What's the fastest way to become a digital nomad?

Question

I just got laid off of my job as a software developer. I have 60 days to figure something out. I’m not very confident in my skills, though I have a bit of entrepreneurial experience. It’s just very hard for me to imagine making the leap. Where should I start ? Elance, Odesk, Freelancer.com, I also have a couple of websites I can try to monetize, though I’m not very confident in my ability to do this. What are the other options!? All I know is I must be free!! Please add me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/mirona.constantinescu or here: http://linkedin.com/in/mironaconstantinescu

skatkov · Accepted Answer

It’s always good to have a back-up plan if monetization of your own project will fail (and statistically speaking, there is a big chance it will).
If you saved a dollar = you earned a dollar. So, start thinking about tightening up your budget and there are so many ways to do that -> move to cheap country, leave in a car, quit smoking, drinking alcohol (there is additional bonus to that), switch to raw diet, move to parents house and etc.
Elance, Odesk, Freelancer have big competition inside and mostly people compete in prices (who can offer the smallest bid). So, you should be aware that it will take time to boost your profile to actually earn some reasonable money. So you might want to check out http://toptal.com , it’s like working for someone, but remotely… and there is no competition in smaller bids

grum · Answer

The fastest way? Grab your laptop, head to the airport and jump on the next international flight. Sorted. (The international part is optional depending on who defines the term digital nomad)
It is very hard to answer this question without knowing what you can do. Nomads come in all shapes and sizes from SEO hackers, to software developers, to service consultants to security experts.
There isn’t one way to be a digital nomad. It’s more of a concept than a strict set of defined rules. Figure out your skills, focus on refining them, start making money and start traveling.

skatkov · Answer

I’ll share couple of tips i’ve learned, that helped me to boost my profile. It took me of 6-7 months to accomplish.
Some tips i found useful:

Landing a first job is really hard, it took me more then 1 month to find it. Highly recommend you to finish some oDesk provided tests, publish your portfolio, do 1minute introduction video or anything else that can prove that your a worthy developer.
After you landed your first gig, you will probably be applying to project-based work. It’s usually easier, since clients worry about budget a lot. And most of them are ready to experiment working with different people, if there is no risk to go over-budget.
After you’ll finish 3 or 4 project-based tasks and receive positive reviews, it’s time to move on to time-based tasks. I’ve started with 20$ per hour and then after each sucesfully accomplished task i’ve added +5$ dollar to my rate.

Good tips for working:

Don’t even try to do generic introduction for jobs. Say that kind of problems you expect in projects your applying and how you plan to solve them. A lot of people are willing to pay even more, then they stated in job proposal if you explain technical problems properly.
Always deliver!!! Even if you don’t like your customer, if you understand that payment is not enough!! Always deliver!!
Look for a short term job on oDesk, faster you complete your project, the faster you can increase your base rate.
Do research about your customer, see all reviews that he has. A lot of people are really fucking strange. They could be seen as good and easy to work from first impression, but some of them can’t handle ‘problems’ properly and go bananas. Usually, if that the case, then at least couple of reviews given to customer will mention that. I never worked with those people, even if he offered me decent money.

There is an option to work with an agency on oDesk, that should help you to land your first jobs faster. But i’ve didn’t go with that route.

eduardocruz · Answer

@mirona I’ve been working as a full time freelancer thru Elance for over a year now. I also have accounts on ODesk and Freelancer.com but never got a job on both. Also it seems to me (you can google that also) that Elance payments are higher then the other two. Finally Elance and ODesk merged a couple of months ago. And again, from my perspective Elance is leading the process.
That said, based on my experience and on your feedback that you are not very confident, the best move I could suggest is for you to join another developer that uses the same stack that you do, but has a better background or at least is confident enough. The reason is that you can search for jobs and share the project with someone you can discuss and even help you. Also if you apply for multiple jobs and you are lucky enough to for example have feedback for more then one and you can’t handle, you can handle it to the other developer.
On the Elance Trends page you can see the average price people charge. https://www.elance.com/trends/skills_central
Start small, try to use the average price to start. I never accepted fixed price jobs. It is risky. You might end up working three weeks for a job that was supposed to be one week only. I only work with hourly jobs. If you can get a two week job and finish, on the following week you can try submitting with a higher bid. Also on Elance, any job you want to bid, you can see the lowest, the average and the highest bids. Which helps you know how others are bidding. If the client defines a range of price, never bid lower then the minimum  or the Elance algorithm will punish you.
Finally, as someone said before, a nice approach is to try to reduce your own cost the most. So that you know how much exactly you need so you can bid on what you need and not on what on whatever price clients are offering (assuming that you could bid on a project that you would receive less then what you actually need to pay your bills). On Elance I’ve seens job posts offering from 5 dollars an hour to 75 dollars an hour. Not all clients want just cheap developers.

skatkov · Answer

mirona · Answer

That’s a terrific income to live off of @skat! Is there some kind of strategy guide? for example. Apply to x amount of gigs that pay x amount and make $____
I’m looking for the “optimal” figure here.

skatkov · Answer

Don’t discredit oDesk and Elance that fast 
I myself have a profile at oDesk and according to last report I’ve got from them i was in top 100 ruby developers (68 if I remember correctly).
Being Java developer before, I’ve used oDesk to get my hands dirty with new language (ruby) then I’ve had time. It was not my main source of income (i still had some Java related jobs), but it was a good source of paid practice and good way to boost my profile at a same time.
I’m not using oDesk that much nowadays, but it’s still good feeling to have that profile. With my rate there i can get from 3000-5000$ monthly, it’s not a fortune … but enough to live in a lot of places

floc · Answer

Very well said!
“Digital Nomad” is sometimes used like a job description, although there are countless different ways to make an income as a digital nomad.
The common denominator is a nomadic lifestyle, so it really is all about that plane ticket

mirona · Answer

Thank you @grum - clearly the barriers are not external  Need to make a lot of decisions. But generally, yea I get your point, it’s a process of knowing yourself and then just doing it.

dfcowell · Answer

My biggest piece of advice is make sure your first stop is in a nomadic hotspot. Somewhere with lots of networking opportunities.
I was working location independently in Japan as an employee for an Australian company for seven months before I flew out to Saigon to meet the entrepreneurial community here. Within a month or two of landing I had made a bunch of great connections and started to build a steady stream of side projects.
I’m back to focusing on one primary project now, but it’s a start-up which I never would have found if I hadn’t been here in Vietnam. Going straight to a beach to sip coconuts is an appealing prospect, but there are just as many coconuts here in the city - and orders of magnitude more opportunity.

asinglestride · Answer

where did you arrive at this conclusion?

mirona · Answer

Thanks @skat - I’d like to find more opportunities like that where people are not ripped off and underpaid. Everyone I’ve spoken to on Elance/Odesk make barely anything.

skatkov · Answer

Most of Elance business will be merged to oDesk this year (read their CEO’s last message in blog), so the platform that ‘leads the process’ will be absolute very soon. It’s only a question of time, then they will shut down Elance and we all know there all Elance guys will end up.

floc · Answer

Forgive me a stupid question: How do you network in Saigon? A Bangkok approach doesn’t seem to work here

dfcowell · Answer

Don’t know what a Bangkok approach is, but if you PM me a link to your Facebook I’ll get you into the loop here.

freedomsurfer · Answer

Mirona, do you mind sharing your website’s url? It would help us recommend you options if we know what your site is about.

floc · Answer

Bangkok approach is mostly events and meetups, there always seems to be something going on.

nayar_ali · Answer

Wow, i thought software developers and web developers were in demand now a days, apparently not. But i’m sure you would be able to get some remote work with a startup etc, or start with some freelance writing or freelance development work.

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