service representative. Neil Patel recommends that your customer representatives that you hire, or if you are a customer representative, that you have actually used the product or the service that you’re trying to sell. It makes it much more genuine.
Under the umbrella of customer service representative is the exciting job of being a travel agent. Who can help plan a trip better than someone who has always on vacation, right? Earning travel agent credentials may require a little bit of online education courses, but it can be a wonderful way to pursue your passion and make a livable income. In fact, most of the travel agents that I actually know travel a lot more than the average person.
6. Language Teacher
Number six is to become a language teacher. The demand for English teachers is high throughout the world, and companies often want speakers who are fluent in English. For years, this opportunity has allowed recent college graduates or teachers from America, England, and other English speaking countries to live in different parts of the world that aren’t main English speaking countries like Spain, Japan, and Vietnam.
Now, this opportunity is still available, and there are many nomads who spend their lives hopping from country to country teaching English around the world. But if you want a little bit more freedom you can work and teach right through your computer. Companies like SayABC or VIPkid allow digital nomads to spend a few hours each day teaching children around the world how to speak proper English. Each company has different requirements and schedules and stuff like that. But most opportunities are actually really flexible. I have quite a few friends who do this as a side hustle.
7. Copywriter
Now, number seven is to be a copywriter. If you have the ability to write well and tell a story, you can help businesses, individuals, and entrepreneurs, and hopefully, you can make some big bucks. When most people hear the word writer in a job title, they think of like a novelist. You don’t have to publish a book to work as a writer full-time. Freelance writers can submit pieces to magazines or publications or blogs and get compensated for their work. Copywriters can enjoy a nine to five brainstorming creative advertising or web copy for businesses. In fact, copywriting is one of the easiest ways to make an extra thousand dollars every month as a side hustle because it’s not very saturated and it’s very easy to get started.
Some copywriters get paid up to $10,000 per project. If you pick it up full time you can easily rake in six figures yearly. Many writers work under the umbrella of digital marketing, creating optimized blog posts that help businesses drive traffic to their website to generate leads. Other writers work as so-called ghostwriters, where they write stories, biographies, or just other content under the name of their client. Now, this content is like any other product on the market.
If you can sell the ability to create written content, you can start getting clients and create a business that will take you around the world. If you’re curious about how to become a professional, or maybe even a part-time copywriter.
I’ve actually recently launched my training called “copywriting kit” to help you learn to write more persuasively and land a high paying copywriting job in less than 30 days. I’m only opening it to 100 students at the current discounted price, and it also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee so it’s totally risk-free to you. If you’re interested, check out the link in the description below to learn more about mastering this high-income skill. And if you’re not, let’s move on to the last digital nomad job.
8. Photographer
Number eight is to be a photographer. Like writers, businesses hire photographers to deliver a product. As long as the contractor can actually deliver the product, they won’t really need that much supervision. Photographers do need to show up in person somewhere, but they have the freedom to take on jobs based on where they want to live. For example, who doesn’t want to see a gorgeous set of photos from Bali or Bamf as marketing materials?
So as you can see, there are many ways to find remote work and start making a living as a digital nomad. If you have a skill set outside of what these job positions call for, you can probably, if you’re creative, still find a way to become a digital nomad. All it takes is a little bit of creativity and the ability to sell your skills to clients who will hire you. Thank you guys so much for watching, and I really hope you enjoyed this video.
