19 jobs that allow you to work remotely, how much they pay, and first hand accounts

Intro

I will update this article every time I find valid information regarding remote work opportunities. Bookmark it for future reference.

Opportunities for remote work are growing every year. If the majority of your job is spent in front of a computer, then you can likely turn it into a remote job. Employers are getting more comfortable with remote work arrangements every year.

With some creativity and hustle, you can make your own way as a remote entrepreneur.

Here is a running list of remote work opportunities along with first hand accounts and pay information:

Customer Service Rep

u/OhWalter

I’m a customer service rep for an mid-size specialist service provider in New Zealand. I work remotely and answer phone calls, manage inboxes and respond to emails/product enquiries, with team video conferences twice weekly. I also manage our email marketing and work with our devs and in-house designer for website updates, product launches and marketing collateral.

I used to be office-based, but became remote as an essential employee after multiple restructures and employees quitting, I offered my resignation due to relocation and was offered a permanent remote position instead as no one else could do my job straight away or train anyone on how to do it, after my other 6 colleagues quit or were fired.

I work 9-5 Mon-Fri (local time) and earn approx. 40k USD p/a. I landed this role after working for a similar company in a different field (i got my prior job literally from the unemployment queue as entry level part-time minimum wage, demonstrated business skills and got promoted to sales/marketing within 3 months).

Voice Actor

u/poopiedoo7

I record audiobooks. In the U.S. I have a mobile studio in my van and it’s super easy to just drive somewhere quiet and record.

Now that I’m in South America, it’s a little more difficult with how prevalent horn honking seems to be, but I’m working on it.

I just stumbled onto this a little over a year ago and make about 200 per finished hour.

I use: https://www.acx.com/

Game Streamer

I met a girl in Russia that was making insane amounts of money as a voice actress who streamed herself playing children’s video games. I’m not sure exactly how much she made, but she was buying apartments at a rate of about four per year with her income.

She used software that tracked her facial expressions and movements to animate a cartoon cat that made the commentary (in her very talented voice) as she played children’s video games.

The sky is the limit and this is still a rapidly growing and lucrative field. PewDiePie became the most popular YouTuber in the world by game streaming.

Writer

I’m a freelance writer. Freelancing is like a roller coaster, some months I make $11,000 and some months I make $1,000 — but always enough to save money, travel, and enjoy my life as a digital nomad. Writing is a great gig that anyone can do if they know the best practices of the industry and are willing to hustle a bit to make it work.

u/SWentley

When asked for more details about freelance writing:

A freelance writer is someone who writes for hire for clients or editors. I get paid by check, Paypal, Venmo, Payoneer, etc. There are many kinds of professional writing, and you need to position yourself to be competitive for any writing work. I’ve been writing professionally for 20+ years, but it’s definitely possible to make a living without decades of experience.

u/doskm

I write articles for companies and do affiliate marketing, making around $1,500 / month at the moment. Makes it possible to live in a nice 2 bedroom apartment in Spain with a pool and rooftop terrace. Rent is only $500 / month.

u/itsacalamity

I’m a freelance journalist and copywriter. Money varies incredibly widely and very much depends on what kind of work I want to do. It is not a route I would suggest anybody take unless you want to write and need to write. There are easier ways to make a living. But if this is what you want to do, it’s amazing. I’ve gotten to travel all over the world and have some incredible adventures, and get paid to write about them.

u/passionateintrovert

Freelance journalist and content writer. I’m not particularly focused on work at the moment, as I’m trying to see and do as much as I can in Croatia, so that means the pay varies a lot. However, I can still comfortably make $2k a month to cover most, if not all, of my living expenses.

I’d say most people would be able to make something of a living writing eventually, although I went the traditional route of a degree and entry-level positions a few years ago.

In a few months time, I plan on settling somewhere and getting back to making actual money. Before heading overseas, I was pulling in anywhere from $3-10k a month so if I could get back there that’d be great.

Author

u/NickThacker

I’m a full-time author of thriller novels. My wife and I left our day jobs two years ago and while we own a home we did a couple “nomad” stints in Hawaii (helping a friend with his church).

The income is up and down, but it’s enough now that I pay myself a comfortable salary that doesn’t change month by month. It’s an incredible blessing to be able to create fun stories and make money doing it.

How’d he get started?

I wrote my first one for my dad. It was awful, just purely horrendous! Haha. It was eventually reworked and edited and I got new covers and kept going.

And that’s really it – I kept going. Wrote more, had more ideas, decided that a series was the way to go (a series really is the best way to make money writing books). I leveled up when I needed to, moving from editors to beta readers to cover designers, hiring people to help me with the business (assistants, co-writers, CPA, business consultants, etc).

Now it’s a “real” publishing company, and we’re moving about 12 books into production a year. It’s just a matter of finding what you know about and crafting stories people like, then figuring things out one step at a time. There are a million marketing tactics that can work, but trying to do all of them is a recipe for failure!

…

Yeah, it’s nuts now that Amazon has totally changed the game. Literally anyone can (and does!) publish anything, so there are countless “authors” who upload a Word doc that’s barely seen the bad side of a spellcheck.

But there are also authors who care about craft and aren’t afraid to invest the time and money into making something that works well and looks good. Those authors can build a career out of it, and while you may never know their name, you’d be amazed at what they’re pulling in every year.

Web Developer

u/missingamitten

Freelance web developer, and it depends on how much I work.

When I’m in making money mode and working full time (25-30 hours a week) I make 7-8k a month.

I like working for two or three months and then not working at all for a couple months. I still save money because cost of living is so low.

…

I have a pretty organic client base, whenever I mention what I do to new people (especially when abroad in third world countries) a pretty quick line of people start forming. Everyone and their mom needs help with their website.

When I started, I told myself that the only people I would ever say no to were assholes. This resulted in many, many, underpaid and unpaid jobs over the years, but it also resulted in super happy clients and even friendships because the relationship was more important than the money and I think people can feel that. It was a fortunate accident more than a conscious strategy, but now, after almost 15 years, I am constantly getting referrals from past clients. This is now the best advice I can give anyone–easily 4/5 of the people I work with are from referrals.

When I need to earn and there’s nothing in the pipeline, I use Upwork. I know it gets a lot of hate, but I have had fantastic contracts from it and I think that theres a wrong way and a right way to use it. And actually, I often use it as my portfolio to show prospective clients because my Upwork portfolio includes some really nice reviews. Same attitude: only work with people you can actually get along with, work hard for them, make it a friendship, and they leave happy and send more business later.

u/criveros

Frontend dev – 145k salary + 10% bonus. Specialize in Javascript. 5 years experience.

Technical Writing

From u/SM1270

[I’m] someone who has a “normal” 8-5 job that just happens to be remote.

I’m a proposal and contract writer for a midsized pharmaceutical company. The company has a physical office location 4 states away from where I work, but my entire team is remote. $55,000 a year with standard benefits (2 weeks vacation, health and dental insurance, etc.).

The technical writing and sales support industry is becoming increasingly remote!

u/Chubb_Life

I am a technical writer working remotely. The whole interview and hiring process was done remotely. I had 7 yrs writing experience, 5 of those specifically as a tech writer. 4 year degree required, though in my job search I regularly see ppl with masters degrees and programming experience. Tough market.

I make $65k now. Started out my first tech writer job was around $50k.

Graphic Designer

From u/CMagentaYK

Graphic designer here. My freelance “side gigs” (totally remote) bring in about $15,000 per year.

Specs: -College degree in graphic design -Have been designing for 10 years -Working full-time industry design jobs for 5 years -No, I do not code. I have no desire or need to.

Mobile App Developer

u/FromAtoZen

Mobile app developer (both iOS & Android)

I currently charge $100/hr, but I’m about to raise it to $130 and hire a dev or two.

Work 24-30 hours a week. (3-day work week and 4-day weekends)

Most clients are previous clients or referrals.

Software Consultant

A software consultant is an expert with a particular kind of business software. Businesses hire them to help them set up processes, troubleshoot problems, train employees, etc.

u/BarronVonSnooples

Business applications consultant focusing on things like Salesforce and Marketo, making around $150k USD depending on how much I want to work.

Do you run a company and subcontract work to offshore developers and such? Or are you a consultant in a consulting firm?

I am the subcontractor who receives work from the owner of the consultancy.

Software Developer

u/polliwog_fantasy

Software engineer. I’ve been doing it professionally for ~25 years, fully remote for the past 10 or so. Currently doing embedded stuff which is a huge challenge for remote work because the company needs to ship me new hardware all of the time to write the software for. It’s not something that is normally done remotely so I’m a bit of an anomaly and I wouldn’t recommend it as a career path if your goal is remote work.

But I do want to stress that you can get away with remote work in almost any tech field if you are good enough. You need to be good enough to build a reputation and have recruiters constantly hounding you. You reply with “I can only work remote and I won’t do it for less than $150k” and that filters out most of the requests but you occasionally find someone who will humor you.

u/codenamejeff

Software development. I work full time salaried with amazing benefits (generous pto, cheap insurance, COL salary increase yearly). Our entire team works remote. In the last few years, I have only needed to visit the office a handful of times, mostly to collect hardware for development or team building meetings. averaging out my past few remote positions, I made about 80k/year. I don’t have a degree

How did you become a software developer without having a degree?

I spent about 4-5 years learning as a freelance developer. Once I had honed my skills, I used a national recruiter to find a full time position. During interviews the employers were more concerned about experience than college degrees. I was able to obtain some junior positions for around 60k/ year. I learned a lot and gained major experience in those junior positions, and then I worked my way up very quickly. At one point I was making 95k at a startup company, but they went under after 8 months of employment. From there on it was much easier to get hired

Online Teacher

u/platterbacon

Online teacher for an American charter school. Bachelor’s degree with state certifications. 70k annually with 6 years experience. I also teach English online to Chinese kids for $22 an hour when I want to make some extra money. (I like money.) Word to the wise, don’t tell your American school your real address. Use a virtual one. Pretend you live in their area and hop on a plane the one or two times a year they want you at a retreat or all staff event. Use a VPN too.

u/Drippingmon

I teach English online to Chinese kids with a couple companies. It’s pretty easy and I make about $2500-3000 a month depending on how much I want to work. It’s a pretty good gig and I can do it anywhere.

Do you need a degree related to this?

You usually need a bachelors in any field, be native English, and a TESOL certificate.

Do you have any recommendations for sites that facilitate teaching English online?

I work for Vipkid and gogokid. Both are very reputable.

u/paigem

VIPKID- ESL Teacher to Chinese students. I make a minimum 16 an hour, choose my schedule, can work anywhere, but it requires a bachelor degree. No boss at all, no minimum work hours, can take off as many days as I like

Do you need to know Chinese to do this?

Chinese is absolutely not necessary, I know zero. It’s through video calls, like Skype but their own website. They basically provide a “PowerPoint” or about 25 slides of material and you teach each slide while the child can see you and the slides and vice versa.

Online Marketing

u/Mike2353

Inbound Marketing & Demand Generation in both organic and paid channels. So like SEO, Paid search, display advertising. Managing advertising budgets to drive interest and generate leads. $100k/yr

u/camilleruns

I work in marketing for a travel management company. Probably 75% of our large company works remote and the entirety of my department works remote from all corners of the U.S. I make $45,000 USD (but I don’t have to pay for gas for commuting!). I have a Bachelors in New Media Communications from a four year university and about 4 years of experience in the travel industry before taking this position. Technically the role is a demotion, but I was happy to take a step back in order to work remote!

u/travlingsomewhere

[I run a small] marketing agency. Only 6 local businesses each paying 1k/mo to run fb ads for them and bring in customers.

I spent a long time getting good at fb ads. Eventually realized I could run ads for local businesses so I just called a bunch and got them to work with me.

I do marketing for 2 chiropractors, 3 restaurants, & 1 dentist.

How do you determine the price for a client?

You should help the company find out their clients lifetime value. (LTV) .. To find LTV you would ask:

1. “what does your average customer spend, per person, per visit?”

2. “How many times does a customer visit during a year?”

Multiply those two answers and you have the LTV of a clients customer. (They probably don’t even know what their customer LTV is so it showing them sets you up in a position of authority)

You then find out how many customers you can bring them monthly.

You multiply the LTV by how many customers you bring them monthly and that’s the value you bring. Divide that by 2 and that’s how much you would charge per month. It’s a mathematical formula so they are more likely to understand and be willing to pay more.

Example:

Average LTV of customer (year) is 300 • You bring them 8 more customers (montly) = $2,400 in value (montly). /2 = $1,200 (price you change for your service) + ad spend.

Illustrator

u/TheHypnoticBoogie

I’m a freelance illustrator, i mostly do design for animated children’s TV shows (characters, backgrounds, props, that kind of thing).

I studied animation in school and worked in-studio for about four years before becoming a freelancer – most of my work still comes from the studio where I worked in-house, or via word of mouth. My rate is $250 USD/day or $1250/week, it can be very sporadic though.

Translator

u/shorterthanyouha

I’m a freelance translator, working mostly with Brazilian Portuguese to English legal documents. I have an undergraduate degree from a top liberal arts school in the US and now spend most of my time working from home in Brazil, having done stints working from other locations (Europe, U.S., SE Asia).

I worked for several years at a law firm in the US and Brazil (though I’m not a lawyer) and that’s how I got most of the connections that are now my translation clients. The number of hours I work per week and income vary a lot, but last year I made an average of about 3-4k USD monthly net (after taxes).

There is a huge variety of areas you can specialize in as a translator – medical, literary, advertising, subtitling, dubbing, just as a few examples. I find it extremely interesting and challenging, always learning about something new depending on the job! Plus it is very flexible – I can turn down work at any time, work the hours I want, etc. I love it!

I’ve always been told translator work doesn’t pay well. Do you have any tips on how you got to be making so much?

Yes, unfortunately a lot of translation agencies pay freelancers very poorly so if you only work with agencies you definitely can’t make that much. (One international agency I know of that pays me well is Lionbridge, but I’ve been working with them for a long time so don’t know what starting rates would be like now.)

The key is to have direct clients that are loyal to you and willing to pay your price because the quality and service is excellent. I’m making so much because of my expertise in legal translation since I worked as a paralegal for 6 years. Law firms can really tell the difference in the quality of the translation so they pay me whatever I ask for.

After my bachelor’s degree I’ve taken a whole series of translation and interpretation courses, some online, all of which have been helpful. I took a great online course with NYU but unfortunately they discontinued it ? I’ve also taken short courses locally in conference interpreting, legal translation, translation for dubbing, among others, and I attend translator conferences to network and learn more about the profession. I also passed the test to become certified by the American Translators Association (ATA) which has brought me good work.

So those are really the main ways to earn more translating – have a speciality, find direct clients instead of agencies, constantly work on improving your language and translating skills!

u/cabilo

I’m a freelance translator and I make around $2-3k a month after taxes. I work about 30 hrs a week. Never had a “normal” job for a company before, so I’m still kind of in the “starting phase” of my career. I’m hoping to progressively raise my rates over the next few years. In the meantime I only spend about $500 a month living in SEA (sharing expenses with bf) so it’s still a confortable salary for me and it allows me to save a bit and take a 2 week vacation every couple months.

…

I first started getting some work from Upwork, but it does pay very poorly, but still it’s good to get some experience. Once I had some experience from that and finished my bachelor in languages, I started applying to translation agencies. There are literally hundreds out there and they’re the easiest source of work for translators.

At first I applied to lower quality agencies as I didn’t have much experience, and I worked for these for about 2 years. I was making closer to $1.5-2k at the time. Then I went back to school to get a Master’s in translation, and when I started freelancing again I applied for better paying agencies.

It can take a long time to pay off, I must have sent like 200 resumes before I started getting replies.

Engineering Consultant

u/reddittalker2

I do engineering consulting, work remotely but have to travel to client’s facilities about twice a month. The trips are usually 2-3 days, so not bad. I don’t want to say which field of engineering specifically, but you can do this with just about any engineering or science based 4 yr degree.

I’m mainly training other engineers at this point. You may have to put in 5-10yrs at an office to get the expertise to do this, but that’s a small sacrifice out of a 40 year career. There are many fields of engineering that have no “degree”, and you’ll have to get training on the job. That type of engineering provides more freedom, because there is less competition.

Salary is between $100k and $150K. It fluctuates based on my bonus. I could switch over to a contract position, and bring in about 30% more, but then I’d lose my benefits and I wouldn’t have a sales force hustling for me. I’ll make this move when it’s time to retire and go part-time.

Sales

u/mightbmovingtolondon

I work in SaaS (software as a service) sales. Working from a fixed point for the foreseeable future, but usually take at least 1-2 months a year remote.

It’s a little more expensive with sales to find places to work remotely, as I need to be on the phone 2-3 hours a day, so I end up renting out private rooms in coworking spaces when I work remote.

I make good money; low six figures if I hit targets, much less if I don’t.

u/gamecockfan75

Always been able to work remotely for my whole career.

SaaS Technology Sales – 80k-200k Payroll Sales – 100-180k Advertising Sales – $100k

Ecommerce Stores

u/SDbeachLove

I own my own private label business and sell on Amazon. I make a 6 figure income.

Content Creator

This is a catchall for creating anything that people consume online – articles, videos, music, etc. Most content makes no money, but some makes millions.

A major difficulty with content creation is that monopolistic social media companies are vacuuming up all the users. When you post your content on a place like Facebook or Instagram, they profit from it, but you don’t.

If you want a direct way to monetize your content consider contributing to Adventure Prime. You can work remotely and get 70% of all site profits based on your content’s views. With good, evergreen content, this could equal long term passive income for you. AP takes care of all the website infrastructure and marketing so you can focus on quality content.

Useful Links:

Places to find remote work:
https://remote.co/
https://weworkremotely.com/
https://remote.com/
https://remoteok.io/
https://upwork.com

Reddit Post where I sourced most of the info for this article:
https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/bul05s/what_is_your_job_that_allows_you_to_work_remotely/

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