Let’s address the white elephant in the room: Staying at home for work isn’t as glamorous as it sounds, especially if it’s the only choice you have. While there are perks to a work-from-home setup, the fine line separating work and home life tends to be blurred.
Perhaps a new career path is what you need right now—one that leads you outside your home (or away from your work desk), but still lets you do the work you love. In that case, why not become a digital nomad?
What is a Digital Nomad?
Digital nomads work remotely by choice, not because some worldwide occurrence forced them into it. They follow a lifestyle that allows them to work while actively traveling, whether it be in a coffee shop or by the seaside. All they need is a laptop, an internet connection, and a well-curated online profile that can attract prospective clients.
The number of digital nomads has increased over the past years from 4.8 million in 2018 to a whopping 10.9 million in 2020. Digital nomads have so much freedom and flexibility in terms of workload and income. They are able to set how many hours they are willing to work and how much they want to earn.
Overall, this work-and-play kind of setup is what makes digital nomads different. It allows them to see the world while working at their own time and pace.
But what exactly does a digital nomad do for a living? The answer: A lot.
Digital nomads rely on their broad range of skills, from graphic design to language teaching, from photography to coding. Here are some of the most popular and profitable digital nomad jobs in 2021:
- Virtual Assistant
With businesses shifting to a virtual workspace, there is an increasing demand for people adept at working in the digital space. After all, the internet can be a very overwhelming place, especially for busy people.
Virtual assistants are not much different from regular assistants. Like the latter, they also do different tasks for people, such as ordering food online and responding to emails, but they do their work from the comforts of their own space, wherever that is.
- Digital Influencer
Yes, that person you follow on your favorite social media app is a digital nomad, and just like them, you can be one, too!
Besides doing grocery hauls, make-up tutorials, or vlogging their everyday lives, digital influencers earn in a lot of ways like affiliate marketing, brand collaboration, and even product creation.
It’s basically a marketing job because you have to sell yourself, your image, and your brand to businesses and the general public.
- Copywriter
The captions or articles that you read online don’t just come out of thin air. They’re made with a thought process behind them and are structured to encourage you to buy a particular product or service.
That is basically what a copywriter does, and what’s great with copywriting is that you can work for a number of clients in one sitting. This helps you build your portfolio and get more clients interested in hiring you.
Nowadays, you can do this from just about anywhere as long as you have a computer and internet.
- Graphic Designer
If you’re really into the arts or have some art skills in your bag of tricks, you might want to consider getting into graphic design. Graphic designers can charge anywhere from $100 to $5000 dollars for the graphics that they create.
If you’re a newbie, you don’t need any fancy software or equipment. You can start out with a lot of free tools online and work your way to par with those fancier stuff!
Work on a portfolio to show prospective clients, and who knows, you could be making the logo of the next big thing!
- Language Teacher
They say that learning is not confined within the four walls of the classroom. As a digital nomad, you might not even need any walls to teach!
The need for language teachers has increased with the continuous expansion of the global market. As a result, people from different countries that work with each other would have some benefit in learning a common language, and that’s exactly where you come in. Your linguistic expertise—may it be in English, Spanish, or German—will come in handy in bridging that gap!
There are a lot of websites that cater to people who want to teach languages. You might want to apply to work for Preply.com to get started on your career as an online language teacher.
As we said, being a digital nomad requires you to invest in your skillset, so now would be the best time to hone them according to what line of work you want to do. Moreover, having an online portfolio would also be great to help clients see and assess your capabilities. Think of it as a creative extension to your resume.
If you’re set on traveling the world while actively working or running a business, then give some of these jobs a shot, and who knows you could be writing the caption for some company’s new product release in the Swiss alps, or editing the logo of a known chain restaurant while cruising through the Caribbean!
