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John Au-Yeung
John Au-Yeung

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How to Become a Digital Nomad

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With the advent of the Internet, working while traveling is becoming a possibility for many people. A digital nomad is a person that travels constantly and works remotely.

It doesn't matter where you come from, you can go anywhere, make money, and continue your travels. If we go to cheaper places, then it's easier to become a digital nomad. If you go to pricier places, then it's harder.

How to Become a Digital Nomad

Becoming a digital nomad is easy if you can find a job or start a small business that makes money. In either case, it's not too hard to become a mobile worker that can work anywhere because of the Internet.

Remote jobs are hard to find as it depends on what the company wants. It's hard to trust someone to let them work full time remotely anywhere they want. Meetings are harder to coordinate because of frequent time zone changes from travel.

It's also hard to keep track of due dates and deadlines because of time zones. Therefore, traveling and working in a job that requires frequent presence is going to be hard.

Moreover, they're also scarce compared to onsite jobs. This makes finding jobs harder.

On the other hand, a location-independent small business is more likely to be attainable since the time is more in our control. We can coordinate more easily because of the extra control we get. The smaller the team, the easier it'll be.

Location independent businesses include blogs and freelance businesses like graphic or web design and programming. These are things that can be done on the computer and the product can be shared online.

Since most places aren't that expensive, it's not too hard to create a business that can go anywhere as long as you watch the cost of the business. Internet-based business are low risk as long as they require costs like employees or inventory.

If we do, then we have to think hard before committing to anything or it's easy to have losses.

Conclusion

Creating a small location-based business is probably more attainable. Internet-based businesses are lower cost than onsite businesses that need rent and other utilities.

Since most places aren't that expensive, a small profit can go a long way to becoming a digital nomad and live life abroad.

Top comments (4)

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maura_monaghan profile image
Maura Monaghan

Awesome article! What do you think about remote side-jobs that can be done from anywhere, as opposed to going full-time remote?

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aumayeung profile image
John Au-Yeung

Thanks so much for reading!

Yea. I freelance is actually the more sustainable way to go unless you know you can get a full time remote job easily.

A freelance business probably won't be full time anyways no matter what you do. It's unlikely that most people will get enough clients at the beginning.

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alexsh profile image
Alex • Edited

Thank you.

Also a good remote jobs board

remotely.jobs

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aumayeung profile image
John Au-Yeung

Thanks. I'll add them to my list.