13 Side Hustles to Make Money as a Digital Nomad - Fully Remote

Digital nomad life can be absolutely joyful. The sun shining, the flexible work, the ability to travel and see the world. Sometimes, your regular work can quieten down, though, and you might just need to make a bit of cash on the side to tide you over. Thankfully, there are plenty of fully remote side hustles that can help you make money as a digital nomad.

Freelance Writing - $15-150 per article

Working as a freelance writer is a highly flexible way to make money as a digital nomad. There are countless directions you can take with this role, from editorial work to corporate copywriting.

You’ll need to have good knowledge of your niche topic area to start making money, and it can be a slow burn at first, but once you have returning clients, you can earn nicely from anywhere in the world.

If you don’t have a portfolio yet, I’d suggest getting some thoughts written and self-published. Whether this is on Medium, Wordpress, or a personal website, once you have some work published, you can start pitching your services to companies or publications. I’d also suggest setting up an account on sites like Freelancer and Fiverr to maximise your potential earnings.

Working as a Virtual Assistant - $15-35 per hour

Virtual assistants are by their very nature nomadic. You don’t have to be anywhere in particular, you just have to have access to the internet. Pretty convenient, right?

One thing you will need to watch out for is time zones - when you’re managing calendars and other VA tasks for clients, it’s easy to get mixed up, particularly as a travelling digital nomad. As long as you keep in mind specific required timings, though, you should be golden.

Start by heading to sites like Fiverr and Belay, package up your skills into a one-pager, and start selling! Once you get a good reputation, the work can be reliable, well-paid, and easy.

Become a Content Creator - $0-1000+ per video

The digital nomad lifestyle lends itself very well to content creation work! Video platforms like YouTube, Instagram Reels, and TikTok are perfect for showcasing your travels. From travel tips and hacks to advice on how to live the digital nomad life, you’ll have loads of experience to pull from.

I should mention that it’s not a quick starter. You’ll have a long ol’ time to wait for those numbers to go up, so if you need quick cash, content creation isn’t for you. You’ll have to learn how to use the likes of CapCut to edit your videos as well, so don’t pick this up if that’s too big a hurdle.

This can be such a rewarding side hustle, though, so if money isn’t everything and you want to document your life in a personable, interesting way, there’s no reason not to give it a go!

Managing Social Media - $200-800 per month

A creative option for digital nomads with experience in social media posting, this job is becoming more and more important as time goes on. Social media is a requirement at this point, so if you can put together a strategy, write content, and post it, you’ll have a great deal of potential clients waiting for you.

Brush up on your image editing skills on Canva, set up a profile on Fiverr or Contra, and put together a mock content calendar to showcase what services you’ll have on offer. You can make decent money for a fairly low amount of effort once all your processes are set up!

Online Tutoring - $15-40 per hour

You have knowledge. Why not share it? If you have the ability to explain concepts in a way that makes sense, you can tutor people of all ages in the subject of your choice. Maybe it’s high school maths you happen to remember, or perhaps your career as a digital nomad has given you a great knowledge on a certain kind of literature.

Whatever it is, you can earn money on the side by sharing your understanding with students. Sites like Superprof allow you to organise lessons with clients and do some of the most rewarding work out there.

Just remember - some time you spend will be technically unpaid, as you will need to set up lesson plans to ensure you provide a good service. For the most part, this will be frontloaded, though, allowing you to reuse materials with future clients.

Housesitting - $500-2000 saved per month

You’re moving around anyway, right? Well, this is less a specifically ‘paid’ gig, and more an enormous potential saving.

Housesitting can pay a little bit, sure, but the main bonus is free accommodation. That’ll save you an absolutely huge amount of money every month, and potentially reduce your need to take on extra side hustles.

It’s fairly easy to get started. Sites like TrustedHousesitters, Nomador, and MindMyHouse are great starting points, and there are tons of Facebook groups that share localised opportunities too, if you’re looking for somewhere specific.

Become a Voiceover Artist - $30-150+ per gig

If you have access to a quiet space, and have room in your bag for a microphone, you could be the next great voiceover artist. It’s a fun side hustle, too.

You will have to learn how to edit audio in Audacity, but I found that fairly easy to get to grips with, and then all you have to do is record a sample reel. Head to sites like Voices.com, Voice123, and ACX to get that profile built!

It’ll take a while to get big money jobs, but each successful project brings you one step closer.

Playing Video Games On Your Mobile - $5-15 per hour

Top users of Freecash can earn hundreds every month just for playing video games. Pretty sweet, huh? You can do the same for free, and get a signup bonus just for joining - here’s how:

As a digital nomad, it could be the perfect opportunity to fill any gaps in the working day. You’ll be on your phone in those gaps anyway - why not get paid for that downtime?

Taking Stock Photographs - $0.20-2 per purchase

As a digital nomad, you’ll have brilliant opportunities to see the most amazing places. If you’re a photographer with a good quality camera, you can profit and earn passive income by taking stock photos of these stunning places! Whether it’s people, landscapes, or styled shoots, there’s always demand for stock photography.

Sites like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and iStock are great starting points to sell your images. One thing to note: it’ll take time, and a lot of pictures, to get anywhere close to a solid level of income. Still, it’s something many people do for the love of the game, and as someone who moves around a lot, you’ll never be short on inspiration!

Podcasting - $0-100+ per episode

We’ve all listened to podcasts, but have you ever made one? All you need is an idea and a cheap microphone, and you’re away.

You won’t make any money to start with, but if you can market yourself on social media effectively, there’s nothing stopping you growing your audience and getting that sponsorship and ad revenue in!

Whether you’re talking about your experiences as a digital nomad, your travels, or your time in business, there’s plenty of opportunity to lock down your niche and start earning money in the long run.

Producing and Editing Podcasts - $50-200+ per episode

Know how to use Audacity but don’t fancy making podcasts yourself? The shortcut to making money from podcasts is producing and editing them for other people.

Like all the best digital nomad jobs, it’s fully remote. You need a decent internet connection to transfer large audio (and sometimes video) files, but this is becoming more and more available worldwide.

Basically, you’re going to be helping people live their dream, and they know that doesn’t come free, so you can get a solid amount of consistent income per episode.

Data Entry - $8-15 per hour

If your digital nomad work is a bit too brain-intensive to think too hard out of hours, data entry is perfect for you. As always, it’s fully remote, and requires next to no thoughts to be in your head. Sites like Clickworker, Microworkers, and Upwork can give you the initial client base you need, and from there, it’s fairly easy to continue to find data entry jobs.

Of course, given the nature of data entry, it can get pretty dull at times, and the pay isn’t top-of-the-line. Still, for what little it requires of you, you can’t really go wrong with data entry.

Translation - $15-30 per hour

If you’ve used your digital nomad lifestyle to learn a new language, then perfect. Your travels can start paying for themselves! There is always a need for translators, and you can find clients online in places like Upwork, Gengo, TranslatorsCafe, and ProZ, along with others.

You might have to work to tight deadlines, but the work will be remote, and you won’t be asked to take on any work you don’t have capacity for. Highlight your native speaker level, take tests to showcase your ability, and you’ll be up and running!