Where to Find Online Work in 2017

I find that more and more people are ditching the conventional 9-5 job and work online instead. Currently, I work full time but eventually I want more flexibility with my time and workplace in the future. So I’m going to share with you everything I know about finding work online, because I’ve been there! This is for people who wants to work from anywhere with just a laptop and internet connection, or for parents who want to stay at home and spend more time with their children, or for people who loves to travel and do some online work to fund that travel.

Start a Youtube Channel/ Blog

The first thing I’m going to share is to start your own blog/ Youtube channel. It will take time before you start getting your first pay check, so just have that in mind so that you won’t get easily discouraged. With Youtube/ blog, you need to be consistent in putting out your content, whether it’s once a week, or 5 days a week, it depends on what your time will allow you. You will earn through ad revenue or you can put affiliate links and earn through that as well. For me personally, it took me forever to start a Youtube channel and a blog. I might have thought about it for more than a year because I had a lot of fears. I didn’t want to put myself out there, or put my face in front of a camera. But at the end of the day, I convinced myself that this is my life and I shouldn’t care what other people think. My first video came out on July last year and if you told me then that it would reach 10,000 views, I wouldn’t believe you. But it has, and now that video is earning money for me while I sleep.

Check out my Youtube channel here: Chris Quimbo

Fiverr

The next thing I’m gonna talk about is this website/app called Fiverr. If you have skills you think people will pay for, like drawing, graphic design, photoshop, song writing, creative writing, the list is endless, you can put it on Fiverr and have yourself available for people to pay for your services. And if you think you don’t have those skills, you can teach yourself some skills like virtual assistant, voice over artist, or social media manager. Just have a look at what other people are offering on the website, read the description and see if you can teach yourself those skills.

In my journey with finding online work, I taught myself how to be a social media manager. All the information I needed was on the internet. All it takes really is to type the words on Google or Youtube “how to be…” and the internet will teach you. If it’s something more specialised, you might have to pay for the information you want through courses and ebooks.

Flexjobs

So lastly, is this website called Flexjobs.com. The Forbes 100 list of companies that offer telecommute work is found on this website. They make finding both part time and full time telecommute work easier and faster. However, nothing in life is that easy so you actually have to pay for their services ranging from $14.95/month to $49.95/year. It’s a bit pricey because finding these companies yourself will take a lot of time. You’ll never know where to start and who these companies are.

So those are the 3 ways to find online work in 2017. I hope that you’ll find these helpful and give you motivation to find an online job that suits you.

5 Reasons to Use Airbnb vs a Hotel

Airbnb is a great website/ app that help travellers find a suitable place to live while on holiday. There are great accommodations to choose from; whether you want to rent an entire house (with a pool!) or just rent a room and live with the locals. I mostly use Airbnb now for all my travels and these are the positive experiences I’ve had through the years:

Save money

view of Central Park

The very reason why I started using Airbnb for my travels was because I wanted to save money. I remember my very first Airbnb accommodation in New York City. I travelled with my bestfriend at that time and as female travellers, we wanted to stay somewhere cheap and safe. Looking at hotels and our options seem very limited until my friend suggested Airbnb. We found a great place; it was within our budget and located in the more affluent area of Manhattan. AND we were very proud to tell our families that we were going to live in the Upper West Side of New York City. No one had to know that we had to climb 4 flights of stairs to get to our apartment. LOL The best thing about Airbnb is that you can search according to your budget; whether you want to rent an entire house/ castle, or a room, space for a tent, or even just rent someone’s couch.

Great locations to choose from

Aside from my Upper West Side apartment in New York, I have other great Airbnb accommodations to share. One was the house we lived in in Rarotonga (Cook Islands). It was away from the famous Muri area where most of the resorts were built. It had this balcony where you have the view of the Pacific Ocean and the reef surrounding the island (just like in the movie Moana where the entire island was surrounded by a reef). A short walk from our house was the best snorkling spot, Fruits of Rarotonga. We would spend most of our days swimming, having naps on the beach, and enjoying our little piece of paradise. It was quiet and calm because all the resorts were at another town.

Have a Local Experience

our hosts getting a lovely sunset wedding

One upside is that you can ask a local’s input about where to eat and things to do. You get to see how locals live and how they navigate through their daily lives. That beats any information you can find on the internet. But the greatest thing about it is that you can go home to a family. I have very fond memories of living in Rarotonga for a week. I was on holiday with my partner and it’s one of our happiest holidays and it’s because of the family we lived with. The host was getting married during our stay and her children and her partner’s children were all at the house we were staying at. They invited us for dinners, invited us to hang out, and to sing songs with them on the guitar. They even invited us to their wedding and it was one of the most beautiful and heart warming weddings I’ve ever been to. We never would have gotten such an authentic experience had we stayed at a resort.

Meet new people

When renting out a room at a multiple bedroom house, chances are other travellers will be around when you’re there. If you enjoy meeting new people like me, you’ll definitely enjoy the experience you get from meeting travellers through Airbnb. There are billions of people in the world and you only get to meet so many of them. The best way to meet wonderful people is to travel, seek them out, talk to them and you’ll learn so much about people you’ve never met and places you’ve never been to.

Cook your own meals

When renting on Airbnb, almost all places will have an access to a kitchen. Cooking might be the last thing on your mind when you’re on holiday but for long term travellers, cooking your own meals will save you heaps of money. There are also popular destinations wherein the restaurant prices mostly will be in tourist price. Eating out all the time will quickly drain your money and having an accommodation where you can cook will be a blessing. Some places will even provide free breakfast.

Hope my positive experiences convince you to use Airbnb. You can try it to see for yourself and you’ll never regret it. Click the link below and discover amazing accommodations. Happy travels!

https://www.airbnb.com

 

5 Tips on How to Travel on a Budget

I work to live and live to travel. I have to admit, travelling can be expensive and that’s why I always find a way to help out my bank account. So travelling on a budget is not new to me. Here are a few tips to help you get on that tropical holiday you’ve been dreaming about without breaking the bank!

Flights: Have a Buy Price

Flights go on sale all the time. You just need to know what the regular price is vs the sale price and the latter should be your buy price. For example, flying from New Zealand to the Cook Islands will usually cost $800. However, when it goes on sale, it will sell for around $400 to $500. So when booking for a trip to the Cook Islands, anything around that price range will be my buy price. Saving $400 can go a long way. It can be your pocket money once you’re officially on holiday. I also use this app Skyscanner so that I can see where I can buy the cheapest flights.

Travel Insurance: Buy it ASAP

Whether to buy travel insurance or not, I always say buy it. You might think to yourself, I’m pretty healthy, nothing ever happens to me, but in reality, you just never know. Getting food poisoning can easily set you back $300 especially in first world countries. So my tip when buying travel insurance, don’t leave this for last. Travel insurance gets more expensive the closer you buy it to your travel dates. As soon as you have your flights sorted, go shopping for the best priced travel insurance online.

Accommodation: Airbnb

Airbnb is great. You can use the app or the website. I’ve used it both as a traveller and a host. It’s user friendly and there are so many choices that it comes out cheaper than a hotel or a hostel. What I love about it is that it’s a home away from home. You can choose a place where there’s a washing machine so that you can do your laundry or a kitchen to use so that you can cook your own meals. That saves you money from eating out all the time. Most places I’ve stayed at provided a free breakfast as well.

Check out Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com

Travel With Friends

Not only is it fun to travel with your friends but it can save you a lot of money too because you’re splitting the costs with a lot of people. That’s more people to split the accommodation cost, rental car cost, petrol for the rental car and so on. I recently went to Hawaii and brought US $900 with me but I spent less than half of that because I had all my friends with me to split the cost.

Do Your Research

Planning ahead will save you a lot of money. Take time to read blogs about the places you’re visiting or check out Tripadvisor; it’s a website where travellers write about their experiences, or rate a restaurant or a tour. Also, check out Groupon for local deals. From personal experience, I found a deal on Groupon that was a $90 2-hour surf lessons for 4 people in Hawaii. We were all beginner surfers so that was chill and really enjoyable experience for us because it didn’t cost us an arm and a leg. A lot of people haven’t even heard of Groupon. So if you’re new to it, check it out!

Hope these tips are useful to you in your future travels. You can click the links so that you can check out the websites/ apps I use that help me budget my trips.