I know that you have on your vision board to live your best life this year 2020 and beyond!
You may be thinking about how you can be able to have more freedom to decide where you want to work from, what you want to do and how you want to earn an income. Simply you may be wondering how to spend more time with your family, travel the world and experience the things you are passionate about while working on a job, a project or a business without having the restriction of being in a particular geographical location.
Well, I have good news, Traveling the world and working on the go has become more accessible to many of us than we actually think it is. However, it cannot be overemphasised to have the right skills to make it possible.
In this article, I am going to share with you some of the top 20 skills that can enable and empower you to work from anywhere, earn an income online and decide where your next office will be
Now before we go into the details you need to know that no one can show you how to do it but yourself after you have read this information and access other resources available to you online. So you need to go out there to create your own experiences and even determine if really this lifestyle is for you.
Noteworthy
Everyone’s path is different and you will need to find yours. Key to working remotely is knowing how you can be able to transform the skills that you already have (or willing to learn ) and what you’re going to be able to do online and get paid for it.
I would like to remind you that it may take some time to double, triple or quintuple your current earning while working remotely; so it’s okay to start somewhere basic since that is not where you will end up.
So let’s get into it:
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VIRTUAL OR ONLINE BUSINESS ASSISTANCE
Are insanely organized? If yes, then this route may be for you. It’s like being a jack of all trades and could be one of the easiest routes for you to launch your location independent career and start travelling the world. As a virtual assistant, you are flexible, organized and effective in providing support on a number of activities and processes for a business owner. One day you may be handling email correspondence, doing travel planning, team organization and meeting schedules; and on other days you may be doing business research, entering data or updating social media.
You can find roles on Craigslist, HireMyMom, Zirtual among other VA focused remote job boards. Make sure you watch some youtube videos to better prepare for this.
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FREELANCE WRITING
Even though not the most highly paid skill, If English is your native or official language you best and the most highly paid remote skill if you’re a Native English speaker or 2nd language has become one of the most effective ways to not only communicate but also market products and services across different industries we can specialize as a copywriting, SEO content marketing or even ghostwriting for publications. Find jobs on Textbroker, contena, freelancer, Airtasker among other remote job platforms where you can easily writing gigs to finance your travel to cheap destinations.
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TRANSLATION
Depending on your interest in qualification and your ability to speak at least two international languages you can find a remote job as a translator to support your travels and even perhaps make a full-time career out of it providing services in this for different categories; written translation, conversational or verbal translation, literary translation for publications, authors and journal or you can offer localization translation where your employers needs businesses or advertising translation for product or service they are trying to in a different country.
To be a translator you must be fluent in the market languages euphemism and slang you need to have basic computer literacy skills and be an effective communicator. Whatever you decide you can find gigs Rev, lion bridge, World Lingo, Gengo, Verbalize It etc.
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DATA ENTRY OR COMPLETING ONLINE SURVEYS
Doing data entry work isn’t exactly top of the list for those wanting to work from anywhere and travel the world but it is another really cool opportunity to earn some steady alternative income to tide you over during quiet months.
It simply involves completing a few different tasks depending on the type of work you get, but mostly all consist of typing, data processing and entering data into spreadsheets. You can find all entry sites online, all you have to do is sign up and apply (some have minimal requirements) and you’re all set to start entering that data.
Be wary of fraudulent websites and be sure to check your residency status is eligible for the job so you don’t end up working for free. Data entry requires little imagination so it is so easy to do. You’re simply gathering data from one place or the other and placing it into another. So just turn on some music and get stuck in.
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DIGITAL MARKETING AND ADVERTISING
A few paragraphs cannot justify what digital marketing entails, but I will try to give you an insight, think about the number of times you were looking for a service or a product and you went to search engine or social media to look for the relevant sellers or service providers? Everything that pops up involves a process that was conducted by someone with a high paying skill to show you that results.
So below are some forms of the most relevant digital marketing skills that you can specialize in and that continuously in demand today and unto the future are
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND ADVERTISING
According to a study by GWI Internet users are now spending an average of two hours on social media and messaging platforms.
No surprises that now majority of businesses globally are all trying to find ways to connect deeper with their customers where they spend a lot of their time daily on social media ( Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest etc. They want to do this by engaging with them on content that reminds them of their value proposition, build and rewards a culture of brand loyalty and in doing so generate sales.
Thus, Learning the art of marketing and advertising on social media especially Facebook and Instagram and becoming an expert in it can enable you to help businesses sell their products and services and give you a path to creating wealth, working remotely and be location independent. The best route is for you to get an average of 5 paying customers per month that you will manage and market for them on social media or even train their staff to do so for a premium fee.
Or you can start by creating a profile on Fiverr or Upwork as a freelancer and wait for customers to come looking for you.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Is the art of getting your clients or your own website to rank in the top position for profitable search queries by users of search engines ( of which Google is the father of all lol) is king!.
As much as social media is a vibe, smart businesses are typically building an online presence, directing traffic from both search engines and social media to their website. Great attention to search engines can help businesses generate repeat sales and traffic to their sites long after the content created is done, unlike social content that has a lifespan of 4-6 hours max.
So learning If you can master this art, you can launch a remote business to fast track your digital nomad dream as long as you deliver the results. Skills that are essential to success are Web design, Copyrighting, Strong analytical skills and constant update and upskill since Google algorithms keep changing. Also, like any other business, you need to keep learning by following SEO blogs to keep updated, gaining experience by doing and network with people who do the same.
SALES FUNNEL EXPERT
Sales are king in the world of business. Every single aspect of a business is designed to create a viable and profitable product or service that can be sold in the marketplace into the future. As 1.79 billion people shop online in 2018 in a global eCommerce $2.68 trillion in 2018 of which $260 billion is set to could have been recovered through improving checkout experience and many more staggering statistics as highlighted here by fundera; Businesses online are continuously sorting for ways to have better control over search results, being compatible across devices, easy to navigate, improve efficiency, user-friendliness and ease of checkout experience in their online sales funnels.
Learning how to create and optimize sales funnel; can give you an edge in the global digital marketplace by becoming a sales funnel expert and expedite your dream of working from anywhere. Click here to learn more about the sales funnel.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Is the type of performance-based marketing way by on your website on your clients’ website you get to promote products and services that you believe in and if people purchase this product you are in a commission from them. One of the biggest market places where you can sign up as an affiliate is ClickBank or amazon affiliate. You can create your own website where you do product reviews or simply a niche blog or YouTube channel to build community. Whatever route you take knowledge of search engine optimization as well the search engine advertising is a must.
Digital marketing. There are various forms of data marketing of which is intended for you to focus on one or two areas of mastery in order to be well-positioned to get remote jobs or gigs online. You can specialize in Search engine optimization, search engine advertising, affiliate marketing influencer marketing, funnel marketing and optimization, Pay Paper click or email marketing.
ONLINE TEACHING
The most common form of online teaching Is teaching an English online to foreign students in other countries it is mostly accessible to bachelor degree holders (in any subject ) who are English speakers (doesn’t have to be native speakers in some cases ). So having a certification eg TESL testifying to your professional proficiency can be very useful. You can get reliable online teaching jobs on Teachaway, Palfish, TOPICA Native, Fluentbe, First Future among others
Most recently platforms like you Udemy and Teachable have made it easier and accessible for you to create your own online course. You can transform certain types of life experiences & knowledge into lessons to add value to others via online courses. All you need is a great course content, a video recorder and send it for review to any of these platforms or you can simply launch on your own platform: You decide your own pricing.
FILMMAKING AND EDITING
Video content creation is king in today’s online market space. If you can teach yourself, get trained online or physically; build a portfolio and commit to continuous mastery of your craft to stand out as a filmmaker or Editor you can easily land a remote job, become a freelancer or start your own remote businesses to start your location independent lifestyle. For inspiration, check out Ant Creative, Onye Ubanatu and Gilbert Asante.
CONTENT CREATION VIA BLOGS / VLOGS
Whatever your passion is, be it beauty, Lifestyle, Travel, Electronics, Technology, Business, Animals, environmental conservation or even finance you can start a blog or a vlog to share valuable content to help other enthusiasts to build a community and overtime if you are well-positioned and strategic you can make money off your blog through so many ways.
You can launch a digital product, a physical product, work with brands, earn affiliate Commissions-among others ways! If you are interested in learning how to build a profitable blog and blog like a boss I recommend you take
For some inspiration check out Jubril Agoro, Glographics and myself Fadila!
For a start, you can start with free resources available on youtube, find your voice by practising and sharing your message and overtime you will get better at it!
WEB DESIGN
It is no news that every company who has the target audience online need a website and read new businesses to bring it up every single day there are opportunities for web designers to provide their services.
Learning the basics in web design is easier than you think. If you study hard you can learn to build a website for clients in WordPress within a few weeks. You don’t even need to become a great designer for this since you can simply use WordPress themes from sites like Woothemes or Themeforest that will look great right from the beginning. Some knowledge of web design is important for most skills listed below and since the basics are so easy to learn I strongly suggest investing some time in getting to grips with the basics, you can learn on KhanAcademy, Code Academy, Team Treehouse. One great way to actually start making money with web design is to first build a site for yourself about a topic you are interested in and then ask business owners you know personally if you could build a website for them. If you do it well, simply ask them for referrals to generate on-going business.
Although it is a saturated market oversupply of online web design, with good positioning, branding, pricing and quality delivery you can find remote jobs on Stack overflow, Ruby now, Landing jobs, dice, 99 designs, Airtasker among other remote job platforms.
UX / UI DESIGNER
UX and UI design are two different elements of single consumer experience. UX refers to the user experience, which focuses on how something works and how people interact with it. UI, or user interface, focus on the look and layout. Both are high-income skills that are in demand by creative agencies, especially in Africa which can set you up for your career as a digital nomad.
TRADING
Trading you can make a lot of money or you can lose a lot of money if you have a solid knowledge of the financial markets can capitalize on the volatility as well as liquidity in the market to trade foreign currencies, stock options or derivatives.
The beauty of this is that you do not need any customers with clients or business partners. You’re able to make an income based on your knowledge of the market and ability to swiftly identify opportunities and trade accordingly. Thus, It is very important to note that you need to put in a consistent amount of time/effort to study in order to understand the market first and be patient enough in order for you to sustainably make profits in the financial markets so if you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme this may not be for you.
If you are interested in learning Stock trading I highly recommend you Checking out the Timothy Sykes youtube videos and when you are ready for an upgrade to sign up for the millionaire program. For more information on other reliable programs, click here
Please be wary of schemes that promise to teach you how to double your money in a week: most likely they are up to sell you some software that won’t help your education but makes you excessively dependent on their system for your trades. I have personally been a trader offline for over 3 years now and have been learning to trade online for about 2 years. I have seen them and thus be warned!
For me, trading currencies offline and on the counter has worked for me and has been the foundation with which I build my online business and fund my location independent lifestyle. While travelling and learning other skills to diversify and earn passive income.
The most risk-free place to start your journey is by taking cheap courses on Udemy, doing your own research, watching YouTube videos and most importantly watching and trading the markets live even if via paper trading.
E-COMMERCE
With over 40% of the world’s Internet users haven’t bought a product or service online, it means that there are over 1 billion active people seeking for products and services online to purchase from the comfort of wherever it is that they are. This enormous opportunity has given rise to a business model that has proven to work for over the past decade and given an opportunity to those who seek location independent lifestyle to identify a niche in the market and provide solutions or simply resell existing products that customers are already searching for online. Dropshipping, online stores and marketplaces are just among the few forms of e-commerce that exist today and you can tap into.
Knowledge of marketing is very essential and creating an e-commerce business and this is one of those business models can be developed successfully in under six months. If you’re interested in the drop-shipping model I highly recommend you take the Antons method course.
CONSULTING
Consulting can be done online for most services. Think about the number of times you have thoughts about how cool it will if you could easily talk with your lawyer, a business development consultant, your sales associates a doctor and nutritionist or even a psychological therapist.
If you already have experience as a professional of at least 3 years and are interested in having more freedom while providing yourself service as an independent consultant for a contract or as a freelancer for business clients then it’s time to consider Being a Virtual Consultant :
You can create your own firm and he’s content marketing to generate new leads online while When your existing physical client to deal with you virtually.
Whatever your speciality in whatever industry you can find high paying gigs as a consultant on any of these specialized and competitive platforms: Expert360, Talmix, SpareHire, TalentExchange, Flexy or mindbench.
HIGH SKILLED PROGRAMMING
Like designing, becoming a great programmer is not easy and it takes a good few years of work experience to really get up to speed. Highly skilled programmers earn great money and depending on the scope of the projects you are working on many opportunities exist to work and travel. Start by doing a few tutorials or courses to build up your knowledge of different programming skills.
If you choose to become a Programmer, however, make sure that you are passionate about the work you do. There will be a lot of hurdles along the way if you intend to become a pro and make a good living with it. But once you do the World is your playground. The demand for skilled freelance programmers is on the rise and hourly wages are high, making this one of the best freelance jobs you can have that enables you to live and work anywhere in the world.
YOUR CURRENT JOB
Yes! First thing I want you to do is to stop thinking that you may not already have some of the skills needed to go remote; so please be reminded not to throw away your years of experience from your past jobs.
You may not need to change jobs in order to go remote; you can negotiate with your current employer to give you say 2 days per week to work from home. If you already are allowed to work from home, you can negotiate an increasing number of days; and when they do make sure you over-deliver on your work assignments than you normally would if you were working from the office.
Over time, you can move from being partially remote and becoming a fulltime location-independent employee.
Another route may be to create your own job title and pitch your unique skills and value propositions to remote companies who may need your expertise without even knowing they do while you work on your exit from your current position.
ONLINE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Bringing it all together, they are other opportunities for making a living online and travelling the world other than all of the aforementioned. And this route can be categorized under Online Entrepreneurship since it will be impossible to summarize in full what this entails in this post.
What I can say is that you need a great idea and the right execution to make this happen. You can create your own digital products like an online course, games, stamps, develop mobile applications, create electronic platforms, online marketplaces, create passive income websites or even launch your own startup – whatever it is you must offer value and be strategically positioned to be innovative and competitive in order to sustain this. Since many people ultimately dream this but must fail to make it happen, and some do but fail to be patient and put in the hard work and time required to sustain it.
Overall, be reminded that to become profitable you need time, efforts, the right partnership, the right team and a good understanding of basic skills such as SEO, SEA, Web design, Copyrighting, Effective marketing communications and affiliate marketing.
So what is the best way to get started working online and travelling the world?
Ultimately it depends on you and what your current situation is, however, I strongly believe that you need to acquire the skills that are best suited for you and get your own clients to pay you to render the services to them. Don’t forget that time management, discipline and personal accountability are key to your success as a remote worker or business owner. It doesn’t matter if you choose to start out as an online teacher, a social media manager, a VA or even a web designer; once you start making a reasonable income that is sufficient for your basic needs and travel expenses; you can now focus on your own passion projects and become more independent as a digital nomad.
I always say, have a cash cow that makes you money so you will not be in a hurry to quickly monetize your passion project prematurely. Thus it is important to note that you can always move from one line of work to the other as you upskill. There are abundant opportunities for all of us to prosper! So start with one skill and don’t stop there.
I wish you all the success in your journey. If you find this article useful and end up taking action on any of the information provided herein, it’d be great to hear and share your story of success with our community.
To learn more about the digital nomad lifestyle click here and be sure to check out the resources for a list of recommended conferences, books, networking events and communities for location independent entrepreneurs and remote workers.
