I will officially be a digital nomad for two months on 1/11/21. Two years ago I was living in a shelter dreaming about this reality. Last year I slowly built an income through YouTube, posting weekly videos of my travels and experiences living in a minivan. Now, as of 11/11/20, I officially started living my life as a digital nomad like I’ve always wanted to.

I’ve dreamed of this for years before it actually became a reality. VanLife was an obsession before I ever had a van.

At the time, that dream of living on the road seemed to be so far away; Completely unattainable for someone with such limited means. I was below the poverty line, and barely able to afford to pay my minimum bills to survive. Credit card debt was piling up, and I felt like I was just digging myself into a hole, further away from my dreams.

You always see these people who claim to be digital nomads and then see their $100,000 decked out rigs. It makes it seem like this lifestyle is only for those who have full pockets. I’m here to tell you that it is definitely possible for anyone to obtain the dream of being able to work and travel full time.

This doesn’t mean you have to make a YouTube channel.

Finding sources of income is going to be different for everyone. It will depend greatly on what skills you have and what your passions are. Almost any skill can become profitable. Don’t stop there, though, because the best thing I learned in business training is to stack your income possibilities.

Income stacking is great for people who work online.

My example is that my main gig is YouTube. That job is my bread and butter, and creating videos is where my main focus is. However, I also make jewelry, so I made an Etsy page to sell my jewelry pieces. I definitely would not be able to support myself off of this, but even that extra $50/month is helpful. Drawing is another hobby of mine, so I started creating stickers and merch out of my drawings. Again, I wouldn’t be able to support myself off of selling T-shirts and mugs, but it stacks a little bit on. Affiliate marketing is probably the easiest and best way to add on extra income if you’re working online.

If you have a social media account right now, you can start creating income from affiliate marketing and pave the road to becoming a digital nomad.

Amazon Affiliates is the first one I signed up with. Once you create an account you can generate links for any item on amazon and promote it to people. How I do this is by adding every item I have in my van into my description box. Let’s say that Sally Sue likes my tapestry, she can go into the description box and find it in the list. If she clicks on the link, anything she adds to her amazon cart and purchases (even if she doesn’t get the tapestry) within 24 hours, I will get a kickback from Amazon. It is, by far, the easiest affiliation I am a part of.

I have also signed up with other companies for their affiliate programs. The Nomadik box was the first company I signed up for and started promoting. If you watch my videos then you’ve seen me unbox them. What’s awesome about YouTube, is that the video will be up and available to watch forever. So even if two years from now, and people are looking up videos on YouTube for the Nomadik Box, my video will pop up and continue to generate income if people use the links or codes I provide. I will also get ad revenue from AdSense, just by them watching my video, as well.

See how it becomes easy to stack your income?

My most recent brand deals that I’ve gotten have been the most exciting.

The first being Jackery, which is a company that makes portable batteries and solar systems. They actually reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to try their Jackery Explorer 1000 power station and two of their 100Watt Solar panels. I can not even explain how excited and geeked I was about this. All I had to do was make a video for them explaining how to use it.

The next was with a company I was already a huge fan of and used their products. ThoughtCloud CBD is something I have been using to manage my anxiety for a couple years now. It is the only thing that I’ve found that actually helps. CBD has changed my life. It not only helps with my anxiety, but it overall just lifts my mood, clears my head, and relaxes me. Other benefits of it include managing seizures, minimizing pain, helping with sleep, promoting good digestion, and so much more. They have tons of different isolated formulas for specific issues, but I really love the Full Spectrum 3000mg bottle.

I found out that ThoughtCloud had an affiliate program by just looking through their website.

As you can see from the different companies I work with, they can be huge companies like Amazon or starter companies like the Nomadik Box. Even Target has an affiliate program. You can find companies to sign up with usually on their websites, but you can use programs like ShareASale, AvantLink and LinkConnector.

You can also use your skill to make money on Patreon.

Patreon is a subscription based platform, where patrons (your customers/viewers/subscibers) can pay a monthly fee to support your work. It allows you to create an amazing community while also generating income. I like to give back for those who are donating by supporting a charity every month. $1 from every donation goes to whatever cause we choose that month. Mid month, I create a patreon post asking for recommendations for which charity we should donate to. The last week of the month, I create poll with all of the recommendations and then as a group we decide where to donate. It has been so much fun, and I love my patreon fam.

There are so many more ways to stack your income online, but I wanted to share a few with you so you can see that it totally is doable. It might now happen over night, but becoming a digital nomad is possible for anyone. It took about two and half years of working on my online business, but it was so worth every stressful and tiring moment.

You really can build a life you dream of.

Check out my art here.

xoxo