How to Become a Digital Nomad (With No Experience)

Hoping to become a digital nomad, and wondering how to get started? You’re in the right place.

After researching for years how to become a digital nomad with no experience, I was finally able to become a full digital nomad a few years ago, in 2023.

I’ve been fully self-employed and working remotely ever since and I hope that I can help others achieve the same freedom.

So, I’m going to break down your options on getting started as a digital nomad, so you can know which course of action to take in making it happen. Let’s jump in!

First, What Exactly Is a Digital Nomad?

First, I’ll define what a digital nomad is, and what it isn’t. Digital nomads tend to :

• Work fully remote. All they typically need is an internet connection, a laptop and/or phone to do their job

Digital nomads can either be:

• Self employed
• Freelancers
• Employed by someone else, but with the flexibility to work from anywhere

So really, being a digital nomad can mean a lot of things; some of them work for themselves and others are freelancing or employed by others.

The key characteristics of being a digital nomad is that:

• you can work from anywhere
• you work entirely online

After these key things that define “digital nomad”, everything else about being one depends on the person.

Some people who would call themselves digital nomads have a home base and travel a lot, while some don’t have a permanent home and spend their lives moving from place to place. It’s a matter of personal preference.

The beauty of digital nomadism that you have a lot of freedom to live and work from where you want.

How to Get Started as a Digital Nomad

Getting set up as a digital nomad is challenging. The most challenging part is figuring out what kind of job you’re going to do that is fully location independent.

However, it’s possible – it’s possible for thousands of others, so of course it is for you to.

To become a digital nomad, you need to either:

• Apply to jobs that hire remotely.
• Start your own business that you can do entirely online

You need to assess your skills, personality, interests and talents to figure out which of these is best for you.

Here are some examples of online businesses you can start:

Starting a business (online or not) can take a lot of time before it picks up enough that you can fully support yourself from it.

So just keep in mind, with any of the above business ideas, it will take months, or even years of patience to start seeing the kind of salary you want and need for a freedom digital nomad lifestyle.

I don’t mean that to sound discouraging; just honest. Whatever you decide to spend your time on building – make sure its something you’re interested in.

With the rise of AI, it has gotten a little harder to find work online but there are still many, many options and human input continues to be valued in so many sectors. See my ideas of jobs that will be safe from AI

What to Do in the Early Stages of Creating Your Digital Nomad Lifestyle

Whether you’re going to self-employment, freelance or fully remote employed route – it can take time to get it set up.

Transitioning to digital nomadism is likely a huge shift in life. I recommend reading a few career change books, and money mindset books in the beginning to help with mindset, because mindset will be very important in turning your goal and dream into a reality.

I would never have been able to make this lifestyle work for me without reading books like:

• Everything is Figureoutable by Maria Forleao
• Anything by Denise Duffield Thomas (but mainly Chillpreneur or Get Rich Lucky Bitch)

If you want to go the self-employed route:

While you’re building your online business, I recommend supplementing your income with other ways to make money (online or in person.)

It can take a while to get any business off the ground; including an online one. So, having some sort of income stream helps support you as you’re building your dream.

For instance, while I was getting my travel blog off the ground, I worked as a tutor (online and in person) and I also did freelance writing for other travel blogs.

If you want to find someone to pay you to work fully remote:

Fully remote jobs can be tricky to find, but with dedication, you can find them. Just watch out for the scams and big promises (which I’ll explain below.)

Every day, check out remote job boards. These

• Rat Race Rebellion has been running for 25 years, and continues to posts fully remote jobs. (You may have to watch an ad before it shows you the jobs you’re matched to)
• Remote.co Job Board – Most of the jobs on Remote.co are US-based and require you to be a US national
• 8,000 Hours – Posts quite a few jobs that are fully remote (not all of them are remote)
• LinkedIn – polish up your LinkedIn profile and start networking on there
• Upwork and Fiverr – these have become a bit of a race to the bottom but with a professional-looking profile its still very possible to make money doing something you’re good at on there

The Digital Nomad Dream – What To Watch Out For

Before embarking on a journey of becoming a digital nomad, it’s very important that you’re aware of people trying to sell you the ‘dream’. People are praying on digital nomad wannabes so they can profit off of your sense of loss and desperation to make freedom and money work for you. There are more tactics out there than ever. Here’s what you need to know:

You’re not alone in wanting the digial nomad lifestyle – a lot of people are after it, especially after recent trends of return to work mandates around the world.

However, as someone who tried for years to make digital nomadism work for me I can tell you – watch out for the big promisers!

Big promisers are people that are selling you the dream: “I will teach you to do this job/skill, and then you will be rich, and only have to work 1-2 hours a day from wherever in the world you want. It’s easy, you don’t need any experience, and anyone can do it!”

I don’t use the word “scammers”, because they’re not necessarily scams There are many, many legit jobs that can potentially earn you a six-figure salary from working minimal hours- I have one now, finally, after trying to make it happen for years.

But, from chasing the digital nomad dream for years, I came across many people trying to get me to take their course where they would teach me a skill that they claimed would make me rich without having to do any work at all.

And I see it now still, too. In fact, its gotten even worse now with AI; because now they claim that you can get rich while just having an AI do all the heavy lifting for you.

They trick you into paying them big bucks to learn the job/skill, by:

• Tapping into your pain points
• Creating a picture of what really want
• Assuring you that what they’re offering is how you’ll get it

People doing this aren’t necessarily scamming, and that’s why I call them “big promisers” rather than scammers.

I gave a few “big promisers” my money, and I don’t regret it, because I knew what they were going to teach me and I knew I was interested in it. (A social media management course, and a travel blogging course.)

If you come across an “opportunity”, then here’s how to decide if you should proceed with them or not.

• Find out what “job” they are teaching you to do. Don’t get pulled in by the ‘dream’ they’re selling – ask what exactly they’re teaching you to do
• Consider whether this job or skill is really right for you. Ask yourself if the job aligns with your interests and talents. If the job isn’t something that excites you, then it may not be a good path to take
• Would you take this course even if it didn’t mean earning a penny from it? A good sign that you’re cut out for the job or skill they’re teaching is if you would want to learn it anyway, even if it means you never get paid for it

Final Thoughts on How to Become a Digital Nomad with No Experience

I hope that this guide to embarking on a life of digital nomadism has been helpful for this. What I’ve written here is exactly what I needed to hear and read when I was trying to get started on this dream many years ago.

It’s gotten harder in some ways (too much competition, AI, other factors) but there are still jobs out there for people like you, who are willing to put the work in, be original, and follow their intuition.