Creating a "digital nomad" income

[Poetic Justice]

In the past 6 months I've returned a few times to the concept of moving to Bali (or somewhere like it) to live a different lifestyle. For a myriad of reasons to do with job satisfaction, health, time spent with family, time spent living, the idea of moving abroad to attempt something different, mix things up, etc has been quite interesting.

Obviously, a key component to doing something like this is the potential to earn money. In some areas, relocating can be simple as you can move to the particular area and find work. When considering a destination like Bali, there's employment rules that forbid foreigners from doing normal job tasks as they would prefer to reserve it for the locallers (mind you, I think this concept is quite sound), with certain jobs that may require additional skill being permitted with correct permits.

With all that said, you can of course find ways to make money in the online space. Such lines of work can include much of the tech space, be it website design, social media marketing, SEO work, copywriting, freelance writing etc.

Has anyone had any experiences with trying to build an online income without a day job?
Has anyone moved abroad and tried to find work online successfully?

I'd love to hear stories!

It will quite possibly remain a pipe-dream but it's something that I've thought about a fair bit. Even if it is only for a 1-2 year stint and then coming back to Aus.

 

[The Edukator]

I had some friends nice to Thailand to play poker during the boom. He used to party non stop and bang hookers. Pretty sure he loved it and made 6 figures AUD at the time.

 

[Scotland]

I implore anyone considering this path to make sure they actually have saleable skills. And I wish them well.

Having a social media profile and flogging pyramid schemes doesn't make you a digital nomad.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Get a mining job on a good roster and fifo out of Bali.

Until very recently I was doing a job share roster, 2 weeks on and 4 weeks off, would have been ideal.

 

[Eaglespur]

I implore anyone considering this path to make sure they actually have saleable skills. And I wish them well.

Having a social media profile and flogging pyramid schemes doesn't make you a digital nomad.

Yes it does? If you are a nomad and make money digitally you by definition a digital nomad...

 

[ash_1050]

I did some digital nomad work for around 7-8 months while living in Europe albeit it was mostly freelance for 3-4 months in one spot then travel for 1-2 months rather than a hybrid of work and travel. The concept has been flogged to the death by people trying to show off their 'success' which for a lot of people that success is earning US$2000 a month and living in Chang Mai. Not my idea of living but kudos to them if that's how they want to define success.

There's plenty of resources out there to assist but the main takeaway is find a niche that you can earn a decent living in or settle for grinding out poorly paid tasks such as SEO writing in a higher volume capacity.

My main advise would be to build a steady stream of income before transitioning across to the role full time and from there look to become a digital nomad. No point quitting your job and launching into it with two feet if you haven't proven the model before hand.

 

[Scotland]

Yes it does? If you are a nomad and make money digitally you by definition a digital nomad...

My idea of a digital nomad is someone who performs tasks for clients. Basically like an online tradie. You go where the work is, except it's all online so you don't physically go anywhere.

Not really anything nomadic about posting 25 photos of yourself in your underwear each day with 30 hashtags.

 

[Poetic Justice]

It basically means any income whereby you're not required to be physically anchored somewhere to complete the work/earn the moneys.

 

[woota]

I did paid SEO writing for a little while. It just felt like a tedious grind before long I grew tired of it. I wouldn't recommend it unless you can find a way to get heaps of work and then outsource it to people in the phillipines - you pay them in AUD which obviously works out okay for them when converted to pesos.

Once upon a time, having a simple vlog about your day-to-day activities in bali might have been a good way to make a living from there, but the way youtube has made things so complicated for content creators with its weird algorithms and all that, it's pretty much a crapshoot to make a full-time income relying just on adsense revenue alone. You have to use your youtube channel to sell a product or funnel viewers into a website where you sell stuff. Or rely on Patreon/Subscribestar donations from your viewership.

 

[Silent Alarm]

I did paid SEO writing for a little while. It just felt like a tedious grind before long I grew tired of it. I wouldn't recommend it unless you can find a way to get heaps of work and then outsource it to people in the phillipines - you pay them in AUD which obviously works out okay for them when converted to pesos.

Once upon a time, having a simple vlog about your day-to-day activities in bali might have been a good way to make a living from there, but the way youtube has made things so complicated for content creators with its weird algorithms and all that, it's pretty much a crapshoot to make a full-time income relying just on adsense revenue alone. You have to use your youtube channel to sell a product or funnel viewers into a website where you sell stuff. Or rely on Patreon/Subscribestar donations from your viewership.

How'd you get your SEO work?

 

[Crashy]

Dropshipping - Fairly saturated now but can work, especially if you live in a cheap country
Affiliate Marketing - If you have no shame flogging off garbage to friends/family and strangers
SMMA - Run facebook ads for local business, I don't like it but there is some money to be made.
Sell courses - Fake it to you make it enough for people to buy crappy courses you create

 

[Silent Alarm]

Nothing tedious about SEO writing. Really enjoyable in my opinion.

How'd you wrangle some?

 

[Wojcinski]

Dropshipping - Fairly saturated now but can work, especially if you live in a cheap country
Affiliate Marketing - If you have no shame flogging off garbage to friends/family and strangers
SMMA - Run facebook ads for local business, I don't like it but there is some money to be made.
Sell courses - Fake it to you make it enough for people to buy crappy courses you create

AKA the list of "income streams" for s**t people who don't care who they rip off