5 Ways To Earn Money Abroad Without A Job

Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Life, Working Abroad
6 comments

If you haven’t found work in your host country, or if your current job is not as fulfilling as you’d like it to, have you thought about starting your own business?

From earning your own spending money as an accompanying spouse to creating a full-fledged income stream, here are a few money-making ideas that you can implement pretty much anywhere in the world.

Disclaimer: These suggestions do not consititute legal, financial or fiscal advice. It is your responsibility to make sure that you abide by your host country’s laws and that you properly declare your income for tax purposes. So keep it above board, and beware of get-rich-quick schemes, OK?

5 ways to earn an income abroad

1. Sell stuff on eBay

Prerequisites:
- Having (or making) stuff people want to buy
- Reliable internet connection and postal system

How it works:
- You pay a small flat fee to auction your items off on the site, where buyers can bid on them. Once the item sells, you pay a percentage fee based on the actual selling price.
- eBay’s Help section has very detailed tutorials and tips. About.com also provides a good overview of the service.
- For vintage and handmade items, you can also try Etsy.com.

Tips:
- Search your home for scarce, vintage or collectible items – out-of-print books, discontinued cosmetics or anything with “cult status” sells well on eBay.
- Keep in mind that you’ll have to ship anything you sell. Japanese bento box accessories are lighter and easier to ship than Murano glass or a French bistro table. Get your packing supplies before you start selling.
- Selling on eBay won’t make you rich, but you can probably make a nice chunk of spending money and get rid of clutter in the process.

2. Monetise a blog or website

Prerequisites:
- Existing blog or site with a decent amount of traffic
- Some knowledge of SEO

How it works:
- There are many different ways to create income streams on your site: display ads, sell your own ad space, join affiliate programmes… this Online CRM article lists 101 ways to earn money from your blog.

Tips:
- Don’t overwhelm your readers with ads, and always keep your content relevant and interesting. For the best advice on professional blogging, I recommend CopyBlogger.com and Problogger.com.
- If you are the kind of expat blogger who goes the extra mile to give useful information or help others get settled, there’s nothing wrong with asking your readers to send you a small donation. Paypal.com allows you to put a donation button up on your site.
- Once again, don’t expect massive amounts of money (especially from ads), unless you’re willing to go the professional blogger route and start developing your own products, joint ventures and programmes.

3. Invest your money

Prerequisites:
- Basic understanding of how the various financial products work
- A trusted advisor or other reliable source of information

How it works:
- If you have anything less than absolute confidence in your financial knowledge and skills, go talk to your bank or a financial advisor.
- For the remaining 1% of the population, set up an online trading account (which you probably already have anyway) to manage your investments from anywhere in the world.

Tips:
- Before meeting with a financial advisor, have a clear idea of your financial goals and of how much you want to invest.
- Have realistic expectations – interest rates are currently at an all-time low, and the markets are still volatile. Don’t forget to factor management fees and brokerage commissions into your rate of return.
- Keep very, very current on tax rules on investment income.

4. Go freelance

Prerequisites:
- Skills that are easily marketable
- Not being afraid to sell yourself and your services
- In most countries, a valid work permit

How it works:
- You’re hired by a company for a short or longer-term contract, but you’re not on their payroll
- Obvious lines of work for expats are translation, language teaching and relocation services, but you can also get all sorts of marketing, design or administrative contracts.

Tips:
- Check carefully what your freelance status implies in terms of health insurance, taxes, and business structure.
- Consider setting up a dedicated website or blog to promote your services.
- Create simple but efficient systems for giving out quotes, invoicing, receiving payments, etc.

5. Start your own business

Prerequisites:
- A viable concept and business model
- A good understanding of the market where you’ll be selling your products or services
- The willingness to work hard and spend countless hours learning about all aspects of business – from cash flow to bookkeeping to marketing.

How it works:
- Basically, you need your business idea, a business structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, etc) and a way to interact with your potential clients.
- There are way too many steps to list here, so starting this Wednesday, I will begin a series of posts on how to create your own business when you live overseas. Stay tuned for many, many more tips!

Was this post helpful? Do you need more personalized advice? Contact me to schedule a one-on-one consultation.

Emmanuelle

Images by Tamaki (top) and Chris Hamilton (bottom), both via Flickr Creative Commons“