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Who needs the 9-5 grind and struggling to pay rent in an expensive place like San Francisco or New York when you can easily make money online? Since your office can be wherever you open your laptop, more and more people are quitting their day jobs to do remote work. According to a study by Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs, the remote workforce has grown by 159% since 2005, and remote workers will make up as much as 50% of the entire workforce by 2020, thanks to the ease of making money online. The statistics also show another exciting trend for digital nomads: Remote work gives women, especially female entrepreneurs, an edge and is helping close the wage gap. And here's the best part: By making money online, you have the choice of living wherever you want. You can work from home or you can travel the world, which gives you another advantage—by earning U.S. dollars as a digital nomad and living in countries that are much cheaper than at home, you can live very well indeed.
We sleuthed out some creative ways that digital nomads have found to make money online, from the website International Living—which just issued a new report detailing how expats are traveling the world and earning a living abroad—to FlexJobs, which recently published a story on the best fields to for remote work. The lesson? It's time to rip up the old rules and try something new. Here are 27 exciting ways to make money online, work wherever you choose and live the dream.
Do you have a skill that you want to share? International Living suggests setting up an online course with written tutorials, PDF downloads and videos. For instance, Rebecca Groskruetz used her talent for furniture painting to create a site where members can go at their own pace. When she soft-launched the business, she sold 33 programs at $127 each. After doing a bigger launch later the same year, she sold 216 programs at $149 each. Her total sales the first year: $36,375. Some online resources for teaching courses include TakeLessons, Udemy and Skillshare.
Another way to take advantage of your skills: Become an online tutor. The website Cambly helps you get paid to chat with people from around the world. While you're doing the tutoring, the site automatically tracks the time you spend, paying $10.20 an hour. While that might not sound like a lot, consider the fact that you can set your own hours, work as little or as much as you want—and if you're living abroad, $10.20 an hour can go a long way.
Do you love to share advice on travel? Put your expertise to work and become a travel advisor. You can sign up for courses through a place like The Travel Institute. Or you can pay a fee to a company like Cruise Planners, which recruits and trains advisors to work remotely not only in planning cruises but in all kinds of travel—on land and at sea. The company was started in 1994 by a woman named Michelle Fee, who didn’t take a paycheck for the first three years so that she could invest back into the business. Now in its 25th year, Cruise Planners is the nation’s largest home-based travel agent franchise with more than 2,500 franchisees.
Here's a case where you won't dread jury duty. The site eJury has revolutionized the way that lawyers prepare for trial by creating online mock juries and focus groups that help attorneys determine prepare case. You'll get paid for participating.
Seriously. Matador Network published a story called "How to Fund Your Travels Playing Online Poker." We'd say that's better than Vegas!
Do people always want to pick your brain? Now you can get paid for it. The website Clarity has curated a community of passionate experts and thought leaders who are sought out by fellow entrepreneurs in a vast range of fields. The site will help you get paid for your time and advice. Much better than getting reimbursed with a cup of coffee.
Are you organized and resourceful? As a virtual assistant, you make money by helping people and businesses with tasks ranging from data entry to research to customer service—the sky's the limit. The website VANetworking was founded by a virtual assistant and is loaded with tips and job leads.
If you're traveling, it's likely that you're surrounded by gorgeous photo ops, and now that digital cameras are widely available, photography and videography can be a good way to earn an income. Stock websites make it easy for photographers and videographers to upload their work, then will market on your behalf and create passive income for you while you're off shooting the next beautiful location. Stock agencies looking for submissions include Shutterstock, Photoshelter, Fotolia and iStock.
Again, if you're traveling the world, it's the perfect opportunity to write about your experiences and get paid for it. That said, making money as a travel writer isn't easy since you must be able to sell your articles or create a revenue-producing travel blog. But where there's a will, there's a way, and Lonely Planet even published an entire book on the topic, "How to Be a Travel Writer," available in print and as an e-book.