How Do Digital Nomads Make Money?
It’s an understandable question: How do digital nomads make money, again? Here’s what you need to know.
At its core, being a digital nomad means that you’re working while you travel. But given that the working nomad lifestyle isn’t exactly conventional, it’s only natural to wonder how, exactly, digital nomads make money. In fact, “How do digital nomads make money?” is one of the most common questions nomads hear. The answer is less complicated than you’d think. Here’s what you need to know.
How Do You Make Money as a Digital Nomad?
As the name implies, digital nomads are working online. If they have a laptop and an Internet connection, they’re able to do business. Of course, there’s a little more to it than that. In general, you can divide working nomads into four camps:
Freelancers
This is one of the most common ways digital nomads make money. Freelancing typically allows you to make your own hours, be your own boss, and work with a variety of people and companies without the overhead of having full time employees and company obligations. Freelancing crops up in a wide variety of areas — marketing, writing, graphic design, and more. If you have a specialty, it’s worth seeing if you can go freelance.
Company owners
Plenty of nomads go this route, too. Many business owners don’t need to be in one location all the time, and, like going freelance, being the boss means that you can set your own hours and go at a pace that feels right to you. Company owners who are digital nomads typically have a team of people that they manage remotely.
Those who work for a remote-only company
A growing number of companies are shunning the traditional notion that employees need to be under one roof during working hours, and are remote-only. That means there is no office and everyone works remotely — even the CEO. It often doesn’t matter where in the world you do your job from, as long as the work gets done. For example, NomadX is a fully remote company with its team located throughout the world in Bali, Mexico City, Lisbon, Atlanta and Brazil but with its virtual headquarters at Startup Lisboa accelerator in Lisbon.
Those who work remote for a brick and mortar company
You don’t necessarily have to work for a remote-only company to be a salaried employee. Some more progressive companies let employees work remotely — it just may take some digging to see if yours will allow this.
If you’re interested in making a job change to become a digital nomad, you can start doing research on job sites like FlexJobs and Remote.co, which are packed with options.
Once you get your work situation sorted, look us up at NomadX.com. We’d love to help you find mid-term housing for your digital nomad lifestyle.
Read also: These Are the Top 100 Companies for Remote Jobs
ABOUT NOMADX
NOMADX is a real estate technology platform developed to meet the needs of the rapidly growing global community of location-independent remote workers, or “Digital Nomads”.
As Digital Nomads ourselves, we know what the market is looking for: trusted, affordable accommodations in highly-attractive locations worldwide at 50% less than AirBNB. We also offer educational masterclasses to help master the lifestyle as well as community events to help foster new friendships.
Please join our community of Digital Nomads and remote workers from around the world:
Instagram: nomadx.experience
Facebook Group: Support Community for Remote Workers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave Williams is the CEO and Co-founder of NOMADX with his base in Lisbon, Portugal. Dave is a US pioneer in the digital marketing, advertising, and ad tech industries as a serial digital entrepreneur over the past 20+ years with multiple exits in the early formative stages of the search engine marketing, social media, and ad tech industries.
