Digital Nomad Income
Remote Jobs > Free Nomad Guide > Digital Nomad Income
Earning income while you are traveling as a Digital Nomad may be tough, but here are some helpful ways to keep that money rolling in!
Affiliate Marketing
Selling a product through a custom link can earn people a small profit in much the same way a department store earns a small profit by selling products. However, affiliate links do not end up costing the customer any additional money. For example, if a store is selling a widget, they have typically purchased it from the widget company at the wholesale price and sell it to you a the retail price, which gives them even more profit and costs the consumer more money. However, the widget company still makes a profit by selling it to the store at the wholesale price. In the case of affiliate marketing, you get to split the profit with the company on the wholesale price and the consumer still gets the wholesale price. It still saves the consumer from paying the retail price! A few that are worth checking out are CJ Affiliate and ShareASale. Otherwise you could use the FMTC Merchant Hub to find the right affiliate programs for your site!
YouTube Ads
Having a YouTube channel with over 1,000 subscribers can earn you money by using advertisements. Some travelers have upwards of 100,000 subscribers and are earning around $2,300/month. Check out YouTube's Account Monetization page or find a walk-through on The Guardian's page. Additionally, you could learn to master Adobe’s new Premiere Rush CC to really jump-start your video editing abilities for a quick, clean cut video.
Sponsored Trips / Sponsored Posts
Tourism boards, or specific destinations, may sponsor your trips if you have enough viewers. They typically cover all travel expenses and pay you a daily rate that is dependent on the number of viewers that you have. Some successful travelers are earning around $2,500/day for these sponsored trips. The work usually entails video content and social media posts. Want to learn how to start attracting sponsorship? Check out these walk-throughs by Journey Wonders or TravelBooksFood!
Alternatively, if you don’t generate a ton of traffic to your channel or blog, you may still be able to sign up with a Sponsorship Network or Influencer Network. At these networks, companies request influencers and creatives to make specific types of blog, video, audio pieces for them. You get to choose which projects that you’re interested in and they will approve or decline your request. If approved for a project, you could get paid $50-$250 per piece. Some projects even require multiple pieces and could end up paying over $1,000! Read more about Influencer Networks & Sponsored Posts in our article about Blogging Income.
Social Media Promotions
This requires knowing how to use social apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Instagram TV, Instagram Stories, YouTube, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Once you gain enough followers on these media channels, you can earn money, hotel stays, tours, or other goodies by making promotions for different companies.
Jumper Media and ViaSport have some handy walk-throughs to help you attract sponsors!
Travel Blogging or Vlogging
Blogging is writing articles while Vlogging is the same, but in video format instead of written format. Each requires the ability to come up with unique topics. If you are blogging you will need to take notes, pictures, and potentially some videos to include with your blog later. If you are vlogging you will need to writing scripts, scout out locations to film videos, potentially recruit locals to shoot with, and handling all video post-production - including editing, uploading, and marketing each video across different social media platforms. Knowing how to edit videos using Adobe Premiere Pro CC - or the more recently released Adobe Premiere Rush CC - or another editing software is certainly helpful. Check out Good Financial Cents, Blog Starter, or ProBlogger for some great advice on getting you started!
The Nomad Guide
PATH 1: Section 1: Income | Section 2: Lifestyle | Section 3: Budgeting | Section 4: Planning
PATH 2: Section 1: Working | Section 2: Digital Nomad Income | Section 3: The FREE Nomad MBA
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