How We Work Online Successfully
When we first started our vanlife journey back in 2020, we didn’t have much of a plan in terms of a remote income. Although living on the road can be a far cheaper lifestyle than that of a house or apartment, you ultimately still have outgoings each month. At the start of our vanlife journey, we used savings and our little Etsy shop to stay afloat on the road. Although this was perfect at the time, when we returned to the UK, we knew we wanted more financial stability and so the hunt for an online income began. There are many ways to successfully make money online and below are the ways we have built a stable online income whilst living in our van.
Upwork
Upwork is a platform for freelancers in specific fields such as writing, graphic design, app development and social media marketing. The platform provides a connection between professional freelancers and clients, meaning as soon as you set up a profile and get accepted, you can start searching for your next job or project.
Application
Sign up for an account using an email address
Fill out personal information (name, password, location)
Complete an Upwork profile
Verify identity (government issues identification)
Submit application
Connects
There are internal tokens with Upwork which are used when submitting a job proposal (application) to clients, these are called ‘connects’. The tokens are essentially used to ‘bid’ for jobs and you are able to use more connects to push your proposal higher up the list of applicants for that particular job. In a situation where potential clients propose job offers to freelancers, regardless of whether you accept or decline, you do not have to use any connects.
Once a job is completed successfully, the client is able to provide a rating for the work completed which adds to the overall ‘Job Success Score’ featured on every freelancer’s profile. Similarly, freelancers are able to provide feedback about the experience they had with the client and this features on the client’s Upwork profile.
A great benefit to Upwork is that as a freelancer, you can set your price per hour and even set a price for an entire project depending on how long you think it will take, the work involved etc. It is important to note that Upwork works in US dollars and so the final sum will reflect the currency you transfer your final earnings to.
Many jobs available on Upwork are within the writing niche and this is where we find most of our work. When applying for writing jobs, many clients will relay their price per word which can vary depending on the freelancer’s experience.
Upwork fees
Upwork takes a percentage every time you complete work for a client. The fee reduces as the money billed increases - the more work completed for a client will result in a smaller cut of final earnings.
20% for the first $500 you bill a client
10% for total billings between $500.01 and $10,000
5% for total billings over $10,000
As the initial cut Upwork take is considerably high, it is important to set a sensible price for a project. Even if you are approached to complete a job with a low rate of pay, you are able to negotiate and find a price that works for you and your expertise.
Types of Jobs
Hourly Contracts
Hourly projects are logged into the ‘Work Diary’ section on Upwork and this function will record in detail the work completed and the progress of a project. Using the work diary feature goes hand in hand with an Upwork service called Hourly Protection. This service is very important as it provides evidence of completed work, even if there is a dispute with a client over payment.
Fixed Price Projects
Fixed-price projects are where we focus most of our time on Upwork. When applying for a fixed-price project, the client will set ‘milestones’ which are created as checkpoints during a job. Once the milestones have been met, freelancers receive payment using PayPal, direct bank deposit or a wire transfer.
Project Catalog
Project Catalog allows freelancers to create specific packages for potential clients and highlight them on their Upwork profile. For each project, freelancers are able to set the price, timing and outline of projects and clients can search them using ‘Project Catalog’. Example projects can be anything from social media marketing and web design to illustration and product design.
Payment
The time it takes earnings to become available depends on the type of job completed:
Hourly contracts follow a weekly billing cycle that ends on Sunday. Any earnings are available for withdrawal 10 days later (the following Wednesday).
Fixed price projects follow a milestone system. Once a client has approved a milestone, any earnings are available for withdrawal after a 5-day security period.
Project Catalog contracts follow a project approval system. Once the client has approved a project, any earnings are available for withdrawal after a 5-day security period.
Withdrawal
Upwork offer four different payment options for withdrawal:
Direct to US Bank (ACH) - Free
US Dollar Wire Transfer - $30/transaction
Instant Pay for US Freelancers - $2/transfer
Direct to Local Bank (outside of US) - $0.99/transfer
Upwork also offer withdrawal from the following third party payment vendors:
PayPal
Payoneer (outside the US)
M-Pesa (Kenya only)
2. Cambly
Cambly is an online platform for teaching English to students all over the world. One of the many benefits of Cambly is the flexibility it offers in comparison to many other teaching platforms. A teaching certificate such as a TEFL is not required for Cambly, however, we purchased a 120hr TEFL course on Groupon for under £20 in case we ever applied to other English teaching platforms that require certification.
Application
The Cambly application process is quick and easy:
Sign up for an account using an email address
Complete a tutor profile covering your introduction, past employment, skills, teaching style etc
Record a video introduction (if successful with your application, this video will be on your tutor profile for students to view)
Take an internet connection test
Submit application
24/7 platform
Cambly has an embedded video service meaning tutors do not have to use an exterior video source such as Skype. Each time you log in to the platform you will be required to take a connection test to ensure your signal is strong enough to teach. Cambly offers tutors complete control of their schedule and when they decide to teach.
As Cambly is a 24/7 platform, you can log in at whatever time of day and wait for the calls from students to begin. It’s important to remember the large volumes of both tutors and students on the platform and so you may not get calls immediately as you are placed in a queue with other tutors that students can pick from.
The length of each call varies depending on whether the student has purchased a Cambly package with 15, 30, or 60-minute time slots. If a trial student calls, the length of the lesson is usually below 15 minutes.
As a tutor, you can either log on spontaneously and teach or you can set your availability on your schedule which allows students to see any open slots and book a lesson.
Priority Hours
One of the scheduling features available on Cambly is the Priority Hours system. This system was created to provide more of an incentive for tutors to teach during busy times such as weekends and weekday evenings. Priority Hours can be signed up for in advance and tutors will potentially receive high call volumes during these times. From time to time, Cambly sometimes guarantees a pay incentive during a Priority Hour such as payment of 15 minutes per hour at a minimum, regardless of the number of lessons you teach. It isn’t the best idea to cancel Priority hours, as they are a great way to build up your rating and get confident speaking to an abundance of students. If, however, you do need to cancel a Priority Hour you signed up for, you should cancel with 12 hours’ notice. If you cancel less than 12 hours before your Priority Hour slot, you may be penalised by Cambly.
Reservations
If you desire less of a spontaneous approach to teaching on Cambly, you can open up reservation slots where students can book a lesson with you in advance. This is a great way to build up regular students that will return week to week.
Teaching Lessons
Cambly has a library of lessons for a range of English abilities from beginner, intermediate and advanced. As a tutor, you are not required to read through the lessons before teaching them, as for native speakers the content is easy to follow and explain to the student. In the Cambly library, there are also games which are a great way to help get students to feel comfortable and at ease during lessons.
Many students on Cambly are looking to improve conversational English, so they aren’t interested in completing one of the provided Cambly lessons. Instead, these types of students want to talk about their hobbies, goals, daily life etc and have a general conversation with a native English speaker.
The Classroom
In the Cambly classroom, you are able to see the student, yourself and a resource section on the right-hand side of the screen. This resource section allows you to bring a Cambly lesson into the classroom as well as access any external teaching material you may have. There is also information about the student, such as the country they are calling from, their English-speaking ability and the total time they have spent on Cambly. There is also a chat function with an automatic translation feature allowing both the student and tutor to send messages in their native language.
Cambly Kids
In Cambly’s main program most students are 16 and above. For younger students, Cambly provides a platform called ‘Cambly Kids’. Any lessons completed on Cambly Kids are reservation only and are 30 minutes long using lessons provided by Cambly.
Payment
Cambly has a fixed rate of pay of $10.20/hour
Cambly kids has a fixed rate of pay of $12/hour
Withdrawal
Funds are paid weekly into PayPal every Monday.
Having a remote income doesn’t necessarily mean you will work less, but it means you can control your schedule and signal permitting, potentially work wherever you are in the world. Being able to successfully work online has been a game changer for us and has opened up a world of freedom and opportunity.
FAQs
Ways to make a remote income online?
There are many ways to make a remote income, we find teaching English and freelance writing the ways that work best for us, but other people are successful with social media, administrative activities, proofreading, graphic design etc. There are lots of remote jobs out there for many different types of people, often the hardest part is finding them! Websites like Upwork, Fiverr and freelancer.com are great places to research if you want to try your hand at freelancing.
Is it expensive to live in a campervan?
Similarly to living in a house, living in a campervan can be as cheap or expensive as you want to make it. Our fuel is essentially our rent, so if we work less one month we’ll probably move less too to keep the costs down. We don’t have any water or electricity bills as we fill up water at petrol stations and the sun generates our electricity for us via solar panels. We use LPG for cooking which is cheap and lasts us around 6 weeks depending on what we’ve been cooking. Our heating bills are negligible as we primarily use our log burner over our diesel heater and the wood we use is foraged. dried and chopped by us.
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