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If you’re looking to become a digital nomad and want to work and live wherever you want, finding a job that suits your lifestyle is the first thing you’ll need to consider.
Thankfully, due to the rise of remote work, there are more options than ever, allowing you to live a fulfilling life that you love.
In this post, I’ll take a look at some of the best digital nomad jobs for beginners, what makes them great, and so much more. Let’s get started!
- Working as a freelancer (writing, video editing, bookkeeping)
- Working as a virtual assistant
- Working as a blogger
- Working in software development or design
What is a Digital Nomad?
A digital nomad is “someone who performs their occupation entirely over the internet while traveling.” according to Merriam-Webster.
Just think of having a job that allows you to:
It’s easy to see why so many people are attracted to this lifestyle.
With millions of people now working remotely, finding a job that allows you the freedom to live wherever you want is key.
A freelance writer is a writer that can take many different forms. You could write blogs, technical documents, or even a full-length book manuscript.
Some writers will be credited for their work, while others might work as “ghost writers” where your writing is published under someone else’s name.
As a freelancer writer, you’ll have freedoms that in-house staff writers don’t.
Instead of being tied to an office, you’ll be able to travel the world – making it a perfect job for digital nomads. You may even incorporate your travel into your writing. For example, you could write about travel, or you might be a freelance journalist chasing the latest story.
Another benefit is the pay.
The can vary widely depending on your experience and expertise, but top-tier writers are capable of charing $.50 to $1 per word. This means a 1,000-word article could net you $1,000!
With this remote job, you can earn over $58,000 according to Indeed – making it one of the higher paying jobs you can find.
If you want to make $5,000 a month – working as a freelance writer can be a tremendous option.
An editor is someone who reads a completed piece of text and makes changes to improve it.
These can range from small changes like punctuation to larger changes like reworking entire paragraphs or sentences.
A good editor works with a writer to “punch up” the writing by maintaining the core of the text. They help the writer to clarify what they’re saying and communicate with more precision.
Proofreaders have a very similar, but a slightly more limited role. A proofreader simply ensures that the text is technically correct. They touch up grammar and spelling mistakes and make a final pass for punctuation.
Working as a proofreader or editor is another great digital nomad job for beginners for a few reasons.
It offers strong pay, superb flexibility, and no advanced degrees are required to start working.
According to Glassdoor, the average freelance editor makes around $50,000 annually. 
A social media manager operates the social media accounts of a business or high-profile individuals.
Their job is to be the digital “face” of the brand. They create posts, respond to comments, and even develop entire social media campaigns. The job is a mix of marketing, customer relations, and analysis.
In practice, the scale of the work will depend on your client. Some clients only want certain posts on certain platforms at certain times. Others want someone to manage their entire social media strategy.
This is a growing field, and you’ll need to be up to date with all of the latest trends in order to be successful – but it’s a great remote job for anyone who loves social media.
According to Glassdoor, the average social media manager earns around $52,694 annually but this career has tremendous growth opportunity.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the advertising, promotions, and marketing fields are expected to have a 10% growth rate over the next decade. This is double the average growth rate. 
Web development is the art of developing and programming web apps. This can include widgets on websites, mobile games, or any other kind of online software.
This is a technical job, and you’ll need to be good at coding to get started. But thankfully, there are plenty of online resources like W3Schools where you can learn the basics. After that, all you need is a laptop and an internet connection to get started to make money programming.
This is one of the highest paying digital nomad jobs for beginners with an average pay of around $85,000 according to Glassdoor.
Graphic design is an ideal career for anyone with a knack for drawing and art.
As a graphic designer, you’ll create logos, promotional artwork, and other images for your clients. It is a job you can do from a hotel room, or even from a chair on the beach.
Your pay will come down to how strong your portfolio is and how aggressively you market yourself.
While the average designer makes around $47,852 annually according to Glassdoor, those who are more prominent and skilled can make well over $20k a month.
A virtual assistant does a similar job as an administrative assistant, but without being in the office.
As a virtual assistant, you might answer emails, schedule meetings, perform data entry tasks, and book flights and hotels. Some clients ask for additional tasks, such as help with their social media accounts, but this will depend on your clients.
The best part of this online job is that you don’t need any specialized skills to get started. If you’re willing to learn, you’ll do great in this role.
While this isn’t the highest paying job on the list, you can still make good money while living the digital nomad lifestyle.
Most virtual assistants make anywhere between $20 and $30 per hour, but if you have more advanced skills (like coding or design skills) you could make even more.
If you want to become a virtual assistant but you don’t know where to start, I recommend checking out Carrie’s Virtual Assistant Accelerator course where you can learn how to grow a profitable VA business and land high paying clients.
Language teaching or tutoring is a perfect job for digital nomads because you can take advantage of your existing skills. Let’s say you speak English and you travel to Brazil. You can pay your way by offering English tutoring, assuming your Portuguese is up to the task.
You don’t have to be fluent in the local language to be an English tutor. You can still help more advanced students with their work. That said, being bilingual will open up many more opportunities.
A video editor takes pre-existing audio, video, and images, and compiles them into a complete video. With the recent explosion of online video, video editors are in peak demand. You can find work with a company or freelance for YouTubers and other content creators.
Keep in mind that video editing requires a robust laptop. You’ll also need the appropriate software to get the job done like Adobe Premiere Pro, iMovie, and Final Cut Pro.
As a video editor, you can expect to earn around $55,000 a year according to Glassdoor, but your hourly rate can be much higher. Some video editors can make $100 an hour or more.
A freelance or stock photographer takes pictures to license out to other people. For example, you can sell your pictures to Shutterstock, iStock, or another stock photo service. If you build a social media following, you can even sell tee shirts and other prints of your most popular pictures.
A digital nomad is a perfect candidate for work as a freelance photographer. When you see something interesting on your travels, snap a picture to make money!
Your income can vary widely, depending on the quality of your photos and how you market them, but successful stock photographers can make over $100k a year in passive income.
Check out the video below to learn how you can get started!
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in the popularity of online tutoring. Even today, it remains a popular option for parents because of the convenience factor.
You can tutor students online in virtually any subject. True, you’ll have to adhere to a schedule and keep your appointments. But within those limitations, you can roam the Earth to your heart’s content while getting paid at the same time.
A transcriptionist listens to an audio or video recording and types out whatever is being said.
Companies sometimes hire transcriptionists to keep accurate records of meetings or searchable text for a seminar. Many transcriptionists work for a court and type complete transcripts of hearings or trials.
Transcribing audio isn’t as easy as it sounds! You’ll have to deal with people who mumble, slur their words, or talk too quickly. A speaker may have a heavy accent, or there may be issues with the audio. You’ll need plenty of patience, as well as fast typing skills to do well in this position.
Data entry is the task of entering data into a digital file. For example, your client may have a list of names, emails, and phone numbers written in a Word document. You might need to take this data and organize it in an Excel spreadsheet.
You need to have good typing skills for this job, as well as a keen eye for details. There’s a big difference between $1.99 and $199! On the plus side, you can do data entry from anywhere, so it’s perfect for a digital nomad.
While this job can be monotonous and mundane, it’s a great option for digital nomads with a limited skillset.
A customer service representative is a person who takes phone calls on behalf of a company and responds to questions or requests. Any time you call a company’s customer service line, you talk to a customer service representative.
Most of these jobs are easy to obtain; all you have to do is pass a simple test. You’ll also need a reliable headset and a quiet hotel room to work in. Some jobs only require you to write email responses, so you don’t even need a headset.
If you’re fluent in more than one language, you’re already qualified to be an online translator.
You don’t need any special degree, training, or expertise. As a result, it’s a great job for a beginner. Depending on the job, you could translate blog posts, technical documents, or even books.
You might think that human translators are obsolete, but AI translators still make many errors. They can’t capture tone and context the way a real human being can. As a result, there’s still a wide market for real people.
Affiliate marketing isn’t so much a traditional job as another stream of income.
With affiliate marketing, you’ll earn a small commission every time someone makes a purchase through your links.
For example, if you have a blog or website – you can place your links on your posts and earn an income each time someone clicks them and makes a purchase.
Some other audience ideas include:
Affiliate marketing is extremely scalable, meaning that the more number of people who use your links or promo codes, the more money you can make. You don’t have to worry about supply chain issues, inventory, or anything else!
Whether your goal is to make $100 a day or earn $500 a day – affiliate marketing can be a great option.
Blogging is another great example of a digital side hustle that can easily turn into your full-time job.
As a blogger, you’ll spend your days creating written content and promoting it online.
I love this passive side hustle because you can start a blog for under $150 a year and just about anyone can get started.
Blogs can make money through several methods, but my favorites are display advertising and affiliate marketing. These are scalable income streams that don’t require any of your time to earn an income.
How much money can you make with blogging?
Ultimately, it will depend on the amount of traffic you’re capable of bringing to your site, but some bloggers can make $50k a month.
I know some bloggers who even make $100k a month from their sites!
Now, it’ll certainly take some time to reach those income levels, but you can certainly make $3000 a month within a year.
If you’re ready to start blogging, check out these types of blogs that make money and these pieces of blogging equipment you might need!
An email marketing specialist is an expert at all things email marketing, including developing email campaigns, tracking engagement, and adjusting future campaigns based on their results.
The average salary of an email marketing specialist is around $80,000 annually according to Glassdoor.
This is a great marketing role that provides the flexibility for you to work wherever you want because you’ll only need a computer and internet connection to do your job.
An au pair is a babysitter who lives with the family full-time.
In exchange for watching their children and doing some small chores, you get food and a place to stay.
The pay for this job isn’t the best, but if you’re looking to develop connections and don’t have a ton of skills, it could be for you.
You might think the only way to become a voice actor is to break into the animated film industry. But there are many opportunities for freelance actors, including documentaries and advertising jobs.
There’s also a seemingly endless demand for audiobook narrators, and even some podcasts are paying for voice actors.
The nice thing about voice acting is the amount of flexibility it affords you.
For traditional acting, you have to be on the stage or set in person whereas with voice acting you can do it in any space that’s suitable for vocal recording.
The amount of money you can make will vary, but the average income for voice actors according to Glassdoor is around $62,000 annually.
Did you know that some social media influencers make millions from their accounts each month?
And you don’t have to be some of the top influencers to make that much money, either!
As a social media influencer you can make money through several methods. For example, you can sell sponsored posts where a certain brand is featured. You can also promote affiliate links to earn a portion of each sale you facilitate.
If you’re looking for a digital nomad job that doesn’t require a degree, becoming a social media influencer might be a good option.
Tour guiding isn’t an online job, but it’s great for anyone who wants to travel. You’ll go to a new place, learn all you can, then teach other people about it.
This will include some downtime. When you change locations, you’ll have to educate yourself before you can start working.
This is another lower paying job on the list, but you will get to see beautiful places all day and it can be relaxing – so it might be worth it for some.
Web designers are professionals who as the name suggests, design websites. The work is surprisingly easy to learn and doesn’t require advanced coding skills like web development does. You can learn to build a site in a few weeks, then start selling your skills by making money building websites.
You’ll need to be knowledgable about current design trends and UX/UI components if you want to be successful with the job, but you can learn these skills online.
As long as you have an eye for detail, colors, and design trends, working as a web designer can be a great job for beginner digital nomads.
Artists can work from anywhere in the world – making it a strong job possibility for traveling digital nomads.
Whether you’re a painter, ceramicist, or muralist – there are tons of jobs for artists anywhere in the world.
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As a digital nomad, your pay will vary depending on the type of work you do.
One thing that’s nice is that your income isn’t tied to your cost of living, like most traditional jobs.
Your income potential is virtually limitless.
Some digital nomads have a job that pays over $200k a year, while others might make $4000 a month.
If you’re a new digital nomad searching for a job, there’s certainly no shortage of options.
Some of the best digital nomad jobs for beginners include freelancing, working as a virtual assistant, or even data entry work.
If you want the flexibility that being a digital nomad provides, there are plenty of options out there.
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