How to Work from Anywhere in the World

Who wouldn’t like to have a job where you can make your own schedule, afford an awesome place to live, and work from anywhere in the world? As much as this may sound like the intro to a pyramid scheme pitch, Gina Miller of One Haute Prime is here to share more about how attainable and fulfilling this kind of lifestyle can be!

The term “digital nomad” describes a person who works online from anywhere in the world, living in different countries for varying amounts of time. Often opting for cities with a low cost of living, these individuals have a unique degree of freedom to travel that previously seemed exclusive to celebrities or the ultra-wealthy. These nomads head down this path primarily due to their love for travel, but also have an ambition to succeed, a knack for combining work and play, and a strong belief that breaking away from more typical lifestyles is completely possible.

In recent years, the digital nomad revolution has taken on a life of its own, and people are now seeing that it’s a viable option for many different types of people with varying careers. With the onset of the Internet and an increasing number of jobs that can be done remotely, being a digital nomad is a reality for so many people. We no longer have to wait until retirement to travel, and we can decide when and where we work. Amazing, right?
Interested? Read on for a step-by-step guide of things to consider along with resources that can have you on your way to digital nomadism in no time.

Type of Work

Of course working from anywhere sounds great, but what do you even do to make money? Typically, digital nomads fall into three different camps: remote workers for companies based in their home countries, freelancers, or entrepreneurs. Some even combine a little of all three!

Remote Jobs

Because of the internet, remote workers are becoming more common these days, especially among forward-thinking companies as they understand that not every employee thrives in an office environment, but is still completely capable of being an asset to the team. This is often the most secure way to start out since it provides a big safety net, and who doesn’t love a good safety net? If you’re ready to switch jobs, or want to get an idea of what else is out there, Remoteok.io is a brand new job board where you can see different types of remote jobs, from IT to marketing to healthcare. If you love your current job but not the location, and think you could carry it out online, some nomads have convinced their employers to let them go remote. As with most things, there’s no harm in asking.

Freelancers

Many digital nomads out there are self-employed freelancers. They pick up work for their specific skillset be it writing, graphic design, UI/UX design, sales, etc. The best way to start as a freelancer once you’ve determined your specialty is by getting a portfolio together, and putting on your salesperson hat to “cold call” (email) agencies or small businesses that may need your expertise. As most freelancing nomads will tell you, if you spend enough time pitching your services, eventually something’s gotta give so don’t be shy! To get a portfolio going if you don’t have one already, start by picking up gigs on Elance,  Upwork or even Craigslist on your spare time. I actually found my latest Social Media Marketing gig for the awesome Canva on Upwork! There are tons of great jobs on these sites as long as you stay competitive, and are ready to apply for them when you see one!

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurial nomads can usually be found “boot-strapping” their companies somewhere amazing and far-flung like Chiang Mai, Thailand or Medellín, Colombia. Whether it’s a new app, or an online business, these savvy people have figured out that the cost of building a company is cheaper in certain countries, and can therefore dedicate themselves full-time to their venture simply because they can afford to. Whether they sustain their travels through part-time freelancing or prior savings, the cheap cost of living in the city of choice leaves less room for stress and more room for inspiration. Don’t have a startup idea but are convinced this is for you? Don’t worry. The ever-so stylish digital nomad, Jon Yongfook, wrote a great post on how he built his business online, and gives great tips on what kind of ventures to focus on that are optimal for digital nomads. It’s incredible to see how many types of businesses there are out there, from online drop-shipping stores to custom wordpress themes, and how successful these nomads have been with them.

Where to Live

Now that you’ve secured a job or some clients, it’s time to find your first destination. You want to look for a place that has great internet speed, is friendly to foreigners, and hopefully has a low cost of living. In the past, nomads had to try their luck in different cities and hope that they had made the right choice. Luckily, you wont have to. The same creator of Remoteok.io, Pieter Levels, has made an extremely useful website called NomadList.io that gives you a cost breakdown of hundreds of cities, and even includes extra information like air quality, short-term rentals, and available co-working spaces based on input from nomads actually living there. It’s an incredible tool that has helped people pick their next home away from home without the hassle or uncertainty. You’ll be surprised to see how affordable, and inexpensive it is to live in amazing places like Prague or Bali.

Where to Work 

Speaking of co-working spaces, most digital nomads make coffee shops their office for the day and love it, but others prefer to work and interact with other people instead. Cities throughout the world are now meeting this community’s need to collaborate in the workplace through co-working spaces. With co-working spaces, you can brain storm with like-minded people, make new friends, and become exposed to a whole wealth of knowledge that will furher fuel your creativity. You can check out HUBUD in Bali to get a sense of what to expect at one of these places. Many co-working spaces offer accommodations with meals included as well, which is how a lot of nomads get started. Here is an awesome list by Keith Mander with different co-working spaces and startup getaways around the world. Live and work in a gorgeous surf town in Morocco for a month? Yes, please!

Where Do I Sign Up?

If you’re interested so far but want to know more specifics, there are countless resources out there to help you get informed, and hopefully inspire you to make the leap if you’re still not convinced! My favorite is Nomad Forum, which has several helpful threads, as well as NomadStories where you can see how and why people decided to give this lifestyle a shot. It’s truly inspiring to see how many people left behind their leases and belongings to see the world, experience new cultures, and haven’t looked back since! As it turns out, “collecting moments not things,” is much easier than it seems.
For some, all of this may sound a little scary, or even entirely unappealing. But for the others who have dreamed of being able to travel while working, this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. Of course, it may not always be beaches and coconuts when you’re a digital nomad; It takes a high level of discipline, organization, and sometimes creativity to successfully lead this lifestyle. But if you’re ready to choose how you’ll live and work, and wish to travel now instead of later, why in the world not?

Online Weekend Jobs for Extra Money

Weekends are often thought of as a time to unwind and decompress from the previous work week. It’s also the time many of us run errands and get things done around the house like cleaning and yardwork. But, while it’s nice to kickback and relax on Saturday and Sunday, the weekends can also be a great time to make money.

When you’re falling behind on bills, trying to pay off debt, or simply need a boost to your bank account, a part-time weekend job can be the perfect solution. While giving up your weekends to work may sound less than ideal — hear me out. There are online weekend jobs that let you earn extra money on your own terms.

1. Writer/Blogger

There are plenty of online weekends jobs out there if you like to write! I’m not talking about super technical or boring copy (unless of course, that is your thing!)
When you sign up with a so-called content mill, like Textbroker, you can login, view available assignments and write as many articles as you’d like. Topics can include everything from health and beauty to automotive and entertainment.
You could also browse a niche job board, like ProBlogger, to see if anyone is looking for a freelance blogger on a part-time basis. Often, these kinds of gigs allow you to work whenever you want, as long as you get your assignments in on time of course.
If you want to sit down and write whatever comes to mind — no problem! You could join a revenue share site, like HubPages. There’s also the opportunity to get paid as a guest contributor for familiar sites and blogs or even earn as much as $100 for writing a top ten list.
See what I mean? 
There are seemingly endless ways to earn money as a writer — making it one of the most flexible online weekend jobs around.

2. Proofreading

With so much content online, there’s also a growing demand for online proofreaders. This can include everything from academic papers to website copy — if you’ve got an eye for detail and good grammar, proofreading may be a good fit for you.
There are a number of companies that contract with proofreaders and editors or you can go the freelance route by signing up on sites like Fiverr or Upwork. Going freelance gives you complete control over the assignments you accept and allows you to work only on the weekends (but not every weekend!)
Over at Proofread Anywhere, they “help proofreaders earn extra income from anywhere in the world — even if you’re starting from scratch.”

3. Virtual Assistant

The majority of people and businesses requiring virtual assistants usually need them to work normal business hours to help get things done, except one — Fancy Hands.
Fancy Hands is one of the most flexible options out there if you’re looking for online weekend jobs. I worked for Fancy Hands as a VA for six months and actually made a decent part-time living completing one task at a time.

The service was built around the idea that VAs should be around 24/7. So, when you work as a Fancy Hands VA you can login to your dashboard anytime, day or night, and start working on tasks. From personal experience, I always found work to be done whether I logged in at 2:00 p.m. or 2:00 a.m.
Many Fancy Hands VAs take the weekends off, making them the perfect opportunity to work a little extra money into your routine. The pay is $2 to $7 per completed task (on average) and a task shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to complete. Get started by heading over to their hiring page to learn more about the position and onboarding process.

4. Crowdworker

Micro jobs and short task sites are perfect for those looking for online weekend jobs that require the least time commitment as possible. Crowdworking tasks can involve just about anything from image tagging to writing a one sentence description or even answering a simple question. These can take as little as a few seconds to a couple of minutes to do.

The largest crowd worker platform is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. There are often thousands of jobs posted on the site at any given time. And since it’s such a large and popular site, many people have already figured out how to maximize earning potential on Mechanical Turk.
You won’t get rich but you can supplement your income just by completing tasks on the weekend.

5. Flipper

Do you love going to garage sales and thrift stores looking for treasures and other donated gems? Well, you can actually turn the treasures you find into a fun weekend job by selling them online for a profit.
The Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales and other sources of second-hand stuff can contain plenty of low-priced goods you can sell for a profit. Over at Thrift Store Flipping, there’s lots of advice on how to sell used items online as well as tips on common finds that can be worth a pretty penny.

My personal favorite way to make money as a flipper is selling used books online. The app, BookScouter, makes this a quick and easy thing to do next time you’re at a second-hand sale. All you have to do is scan a book’s ISBN barcode and BookScouter will give you an instant price quote of what it’s worth on various sites that will buy the book from you — easy, peasy. It’s not unheard of for me to find a couple of textbooks worth a hundred bucks in just one short Goodwill trip.

If used items and reselling them on sites like Ebay isn’t really your thing — no problem! You can also keep your eyes peeled while out running errands on the weekend for clearance items at your favorite stores.
Believe it or not, buying up clearance items and reselling them with the help of Amazon FBA easily makes some sellers six-figure incomes each year. The best part? You send your things to Amazon and they do the listing and shipping for you — no worrying about getting to the post office, how to package items or getting a fancy camera to take just the right product shot!

There is a TON of information on how to get started successfully with Amazon FBA many of which are ebooks you can find on Amazon. My suggestion? 

6. Transcription

I’m always amazed by the amount of transcription work out there — everything from medical, legal, general, and even utterances need to be typed up by highly-skilled ears.
While some people make a full-time living as a typist, many others opt to do the work part time to supplement their household income. The popularity of typing for a living is largely due to the availability of work and the fact that you don’t always need experience to get started. There are a number of transcription companies that will hire beginners who have the skills needed to get the job done but lack industry experience.

Keep in mind, you’ll need to type rather quickly to make decent pay since you’re often paid by the audio minute (which is a lot different than a standard minute of time). On top of a high WPM, you need to be able to produce virtually error-free transcripts — not always as easy as it seems.

7. Tutor

You’d think there wouldn’t be too much of a need for teachers on the weekends, but tutoring happens to be one of the most in-demand online weekends jobs. Most online tutoring sites don’t require previous teaching experience but you may need to hold a bachelor’s degree or be currently enrolled in school to qualify. For example, Chegg pays $20/hour for current college students to tutor their peers online.
Most sites let you take on subjects from calculus to creative writing — there are tons of opportunities regardless of your area(s) of expertise.

Another option is teaching English to non-native speakers. Cambly will pay $0.17 for each minute you spend speaking with a student. The only requirement is you have to be a native English speaker and be friendly enough to engage in conversation with someone who wants to practice their conversational English.

More Online Weekend Jobs

Working one (or more!) of these online weekend jobs can give you the flexibility needed to earn extra money without giving up full control over your weekends. However, if you’re looking for something a little more structured, consider contracting with a company like LiveOps. LiveOps provides customer service solutions to a number of different companies. You can schedule yourself for blocks of time as short as 30 minutes — one of the most flexible yet stable online weekend jobs available.

A Unique Way to Make Money on Amazon: How I Earn $1,500 a Month

You’re probably already a fan of Amazon as a consumer, since it makes it easy and affordable to order the items you need.

But have you considered how to turn Amazon into your business partner?

Over the past 11 months, I’ve created a business selling private-label products on Amazon — buying a generic product, then selling it under my own brand. The result: a steady, mostly passive income of between $1,000 and $2,000 a month.

Essentially, the business involves finding generic products that are already selling well on Amazon, creating your own packaging and logo, and marketing them better than your competition.

Sound appealing? Let’s break it down step by step for an actionable look at how to build your own private-label business.

Before diving in, though, it’s important to understand this isn’t a get-rich-quick strategy.

While you can realistically make hundreds or thousands of extra dollars per month, it takes diligence, patience and a willingness to see an idea through from start to finish. To be most successful, set your expectations accordingly.

Still interested? Let’s get started.

Step 1: Research and Select a Product

This is arguably the most important and time-consuming step in the process, but the friendly folks at Amazon lighten the burden a bit by pointing you in the right direction.

That’s because the site releases detailed lists of their best-selling products. While the lists are designed to give consumers a chance to see what’s popular, you can use them to your advantage, too.

The best-seller rankings essentially serve as your pre-market product research. Instead of developing a product and then testing to see if it sells well, you can start by seeing if the product sells well and then make a decision regarding whether or not you want to pursue it.

When mining Amazon’s top-100 rankings for each category,be on the lookout for items that are lightweight, high-ranking and generic.

Generic refers to something like a water bottle, silicone spatula or flashlight — all items that can easily be produced with your own brand and packaging. In other words, you wouldn’t want to select a product that’s brand-driven — such as an iPhone or Nike running shoes — because those are protected products that can’t be private labeled.

Once you find a product that you’re interested in, it’s time for phase two of the product research stage.

Check Out the Competition

During this phase, study your competition to see how they’re doing.

For example, let’s say the product you’ve honed in on is an insulated water bottle. While you may know from the top-100 rankings one insulated water bottle brand sells well, you need to learn more about the competitive landscape.

Using the search box at the top of Amazon, run a query for “insulated water bottle” and review the results.

Open up the first five listings and record the following information in a spreadsheet: price, number of reviews, Amazon best-sellers rank and quality of listing. The latter point is discretionary, but after doing some research, you’ll quickly be able to tell the difference between a good listing and a bad one.

Using the information you gather from these five listings, which serve as your sample of the marketplace, determine whether the opportunity is worth pursuing.

Ideally, you want to see the following in your spreadsheet:

• An average price point between $10 and $40
• Low numbers of reviews (though a higher number isn’t a deal-breaker)
• The majority of the best-sellers ranks below 1,000
• Average or low-quality listings

Don’t be afraid if you can’t find a product right away. It usually takes me hours of research to find an opportunity I believe will work.

However, let’s say your research for insulated water bottles met all of these requirements. Now you’re ready to find a supplier.

Step 2: Find and Contact a Supplier

Once you know you have a good product opportunity, it’s time to find a supplier.

While it’s possible — depending on the product — you could find a supplier in the U.S., it’s highly unlikely that you’ll find a cost-effective one. Trust me on this one and head over to Alibaba to look for an international supplier.

Start your supplier search by entering the same key phrase into the Alibaba search box. In this case, a simple search of “insulated water bottle” will give you thousands of different products and suppliers.

Find the style you’re looking for and research a few different suppliers. Depending on how thorough their listings are, you can usually see the required minimum order quantity (MOQ), price range, style options, lead time and whether they allow for private labeling. However, you’ll need to email the supplier to get an accurate quote for your order.

I’ve found suppliers are willing to negotiate, even on your first order. While they may claim their MOQ is 500 or 1,000 units, it’s entirely possible to talk them down to, say, 250 or 300 units.

Generally, there’s also room for negotiating prices. Just act confident and pretend you’ve been there before — even if you haven’t!

Step 3: Get Your Logo, Design and Packaging

To save time and streamline the process, you can often work on step three alongside step two.

Once you’ve found a supplier who’s willing to let you private label the product, you have to choose your marketing materials. Don’t worry, though — you don’t have to create them yourself!

Use a website like Fiverr or Upwork to hire professional designers at competitive prices.

On Fiverr, you simply search for designers and then send them your job proposal. On Upwork (formerly Elance), you’ll actually create a project proposal and have designers bid for your project. I’ve used both sites, but prefer Elance/Upwork for packaging and logo design.

Assuming you’ve had time to develop a brand name during this process, you’ll want your designer to create a logo that represents your brand and vibrant packaging that sets it apart from your competitors — the ones listed in your spreadsheet from step one.

Once you have your design files, send them over to your supplier and tell them to proceed with your order.

Step 4: Craft a Compelling Listing

Depending on your supplier’s lead time, you could wait anywhere from 10 to 30 days for your shipment to arrive.

Use this time wisely. Start by focusing on your listing. Follow Amazon’s directions and protocol for creating a seller account and then create a listing for your product.

To create a compelling listing:

• Use high quality images
• Clearly explain how the product works
• Describe why it’s valuable
• Highlight what sets it apart from the competition

While you’ll have to work within the constraints of what Amazon does and does not allow on listings, you should be able to use bolded text and bullet points to accentuate key facts.

As you likely noticed during step one, many sellers don’t do a good job with their listings, yet still sell well. Can you imagine how many more units they would sell with descriptive listings?

This is your chance to set your product apart and differentiate your brand as knowledgeable and informative.

Step 5: Use Fulfillment by Amazon to Create Passive Income

Some of you are probably saying, “This whole process doesn’t sound like passive income.”

Well, up until now, you may be right. However, assuming you did a thorough job in the previous steps, you’re almost ready to sit back and reap the benefits.

Thanks to the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program, you don’t have to manage the monotony of picking, packing and shipping orders.

While FBA takes a small percentage of your profits, it’s well worth it for most sellers. Your shipping costs are included in the fees and your products automatically become eligible for free Prime shipping, which could help you make more sales.

Plus, FBA sellers often enjoy higher search rankings than non-FBA sellers. While Amazon hasn’t officially confirmed this, I’ve noticed it with my own products and friends have seen similar benefits.

For detailed information on how to setup an FBA listing, how it works, pricing, success stories, and more, check out Amazon’s guide for getting started.

Once you set up your listing and ship your products to the distribution center, you can be as hands-off as you’d like.When a customer makes a purchase, you don’t even have to lift a finger. Amazon’s fulfillment centers take care of everything, including returns and customer service issues.

Step 6: Make Your First Sale

In any business or industry, the first sale is typically the hardest to make. You don’t have a reputation or any existing customers, so it can be challenging to convince someone to purchase your product.

Many sellers run some sort of sale or discount during a product’s launch. By reducing the price, you lower the customer’s perceived risk and entice them to take a chance on your product.

You can also use Amazon’s internal advertising system, which allows you to pay for your product to be listed in relevant on-site searches. This is a great way to increase visibility and attract an initial burst of sales.

Another option is to use Google AdWords to drive traffic to your listing. While AdWords will be more expensive, I tend to generate more sales from it than from other methods.

While these are the most common strategies, there are hundreds of other ways to increase sales and traffic. This is where you can get creative and have fun with your product!

Or, if everything is working on its own, simply sit back and let the passive income accumulate.

How Much Could You Earn With a Private-Label Business?

Since different types of products have different price points and associated costs, these numbers are estimates. However, here’s an idea of your potential earnings.

Products that rank within the top 100 in their category often bring in thousands of dollars per day in revenue. Products that rank in the top 500 typically produce hundreds of dollars per day. Even a product in the top 2,000 to 3,000 can earn you a steady supplemental income.

While it’s difficult to estimate the initial investment for your own private-label brand, since it depends on your product, I can give you an idea of how much I spent on my first one, a basic grilling accessory.

I ordered 500 units at a per-unit cost of $3.20. In addition to the $1,600 cost of initial inventory, I spent around $400 to design my packaging and logo, start a website, set up my Amazon business account and pay other minor expenses. So launching my first private-label brand cost me about $2,000.

However, I know people who spent only a few hundred dollars getting their first brand off the ground — and also people who spent many thousands.

Look for a healthy profit margin. I like to aim for a per-unit profit margin of at least 50%. It all depends on the product, but there’s a niche for every budget.

While there’s a lot of information in this guide, it’s by no means comprehensive. Dig around, do some research, speak with other sellers and find out what else you can do to make your private-labeling business a successful and lucrative endeavor.

Your Turn: Will you try launching a private-labeling business? If you’ve sold private-labeled products, we’d love to hear about your experience!

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!