Being a digital nomad has some amazing advantages. Being free to travel the world and make a living no matter where you are is a great thing. They key is to find a way to make a living. The best way is to find several ways to make a living and combine them.
This is called having multiple streams of income. That way if you have less income in one area than another in a month, you don’t go broke. This assures that you can maintain your digital nomad lifestyle while still making a living. So what are some of these streams of revenue and how do you make them work for you?
Travel Blogging
You are traveling anyway, so a travel blog is a great stream of income. Your descriptions, experiences, and photos offer your unique take on a place, and you can cultivate a following of readers that will anticipate your updates. How do you make money from travel blogging? There are two common ways.
Write for Other Travel Blogs: You can sell your travel stories to travel blogs, travel magazines, and other places and make money that way. These are of course one-time payments, but this can be a lucrative stream of income.
Start Your Own Travel Blog: This usually earns you more in the long run but does require more time and initial investment. You will have to purchase your own domain name, find hosting, and design your site. But you can monetize it by adding advertisements, using affiliate links, and even accepting sponsored posts or find a site sponsor. Check our website monetization guide to learn more.
Having your own blog is more work but offers you more freedom and income potential. Writing for others takes less time and effort on your part, freeing up your time for other income-generating endeavors. Whichever way you choose, travel blogging is but one of several potential streams of income.
Be a Professional Reviewer
You will have to have certain products with you when you travel anyway. From certain gadgets to everyday things like luggage, backpacks, and technology. Reviewing them can be a way for you to make some extra money or even just get some of the things you need for free. There are some steps to becoming a reviewer and a few ways to go about it.
- Contact the brands directly. Sometimes brands are looking for brand ambassadors and reviewers, and by contacting them directly, you can get a gig as a reviewer.
- Contact review blogs and websites. While brand ambassadors get free stuff, those who write reviews for review sites get paid and get to use stuff, although these reviewers do not always get to keep it. This type of review job also lets you be more brutally honest. If you don’t like a product, you are freer to say what is wrong with it in your review.
- Start your own review blog. You can start your own review blog. This is similar to starting your own travel blog: you will need the same things, and if you want to do it just part-time, you will probably need to recruit other reviewers as well. In the long run, this will make you the most money, but as with travel blogging, it will mean more work.
Of course, if you combined travel and product reviews into a single blog, you would have some income from both, and then you have a combined stream of income with a single investment.
Work Remotely
It is a digital world, and many companies work with remote workforces, and many skills and positions lend themselves to this kind of work. Whether you work in marketing, customer service, graphic design, writing, SEO, or many other fields, there are jobs to be had where your employer does not care where you work from as long as you get the work done.
Applying for these working nomads positions is easy, but getting the job is not always so simple. You need to show that you are a self-starter, self-motivated, and can get your work done by deadlines without someone looking over your shoulder or managing you directly.
Remote work is not for everyone, certainly. Many of these jobs require you to put in a certain number of hours and even keep certain hours, which can be a problem depending on what time zone you are in. Still, others are much more flexible, and as long as you work enough hours and get your work done, it does not matter when you do it.
A remote job can be a great way to get both benefits and pay without being tied to a specific location. If you have the skills and self-motivation necessary this can be a great income source.
Start a Freelance Business
The same types of jobs that lend themselves to a remote career can also work as a freelance business. You can do work on a contract basis dealing directly with companies, but not be employed by any one of them. This gives you a certain amount of freedom to pick and choose jobs you want to do and when you want to do work.
The downside of a freelance business is that you also must run the business and do all the administrative and management work. You also need to account for the taxes you will need to pay, depending on your citizenry and country of residence at the time you earn money.
This can be complex, but it can also be the best stream of income you have. If you live somewhere the cost of living is low, you will make even more money this way. There is also a certain thrill around owning your own business and being successful anywhere you are in the world.
As a digital nomad, there are a number of ways you can make a living. Having multiple ways, multiple streams of income makes that income more secure and your lifestyle more viable. Keep your options open and look for more than one way to make money from anywhere. You’ll be a better nomad for it.