How Much Do Digital Nomads Make? Nomad Salary/Income Explained

Have you made the decision to become a digital nomad and adopt a new nomadic lifestyle? Well done. But have you actually figured out what you will do to earn a living, and how much you’ll earn?

PS: We’ve actually got a video course on how to become a digital nomad, and earn $4K per month passive income within a year. Check out the Digital Nomad Bootcamp!

Unless you have heavily saved money over the past years, you will most probably need to arrange everything prior to your departure. When it comes to digital nomad income, nothing is ever guaranteed.

How much you can earn and when you’ll be able to get a steady income depend on many factors. The type of job, how much time you dedicate for it, whether you are successful on it or not yet, are some of the factors to take into account when trying to realize how things work in the digital nomadism.

IMPORTANT: Have a look at our digital nomad bootcamp course which shows you EXACTLY how to become a digital nomad with an income generating business in 90 days. Also at the end of this post you’ll find a list of useful links and resources for making more money as a digital nomad!

You might have to work for a company

There is a chance that you still work for a company but have the option to work remotely. In that case, nothing really changes with your income and salary; you just decide if it’s enough to live somewhere else with different living costs.

The cost of living in the place you’re going to is important, because some places are wildly more expensive or cheaper than others. For example, you can very comfortably live for months on end in Thailand, but try living in Toronto or London without a good salary and you’ll soon be struggling.

However, not many companies agree that you work as a digital nomad with a salary, but rather work from home or location independent. It’s a fairly new thing, and it will take a good 5-10 years before the majority of big companies are happy for you to work remotely (although it’s definitely the way the world is going).

How much money can you earn on your own?

So, let’s move on to discover how much money certain types of work can bring in. As you can imagine, there are hundreds of jobs that you can nowadays pursue online, and as such, the income will vary greatly.

For example, a blog writer/owner may make a good $6k/month based on a full- time working schedule. If you are in digital marketing, you can expect to make $1600/m, when working less than 15 hours a week. Or if you are a copyrighter you could make about $2.5k/month.

Similarly, a job in the advertising sector might generate $4500/m on a full-time basis, whereas a web developer may earn between $2k-3k/m while working part-time. Another marketing consultant can possibly reach $7000 monthly, working full time and perhaps with extra hours.

All the above examples are not the standard; but rather an idea of what digital nomads earn out there today. The truth is, when you’re working for yourself (and have lots of free time) you CAN earn significantly more than if you were an employee.

BUT, you need to actually work

That being said, it’s important to know a few things. Yes, it is very possible to earn a lot of money as a digital nomad but you have to actually work! Too many new nomads just hit the road and then treat it as one big holiday.

Sure, have fun, but at the same time remember you have to work to bring the money in. Otherwise, you’ll very quickly run out of money and find yourself in a hostel skyping your parents asking for a bank transfer so you can get a flight home.

Some digital nomad income examples

To give you an idea of how complicated is actually the question about the amount of money a digital nomad can make, look at the example of travel blogging:

Naturally, not all travel bloggers do the same thing; others may get paid to visit a place and write about it, whereas others might get perks such as free accommodation. That said, the income varies highly, and it can be awesome one month, but NOTHING the next. Always be prepared for not so good months, but be also optimistic that better days will come.

The more you work the more you earn

And as you may have realized so far, the number of working hours per week does play an important role in your income. You might have decided to work as a digital nomad because you want to work less and explore more. That’s absolutely fine if your income allows it (our nomad bootcamp course shows how to grow PASSIVE income).

Besides, working part-time in a relatively cheaper third world country is actually feasible. However, you have the potential to earn much more if you work the typical 40-hour work week. So, it is entirely up to you to decide which work pattern actually lives up to your standards or covers your needs.

As to when you can see your efforts being rewarded, it again depends on few factors, with the level of commitment one of the greatest. Are you really determined to start an online business and run it from different places around the globe?

You must know that you really need to have serious goals and a certain plan on how you will achieve your dream life. Results will show faster if you are willing to devote lots of time and energy to making this work.

You’re building from scratch (most of the time)

When you start your freelance career from zero, you will notice it is rather hard to start earning right away. You will need to build on your career profile.

Finding clientele might be the trickiest part since no one actually knows you on the net world and somehow you need to prove you are worth their investment. This normally takes quite some time until the clients trust you and start assigning you regular projects.

If you are already a skilled and experienced freelancer, then it is a lot easier to get projects and make an excellent profile since you have a portfolio to prove your experience.

On the other hand, if you are a complete newbie on that, it will surely take longer to establish business online relationships; exactly how much is unknown, but it might take several years to become a successful digital nomad. This doesn’t necessarily imply that you won’t be earning enough to live your dream during these years.

Remember that it will take a considerable amount of time to earn a stable income online. And there is a possibility that this income will never reach through as well. Your best bet before you start your digital nomadic lifestyle is to start with freelancing.

This way, you get to build your portfolio, make the right connections with clients and last but not least you will get the confidence to move a step further and realize your dream. Patience and persistence are two lovely virtues to assist you in pursuing the freedom you have always wanted.

The best way to build up a digital nomad income

This is coming from experience and honesty, the BEST way to become a digital nomad with a good income, is to build a location independant income BEFORE you get on a plane.

Just build an online business before you go, so you can deal with all the annoying problems while you’re still at home and have somewhere secure and stable to stay, with a guaranteed internet connection.

It’s so much easier this way, and it means when you do eventually get on the road, you don’t have to stress about money because you’ve already built up your passive income or business model.

Don’t just get on a plane and hope it will all work out because often times, it doesn’t. There are FAR more new digital nomads that have to come home after 6 months than don’t.

Useful digital nomad tools

There are several ways you could build an online income, so we’ve collected a few interesting and useful digital nomad tips and tools for you..