October Income Report Digital Nomad Style

Job #1: Review Guide Writer

I’ve been doing this particular writing job for a few months now. I write small guides about places I have visited for an online platform. The money is good but it’s quite hard work. The good thing is though: the more I travel, the more places I will have to write about! Number of guides written: 3 Pay per guide in US$60 Total: $160 Hours it took me to write them: 14 h Average hourly rate: $11.4

Job #2: German – English Translator

This month I finally started doing translations. I’ve been thinking about it for a while but was a little worried that my German is a bit rusty, after all, I haven’t lived there for 6.5 years, and I wrote all my university theses, from Bachelor to Ph.D., in English, it just comes more naturally to me than German. The way around this? Translate from German to English! I got my main job (a website translation) through connections (thanks, mummy!) and then got myself a few small Upwork jobs as well. What I found most surprising was that I actually kind of enjoyed the work, I need to use my brain and it’s quite satisfying. Oh, and the pay is good too! Number of words translated: 4015 Pay per word (average: $0.08; ranging from $0.10 to $0.03) Total: $440 Hours it took me to translate: approx. 20 Average hourly rate: $22

Job #3: Affiliate Income

My third month in a row that I got some affiliate income. I have to say I could get used to this, but sadly it’ll dry up if I don’t get more clients or more readers, so I need to work hard over next few months to keep it up. Number of affiliate sales: 2 Commission per sale: $50 Total affiliate commission: $100 Total hours worked: 0

Job #4: Blogger

This was one of my favourite freelance jobs since I started. A friend from Australia who works in content management read my blog, liked it and asked me if I would like to write a post for the career blog of a huge Australian online university. It was great fun as I got to use my travel experience and it was paid really well. I was really proud to see my name in a bio on a proper website, hopefully, I can write more for them in the future. Blog posts written: 1 Total Pay: $138 After Paypal fees: $138 Hours it took: approximately: 10 Average hourly pay: $13.80

Job #5: SEO writing

This month there wasn’t much work coming my way SEO wise, but I wasn’t actually too sad about it as I’m trying to score more high paying writing gigs, they are just more fun and more sustainable (financially and mentally). SEO articles written: 8 Total Pay: $58 After Paypal fees: $56 Hours it took: approximately 4 Average hourly pay: $14

Total Digital Nomad Income for October: $933

After Paypal/Upwork fees: $906

And how much did I spend last month?

Living costs on Koh Phangan: $260 1 week trip to TBEX Asia in Bangkok: $252 1 week in Penang for a border run: $264 Total money spent: $776 % of spending covered: 116% Yay! For the first time, I broke even, and even better, I managed to even make more money that I spent, even during an expensive month. I’m very proud and happy about my progress, but obviously now the pressure is ON for next month! I hope you liked my October Income Report for my Digital Nomad Job Challenge and maybe it inspired you to give this whole nomad thing a try, too!

How did you do this month? Do you have any tips of making money online?