How to Be a Digital Nomad with No Money: 12 Affordable Ways to Start
Work flexibility, constant travel, and no boss breathing down your throat. There’s no denying that the digital nomad lifestyle is pretty tempting. And it's not as expensive to achieve as people might want to let you think.
I'm sure you heard plenty of times that you can't become a digital nomad if you have no money. But is it actually true, though?
We are here to bust this myth and share with you the 12 most affordable ways you can build your location-independent income without a cash investment, so you can finally start your new digital nomad life.
Is It Possible to Become a Digital Nomad with Little to No Investment?
Yes, we truly believe so. Although to actually maintain your full-time digital nomad in the long run, you will incur costs such as flights, accommodation, visa applications, and, of course, your remote work gear, the good news is that to find your gig to start your life as a digital nomad you don't need a large amount of cash.
All you need to start is a computer and an internet connection.
Sure, finding your ideal digital nomad job will still require an investment of your time and energy, but the reward will be truly worth it.
What Are the Best Ways to Become a Digital Nomad with No or Little Investment?
Now that we have established that the money problem is a myth, let's get you up to speed with all the actual ideas to become a digital nomad with little to no investment. Below are our favorite ones (and the ones that many digital nomads are following right now).
Blogging
Blogging is a beginner-friendly way to make money online that costs almost nothing and only requires a domain name, a hosting and a topic you are passionate about.
The most popular blogging platform for beginners is WordPress. It has a ton of website templates to choose from and streamlines the blog post writing and publishing process. You can start with their free plan or level up to a premium from $8/month. You can also easily get a super-affordable domain from just $0.98/year on Namecheap and web hosting starting from $2.49/month with Hostinger (they even let you build a decent website with AI).
And what about monetization? There are lots of ways to monetize your blog through ads, affiliate links, and sponsored posts not to mention that running a successful travel blog could get you free or sponsored trips and travel experiences!
How to start
- Make a free WordPress account combined with Elementor or use a no-code website builder like Squarespace
- Purchase a domain name starting from $0.98/year on Namecheap
- Buy a web hosting from $2.49/month on the Hostinger site
- Learn from free online resources like HubSpot’s Blogging Course and Banklinko’s blog
- Use SEO to grow your audience
Online Freelancing
Freelancing is the ideal career pathway for someone who loves what they do but is overdoing it for someone else’s company. This is because freelancers are contracted directly by clients to complete work on specific projects.
Well-known niches for freelancing include content writing, UX design, SEO and graphic design, but even without a specific skill, you can find freelancing side gigs with things like transcription, data entry, and voice-over work. There are truly plenty of ways to start with no experience.
Social media platforms like LinkedIn or X are your best friends when it comes to advertising your services because they are totally free. Don’t be shy about reaching out to friends, family, and companies you’ve worked for in the past either to look for freelance opportunities. And share everything you learn along the way as it's the best way to get noticed and get people to come to you instead.
How to start
- Create a kick-ass portfolio and website
- Share your services on social media
- Make free profiles on freelancing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork
- Start sending your project proposals
Here are some freelancing tools to make your life that little bit easier:
Irene Lidia Wang
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing programs let you work with a company to bring their products to your audience and keep a small percentage of any sales. Joining these programs is always free and you don’t have to prove an audience size to be accepted.
That means you can start at any point. All you need is an engaged audience to share what's great about that brand in a non-spammy way and you'll see the money coming into your bank account. There are plenty of examples of digital nomads like Dian Huang who make money from affiliate marketing and can afford to live the digital nomad lifestyle.
Commission rates from conversions usually fall anywhere from 1% to 30% and as with any type of sales role, the more you sell, the more you make. Remember: try growing your audience through blogging, vlogging, or social media to increase your chance of getting engagement, clicks, and sales.
How to start
- Research affiliate marketing programs
- Sign up for affiliate platforms like TravelPayouts, Impact, Partnerstack or CJ
- Learn about affiliate marketing from free courses on Udemy or Hubspot’s Affiliate Marketing
- Post consistently, share your affiliate links, and use SEO and social media to increase your audience
Remote Coaching
Becoming a remote coach means helping clients with professional or personal growth through video or audio calls.
What’s cool about coaching is that you don’t need any formal training. In fact, you have the chance to lean on your existing skills and experience through niches like career, lifestyle, or even dating to become a coach on those topics.
Offering free sessions to friends and peers in exchange for testimonials is a great place to start before building a website to outline your services. For free video calls, use GoogleMeet or try out Calendly as a no-cost tool to automate the scheduling of your consultations.
How to start
- Choose your coaching niche
- Create a website using affordable no-code website builders like Squarespace
- Explore learning resources on the International Coaching Federation
Language Teaching
The world of online language learning is growing all the time and with more remote language learners comes the need for more remote language teachers.
You can sign up for free to teaching platforms like iTalki, Preply, Lingopie, and MagicEars, and the process literally takes less than 10 minutes. A few platforms require you to have teaching experience or qualifications to apply but there are plenty that only ask for language fluency and a passion for teaching.
Teaching English abroad can also land you a job in a foreign country before even booking your flight. TEFL qualifications are often needed but you can avoid the $2000 - $3000 price tag by searching in countries where TEFL isn’t required, like Japan, Spain, and Thailand.
How to start
- Explore teaching platforms like iTalki, Lingopie, Preply, or MagicEars and check their requirements
- Complete the teaching applications
- Set your teaching hours on Calendly
- Research in-person opportunities like JET and NALCAP
Translation Gigs
If you know two or more languages fluently then working as an online translator could be a better option. Translation gigs can be done from anywhere in the world and, assuming you’re already bilingual, have a very low barrier to entry.
It’s important to decide what niche interests you most so that you can present yourself as an expert in that field.
From there you can use freelancer platforms like Proz and TranslatorsCafe to connect with clients and apply for gigs. You'll also want to reach out directly to companies by cold calling or looking for translation roles on a remote job board.
How to start
- Choose a niche like the sports, medical, or legal fields
- Sign up for translation-specific freelancer platforms
- Use LinkedIn to reach out directly to companies
- Search for translation gigs on remote job boards like Remote Nomad Jobs
Volunteering
A lot of volunteering opportunities abroad will offer free accommodation in exchange for your work and while you’ll usually have to cover your own flights, food, and social activities, it is a super cost-effective way to travel the world.
Sites like Worldpackers or Workaway list farmwork and local community projects with membership plans starting at only $49/year.
And if that’s not your kind of thing, you could consider TrustedHousesitters which helps digital nomads to house/petsit their way around the world for only $132/year to apply.
How to start
- Decide what type of volunteering you want to do
- Explore volunteering postings on platforms like TrustedHousesitters
- Make an account and subscribe to apply
- Reach out directly to charities in areas you'd like to visit
Social Media Management
The truth is that social media is no longer the future of marketing. It’s firmly in the present. Without great social media content, brands are leaving money on the table - they need social media experts to step in and help.
A good social media manager can build content plans, follow trends, and create content in line with the voice of the brand. A great social media manager is constantly pitching new ideas, staying ahead of trends, and connecting deeply with a brand’s growing audience. Trust us, it's nowhere near as 'easy' as it looks but you can still become a digital nomad as a social media manager with no investment. All you need is a passion to learn about social media and a commitment to follow trends and algorithm changes.
How to start
- Create professional profiles across your chosen social media
- Practice making content plans for free with Buffer
- Use free tools like Canva for thumbnails and CapCut for video editing
- Reach out to small businesses and offer to manage their social media
SEO Consulting
Search engine optimization (SEO) is another highly desirable skill that’s becoming more important by the day. Being able to fly up the search engine ranks can be make-or-break for companies meaning they're willing to spend big to learn how to succeed in SEO.
Become an SEO expert by choosing your niche, building out a website, and sharing your expertise on LinkedIn. Demonstrate your SEO skills in your own content to prove to clients that you know your stuff and start offering your services directly to companies that you see struggling.
How to start
- Take a free SEO course like Google's Fundamentals of Digital Marketing or Content Led SEO with Brian Dean
- Find your SEO niche (eCommerce, SaaS, travel, etc.)
- Create a website to share your services
- Post insights across social media
- Use the free SEO tools from the web to create client pitches
SaaS with No-Code Platforms
Software as a service (SaaS) refers to an online software application that acts as a product for customers to access and use online. You make money by charging customers to use your software either on a per-use basis or via a monthly subscription. This is one of the most rising niches in the online money-making world.
With ‘software’ in the name, most people assume that to build a SaaS, you need to know how to code. The great news is that's not the case anymore! Instead of taking expensive coding classes, you now use free and cheap no-code tools to create and launch your software. And there are plenty in the market including Bubble.io, Softr, Webflow and most recently bolt.new. You can even build mobile apps with Flutterflow.
Being completely transparent, the learning curve is quite steep if you're not naturally 'techy', but if you have an idea for a SaaS without the money to hire software engineers, then no-code platforms are essentially your golden ticket to a digital nomad life.
How to start
- Get a foundational understanding of SaaS and no-code tools from great YouTube channels like WeAreNoCode
- Brainstorm SaaS business ideas
- Use Make’s free forever plan to create workflows and automation of up to 100 tasks a month
- Create free software prototypes with Bubble.io and launch with plans starting at $29/month
Interested in starting a business as a digital nomad? Check our recommended ideas:
Octavian Ungureanu
Digital Products
Want a passive income stream that doesn’t require a large cash injection to get off the ground? Creating and selling digital products like ebooks, courses, and templates could be a great way to do so.
Step one is to choose what kind of products and niche you want to sell through target research and skills analysis. Consider what’s already on the market and what’s missing.
From there you can start creating digital products that cost you zero dollars to put together but offer real value to your customers. Finally, create a storefront using a simple one-page (and no-code) store like Stan or Gumroad to start selling your digital products.
How to start
- Conduct market research
- Write ebooks and guides with the help of tools like ChatGPT or Amazon KDP
- Use Canva to build your visuals
- Open a storefront with Stan or Gumroad to sell your digital products
- Use SEO to perfect your copy and reach new customers
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a business model where you sell a product online and fulfill orders by purchasing the item from a third-party vendor to deliver directly to the client. In other words, you never actually see or touch the products yourself.
You turn a profit by charging more for the item than it costs to buy from the third-party seller and saving on any upfront costs like inventory, storage, and shipping.
The learning curve is very steep, and it's not certainly for beginners, but you can definitely start with little money if you ever want to. The only money needed is for a domain name (from just $0.98/year on Namecheap), web hosting (starting from $2.49/month with Hostinger), and a storefront on Shopify, the biggest eCommerce and dropshipping platform on the planet (only from $9/month). You can even test selling for free on TiktokShop first to test your idea.
How to start
- Choose a product that customers actually want
- Find a reliable supplier and test out ordering the product to a few different addresses
- Start selling for free on TiktokShop or from $9/month to build out your own Shopify website
Are you Ready to Become a Digital Nomad Without a Cash Investment?
And that's it! These were all the pathways to becoming a digital nomad with no to little money, and without throwing massive investments to travel the world.
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