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How to Make $6000 a Month With Your Laptop (2024)

How to Make $6000 a Month With Your Laptop (2024)

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Have you ever laid awake at night, mind racing?

You can’t stop running the numbers in your head…

How am I going to afford brakes for my car? My next chiropractor treatment that insurance won’t cover? Christmas presents for the kiddos? 

If you could use a bigger cash cushion in your budget, you’re not alone. 

In this guide, I’ll show you how to make $6000 a month with your laptop, from the comfort of your home.

No boss. No commute. No pants.

Heck, if you want to, these are all jobs you can do while traveling the world

I’ve personally used a combination of these methods to build a five-figure per month income, and I’ve met people having success in every one of these methods.

Let’s go.

How to make $6000 a month with your laptop

There is no such thing as a magic number when it comes to income. There is only your magic number. 

✔️ How much do you need to survive? 
✔️ What are your financial goals? 
✔️ How fast do you want to reach them?

There are many variables, and the answer is different for everyone.

That said, if you’re able to earn $6,000 dollars a month from home consistently, you’ll certainly be off to a good start. 

Here are some realistic ways to do it.

1. Virtual assistant

drawing of virtual assistant working with client

Maybe you have no idea what you want to do for work. All you know is you want to do it sitting on a beach with half a coconut full of rum and a little umbrella sticking out of the top. 

Becoming a virtual assistant can help you realize this dream.

A virtual assistant is exactly what it sounds like. You find clients who need assistance with virtual tasks.

This could be repetitive, time-consuming work that your client needs off their plate — like data entry, email inbox management, scheduling, or outreach. 

But there are also virtual assistant jobs that let your creativity shine through, like writing content for their websites or designing pretty pins as a Pinterest manager.

Virtual assistants are usually self-employed, which means you’re responsible for finding your own contract work.

How to make $6,000 a month as a virtual assistant

According to Indeed’s career data, the average pay for a virtual assistant is $22 an hour. That means to make six grand a month, you’d need to grind 68 hours per week. 

How are you supposed to enjoy the laptop lifestyle if you’re working this much?

The answer — Specialization. 

What’s the one skill that sets you apart from everyone else? 

If you don’t know, then generalized VA work can help you discover these hidden talents. You can also take one of these top VA courses to help fast-track you to higher earnings.

Once you have specialized, in-demand skills — skills that make you hard to replace — you can justify cranking up your rates.

For example, let’s say you specialized in paid advertising management (PPC), and thanks to your services, you double your client’s sales.

In that case, it wouldn’t be unheard of to charge $100 per hour. Many of the top PPC specialists on Upwork charge $75 to $125 per hour. 

At these rates, you’d only need to work roughly 15 hours per week to hit $6k per month. That leaves a lot of time to drink adult beverages out of a coconut! 

If becoming a virtual assistant sounds interesting to you, the best first step is to take this free course, which lays the groundwork for becoming a six-figure VA. 

2. Freelancing your skills

drawing of freelance video editor on his laptop

Virtual assistant gigs may be perfect for someone whose path isn’t clear. But what if you already have marketable skills? What’s the best route to $6,000 a month?

Freelancing. 

If you want to make 6000 a month from home, you can always look for a high-paying remote job (more on that later). But if you’re self-disciplined and want maximal freedom, freelancing and self-employment are the way to go.

You can freelance with almost any kind of highly sought-after skill. Here are just a few examples:

✔️ Writing
✔️ Editing
✔️ Proofreading
✔️ Graphic Design
✔️ Transcription
✔️ Coding

For even more ideas, check out this list of best freelancing gigs for beginners

While freelancing is a great way to break into the digital nomad lifestyle, not all of these options will be able to scale to the income level you desire, so choose your service carefully. 

How to earn $6,000 a month freelancing your skills

Let’s use freelance writing as an example as that’s what I have the most experience with. 

According to Indeed, freelance writers from the U.S. make an average of $52,000 per year. 

This stat isn’t very helpful because freelance writer rates vary DRAMATICALLY. 

I started at $0.03 per word, and now I charge 10x that. (Side thought: Can you imagine 10x-ing your salary as a normal employee?)

Let’s settle somewhere in the middle at $0.15 per word.

If you can crank out 2,500 words in a day, that’s $375. To earn $6,000 per month, you’d need to work 16 days per month.

Now imagine if you doubled your rates, which is totally reasonable in certain niches. 

I made a free course on how to earn your first $1,000 as a freelance writer, so if it sounds like your jam, you can grab it below. 

FREE 5-DAY COURSE

Learn the simple step-by-step process I used to easily land my first freelance clients and build a business I can run while traveling the world.

By signing up, you'll also be added to my legendary email list and receive exclusive travel lifesyle tips I don't share anywhere else. 

Keep in mind, writing isn’t your only option. There are plenty of other freelance skills that demand high rates. Just poke around Upwork for ideas. 

3. Blogging 

stick person blogging at the beach

Blogging is a beautiful thing. 

You earn by publishing information and advice that helps others. 

It’s a slog getting the ball rolling, but once you start pulling in traffic and building an audience, income opportunities snowball. 

The best part is that you can make money blogging on a variety of topics. 

Some blog about their passions and personally write all their own content. Others choose any niche that looks profitable, then hire other writers to crank out articles. 

Whichever method you choose, I can vouch that blogging can lead to ginormous opportunities.

And no, blogging is not dead. It is very much alive. And it’s not too late to start. I know 7-figure publishers that are still starting new blogs from scratch every month. 

You just have to be willing to put in front-loaded effort. 

How to make $6000 a month blogging

The cool thing about blogging is there are many ways to skin a cat. 

There is no one right way to earn from a blog. You can create several different income streams. From ads to affiliate marketing to sponsored content to digital products to consulting and more. 

graphic showing how travel blogs make money with different income streams

There are an infinite number of ways to earn $6k a month with a blog. One example might be:

  • $3,000 in ads (ex. 100,000 pageviews with $30 RPM)
  • $2,000 in affiliate commissions
  • $1,000 in digital product sales

The best part is that most of these methods are relatively passive. They earn on autopilot. So if you want to take off three weeks to backpack through Colombia, your bank account will still grow. 

The downside to blogging is that if you don’t follow a proven plan, you’ll waste way too much time floundering around, and you may even give up before you earn a penny. 

To avoid this, I highly recommend checking out this free course. And if you want to take things to the next level, check out my Fat Stacks course review

Fat Stacks specializes in monetizing with traffic and ads.

For a course that goes into more advanced affiliate marketing techniques, see my Affiliate Lab review.

4. Drop servicing

Drop servicing is a form of arbitrage. Essentially, you’re a digital service reseller.

Here’s how it works:
✔️ You set up an agency or business
✔️ Find clients willing to pay a premium for the services you offer
✔️ Hire freelancers willing to do some or all of the work for cheaper than you sell to the client

graphic showing how the drop servicing business model works

The key to success with drop servicing closing sales and managing your team. You handle the business side and subcontract the actual work. 

This means you don’t have to be an expert in the service you’re selling (although it doesn’t hurt). 

Here’s a primer on how to start a drop servicing business

How to earn $6000 a month drop servicing

Drop servicing is all about margins. If you sell a service for $100 and the freelancer charges you $95, then you’re walking away with $5 in profit. 

This isn’t ideal. 

You need to make the sales effort worth your time, so focus on services with high margins and clients willing to pay top dollar.

For example, if you sold an animated explainer video to e-commerce brands for $3,000 and then outsourced it for $1,000, you’d profit $2,000. 

In this scenario, you’d only have to close three deals per month to reach $6k. Perhaps even less if you find companies that need ongoing services.  

If the idea of drop servicing intrigues you, check out this free webinar (the good stuff comes about an hour in). 

HOLD UP. Why settle for $5000 per month? Don’t sell yourself short. Here’s how to make $10k a month.

5. Amazon FBA

Stack of Amazon boxes
My first shipment of inventory to Amazon warehouses

Amazon FBA is similar to drop servicing in a way. It allows you to create and build your own business, but you’re delegating most of the work to other people. 

There are some major differences though.

Here’s how Amazon FBA works:

#1.) You find a product on a reselling website like Alibaba.
#2.) You build a brand around the product and get it private labeled with your logo.
#3.) You ship your inventory to Amazon warehouses.
#4.) You pay Amazon a cut of your sales to handle the heavy lifting for you. 

Your main job is (1) getting eyeballs on your listing and (2) making sure you don’t run out of stock. 

Is this business model more competitive than it was 10 years ago? Yes. 

But is there also more opportunity? Also yes. Here’s why Amazon FBA is still worth it

How to make $6000 dollars a month with Amazon FBA

This business is good for analytical minds and math nerds. Here’s how it might break down:

Say you sell five different products in three different countries.

After you pay for inventory, shipping, FBA costs, and all other fees, you earn $15 profit from each unit you sell.

To surpass $6,000 per month, you’d need to sell 1 unit of each product in each country per day.

Hypothetically, it sounds pretty easy.

In reality, a lot of your success comes down to picking the right products to sell. And to learn more about that, I recommend checking out this free Amazon FBA class

6. Internet scoping

graphic showing a woman doing a scopist job about an interesting case

Have you ever watched a court scene in a movie or on television? 

There’s that one person that types away throughout the proceedings, forced to type every word uttered.

No matter how fast you can type, you’re never going to get down everything in a coherent transcript. This is where internet scoping.

Scopists usually freelance for court reporters. They compare the rough transcript to the audio recording, then they polish it up into a smooth final product.

How to earn $6,000 dollars per month as an internet scopist

Entry-level internet scopists earn roughly $30,000 a year, according to the Internet Scoping School. But top-end scopists with blazing-fast fingers earn up to $60,000.

This only amounts to earning $5,000 a month — so close, yet so far. 

To pick up the slack and add in an extra $1,000, you could moonlight as a legal transcriptionist, which involves many of the same skills. 

Scoping requires learning special software and mastering basic legal terms, both of which you can learn here

7. English teaching/tutoring

If you’re a native English speaker, you can earn a full-time income teaching it as a second language.

There are people all over the world that want to speak English. In some cases, they need to learn it for school or business. 

Provided you have the credentials, like an English degree from a university or a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate, you can bring in some solid cash.

You can travel the world and work from anywhere you want, whether it be in the classroom, your apartment, or your beach-side Airbnb.

Just be careful when choosing a TEFL certification course. You usually get what you pay for, so don’t skimp. If you do, both you and your students will suffer.

Here is the course I took, which is consistently ranked one of the top TEFL companies. If you’re not quite sure this is the path for you, here is a budget option that’s not too shabby. 

How to make $6,000 per month teaching English

There’s the easy way to work as an English teacher. And then there’s the way that’s going to earn $6,000/month.

If you’re just starting, check out platforms like QKids, Magic Ears, or Palfish. These companies match you with students online and pay upwards of $20 per hour. 

While this is a great way to get your foot in the door and build experience, it’s not going to get you to $6k.

To do that, you’ll have to build out a roster of private clients and cut out the middleman. 

Experienced TEFL teachers can charge $40 to $50 an hour as a private tutor, so you’re looking at about 30 hours per week to reach your goal. 

8. Combination

There is no rule forcing you to choose just one option. 

And if you aren’t quite sure which to choose, you can always stack them. 

Pick up a few VA clients, teach English on the side, and start a blog or e-commerce store in your spare time. 

If you want to grow beyond $6000 a month, choose at least one scalable option. In other words, a strategy that isn’t directly linked to the number of hours you put in, like blogging, e-commerce, or drop servicing. 

If you have the grit it takes to build one of these businesses, you may wake up one day and realize you make $6000 a month passively

Now THAT is a good feeling. 

How to make $6000 fast AF

Whether you’re freelancing or starting a business from scratch, most of the above jobs take a while to build up. 

If you need to make $6000 FAST, then you might be better off:

  • Selling your stuff. One of the fastest ways to boost your bank account. 
  • Renting your stuff. Set up multiple income streams fast by renting out your spare rooms, cars, RVs, parking spaces, storage spaces, etc.
  • Finding a remote job. Poke around Flexjobs and look for remote jobs that make 6000 a month.

It isn’t easy, but with a bit of ingenuity, there are even ways to make $1,000 in a day

Frequently asked questions

What salary is $6k a month?

If you earn $6000 per month, your annual salary is $72,000 before taxes. You’re in the 22% federal tax bracket for 2022, leaving you with approximately $56,160. This does not include any other deductions, credits, or state and local taxes. 

How much do I need to invest to make $5000 a month?

It depends on your rate of return. To generate $6000 a month passively at a 5% annual yield, you’d need to invest $1,440,000. At a 10% return, you’d need $720,000. And at a 20% return, you’d need $360,000 invested. 

How much an hour is $6,000 a month?

To make $6000 a month working a full-time, 40-hour-per-week job, you’d need an hourly wage of $34.62. To make $6000 working 20 hours per week, you’d need an hourly wage of $69.23 per hour, which is a reasonable goal to work towards for entrepreneurs.

Mitch's Travel Recommendations:
Travel Planning Resources - Everything you need to plan your trip on one convenient page.
Going Cheap Flights Newsletter - Get flight deals from your airport up to 90% off sent straight to your inbox.
Safetywing Insurance - This cheap travel insurance has saved me over $15,000 in medical bills.
Booking.com - Book accommodation without adding your credit card (in case you need to cancel).
Trusted House Sitters - Take care of pets in exchange for free (sometimes luxury) accommodation.
Flexjobs - Find remote jobs without having to sift through crappy ones.
Skillshare - Free trial to take unlimited classes that teach digital nomad skills.
Wise - Send and receive money abroad cheaply (great for freelancers).

Zubaida Waheed

Sunday 7th of January 2024

What remote opportunities are there and what is the rate per month for a Google Scholar who is:

PhD in Economics from a British University. With 40 years of teaching and research experience. With publications in Impact Factor and Scopus journals. Authored 4 books, 43 papers in Impact Factor and Scopus journals, 76 articles in newspapers and magazines, etc. Has been Editor and Chief editor of two economic journals formore than 25 years, etc.

Zubaida Waheed

Wednesday 10th of January 2024

@Project Untethered,

I do post graduate teaching Development Economics and Industrial Economics. Would be interested to hear teaching opportunities in these areas

Project Untethered

Monday 8th of January 2024

What about an online teacher??

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