Are you looking for the best digital nomad jobs in 202 that are fun and actually pay the bills? This list got you covered! The following article is a selection of the 46 most popular remote jobs that will hopefully give you some ideas about your own career.
Table of Contents
IT Jobs
1. Graphic/Web Design & Development
The classic. If you have a talent for anything that has got to do with graphic or web design or development, this could be a great opportunity for you. Many employers don’t care where you work from, because you only need a decent laptop and a proper internet connection.
If you don’t want to work for a company but start as a freelancer, you can use platforms like Fiverr or 99designs to offer your service.
2. Animator
It’s not only big movie production companies that need experienced animation professionals. Many businesses need animated short videos for advertising or training purposes, too. This is a great way for creative talents to get a well-paid remote job.
3. UX/ UI Designer
The demand for user experience and user interface designers is very high at the moment, the payment is usually great and you can easily do them from anywhere in the world. Both of these job categories require specific knowledge and experience. So you shouldn’t be a complete beginner when you are planning to make money with one of these any time soon.
4. App Developer
Another well-paid location-independent job: App developer. You can either develop your own apps if you have some profitable ideas and concepts in mind or work for companies. That could be start-ups or established companies, which want to provide a mobile service for their customers or employees.
5. Usability / QA Testing
Ok, this job might not get you rich, but it can earn you a nice little pocket money. Companies worldwide are looking for people who can test new apps, websites, services, and sometimes even gadgets for them. If you detect a bug, you report it and give your general impression and ideas on what you’ve tested. Rewards usually don’t go above 10 USD per test, but they can add up.
6. Online Tech Support
Do you have a great technical understanding and the patience to deal with people who don’t? Then being an online tech support professional could be a great job for you. You can work via e-mail, chat, or phone, which makes it the perfect digital nomad job.
Many companies want to provide support for their customers 24/7. That means different time zones won’t be a problem, maybe they are even an advantage for you. All you need is reliable internet to stay connected during a chat or call.
Admin / Support Jobs
7. Online Customer Service
One of the best digital nomad jobs is being a customer service representative. You often get training on the company’s products or services. Apart from that, you need to be super friendly (no matter how impolite the customers might be) and patient. Although the payment is often not the best, it’s a job you can easily do from anywhere in the world, as long as your internet connection is good enough for e-mails, calls, or chats.
Check out companies like The Chat Shop, Apptical, Convergys, LiveOps, Televated, or Sedgwick to find open remote customer service positions.
8. Virtual Assistance
Are you good at organizing and multitasking? Why not become a private or business assistant? This is one of the most popular digital nomad jobs. Many managers, artists, and entrepreneurs need help to organize their daily life. That can be issues around their private life, like finding the perfect car dealer, or business-related tasks, like market research.
Often your duties include the scheduling of appointments, copywriting, social media work, or general administration work. If you want to find out more about becoming a virtual assistant, check out the linked guide.
9. Research Assistant
Most research assistants work for universities or research institutions. Due to the nature of the subject, they often need to be educated to degree level and be familiar with the terminology. If you are qualified in a certain area of expertise this could be a great niche for you to look for jobs.
10. Data Entry
Some data entry jobs require expertise in a particular field, some don’t. You definitely need to be a detail-oriented person, be able to focus and type fast without errors. It’s a perfect remote job since companies usually don’t require you to be on-site and you are often free to do it at any time of the day.
Great companies that offer remote data entry jobs are, for example, Clickworker, Dion Data Solutions, Mechanical Turk, or SigTrack.
11. Virtual Recruiter
Do you have some recruitment experience and love to network? Then a position as a virtual recruiter could be the right thing for you. The task is the same as for normal recruiters: Find suitable talents for employers. Payments are usually a certain percentage of the first annual salary of the talent. So the more highly qualified (and paid) people you can find, the better for you.
Content Processing Jobs
12. Content Writing
Out of all the remote jobs, this is the one that I started my remote lifestyle with. You can write articles about all kinds of topics, such as alternative medicine, music news, fashion, or motherhood, and sell them. Potential clients could be anyone from radio stations to blogs, magazines, universities, companies, or websites.
And becoming a content writer is not even that hard. If you know a thing or two about SEO and can write content that is optimized for search engines, you are more likely to get better jobs and payments.
Some of the most important places to find entry-level content writing jobs are Textbroker, Blogging Pro, Online Writing Jobs, or ProBlogger.
13. Technical Writer
To get more into detail, you could do writing jobs that include technical content. That means you create documents such as training courses, reports, or manuals. Obviously, you need to have a certain type of knowledge. A high-end technical writer might be able to score writing jobs for car manufacturers or even top players, like NASA.
14. Resume Writer
We all want great jobs but probably most of us hate writing resumes and cover letters. Since they are so important, it is understandable why people hire professional writers to get help. That could be a great chance for you if you want to specialize in one profitable niche.
15. Book / EBook Writer
You are passionate about writing and could do that all day? Write a book/ebook in a profitable niche and try to sell it. That could be a book about how to find the best kitchen appliances, 10-minute gluten-free recipes, 99 tips for beautiful orchids, or how to reanimate seemingly dead plants. Be creative! You don’t even need to publish the book yourself. There are countless people out there who are looking for content writers to get their ideas written.
16. Online Editing & Proofreading
If you have excellent grammar and spelling skills, you could also work as a proofreader or editor. Clients will give you a piece of content (that can be a blog post, marketing material, or an entire book) and you check for potential mistakes. Some clients want you to summarize articles or restructure them. You are often the last one to read the content so you are responsible for its accuracy.
17. Translation or Interpretation
You were raised bilingual or you are absolutely fluent in another language? Jackpot! You can become a translator. There are agencies you can work for. Alternatively, you can look for open positions on freelancer websites like Upwork.
You could, for instance, translate websites, apps, university presentations, amazon product listings, entire e-books, games, or marketing material.
When you have certain knowledge, let’s say in finance, then you could be the perfect person to translate content about financial issues since you are familiar with the terminology.
If you need to improve your language skills a little bit, check out these awesome language-learning courses.
18. Transcription
There is a higher demand for transcription jobs than you might think. In general, you need to have a very good ear, since the quality of the recordings can be terrible. You also need to be able to type super-fast without errors, otherwise, it will take you forever to do the job. A certain expert knowledge might be needed for specialized tasks, such as medical transcriptions.
If you are interested in transcription jobs, check out companies like Babbletype, AccuTranGlobal, Scribie, or Transcribe Me.
19. Captioning
We all know the written words at the bottom of movies and video clips. The process of typing these words out and placing them in readable chunks of text at appropriate time slots is called captioning. This is very important for the hearing impaired and for everyone who wants to watch something without turning on the sound. There are no particular skills needed, but it helps if you can type fast.
20. Voiceover Artist / Voice Actor
Again, there are more jobs available for voiceover artists than you might think. It is not only movie or commercial production firms that are in need of these artists. Many corporate projects need voices in different languages, too.
You need to have either a pleasant voice or a very expressive voice (depending on what the project is about) and special gear. For low-budget productions, it will be enough to have a decent microphone. But many professional voiceover artists have an entire range of high-quality equipment, such as sound absorbers, microphones, etc.
21. Moderation & Community Manager
Moderators and community managers make sure that online forums, review pages, and such are free of specified content. For example, they delete inappropriate or insulting comments or hide sensitive information, e.g. private mobile numbers.
There are no special skills required because you usually get training or guidance before you start working.
Companies, that are known to hire remote moderators, are for example Crisp Thinking, Ignite Social Media, LiveWorld, or The Social Element.
Information Related Jobs
22. Blogging
Many people make good money with their blogs. Pick a niche you enjoy writing about. Maybe you are into classic cars, birdwatching, or tasty wine? Maybe you have a disease and want to show other patients how to live with it?
Once you have a decent number of readers, you could use affiliate marketing to earn money or sell advertising space or different kinds of products on your blog. There are many opportunities.
Although this sounds very easy, please be aware that a blog is hard work and it usually takes a long time until you are able to generate your first few dollars with it.
If you want to learn how to start a money-making blog in no time, check out this post with a step-by-step guide for blogging beginners.
23. Vlogging
Not a big fan of writing? You could also make videos about certain niche markets and earn money as a video blogger (vlogger). The ways how you can make money are basically the same as with blogging: affiliate marketing, sponsorships, or advertisements. You should, of course, feel comfortable in front of the camera and have a charismatic presence. Some video editing and marketing skills are helpful, too.
24. Podcasting
Do you hate being in front of the camera but have much to tell? Start a podcast! You will publish your series of digital audio files and talk about anything you like. If you manage to create unique and engaging content, you will get a good number of subscribers and thus, can monetarize your podcast through similar methods as mentioned before.
25. Online Courses
Many people prefer to learn something new via videos instead of reading about it. Your possibilities are endless: 10-minute workouts for your lunch break, do-it-yourself ideas for first-time moms, MS Office hacks for dummies or business tips for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Whatever you chose, you can either sell your online course on platforms, like Udemy or place them on YouTube and get paid for ads or product placements.
26. Teaching/Tutoring
Teaching or tutoring is another job that can be done online. You could use your language skills and help others learn English or another language.
Maybe you worked for the last couple of years as a marketing specialist? Help university students pass their marketing tests. Or you are a history geek? Help high school kids to survive their threatened history exams.
Before you start, it might be worth getting a certificate that proves that you really know what you are talking about. This is one of the remote job ideas where people will most likely ask for a qualification in terms of diplomas. For teaching English, you could, for example, do the TEFL training.
Digital Marketing Jobs
27. SEO Expert
No matter what product or service you are selling, without Search Engine Optimization you are very likely not going to be very successful with it. If you are not listed on the first five pages of Google, you basically don’t exist. That’s why SEO experts are more important than ever before. Highly qualified and skilled experts can make a whole lot of money with it.
28. Social Media Expert
Hardly any company, entrepreneur, or blog can be successful today without using social media. But it takes more than simply clicking the like button every once in a while. Social media management takes up much time and should be done professionally. If you have experience in that area, you could make this your new remote job.
If you want to learn more about social media management, check out the free online courses that Hootsuite is offering.
29. Pinterest Assistant
Companies are not only looking for social media experts in general but also for specialized ones. Take Pinterest as an example. It takes quite a bit of time and talent to create appealing pins. You also need to have a good strategy that includes when to post what pin, how to use keywords, and things like that.
Having a professional Pinterest assistant can be worth the money and saves business owners a lot of time. A great online job for everyone who likes being creative.
Head over to The Penny Hoarder to find 10 companies that are hiring Pinterest managers.
30. Affiliate Marketer
With affiliate marketing, you are promoting other peoples’ products or services and if they sell something through your promotion, you get a commission. Sounds easier than it is. That’s why professional affiliate marketers are needed.
You can either work for clients and help them with your affiliate knowledge or make money on your own, e.g. with a successful blog.
Sales Jobs
31. Sell Physical Goods
Maybe you have already started your own business when you were still “at home”. You could open up an online shop or simply use an existing retailer, such as Amazon, and sell any type of product. It doesn’t matter if you go for quantity and sell many cheap products, e.g. smartphone cases, or if you want to sell high quality and rather expensive products, e.g. antique furniture.
If you don’t want to deal with the logistics processes (delivery, return, etc.) you should consider dropshipping. This guide will explain to you how you can start a successful dropshipping business that can make you 95,000 USD a month.
32. Sell Digital Goods
The advantage of selling digital products is clearly that you don’t need to worry about physical logistics. It is a purely online business, which might be easier to handle for you as a digital nomad. You could, for example, sell e-books, software, photographs, worksheets, training courses, videos, auto-files, or memberships.
33. Importer/ Exporter
Many of the items we buy in North America or Europe are sourced somewhere else. If you can find a profitable niche, you can make a lot of money as an importer or exporter. You could also sell unique local products from the countries you are traveling to.
For instance, if you are in Myanmar for a few weeks or months you could buy handmade silk scarves right from that area and export them to the world.
But be aware: You also need to be comfortable with dealing with many different regulations and international laws.
34. Sales & Telemarketing
Another popular work-from-home and digital nomad job is telemarketing. You don’t need to see your customers in person but only talk to them over the phone. For that reason, a strong phone or internet connection is required. Being in the same time zone also helps a lot. Payment is often based on commission.
Finance Jobs
35. Accountant
Ok, so accountants usually have a lot to do with paperwork. But how about you chose clients, that don’t like paperwork either? How about you provide accounting and bookkeeping services to other digital nomads? I know many who need help with getting their personal and business finances in order.
Plus, you are in a perfect position of understanding their unique tax situations. That could be a brilliant niche for you.
36. Financial Planner
More and more financial planners get to work out of a home office since many companies hire them on a remote basis. Of course, you can also find your clients on a freelance basis. If you are certified and experienced, you can help your clients sort out financial questions and issues and help them plan for the future.
Photography Jobs
37. Photography & Videography
You travel to breathtaking places and get to know astonishing cultures. What would be better than taking photos or videos of your experiences? Afterward, you can sell them online to photography websites, such as Istockphoto. You can also present them on your own YouTube channel or Instagram account and make money through ads or sponsorships.
Another way of monetarizing your photos and videos would be to work for hotels or tour companies. Take photos or videos which they can use for promotion and advertisements.
To be very professional you need, of course, decent equipment, experience, and skills. Simple snapshots with your smartphone can be successful if you are lucky, but normally it takes a bit more than that. It might also be worth investing in a drone since aerial shots are highly popular right now.
38. Honeymoon and Vacation Photographer
A profitable niche is honeymoon or vacation photography. Instead of taking your own pictures or working for a company, you could take photos and videos of couples on their honeymoon or people on holiday in general. Especially in popular tourist destinations, such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, or the Maldives, you could find many clients.
39. Video Editing
You don’t even have to do the videos yourself. Maybe you have the software and knowledge to do video cutting and editing for others. They are surely many entrepreneurs, start-ups, and business owners out there, who are in need of a professional and creative video editor for a job or two.
Medical Jobs
40. Medical Coding
People working in the medical field often think that they cannot become digital nomads. But that’s not entirely true. There are some jobs that can be done remotely, too. For example, if you have a degree and experience in that field, you can find online medical coding jobs, which involve assigning certain medical codes to healthcare diagnoses.
41. Medical Review Nurse
If you have a health information-related degree, you could work as a medical reviewer. They examine medical documents, such as patient records or insurance paperwork, for accuracy and work for medical facilities or independent firms. Often you will be required to be on-site. But there are also some positions you can do remotely.
Miscellaneous Jobs
42. Surveys
Ok, you are probably not able to become a millionaire by doing surveys. But if you do it right and are lucky enough to be part of a certain sought-after demographic, it can definitely be a nice side income. For instance, a company is looking for 20 to 30-year-old Harley-Davidson fans.
Since there might not be too many around, they are willing to pay a premium for those who want to participate.
One of the biggest companies is SurveyJunkie. Simply sign up and they will send you qualifying surveys via email. Other survey companies, like Swagbucks or MyPoints, don’t only pay you to do surveys, but also to watch videos or test games. You can also earn points (which you can redeem for cash later) by doing online searches or online shopping.
43. Travel Agent
You’ve always loved to travel and are a pro in a particular corner of the world? Become a travel agent and help others plan their holiday. Create unique itineraries and help your clients with organizing flights, transfers, and hotels.
You can either work on your own and get commissions from hotels and such or work for established travel agencies as a freelancer or remote employee. A great job for everyone who is in love with traveling.
44. Interior Designer
You might think that as an interior designer you have to be on-site to do your job. But believe it or not, online services are getting more and more popular. Instead of visiting houses, the clients send photos and descriptions of them.
Both clients and designers are working closely together while communicating over Skype or e-mail. Once they have agreed on a plan, the designer can make additional money from commissions when clients purchase items he recommends.
45. Consulting
Consulting is such a great generic word. You can use any skill you have and help others solve their problems. Very popular online consulting jobs are in marketing, finance, or life coaching. Think of what you are good at. Maybe you can come up with a good niche and become an absolute expert in that.
46. Your Old Job
Who says you need to find a new career at all? Maybe you can do the same job as before (depending on the type of job, of course). Talk to your employer and ask if there is a chance you could do your work remotely. If not, check out some job search engines.
If you are lucky you can find something similar to your old job, which can be done completely online.
Extra Tip: If you are looking for a job with minimal interactions with others, check out these remote jobs for introverts!
Best Remote Jobs: Found Your Perfect Digital Nomad Job?
As you can see, there are plenty of ways how you can generate income online, either while working from home or traveling around the world as a digital nomad.
I hope these popular remote job ideas gave you some inspiration and a better understanding of what kind of online job you could do. There are many options and often you can do normal office jobs remotely, too. You don’t necessarily have to come up with a new job. Sometimes your current job can be done online, as well.
If you want to learn more about how to make money online and work remotely, check out my brand new online course “Zero to Remote Work Success“.
What is your favorite remote job? Any idea what type of location-independent work you could do? Let me know in the comment section below!
Thanks for the add, Jackie! Absolutely agree :)
Hey there… this list is great and I wanted to add to it.
One very important and very popular nomad job:
Copywriter
(which is not to be confused with content writer – not the same thing).
Copywriters are highly sought after, especially since the pandemic started. ;-)
Hi John, thanks a lot! I can’t promise it but I’ll definitely put it on my list of topics :) Have a great weekend!
Hi Denise,
Great Post! The world has gone digital now, and these jobs are perfect for anyone who is interested in technology. My nephew is very inclined towards becoming an animator, and I think it is the perfect job for him. Since you have so much experience in these industries, can you curate an article about animator jobs, including eligibility, process, and scope? I would share that resource with him in hopes to help him out. Really looking forward to reading more of your amazing articles. Thanks a lot.
Thanks a lot, John! I’m glad you’ve found it helpful! And yes, a virtual assistant is a super popular job :)
Hi Denise,
I am a remote worker myself, and I am asked by people all the time about remote working jobs. Your article will be a great help. I will definitely be sharing it with people in my network. I think a virtual assistant will be a perfect remote job for moms and other people who love to handle and manage multiple tasks. Thanks a lot for sharing this information. It has been a great help. Looking forward to more lists like this.
Absolutely right, Cathrine! Tech remote jobs offer great opportunities and are usually well paid.
I have to admit that IT is a job with lots of opportunities and a bright future. My friends who do this profession are very successful. I would advise my kids to learn about computer science and support them if they like it.
Thanks a lot!
This is a great article. In today’s digital age, people can do these tasks comfortably from their homes, as per their requirements.
Thanks a lot, Sakshi! Absolutely correct :)
This is a great article. Remote work being the future of work is growing at an exponential rate and hence MNCs and SEMs are going remote. Which makes it even more huge.