August 11

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28 JOBS You Can Do from ANYWHERE in the World in 2023

By Johannes Völkner

August 11, 2023


If you want to work from anywhere and travel the world it is most important to acquire the right skills. Once you do, you can work remotely for a company, become a freelancer or work solely on your own projects.

The more skills you develop the easier it will be for you to generate an income, but remember that this also takes time. That’s why getting paid to learn by your clients is one of the best and easiest ways to get started to work from anywhere and travel the World.

More risk, more fun, more patience

The more complicated the skill, the more likely it is to earn you good money. So while a highly skilled programmer will easily be able to finance his travels in South East Asia with a few hours of work per week, a copywriter will have to do a lot more to finance his travels.

In order to help you to travel the world while working online, I have composed a list of skills and jobs you can learn that can help you easily generate a minimum income of $1000 a month by working online. This is not a lot if you live in New York, London, or Munich but it’s definitely enough to fund your travels without having to save up too much money, simply by moving your office to the beaches of South East Asia or Central America and then grow your business from there.

man working remotely

Best Jobs You Can Do from Anywhere in the World 2023

The following list is ordered according to difficulty, risk, and income potential.

1. Copywriting

Copywriting is not the best-paid job in the world, but if you are a Native English or German speaker for example, you can still easily make around $15 an hour – enough to finance your travels in countries with a low cost of living if you work four hours a day. You can also specialize in SEO, which will help you to charge even more. Another great thing about copywriting is that you can gain a lot of experience by writing articles for others and getting paid for it, giving you valuable insight into how other Internet entrepreneurs make their money.

Advice on becoming a copywriter from my UK editor Ginny:
Chances are you already know how to write, so you could start today by applying for jobs on outsourcing sites such as Freelancer.com. These sites rely heavily on the reviews of previous clients, so to break into the market be sure to approach every bid with a personal note, sell yourself a little undervalue and deliver great content to those who give you the opportunity. Start low and once you have built your reputation you can charge more and make more. The more reviews you build up and the more professional you become, the higher the income potential. You have to like writing though, otherwise, you will probably end up hating the job and giving up on the way. Try to start off writing about subjects you have existing knowledge about or which you are passionate about – this may be music, travel, technology, business – whatever floats your boat – but the more you know about a topic the more likely you are to be hired and the less likely you are to get fed up writing about it. Once you have honed your skills you will find it easier to research and write about a wide range of subjects, thereby increasing your earning potential.

Platforms to look for copywriting gigs: Fiverr, Upwork, or Textbroker.

2. Virtual Assistance

Virtual Assistance is a very broad topic – and may be likened to being a jack of all trades but a master of none. E-Mail correspondence, answering Skype phone calls, data entry, and updating websites are just some of the jobs you can do. This was actually the first online job I ever did when I started to work for German and Swiss clients while living in South Africa. Within four months it allowed me to quit my job in a tourism agency, making the same monthly wage in just two weeks and spending the rest of my free time studying the online skills I was actually interested in.

3. Translation

If you are not only a skilled copywriter but are also a master of two or more languages, translation can be a great source of income to finance your travels. The good thing about translation jobs is that living abroad can even be an advantage. For instance, if you are a Danish citizen and spend your time in Spanish-speaking countries, you are more likely to be offered work than your locally based Danish counterparts as your clients will feel more confident in your level of skill in both languages.

4. SEA (Search Engine Advertising)

Managing advertising on Google’s search engine and its content network has become a lot more complex over the last few years. Google even offers a program that will get you certified as a Google AdWords consultant – which helps if you want to manage campaigns for other businesses. Be aware though that you need to track what works right from the start as the marketing can become extremely expensive if you don’t set up the campaign correctly at the beginning. This is one of the online jobs I am still doing today.

5. Taking Online Surveys

(ONLY USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA)

Do you like sharing your opinions? Even the most mundane views about, say, your preferred brand of toilet paper? If so, online surveys might be an excellent money-making option for you. The opinions of regular people are invaluable to a variety of organizations and brands. You could make anything ranging from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars from a single survey.

The best thing about surveys is that you don’t need any training to complete them. Your life experiences are enough to qualify you. Regardless of which site you use, you’ll probably need to answer questions about your demographic information before getting started. Those answers will help survey makers decide whether you’re a suitable candidate for their surveys.

Before you start taking surveys, look into the legitimacy of different sites — some are scams, and they’ll ask you questions without sending any rewards. Online reviews from survey takers can help you avoid disreputable websites.

6. Social Media Marketing

If you spend a lot of your day on Facebook, why not use it to make money? In fact, keeping their Facebook and Twitter accounts up to date and publishing new and interesting information is a headache for most companies. Taking over their fan pages and Twitter accounts and running Facebook ads is a perfect digital nomad job that requires minimal technical knowledge and can be done from anywhere.

The only problem might be that when traveling and working you will be in different time zones, so you need to be a bit creative when doing your pitch that you want to do this while traveling.

7. Web design

Learning the basics of web design is easier than you think. If you study hard you can learn to build a website for clients in WordPress within a few weeks. You don’t even need to become a great designer for this since you can simply use WordPress themes from sites like Woothemes or Themeforest that will look great right from the start. Some knowledge of web design is important for most skills listed below and since the basics are so easy to learn I strongly suggest investing some time in getting to grips with the basics. One good way to actually start making money with web design is to first build a site for yourself about a topic you are interested in and then ask business owners you know personally if you could build a website for them. If you do it well, simply ask them for referrals to generate ongoing business.

8. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the art of getting your own or your client’s websites ranked in the top positions for profitable search queries. SEO is a perfect business to run from anywhere as long as you deliver the results. Web design and Copywriting are very important skills to know in order to learn the basics. You also need to be analytical to get the best out of the tools available to you. For everything else you simply need to gain experience, network with people who do the same, and follow some blogs about the topic. Google changes its algorithms all the time but if you are able to keep up with the game and help companies to make money with SEO, you will ultimately do so as well.

9. Graphic Design

Becoming a great graphic designer with in-depth knowledge of Photoshop is not the type of skill you can learn within a matter of weeks. However, if this is your bag and you turn out to work of the highest standards, many companies won’t mind where in the world you do your work. In fact, there are many “Digital Nomads” who work as graphic designers to finance their travels.

10. Programming

Like designing, becoming a great programmer is not easy and it takes a good few years of work experience to really get up to speed. Highly skilled programmers earn great money, and depending on the scope of the projects you are working on many opportunities exist to work and travel. Start by doing a few tutorials or courses to build up your knowledge of different programming skills.

If you choose to become a Programmer, however, make sure that you are passionate about the work you do. There will be a lot of hurdles along the way if you intend to become a pro and make a good living with it. But once you do the World is your playground.  The demand for skilled freelance programmers is on the rise and hourly wages are high, making this one of the best freelance jobs you can have that enables you to live and work anywhere in the world.

11. Project management

Even though project management might not appear digital nomad-friendly at first sight, the reverse is true. As more companies embrace remote employment, so are their project managers.

Skills you will need for such a position are communication, organization, flexibility, and problem-solving. Expect that you will work closely with your team, so your team skills and leadership must be pretty strong, too.

Note that you might be required to work the working hours of the company which employs you, so it’s better to look for positions in the same time zone you are located in.

12. Consulting

Consulting can be done online in any type of industry. Think about it. If you are working as a consultant already, there may only be a few things you need to change in order to run your business from anywhere. Whether law, marketing, HR, or anything else is your specialism, be a bit creative and you are sure to find opportunities to move around and shift your office to the beach every once in a while.

13. Online Language Teaching

Online Language Teaching

Online teaching is another industry that is on the rise. While this is not an area I know too much about, I was quite impressed by one teacher I met in Brazil. She seemed to spend just as much time kite surfing as teaching online. Whether it’s teaching English, conversing in Spanish, or doing lectures for universities – the possibilities are endless. Obviously, the more qualified you are, the more income you will be able to generate through teaching.

One of the best platforms to start is Preply – Most popular tutors earn up to $550/week!

14. Trading

A lot of money can be made (and lost) by doing online trading like forex and stocks.  But in order to finance your travels, you do need a lot of capital to start with or plenty of time and patience to grow your income and make profits. If you are unlucky you can also lose a lot of money very quickly, so while this scheme is great to for generating income you should not solely rely on it to finance your travels.

15. Sports Betting & Arbitrage Trading

If trading stocks or forex sounds too boring for you, why not consider funding your work-and-travel lifestyle by learning Sports betting & Arbitrage Trading? Again I don’t know too much about this myself, but I understand there are certainly ways to minimize your risks and actually earn a living from betting on sports events.

A reader recently sent me a very detailed guide on how to do this and his explanations made good sense, which is why I’m including it in this list as well.

16. Customer Support

Customer Support

Are you a problem solver with a flair for efficiency? Do you have natural insight into the needs of others? Are you a brilliant communicator who knows how to keep people calm and happy?

If so, you might thrive in a customer service job. Your communication ability, typically considered a “soft skill” because tests can’t measure it, is extremely valuable.

As a customer support representative, customers will rely on you to fix their issues, whether that means solving things from your end or helping them follow steps to solve problems themselves.

You need to be good at figuring out precisely what people need even when they can’t verbalize it very well. You also need to be a great explainer — someone who can phrase things in a clear way that any customer can understand.

For this kind of job, it doesn’t matter where you are. If you have reliable internet access, you’re good to go.

Companies are always looking for more customer support workers, so getting hired shouldn’t be too difficult.

Check out customers support jobs on:

17. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing, where you can make money online by recommending products. The most important thing in affiliate marketing is that you generate a lot of traffic to your own websites or newsletters. So in order to do that and make a good living, knowledge of SEA (Search Engine Advertising) and/or SEO (search engine optimization) is a must. You will need to spend a lot of time and effort on generating traffic before seeing any profits. It is risky for many reasons, partly because it is easy for other knowledgeable affiliates to enter your market and also because many affiliates solely rely on search engine traffic – so if Google decides to change its algorithm your site can lose its rankings overnight and your affiliate income slump to zero. However, with hard work and a little luck, affiliate marketing might one day see you traveling the world all for only a few hours of work a week.

18. Online Poker

Yes, there are many people who travel the world and finance their lifestyle by playing Online Poker. While I’m not sure if this is the most sustainable form of income in the long run, I know of people who are making a good living online while running their office from places like Bali, Costa Rica, Thailand, Argentina, and Gibraltar. If you are smart, get the game psychology right, and really take the time to master it, you could do it too.

19. E-Commerce

These days it is very easy to build an online store and sell products over the Internet. In fact, you don’t even need a shop, you can simply join Amazon Marketplace or use eBay to sell your products. Amazon can even take care of shipping your products.

What you do need however is a great product or very competitive prices in order to succeed. If you don’t simply want to rely on Amazon and eBay to sell your products, knowledge about SEO, PPC and web design and affiliate marketing is also helpful.

Check out this post on how to start an e-commerce business from scratch!

20. Blogging

Making a living by simply running a Blog is extremely difficult. While many successful companies were started with a simple blog there are millions of examples of this not having worked. However, starting a blog and getting exposure for your services, whether you’re specializing in SEO, web design, or online teaching, is very helpful.

21. Data entry

So again, doing data entry work isn’t exactly top of the list for those wanting to work and travel full time but it is another really amazing opportunity to earn some steady alternative income to tide you over during slow or quiet months. It involves completing a few different tasks depending on the type of work you get, but mostly all consist of typing, data processing, and entering data into spreadsheets. If you’re able to code then you can add your coding skills to your output too. You can find loads of data entry sites online, all you have to do is sign up and apply (some have minimal requirements) and you’re all set to start entering that data. It’s a kind of drone work, meaning it requires little imagination and intricate thought. You’re simply gathering data from one or two places and placing it into another. So just plug in your earphones and get stuck in.

22. Online Entrepreneurship

Now besides everything mentioned above, many other opportunities exist for making a living online and traveling the world. I would categorize all of these under Online Entrepreneurship, as it would be impossible to summarize this fully in this post.

What you need is a great idea and the right execution. Building apps, selling digital products, creating passive income websites, or a new start-up – for many people, this is the ultimate dream, but most fail in making it happen.

Remember that becoming profitable will take time and hard work. It can also be extremely helpful to first understand the basics of many other skills, especially SEO, SEA, Affiliate Marketing, Web design, and Copywriting.

23. Make Money With Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies aren’t a sure bet when it comes to making money, but what is? Their volatility is why you stand to make so much money if you do cryptocurrency right. It’s a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. You could potentially lose all your money, but you could also make bank.

When you want money fast, you can try day trading. Only do it if you feel comfortable gambling, though. If you’re more patient, you might want to use cryptocurrencies for long-term investing. It’s hard to guess how any cryptocurrency will fare on a given day, but many have exhibited steady upward trends throughout the years.

Mining is the safest way to make money from cryptocurrencies. For that, you use your computer to mine coins. You don’t even need to purchase anything. You do, however, have to dedicate a good deal of computer memory and electricity to your mining operations. With this path, the rewards tend to be small. Your mining efforts might not even work.

Purchasing cryptocurrency used to be difficult, but various platforms have made it easy. Coinbase and Robinhood are just two options. Before choosing a purchasing platform, make sure it’s compatible with the currency you wish to purchase. Coinbase, for instance, won’t help you buy Monero.

24. Video Editing

Video editors are in high demand. It makes sense when you think of how many companies and individuals use videos to attract customers, establish authority, and provide entertainment. Video editors can find themselves working on projects like YouTube videos, short films, commercials, and more.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for video editors is set to grow by 29% in the coming decade. There are few skills with better growth potential.

Even if you’re not yet an experienced video editor, you can teach yourself. Degrees aren’t necessary for this line of work. Just download high-quality video editing software and start practicing!

Once you’ve edited enough of your own videos, you’ll have a portfolio to attract your first customers. If you’re not sure how to find your first video editing job, try freelancing sites like Upwork or Fiverr. Both are good places to get experience and build an impressive resume.

25. Remote Travel Agent

Remote travel agents help customers plan trips. At first glance, this might seem like an old-fashioned career. After all, the internet allows anyone to research plans and book accommodations from their couch. Nonetheless, travel agents offer benefits that people can’t get by doing everything themselves: incomparable convenience, professional guidance, and simplicity.

In this role, you’ll aid customers in booking every step of their travels. That could include accommodations, plane tickets, cruise packages, car rentals, tourism packages, travel insurance, and more.

You’ll need excellent people skills. Good travel agents find out the budget and preferences of each individual they help. A broad knowledge base is also vital; if a customer doesn’t know precisely what they need, it will be your job to figure it out for them and explain why your recommendations make sense.

Travel agents complete tasks like payment collection, transportation coordination, cancellation, and issuing refunds. Helping customers get the perfect travel insurance is essential, too. Different insurance policies can cover very different things, so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

Providing advice about distant cultures, thrilling activities, and different climates is an extra fun part of the job. After you’ve worked as a travel agent for a while, you’ll probably have your own long list of exciting places to go someday!

Here are some of the best companies hiring remote travel agents at the moment.

26. Medical Billing Specialist

Medical billing specialist is a career that is in high demand. You can also check with your local hospital or medical center, as they may have openings for medical billing specialists.

Another option is to contact a medical billing company, which may have open positions for medical billing specialists. Once you find a few potential jobs, read the job descriptions carefully and apply for the ones you are qualified for.

It is crucial to be as specific as possible when searching for a job. This will help you find more relevant results.

Check the recent open positions on Linkedin.

27. Recruiting Coordinator

recruiting coordinator job you can do from anywhere

Recruiting coordinator is a job in high demand in the human resources departments and is responsible for coordinating the recruitment and hiring process for an organization. They may post job openings, screen resumes, conduct interviews, and extend job offers to candidates.

Recruiting coordinators ensure that an organization has a qualified and diverse workforce. In addition to coordinating the recruitment process, they may provide support and guidance to hiring managers and candidates.

The benefits of being a recruiting coordinator include:

  • Having a vital role in an organization’s success
  • Contributing to a diverse workforce

28. Voice Acting

recording voice over

Voice acting is a growing field that offers the flexibility to work remotely, making it a popular career choice for digital nomads. Here’s what you need to know about voice acting as a remote job:

  1. Job duties: Voice actors are responsible for providing voiceovers for a wide range of media, including commercials, video games, movies, and audiobooks. They must be able to convey emotion, convey character, and deliver lines with clarity and precision.
  2. Skills: Voice acting requires strong vocal skills, the ability to convey emotions and characters effectively, and the ability to work well with direction. It also requires good performance skills, creativity, and the ability to work well under pressure.
  3. Equipment: To work as a voice actor, you will need a good-quality microphone and a soundproof recording space. Some voice actors also use recording software to enhance their sound quality and make editing easier.
  4. Opportunities: There are a variety of opportunities for voice actors, including freelance work, working for a talent agency, and providing voiceovers for television and radio commercials. Remote work is becoming increasingly common in the field, allowing voice actors to work from anywhere in the world.
  5. Income: The income for voice actors varies widely, depending on their level of experience, the type of work they do, and the market they are working in. Some voice actors earn a steady income from recurring projects, while others earn money from one-off projects.

Popular websites to find voice-over jobs:

So what’s the best way to get started to work online and travel the world?

I strongly believe that by acquiring new skills and getting paid for it by your clients is probably the best way to get started. No matter if that’s a web design, copywriting, or social media marketing. Once you are making a comfortable income you can start working on your own projects to minimize client contact on your travels and make work from anywhere even easier.

In fact, most people do it this way and you should too! There are enough opportunities for anyone to make a living off it and I wish you lots of success along the way!

To learn about more ways how to get started to travel the world, I recommend you also read how to become a digital nomad (it’s easier than you might think).

Johannes Völkner

About the author

Founder of WebWorkTravel magazine

  • The problem with this digital nomad freelance stuff is that people from India and several other countries will undercut to take the work for almost nothing. These people often lack the real fundamental skill-sets to do the work properly, yet, many businesses just go the cheapest route. It is almost epidemic, I have been educating myself in IT, programming, graphic/web arts for 14 years now-these people get the work. No other way to beat around the bush here, it has to be mentioned.

  • Hi Johannes,

    Thank you for taking time to compile and post this article.
    I am from South Africa, have a full time job but looking for something to supplement my income and yes have those travels as well.

    I noticed you said you started out in virtual assistance while living in South Africa. If you don’t mind my asking, can you refer me to websites I can apply for such jobs from. It is so difficult to get an online job in South Africa if you not careful, there are too many scammers around. I have given up hope and picked it up so many times. So when I read your post I thought well maybe it’s not reaching for the stars – it’s possible to get an online job in this country.

    I see this article is old but I do hope you get to see this.

    Thank you again for sharing this information with us.

    Regards,
    Adelle

  • Seems like a lot of people like me are trying to find remote jobs from home, but to actually find a site with list of company’s hiring customer service reps outside the US is pretty mush imposible.

  • Hi,

    How does it go with visa requirements? Or are you exempt from any special visa apart from a tourist visa to work from anywhere in the world? It seems a bit .. too easy and there’s not a lot of information on this side of the matter.

    Cheers,
    Maarten

  • Hi, I can not call you, but, if you know of any online customer service jobs I can do from home outside your country please let me know.

  • We are who we are by way of association. Would you be willing to teach me search engine advertising Johannes?

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