If you find it difficult to fit into the traditional 9-to-5 workday, you’re not the only one. Millions of people around the world are enjoying freelance work that allows them to achieve a good work/life balance while earning enough money to finance their adventures. And don’t think that freelance work only allows you to work from home—you can travel the world and make money at the same time. Remote work will remove the need to live in a specific city or country. However, if you want to maintain this lifestyle, you need to know how to earn money through dedication and devotion. Here’s a little guide for all travelers who want to try their hand in freelance.
Look into coworking spaces
Today, most restaurants, cafes and hostels offer free Wi-Fi, but these spots can often be noisy, uncomfortable (café chairs get uncomfortable pretty fast) and expensive (buying coffee and food for hours just to stay there can ruin your budget and your figure). Luckily, as remote work becomes more popular, we can see coworking spacing opening up all over the world.
Most coworking spaces have a great internet connection, practical desks and comfortable chairs and even sofas and beanbags for relaxation. And you can get all of that for a very reasonable price—maybe even grab tasty coffee for free!
Bring in the business
No matter what type of freelance work you do, you can’t travel and make money if you don’t attract new clients. Luckily, you can rely on websites that are designed to link freelancers and clients quickly and successfully. Websites like Upwork cater to all sorts of freelancers while websites like Textbroker focus only on writers and DesignCrowd focus only on designers.
Come up with a catchy name
If you’re working remotely at your old job, you don’t need to think about this, but if you’re planning a career as a travel blogger, you definitely need a catchy name and domain if you want to make it. Your content might be more important, but a lot of it relies on the name. Luckily, it’s easy to book your personal domain in a form that will show off your personality and content. With a good domain, you will stand out and get noticed. In the future, you might even get to sell it well and use your extra income to fund your travels.
Invest in quality gear
Like we mentioned above, you can get Wi-Fi almost anywhere today, but many world travelers might end up in isolated beaches and desert islands that don’t get solid broadband. While we wait for the days of global Wi-Fi, we need to find spots with a good power supply and Wi-Fi connection if we want to finish tasks and deliver work to clients. Having a local SIM card can be a life-saver in such times because you can use your data to check your emails and keep in touch with clients. Depending on your work, you might even get to finish it from your smartphone!
Having a good portable power bank is important as well, especially if you spend a lot of time on the road. With this gadget, you’ll get to catch up with your work, build connections and perfect your trade during long bus, plane or train rides.
Communicate openly with your clients
Clients usually don’t care where you are, as long as you get the job done, but it’s still a good idea to inform them of your whereabouts. This way, if you miss your connection and can’t make it to your meeting or if your bus breaks down and you can’t make that Zoom call, your client will be more forgiving. If you let them know in advance that there’s a possibility you can’t meet a certain obligation and they will understand.
Advertise your services
When traveling, you will get in touch with many different people, fellow travelers, locals, business people and tourists. Some of them might be future clients, you never know, so don’t hesitate to network and make business contacts along the way. Always have your business cards ready and feel free to give them to people you meet. You can even leave some in hostels, cafes or bulletin boards!
There’s no better career for those who have an incurable case of wanderlust than freelancing. If you have some discipline, good gear and a feel of making connections, you will get to travel the world and still make some pretty money on your adventures.
