Work from your laptop and travel

Use your laptop to pay for travel, while you travel.

You might just discover a new career while you're at it.

Background

In a posting to the Digital Eve Israel Yahoo Group, a group member asked the following question:

Any leads on how to find a job that can be done on my laptop, here and there, so that I can still pay my bills while traveling?

This reminded me of the time when I was still a programmer at Amazon.com back in 2000.

Living in Paris but working daily over the Internet with people in Seattle, I wanted to visit my family in Montreal without taking a lot of vacation time either. Luckily, Amazon's computer systems allowed people to connect from outside the office and that made it easier to convince my boss to let me go.

In the end, I only took off 2 days for traveling purposes and otherwise worked full days from my parents' house, basically paying for my trip and expenses. A side benefit to Amazon was that having me in a middle time zone (6 hours behind Paris but 3 ahead of Seattle) made some projects easier to finish on time.

Working while traveling abroad and telecommuting aren't quite the same thing

People usually associate telecommuting with a full-time job that lets you regularly work from home, but it can also be a part-time job on the road.

To best answer the question above, let's set out some criteria that make more sense regarding jobs for travelers. Those jobs usually need to be:

• Jobs you can do over the Internet
• Jobs that can be done over a short time-span i.e. during your travels
• Jobs you can get on short notice

This last one is important in case you need multiple jobs to pay all your bills during your trip.

So we're dealing with freelance jobs. However, if you choose well and deliver well, a short-term freelance job can become a longer-term freelance job that you continue from home after traveling.

Jobs you can do while traveling

With that in mind, the list below of online jobs for travelers should give you all sorts of ideas. Each job title points at a real job description, and if the description isn't a good match for you, just do a search on the job title to find more open jobs like it.

1. 3D and Flash Animator
2. Accountant
3. Advertiser
4. Administrative Assistant
5. Article Writer
6. Billing and Debt Collection Representative
7. Blog Programmer
8. Career Coach
9. Virtual Assistant
10. Advertising Poster
11. Copywriter
12. Customer Service Representative
13. Data Entry Provider
14. Data Specialist
15. Database Developer
16. E-book Writer
17. Email Template Designer
18. Flash/Web Developer
19. Graphic Artist
20. Caricaturist
21. Marketing & Lead Generation Campaigner
22. Logo Designer
23. Online Tutor
24. Personal Assistant/Secretary
25. Press Release Writer
26. Project Manager
27. Recruitment Researcher
28. Sourcer (not sorcerer!)
29. Resume Writer
30. Sales Presentation Designer
31. SEO Analyst
32. Foreign Language Voice Talents
33. Technical Support
34. Telemarketing Professional
35. Transcriptionist
36. Travel Planner
37. Typist
38. Video Editor
39. Web Content Writer
40. Web Designer
41. Website Translator
42. Stock Photographer
43. Voice-overs
44. Cartoonist
45. Real Estate Researcher
46. Business Consultant
47. Legal Advisor
48. User Guides and Manuals Editor
49. Game Developers
50. Travel Writer

Don't think this is possible? Not for you?

See how these laptop warriors have built careers while traveling:

• Lauren Juliff, @NEFootsteps: How I Fund my Travels Around the World
• Benny Lewis, @irishpolyglot: How to become a location-independent freelance translator
• Amanda Williams, @dangerousbiz: My Life as a Travel Blogger
• Adam Groffman: @travelsofadam: How to Make Money with a Travel Blog
• Taylor Banks: @learningbanks: Why Working From the Road Is Good for Business (and How to Do It)
• Alyssa Ramos: @alyssaramos: How This Woman Went From Broke To Traveling Full-Time (And Making Lots Of Money)
• Paul Minors: @paulminors: Side-hustle success story (and lessons learned): from full-time job to traveling indie-entrepreneur earning 2X as much in 1/2 the time
• Nathan Buchan: @world_nate: How I earn money while travelling full-time
• Matthew Karsten: @expertvagabond: This Is How I Get Paid To Travel The World

Bonus tip for beginners

Like with any job, having work experience will help a lot compared to a candidate who has no experience. But even having just a little bit of experience will make a difference because it will still allow you to tell potential employers I've done this online before.

With that in mind, get experience before your travels by doing some quick, cheap projects. This has the added benefit of getting you familiar with freelance marketplaces, negotiation with potential employers, and actually getting paid with all that's involved.

It would suck to be in a foreign country expecting to receive your pay the next day only to discover that you need to wait a few more days because of some strange policy you didn't know about. Practice before you go!

GET STARTED NOW: Top 85+ Popular Freelance Marketplaces Online and Top 25+ Micro Freelance Marketplaces and Why You Should Use Them

Another great success story

Read Simon Frost's answer to What are the best ways to earn money while traveling around the world? on Quora

Question of the article

Have you ever worked while traveling for pleasure? How did you find the job? Tell us in the comments.

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