9 Jobs You Can Do Anywhere; Degree Not Required


digital nomad; image of laptop on bench outdoors tropical tree in background

*This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Looking for real jobs you can do anywhere? Making money while Poolside, Beachside, Park bench, or Jobs you can do from an RV traveling the country. Close your eyes and just imagine.  If you are looking to make some extra income or want to start working without the restraint of an office keep reading.

There are so many jobs that can be done with just a laptop and Wi-Fi. This is no longer something we wish for in our futures. This is a real thing and happening more than ever before.

Let’s explore a bit more about some of the great opportunities out there. Freelance Writing, Virtual Assistant or VA, Graphics Designer, Web Developer/Creator/Designer, Social Media Manager, Affiliate Marketing, Influencer, Etsy Digital Creator, and Self-Published Author.

These jobs you can do anywhere and are opportunities to shine with your skills, experience, and great reputation. These are well-paying jobs you can do from anywhere without a degree. I think that checks off a few things from my ‘dream job’ checklist.

High Paying Remote Jobs That Pay Well!

1. Freelance Writer

If you are a technical or creative writer or copywriter, there are jobs for you. You can create eBooks, articles, or web copy. You must begin by building trust with your clients. They are counting on you to provide well-written content that is original and not plagiarized. There are websites where you can find potential clients. These are only a few to get you started.

Other Freelance writing jobs can be found by searching blogger and writer groups on Facebook. Even searching indeed and ZipRecruiter are good resources. If you like writing blog content, this is a great place to gain experience and meet potential clients.

This profession has become far more efficient over the years with tools like Grammarly and now with the onset of artificial intelligence, a portion of your content can be re-written, titles brainstormed and even social media drafts done with a click. This making more time for you to tweak the wording, perfect the article or content. Thus giving your clients a much-improved quality piece that has a better chance of converting (if that’s their goal).

How much does a freelance writer make?

According to Indeed, a freelance writer on average makes $20.49 hourly. Keeping in mind, the average is across the country and at various experience levels.

Don’t lose hope, the pay can be much higher with experience and time. Yes, time. Even an experienced writer needs to build up a client base and reputation for their craft. This is one of those jobs you can do from anywhere without a degree and if you are writing and traveling while working that may lend to your expertise in the travel industry!

If you are new and looking to get some experience while increasing earning potential, sign up for writing agencies and get reviews. This is all about experience and growing skills.

  • Beginner freelance writer: $15 – $30 hourly based on 2000 words per hour
  • Experienced freelance writer: $ 44 – $ 145 hourly based on 2000 words per hour

Source: iWriter

Great Read: Vision Boards for Financial Success

2. Virtual Assistant (often referred to as a VA)

Virtual Assistants do work remotely. You can be located on the West Coast and have a VA that lives on the East Coast, or even overseas. These are one of those roles that is like a Jane/Jack of all trades for some and very specialized for the higher paying gigs.

Of all the high paying jobs you can do from anywhere online without a degree, this opportunity has the most flexibility in skillset. Oh, you still need great skills, but you can start with email and calendar management and learn to do more detailed work such as bookkeeping and payroll.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant allows companies to realize significant financial benefits. As a VA you are an independent contractor meaning this helps companies and small businesses cut costs on taxes and benefits.

In many cases, they will have to grant you access to log into their systems. You could provide services from anywhere as long as you have a reliable internet connection.

Almost any job an administrative assistant does on the computer at an office you can do pretty much anywhere online. These are real jobs done from anywhere with legitimate paying clients. Don’t second guess your skills if you’re looking to become a virtual assistant, there are many opportunities to work remotely within your reach.

Some examples of remote jobs that a Virtual Assistant does are

  • managing calendars and schedule
  • Managing emails
  • Setting up auto-response systems
  • Booking appointments
  • Making travel arrangements
  • Meeting / Conference planning
  • Electronic File management
  • Data entry
  • Setting up a spreadsheet
  • Creating graphs from spreadsheets
  • Bookkeeping services
  • Invoice creation
  • Payments processing
  • Payroll
  • Create Presentations
  • Bank Statements
  • Sending emails, replying to customers and vendors
  • Manage customer service
  • Tracking orders
  • Order entry
  • Shipment processing
  • Process returns/exchanges
  • Inventory tracking

How Much Does a Virtual Assistant Make?

  • Beginner Average $20-$40 hourly
  • Experienced $35-$50 hourly
  • Specialty $50+ (upwards of $100 hourly)
  • High-paying Virtual Assistant Jobs come with time, experience, and often by hiring a team to complement one another’s skills.

Great Read: Ultimate Guide for Selling on Ebay

3. Graphic Design

Are you a creator? Have a creative eye or mind? Utilize that creative talent in graphic design. You can design logos and other digital products for companies. Graphic designers use visuals to tell a story. By utilizing images, fonts, colors that are appealing and recognizable to the ideal customer.

Depending on the area you are serving, you may have to invest in special software, but it’s worth it if you are skilled in your craft. If you need to learn new software, there are usually courses online and often hacks and tips can be found on YouTube for free, including tutorials directly from the software publishers.

There are many free options, my choice has been Canva. They do offer a pro version, which is super affordable. However, the free version is plenty to get you started and put together a nice portfolio of your work.

Graphic design is a great high paying job you can do anywhere in the world and not necessarily have a degree in graphic arts. Your skills and abilities are the major hiring factor. So many talented and great artists posess a natural ability, eye for design that is desirable in this fieled.

Some of the Graphics jobs (tasks) used remotely are

  • Website branding with colors and fonts, logo creation
  • Pinterest, create visual ‘pins’ that attract interest
  • Facebook Ads creating visually attractive images
  • Etsy designer (selling digital products)
  • Instagram Content Creator
  • Create flyers, brochures including conferences, weddings, even church services
  • T-shirt design (other clothing as well)
  • Other: Banner Ad creation, poster design, video design, photo-editing, greeting cards, etc

How much can I make as a graphics designer?

The ranges are great on this choice and as with others, experience and references/ reviews mean more money. We all start somewhere, right? Don’t underestimate your value, a great design is worth it’s weight in gold in this very visual world.

  • Entry-level (early days) $5 per task (small short-term assignments) would be things like creating pins for a blogger or seller.
  • Intermediate – Experienced Professional upwards of $500-1k per assignment.

Great Read: Profitable Retail Arbitrage Tips

4. Website Creation

If you are well versed in setting up websites, then that can be your niche. If you have knowledge of HTML or CSS you should absolutely think about website creation.

There are platforms such as WordPress that have made it so much easier to create and update websites, however, there are still people who are not computer savvy and need assistance. That’s where your skills can work for you! 

You can be self taught or take an online course, YouTube the kazillion free tutorials out there for all the tips, tricks and hacks you could possibly need.

If you are hoping to have the flexibility to work from anywhere and that college degree wasn’t in your reach just yet, then this is absolutely a great opportunity to make money online.

Who needs a website?

  • Large Corporations
  • Small business retail
  • Service Businesses
  • Educational facilities and online programs
  • Restaurants
  • Hair Salons
  • Doctors
  • Food Markets
  • Bloggers
  • Party Planners
  • Web Designers, Virtual Assistants, Social Media Managers (anyone listed in this article)
  • Pretty much anyone

Want to start your own website, How much can you make?

  • Website creators are making anywhere from $250 – $5k depending on clients’ needs, such as e-commerce, storefront presence, tracking metrics, etc.

Great Read: Create More Financial Abundance In Your Life

5. Social Media Manager

Are you a social media savvy person? If you know how to grow and engage followers, you can be an asset to companies that may not know how to do this with results.

A social media manager is a person who develops and executes social media strategies for a company, products, etc.

It’s important to remember that many people find their favorite brands on Instagram, so never underestimate the power of this photo-based network. However, it’s more than photos that grow followings here. It involves proper content wording, hashtags and consistent social interaction.

A good social media strategy will also include other popular networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Youtube, and even TikTok. It’ll be harder to go wrong with these platforms since they each have particular ways of promoting content or building a following in addition to posting pictures.

If you like to live vicariously through others and their social media, enjoy observing trends then you may just be hearing your calling whispered in your ear. Even better that you can do this job wherever your desire’s take you. As long as you have a way to communicate with your clients via phone or chat, this job can mostly is a fantastic way to make money online.

Become a social media manager and handle one or more of the well-known social media channels like

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • TikTok
  • Linkedn
  • Pinterest (not technically social media, however, seen as such by many)

How much Can I make as a Social Media Manager?

  • As of June 2021 ZipRecruiter reports an average of $50,088 annually (approx $24 hourly)
  • However, salaries and hourly contracted rates vary. Some reports of salaries upwards of $88k.

These are primarily corporate jobs, which include benefits.

  • Private contractors should expect to make $15 hourly entry-level up to $150 hourly for more experience.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.“

Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple

6. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is simply referring people to a product or service you trust. In exchange for the referral, you are compensated for any purchase they make. This is paid from the profits of the seller only.

It’s the job of the ‘seller’ to sell their product. Your role is to refer by offering valued information about their product or service. You don’t have any inventory, but you are still able to generate substantial income on a monthly (or quarterly) basis simply by doing what you already do online- writing about products and services that interest you.

The Flipside of Affiliate Marketing

You have a product or service you want to promote and implement an affiliate marketing program. Ask your friends, family, and readers to pass along their valued referral to you. In turn, you pay out a referral fee. It’s really just word of mouth, the oldest, and will always be the most effective way of obtaining customers and clients that are truly the right match.

Where can I find affiliate marketing programs?

Well, google of course, and Facebook groups are a good source of information. There are a TON of options from products to courses! Almost any online course you take has an affiliate program. For products, I use Amazon and Sivan Social.

While you don’t need a website/ blog, it’s preferred and the best way to reach maximum readers. Other ways to promote affiliate products are via Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and yup, TikTok!

How much do Affiliate Marketers make?

As a marketer, earnings potential are as small or large as your reach and authority. If you are an established blogger or influencer, your marketing potential is higher.

As with any program, experience and time play a role. However, the passive income from a well established blog post is huge. Affiliate marketers who leverage their reach to grow email lists will in turn give them a more direct approach to bringing value to their readers.

High paying niches for affiliate marketing

  • Hobbies – Photography, Travel,
  • Finance and Money– Debt Settlement, Bitcoin, Investing, Credit cards, Mortgage
  • Health/Fitness/Wellness – Weight Loss, Fitness, Yoga, Organic, Nutrition, Vegan
  • Lifestyle – Luxury, Cruises, Travel, Online dating, Airlines, Fashion, Jewelry
  • Travel – Cruises, Travel, Airlines, Camping/Glamping (in areas restrictions are lifted)
  • Gardening – Organic, Preserving, Flower, Tools, Equipment (also include outdoor decor)
  • Tech – Web hosting, WordPress, Web Design, Gaming, Software, educational courses
  • Other – CBD, Marijuana, Essential oils, Herbal,
  • The low end of an affiliate marketer is $500 annually (still not bad for passive income)
  • The average annual US Affiliate income is $154,700 as of a survey in June 2021 with ZipRecruiter

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Chinese proverb

7. Influencer

An influencer is a person who has the ability to make things happen – by making connections, getting access, and handling the whole logistics of organizing an event or supporting a cause.

An influencer is someone or group who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others. In marketing, this term usually refers to internet celebrities, often chosen because they have high engagement (likes and comments, saves) with their followers across social networks like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok. They can serve as brand ambassadors or spokespeople and are contracted by companies for campaigns. Basically, these people post photos and/or videos using, reviewing, wearing, or talking about products or services (with text directing them to the brand).

If you have a large social media following or are willing to put in the effort to grow your social media presence, this is a great opportunity to earn a decent amount of money.

In an article from CNBC

  • YouTube Influencers with large viewers and suscribers can make $100,00 annually (much higher with affiliate income added in – see above)
  • TikTok (still a baby in the industry) yields about the same annually for even shorter videos! $100,000
  • Instagram for the win! Unique followers, likes and engagement are part of this social media frenzy. Depending on your number of followers and your niche this report shows influencers being paid $250 upwards of $250,000 for one campaign!

In my experience, the average influencer makes $250 – $ 3,000 per combined blog post and one social media post. However, there are many opportunities for influencers only without blogs. Not bad if you build a network of companies and influencer agencies you gain reputation and trust with.

A great place to start your Influencer marketing with as well as be able to increase your affiliate marketing is Sivan Social. They’re amazingly helpful and supportive helping you grow.

Join Sivan Social!

8. Sell Digital Products on Etsy

Seriously, this one is zero startup costs and can net a decent side hustle. You could further offer this for sale to bloggers to promote their products or offer to readers in exchange for emails.

You would first create a product like a printable quote (example) then follow Etsy instructions to upload content. Upon purchase the buyer receives file to print and you get paid.

You can create any number of digital printables

  • Quotes on posters, wallet-size cards, sticker size, etc.
  • Wedding Invitations
  • Planners
  • To-do lists
  • Activity Sheets (educational)
  • Calendars
  • Budget Planners
  • Baby Shower Games
  • Baby Shower Invites
  • Gift Tags
  • Color Pages
  • DIY Instructions/Plans/
  • Photos you’ve taken
  • Your Own Artwork
  • More! Pretty much go to Etsy, type ‘downloadable’ and hit enter then start exploring!

For a more comprehensive guide including how to videos on how to sell on Etsy, go to this post here.

How much can I make selling printables on Etsy?

According to an interview on Making Sense of Cents, Co-founder of Gold City Ventures says “

To give more realistic examples, we’ve had students in our E-Printables course who have earned over $10,000 in revenue within 9 months.

While this might not be “quit your job” money, don’t forget what I just mentioned about printables. By listing a printable in your Etsy shop, you’re essentially setting up a recurring revenue stream.

The same seller who earned the $10,000 in her first 9 months is now earning $2,000 to $3,000 per month in nearly passive income. As you continue to add listings to your shop, you’re exponentially increasing your monthly revenue”.

  • A realistic income to strive for is $1,000 month with printable downloads on Etsy.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”  

Walt Disney, co-founder of the Walt Disney Company

9. Sell Journals, Books, Planners, on Amazon

Have you ever bought a planner or journal only to find it was missing that one section you really wish it had? Have you had that ‘book’ all stuck up in your head for years or are you asked almost every single day ‘how do you do that’ ? Write a Book! Make the more perfect planner or journal.

It’s estimated that approximately 30% (on the low side) of all books on Amazon are self-published.

Research varies on how much of Amazon’s book sales are from self-published titles. I was able to determine with the best guestimate that approximately 20% of Amazon book title sales are from self-published authors. of all dollars spent on books in the U.S.” There was also an additional increase in overall physical book sales (vs Kindle, etc.) during pandemic months. Those numbers were not included in the 20% estimate.

It also appears that a much higher amount of journals on Amazon are self-published.

What can I self publish on Amazon?

  • Journals
  • Planners
  • Notebooks
  • Cookbooks
  • Fiction and Non-Fiction Books
  • Novels
  • Do-It-Yourself How-To Books
  • So much more

So, how do you go about self-publishing on Amazon?

These are un-traveled pastures for me, however, I have been following Barbara on Facebook for quite a few years and she offers a super easy-to-follow tutorial on YouTube that I highly recommend. (disclosure: I’ve definitely got some book ideas I’ve been pondering for years and now may just be ‘my time’).

How much can I make as a self published author with Amazon?

It takes time to get established. Seeing as you can get started for free with Canva to create journals and planners to build some seed money. You may want to invest in graphics for a great cover. Appearances are everything! People ‘do’ judge a book by it’s cover online. That is until you’ve gained a reputation/ authority and grow your following.

  • I found some great tips from Barbara in her videos as well awesome promotion tips in this article from The Write Life on how one writer earned $450,000
  • Expect to earn on average about $500 annually in the very early stages. BUT.. the more you create, write, promote, the higher your earnings potentials go and quickly!

Qualities of A Successful Remote Virtual Freelancer

  • Reliable – You ABSOLUTELY MUST meet your client’s deadlines! Too many VAs don’t do this! (their loss, your gain!)
  • Good Communicator – Ask questions. Develop an onboarding list to review with your clients to see what their needs are and ask them to share their goals. Be in communication regularly; determine that with your client.
  • Integrity – This should probably be put into your contract. Your code of ethics. Let your client know upfront you intend to respect their work and keep it confidential. How you will lock and protect their information when not in use. Don’t take your client for granted. You can be replaced with the click of a button.
  • Time Management – You should be able to work for multiple clients and multiple projects while still meeting their deadlines. You need to be able to prioritize their work. Make the best use of your time by adhering to a well-developed schedule while still being flexible enough to pivot if that’s what a project demands.
  • Problem Solving and Resourcefulness – Another great point for asking questions upfront; you will have questions along the way. Whenever possible try to come up with a couple or few solutions to propose to the client. This saves you all time, and money, which is the whole reason they hire you! This is being a team player, watching out for your client’s interests.
  • Value – Can you think of ways to save them more time or money? Are there ways they can earn more money? This is being a team player, watching out for your client’s interests. When they win, you win in the long run. Building relationships based on common goals!
  • Following Up – I am at a loss for having to even mention this, but it should be common sense. Follow up on projects after you believe them to be complete. Make sure they are fully completed and what they expected is one of the biggest things I’ve wished I had with VA’s. Consider sending a survey with your invoice asking a few key questions

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher

sunset through airplane window

Conclusion

You can be a digital creator from anywhere. Whether you want to do freelance writing, web design, or anything in between, there are many opportunities available for those who have the dedication and know-how.

With more people than ever before working remotely as freelancers, it’s never been easier to turn your creativity into a living wage while going wherever life takes you!

 “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

Albert Schweitzer, French-German philosopher

Formal education will make you a living; quote

Matt R

Hi, my name is Matt and I'm the founder of Barefoot Budgeting. This site is dedicated to one thing... helping you budget and save money.

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