8 Amazing Remote Businesses You Can Build Anywhere in The World

With a wifi connection and a laptop, you can become a remote business owner. It’s a perfect opportunity for those who want control over their time and their income. 

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the appeal of virtual entrepreneurship, but the means of getting started have been around. 

So perhaps now more than ever, there’s nothing stopping you from launching any of the businesses you’ll read on this list!

1) Affiliate Marketing

We’re kicking this list off with what is quite possibly the most popular remote business idea. Through affiliate marketing, you can make money promoting other people’s products or services.

Monetizing content isn’t easy, but it’s certainly less costly than manufacturing your own product line or creating anything material-based to sell. Besides, companies are itching for that word-of-mouth magic, which can be done through online content or social media.  

Build a website in a niche you can stand out in — in fact, the nichier the better. You know what they say, niches get riches — or something like that. Check out anything from CBD to dog toys and develop a content strategy to bring your target audience to your site. 

How you get paid depends on the structure of the affiliate program you choose. You might receive a commission check or PayPal and the percentage ranges, but you get paid when someone purchases a product or clicks on the affiliate link on your platform. 

2) Flipping Items on eBay

Thrifting is trendy, but it’s also profitable. Gary Vee makes it a point to flip and go hunting at garage sales to this day — maybe for the cameras? Who knows? Either way, I haven’t done this one personally, but I have friends that focus on vintage clothing, who have turned it into a full-time living. 

All you need to get started is a way to get to online flea markets or real ones and find solid deals on old items. Shoes, clothes, furniture — you name it, you can make money off it. Despite the thousands of ecommerce sites out there to choose from, eBay remains the clearcut winner for used items. 

3) Dropshipping

Through dropshipping, you can run an ecommerce site without the demands of making products or keeping track of inventory. 

Instead, you partner with wholesalers to whitelabel their products under your brand. When a visitor makes a purchase, you inform the company to ship their order to the customer. All you need to get started is a niche, a website, a laptop, and access to wholesale supplier directories. Keep in mind that most dropshipping stores offer similar products so your branding has to be at another level to set your store apart. 

4) Web Development

Web development is one of the most sought-after skills in the workforce. Businesses and entrepreneurs hire web devs left and right to give them an online presence and keep it running. This business does, however, have a steeper learning curve than many of the other entries on this list. You will need to be proficient in various programming languages from Python to JavaScript and you’ll need to understand search engine optimization strategies and website maintenance. 

Codeacademy is a great starting point, but there are also some solid visual website editors like SquareSpace that might be an easier launching platform for newbies. 

5) Website and Domain Flipping

Once you have website development down with an added flourish of business sense, flipping websites and domains for a living is a serious option. Find undervalued domains and websites, buy them, tweak them, and sell them back. 

Entire services like Flippa and Empire Flippers exist because people would rather purchase a well-established site than create their own. The reality is boosting domain authority and getting backlinks takes time and effort, so for some, it’s better to just buy the end result. Hence, where you come in. As you flip the site, focus on the user experience and the design along with SEO. If you end up with a high search engine rank, it’ll go fast. 

6) Write and Publish Books

If you love writing, give publishing a book on Amazon KDP a shot. It’s a solid remote business if you treat it like, well, a business. As a self-publisher author, you’ll retain your rights and you can determine the price of the book. Uploading the book is fairly simple, but you’re going to want to make sure you have a great cover, which is usually where a lot of self-published books fall short. 

Additionally, books don’t sell themselves, so you’re going to need to need to do the heavy-lifting there and it won’t hurt to have a strong social media presence already established. Remember, Amazon takes about 40% of the royalties from each book sale. An alternative is to go with a non-traditional publisher like Lucid House Publishing, who holds your hand through the process (I recommend this for first time authors).

7) Managing Ads

These days, business owners simply have to have a digital presence. Even brick-and-mortar businesses must be visible online to attract customers. If they aren’t, then potential customers are much more likely to take their dollars to the competitor with all the amazing Yelp and Google reviews. When it comes to being discovered via search, there are two key ways of making it happen — search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising. 

This is where you come in! But you can take it a step further by also learning how to properly manage ads on various social media and other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. You’ll need to understand PPC bidding strategies, analytics, and ad pricing models.

8) Become A Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant executes all the tasks an assistant would — but online. Generally, this job involves clerical tasks like scheduling appointments, replying to emails, automating spreadsheets, and so on.  

If you’re wondering how to become a virtual assistant, sites like UpWork, Fiverr, and FlexJobs regularly post remote jobs. You may end up managing social media, websites, online stores, and completing a wide variety of tasks. If you’re looking to be exposed to new things and have exceptional organizational skills, becoming a virtual assistant could lead to a career for you.

Conclusion

You can thrive as a remote traveller as long as you’re willing to get creative, take the time to learn, and put in the work to implement your ever-growing knowledge. The best time to start your next entrepreneurial endeavor is now.

What are you waiting for? If there’s something holding you back, email us contact@theremotetraveller.com or reach out via Instagram @theremotetraveller :)