11 Practical Side Hustle Ideas For Digital Nomads

If you're looking for a practical guide to making extra money, you've come to the right place. Whether you're a full-time digital nomad or just looking to make a little extra cash, here are 15 practical side hustle ideas you can start today. 

From freelancing to driving for Uber, there's something for everyone! So what are you waiting for? 

Start exploring today and see which option is the best fit for you.

1. Become a Freelancer

For those unfamiliar with this term, a freelancer trades their skills for money and is self-employed. Freelancers don't necessarily have a boss or a long-term contract—for instance, a writer, a web designer, or a programmer.

With a bit of patience, you can turn freelancing into a full-time job.

Many companies are willing to pay good money for high-quality work.

And since you can work from virtually any place in the world, freelancing is a good option if you plan to live as a nomad.

Now the million-dollar question is: 

How can you start freelancing?

You might be thinking:

"I don't have any skill."

"I'm not a good writer."

"I don't know anything people would pay for."

Well, you're wrong.

What about drawing cartoons? There are tons of people making 4 and 5 figures doing it.

What about being a virtual assistant? Anyone can be a virtual assistant, and it's a service with a lot of demand.

The point here is to take action.

• What skills do you already have?
• What do your friends call you for advice on?
• What kind of websites, magazines, and books do you read?

If you can solve somebody's problem (it doesn't matter what kind of problem), you can be a freelancer.

Now, before you decide to quit your job and become a freelancer to travel worldwide, you need to develop a plan.

First and foremost, you need to know exactly how many clients you need to replace your current income.

For instance, let's say you're currently earning $4,000/month and plan to charge $300 for your services.

In that case, you would need 14 clients every month to replace your current income.

To start, make a list of at least 10 people who might need your help and send them the following script:

By proactively sending that script to people you think may need your help, you'll get your first three clients very quickly.

2. Sell Your Own Course

According to The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average college professor makes between $41,600 and $83,960 per year.

What are all those professors doing?

Teaching people what they know, right?

Also, consulting is a $415 billion industry, according to some studies.

What are consultants doing?

Again, teaching people what they know.

You can tap into the same model by teaching what you know.

But instead of having students, you have an audience. 

Instead of working in a classroom, you work wherever you want.

Instead of having a salary, you've customers and clients who pay for your premium material.

Sounds really simple, right?

Because it is. 

3. Resell Other People's Services

Trading your skills for money is a great idea, but sometimes that requires a lot of time and effort.

First, you need to find a client. 

Then, you must do the job, which is time-consuming.

Here's an alternative:

Resell other people's services.

Join a freelance community like Fiverr and pick the offer of your choice; say, "Write a 500-word blog post for $5". 

Then, you offer that same offer in another place—for example, on forums or social networks.

But instead of pricing your offer at $5, you could price it at $15, and once you get a client, you would just need to buy the gig from the guy you saw at Fiverr and tell him to write whatever your client asked.

In this particular case, your profit would be $10.

It's like dropshipping, but instead of reselling physical products, you'd be reselling services. 

4. Sell your art

If you're an artist, there are many communities where you can go and put your craft in front of an interested audience.

All you need to do is sign up to one of those communities, upload your art, and start selling.

Here's how to do it:

1. Head over to ArtPal.com and create an account (don't worry, it's free)
2. Upload your art
3. Promote your art

ArtPal has its traffic, which means your art is likely to get seen even if you don't promote it.

However, I highly recommend that you promote it anyway. This way, your chances of getting a sale increase significantly.

5. Join Fiverr

For those unfamiliar with Fiverr, it's a community where people can find freelancers to complete any job, starting at $5.

And when I say "any kind of job," I mean "ANY." Just take a look at the following screenshot:

It seems pathetic, but that person has 105 buyers.

Considering that gig starts at $15, that guy has made at least $1,575 by giving “prophetic words.”

Let's see another example:

In this case, that guy has made at least $2,620 (131 buyers at $20).

If those guys could make four figures with those crazy offers, you can do it too.

Here's a 4-step process you can follow to do it the right way:

First, sign up to Fiverr and create at least ten gigs.

Then, record a video for each one of your gigs

That's why I encourage you to record a video for every one of your gigs. This way, your gigs are 64% more likely to convert.

You don't need to worry about creating a perfect video, though. Just explain what you offer. You don't need more than 1-2 minutes of video for each gig.

And you're done!

6. Make Money As a Travel Photographer

One of the easiest ways to make money while you travel is to take photos and sell them online.

Epic, right?

Brendan Van Son, a travel blogger, has raised his income to $2,000 a month by selling photos online.

This source of income has allowed Brendan to set foot in over 80 countries on six different continents in the past five years.

The good news is YOU can get similar results!

Just follow the process below:

First, head over to iStockPhoto and create an account.

Then, start taking photos.

You need to make sure your photos are in the highest quality possible. Otherwise, no one will buy them.

Now just upload your photos and get paid every time someone downloads them.

iStockPhoto is a subscription-based platform where people can download royalty-free photos. Every time someone downloads one of your photos, you'll earn a 15% royalty rate. 

Also, you can become an exclusive contributor and earn up to 45% for each download. 

7. Get Paid to Fill Surveys

Paid surveys are effortless: You get paid for every survey you take. Some companies pay more than others, but generally, you can earn between $1 and $20 per survey.

Basically, the longer the survey, the more you can earn. 

There are many survey networks you can be part of (both free and paid). You only need to create an account and fill up your profile. 

Then those networks will send you surveys based on your demographics and psychographics.

Few people (if any) can make a living by taking surveys and only taking surveys, though. So if you want to go ahead with this option, you'll need to find a second income stream.

Here's a list of the nine best survey sites:

1. Swagbucks
2. Inbox Dollars
3. MySurvey
4. SpringBoard Panel
5. Harris Poll Online
6. CashCrate
7. MintVine
8. PineCone Research
9. Toluna

Remember, you receive surveys based on your demographics and psychographics, so make sure to fill out your profile correctly. This way, you'll only receive surveys you can actually answer.

8. Become a Gengo Translator

Do you speak more than one language?

Well, you have an insane opportunity to monetize that skill.

According to Inc Magazine, translation is one of the top industries to start a business in now. Companies are growing global, so translation services have a huge demand.

As technology advances and the internet is available in almost all countries and cities, you have dozens of resources at your fingertips to find your first translation gig.

One of them is Gengo.

In their own words: "Gengo provides fast, affordable, and quality translations by native speakers located worldwide."

Big companies like Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Etsy, and The Huffington Post have used Gengo to translate content, so you can be entirely sure Gengo is a big deal.

The good news is they proactively seek new translators to work with them.

If you think you have what it needs to become a Gengo translator, you can apply right away. If you pass the test, you can start earning money as a certified translator.

9. Use Spring to Sell T-Shirts Online

T-shirts have a considerable demand, and if you're creative enough, you can easily make a living by selling customized Tees.

Here's where Spring (formerly Teespring) comes in very handy.

For those unfamiliar with Teespring, it's a free platform where you can create campaigns and sell your own apparel.

All you need to do is create an account, upload your design, create a campaign, and start selling. Then, once your campaign has ended, Teespring will print and ship the T-shirt to the people who bought it.

10. Leverage the power of CPA (Cost Per Action)

If you want to start making money right away without having to create a product or even build your website, then CPA may come in very handy.

CPA stands for "Cost Per Action," and it works the following way:

You earn money when people click on your affiliate link and complete a specific action. 

What kind of action? You ask.

Well, it can be anything, but these are the most common ones:

• Signing up for a free trial
• Filling out a website form
• Buying a product or service
• Calling a business to request information

The money you can earn for each action can vary. For example, companies might pay more for sales than a free sign-up trial. 

Also, you'll get paid higher by getting people to fill out a long form than a short one.

Your income will depend on how many people you get to complete that action.

11. Promote Other People's Products as an Affiliate

Not everyone has the resources, experience, and money to build a product from scratch. 

If you don't, then promoting other people's products can be a great way to start making money online. You could also promote Fiverr gigs (tip 5) and earn money while doing so, join Fiverr as an affiliate.

Remember, you won't be able to promote just any product. It has to be high-quality and something valuable that people are willing to pay for.

Also, you need to ensure that the product you're promoting is relevant to your niche audience. Otherwise, you won't get many sales.

A great way to find quality products is to join an affiliate marketplace.

Affiliate marketplaces are platforms where brands list their products and services, and affiliates can find products to promote.

With Reditus' affiliate marketplace, for instance, you can find the best SaaS products in one place. You can also filter these products by category and commission to find the most relevant offers and start promoting them right away.

The best part?

Reditus' marketplace is free.

Reditus provides a suite of tools to help you succeed with your affiliate marketing campaigns, including tracking links and affiliate dashboards to track your commissions.

In other words, Reditus makes it easy for you to start promoting products and making money as an affiliate.

Over to You

There you have it, 11 Ways to Make Money Online in 2021.

Remember, there's no "right" way to make money online. You just need to find something that works for you and go for it.

Don't be afraid to experiment until you find a method that suits you and your goals.

Also, don't forget that making money online takes time and effort. You won't become a millionaire overnight.

But if you're willing to put in the work, then you can certainly make a decent income from any of these methods.

Meet the author

Joran Hofman

Back in 2020 I was an affiliate for 80+ SaaS tools and I was generating an average of 30k in organic visits each month with my site. Due to the issues I experienced with the current affiliate management software tools, it never resulted in the passive income I was hoping for. Many clunky affiliate management tools lost me probably more than $20,000+ in affiliate revenue. So I decided to build my own software with a high focus on the affiliates, as in the end, they generate more money for SaaS companies.