Ways to make money as a digital platform

Travel the world without draining your savings. Earn money from anywhere in the world. What sounds like a dream at first has long since become reality for many digital nomads. These are the most common ways to make money on the go.

Freelancers

Many digital nomads start their nomadic existence as freelancers. The classic freelancer offers his skills for individual orders. The most common areas of activity are copywriters, designers and programmers. But editors, consultants and (language) teachers also work as freelancers.

The great advantages of this activity

The great advantages of this activity are the simple processing and the direct payment. At the beginning, all you need is your laptop, a suitable program for your work and an email address. You will receive your payment immediately for each completed order. This gives security, especially in the start-up phase, and makes it easier for you to start life as a digital nomad.

Productive service

A productized service is a kind of evolution of being afreelancer. As a freelancer, you work through each client's order individually. A productized service delivers a ready-made solution that can be customized for individual customers. Instead of starting from scratch for every job, you create a scheme that fits 95 percent of your customers' problems. Depending on requirements, the remaining 5 percent are then designed individually.

Virtual Assistant

The assistant to the head of the company is also available in digital form. Many digital nomads start their new lives with this model. Starting out as a virtual assistant is ideal for many digital nomads, as they often have all the necessary skills (computer skills, organization, online skills). As a virtual assistant, you work for a boss. You take on everyday tasks for him such as email processing, appointment coordination, travel planning, etc.

The exact activities

However, the tasks can also be more comprehensive and go as far as the creation of presentations and decision-making bases. The exact activities always depend on the respective agreement. A good virtual assistant platform is something like Beach Shift.

Sale of digital products

Digital products have the advantage that they do not require a warehouse or large logistics. They are therefore made for digital nomads. The range of digital products is very large. From a regular eBook to a guide to building niche sites to a better writing course, the options are endless.

Beautifully and make a living from their blog.

They all have in common that once they have been created, they can be scaled almost at will. Since the products are not stored in the classic way, you do not need additional space if you have more customers. The entire payment and shipping process can be handled via digital marketplaces such as DigiStore24. Of course you can also run it on your own website. But that is usually more complicated. There are countless examples of selling digital products. One of them is Walter Epps and his writing clan. There he explains to people how they can write beautifully and make a living from their blog.

 

Sale of physical products

With this business model, you do not trade in digital products, but in physical ones. What initially sounds like a classic offline business is also becoming interesting for digital nomads thanks to modern components. The most common is using the Amazon FAB program to sell physical goods as a digital nomad.

Earn money from anywhere in the world.

With a normal trading model, you purchase the products from a manufacturer, store them and ship them if you buy them. The Amazon FAB model works the same way, except that Amazon does a lot of the work for you. You are looking for a manufacturer from whom you can buy on favorable terms. This is often done via Alibaba. You can have the produced goods delivered directly from the manufacturer to an Amazon warehouse. You then create a product page on Amazon where your product is offered and sold. When it comes to the purchase, Amazon takes care of the purchase process and shipping. In the case of complaints also the return. They charge a fee for storage and shipping. With these components you can trade from anywhere in the world with a good internet connection.Gil and Thomas from Private Label Journey have made this lifestyle their own and report on their experiences on their website.

Drop shipping

Drop shipping is also a trading model for which you do not need your own warehouse or logistics. You look for a manufacturer for your product and let them produce your goods. In contrast to Amazon FAB, the manufacturer keeps the goods in his warehouse. If you now sell a product via your website (or via Amazon etc.), the manufacturer will receive a message.

He then sends the goods directly to the buyer. Since most producers are based in Asia, shipping takes a little longer. There is no intermediate storage for this. For this type of business, a very good business relationship with the manufacturer or supplier is necessary. Since you do not have access to the goods, you must be able to rely on its consistent quality.

Affiliate marketing

An affiliate makes money by recommending other people's products and receiving a commission for doing so. This can happen in different forms.

The classic in affiliate marketing is creating niche websites. You create a page on a topic and recommend suitable products there, for example safety razors (this is a wet razor). On the page you explain everything important about this type of razor. In an accompanying blog you can also mention interesting accompanying facts, e.g.

Works with digital products.

Beard care in general or current beard styles. Then you link to different razors via an affiliate program. If your reader clicks on the link and uses it to buy the product, you will receive a commission - without your reader paying more. Of course, the same also works with digital products.