Have you ever dreamed of finding a job that makes you economically and geographically independent?
It’s been some years now that we have been following the digital nomad lifestyle, which allows us to make money online working from anywhere in the world.
WHO ARE DIGITAL NOMADS?
Who are the so called digital nomads? Very simply, all those who work online.
We often have the perception that a digital nomad must be an entrepeneur or someone who’s self employed. But the truth is, there are a lot of online jobs that can be done working as a standard company employee.
In this post we list 10 ways to make money working online.
However, we’re not talking about “easy ways” to make money, we are not teaching shortcuts to get rich quickly, magically, nor illegally.
As any other job, to earn online you’ll need skills. If you think you need to improve your knowledge, engage in learning, take online courses, study, practice.
SKILLSHARE
A platform we recommend to take online courses is Skillshare, where you’ll find thousands of inspiring classes about design, photography, business and much more (we’re giving you 14 days for free at this link!).
There are many learning platforms out there, sometimes even free. You can learn about them in our post How to find online jobs – Our favourite platfroms.
You can also have a look at EdX, a website offering university level courses to expand your knowledge.
BEST JOBS TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE
So here are the best jobs you can do from home, or from anywhere you want.
We chose 10. Obviously they’re not all here, but we’re recommending you the ones we know better and that have helped us make money online, and still do. In fact, from this list, we did and still do 8 out of 10!
We hope this article will give you some ideas to find new starting points.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- ONLINE TEACHER AND TUTOR
- VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
- CONTENT CREATOR
- COPYWRITER
- SELLING YOUR OWN SERVICE OR PRODUCT
- SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
- EDITOR AND PROOFREADER
- SEO SPECIALIST
- TRANSLATOR
- AFFILIATE MARKETING
1. ONLINE TEACHER AND TUTOR
Are you an expert in something? Why not teaching online your skills? For example you could teach a foreign or your native language, how to cook, play an instrument, create a website, do gardening, dress-making, etc. You just need to be creative!
PRO: if you believe you have something to offer but you don’t know where to start, there are many great platforms to help you getting started (see our mention to Skillshare and EdX above).
CONS: being an expert in something doesn’t mean being able to teach it effectively; you need patience, especially at the beginning.
2. VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
The virtual assistant is a popular figure lately, to whom a manager delegates some activities.
Some examples are replying to emails, managing the calendar, arranging meetings, dealing with customers, data entry, etc.
PRO: if you’re organized, quick and have great problem solving skills, this could be the perfect job for you.
CONS: you’ll have to follow your boss’ instructions accurately.
3. CONTENT CREATOR
This label includes every professional who creates content for a business with several goals like promotion, website, social media posts. Contents can be photographs, videos, newspaper articles.
Imagine a new restaurant launching its business: they will need photos for their website and Facebook page, appealing texts for the menu, perhaps a video to tell the story of the owner and how his dream become reality.
Want to earn with your photography skills? Smiler App is the first on-the-spot photography marketplace, which makes photographers and customers meet in tourist spots or points of interest as stadiums, museums, conferences. You can join Smiler for free at this link.
PRO: you can turn your passions into a job, from shooting photographs, to editing videos, all the way to writing.
CONS: you’ll probably need professional gear, usually quite expensive.
You can find further detailed info about photography in this article How to make an income from photography.
4. COPYWRITER
The term copywriter refers to the person in charge for writing texts of a website, social media captions and any other written content.
PRO: if you can communicate in an effective and persuasive way, this job is ideal for you!
CONS: it’s required, obviously, a great knowledge of grammar and syntax.
5. SELLING YOUR OWN SERVICE OR PRODUCT
Selling anything online means creating an e-commerce website, your own online shop, where you showcase the products you are expert about.
Some ideas: selling e-books, handmade products, artifacts, photos, etc.
If you think you have something to sell, you’re halfway through!
Read here how to create your own website and get started today.
PRO: you’ll be a full-fledged enterpreneur.
CONS: in order to make your brand known, a solid marketing knowledge is key.
6. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
The Social Media Manager is the person managing the social media channels of a brand or company, editing and planning their content.
Usually business owners are not practical about social media, so they prefer to hire an expert to get the job done.
PRO: it’s a extremely creative job and you’ll be contributing with original ideas.
CONS: you’ll spend a lot of time on social media. Make sure you like them.
7. EDITOR AND PROOFREADER
Although they’re often traded for the same thing, editor and proofreader have very different roles: while the the editor works on the quality and the consistency of the contents, the proofreader works on their structure, fixing grammar, syntactic, punctuation and formatting mistakes.
You could work on texts for the web or on books, and you could maybe specialize in editing for a specific sector.
PRO: you could have the privilege of reading and contributing on unpublished novels!
CONS: A background in communication and literature is widely required.
8. SEO SPECIALIST
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, refers to the techniques used to optimize the results on the internet.
Being an expert on this field means being able to choose the most effective strategies to drive traffic to a website.
PRO: It’s a job in extremely high demand.
CONS: You need technical expertise.
9. TRANSLATOR
If you know more than a language, you could work as translator, interpreter, or even dubber for movie and video subtitles.
PRO: If you specialize in specific fields (like medical, scientific, academic), the pay rate will be much higher.
CONS: you need to have a deep knowledge of a foreign language, including its use in daily contexts, expressions and idioms.
10. AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is one of our favorite methods and the one we use the most to make money online.
The process is very simple: by promoting products and services of another business on your website or social media channel, you’ll earn a commission on the selling price every time someone purchases via your recommendation.
It’s like a word of mouth in the digital era, with the difference that you can make some money out of it.
PRO: once you set up everything, you’ll earn even while you sleep, literally!
CONS: to have a good amount of earnings, you’ll have to constantly work on increasing your traffic.
More readers/followers = more people that could potentially buy what you recommend = more earnings.
That’s the complete list of some jobs you could easily do from your home. Or from a tropical beach.
Does any of these make you want to start right away? What’s holding you?
Write your doubts in the comments, we’re here to help you!
Read here out to create your own website in just a few easy steps.
