These days, more and more people are working remotely and heading overseas to live and work from laptops. Humans being social creatures, and needing others of our kind to interact with, it comes as no surprise that online social networks are forming to offer support, advice and comfort to these remote wanderers and long-stay travellers.
If you need advice about a country or city that might suit you to live in, or help with finding accommodation and workspace, or just where to buy good coffee or find a doctor, consider plugging into one of these networks. They are also a great way to meet and socialise with other nomads and make new friends.
There are broad, global networks, such as Digital Nomads around the World (53,551 members) or Digital Nomads Hub (14,016 members), as well as smaller, regional ones, specific to a certain country or even just one city, such as Digital Nomads Portugal or Lisbon Digital Nomads. There are networks that limit membership to women and others for women of colour or LGBT people.
Generally, I find the global networks are good for answering general lifestyle questions, such as, how do I get started, where do I look for remote jobs, which countries offer freelancer visas, etc. The smaller, regional networks are better for answering questions about how much to budget for a certain country or city, about local customs and rules, the best areas or neighbourhoods to live in a city, how to find accomodation and co working spaces and even how to access local services that can arrange complete nomad packages, like a co working space that offers one set fee for hotel, meal and monthly co-working fees.
For example, in addition to joining several larger global groups, I’ve joined a Nomad Women 40s and Up Facebook group. As a digital nomad over 40, I appreciate being able to meet virtually with older female travellers immediately, rather than sift through huge numbers of people on one of the global nomadic sites. I can also post questions, observation or experience that might be only relevant to my age and gender.
I have found the groups I belong to overall well administered and run. Either there is low tolerance for trolls, or administrators delete trollish comments and block their writers, as my experience of the groups have been of digital nomads sincerely wanting to help and advise, and giving great information to newbies about what life on the road is actually like.
The best way to find these networks is just do a Google search on line, using relevant keywords. There is a large Facebook group called Digital Nomads in Asia (5,000 members) which you should consider joining if you are thinking of traveling and working around Asia. However, once you have information about working in Asia and have decided where you will be going, it’s a good idea to focus in on the specific region you want to go to. Are you headed for Thailand? A search will yield Thailand Digital Nomads. Groups are generally based on Facebook, but occasionally are built around a website. Getting even more specific, there is a Bangkok Digital Nomads group, as well as a Bangkok Digital Jobs group, and a Chiang Mai Digital Nomads group.
A word here about remote jobs: obviously, if you are going to work remotely, you would ideally like to work for a company or boss who supports remote workers. I previously wrote about remote job boards (see Finding Remote Work). There are also Facebook groups and pages that offer listing of jobs for nomads. As you would expect, many of these jobs involve IT or Tech work, but a steadily increasing number are in areas like Customer Service, Marketing, Social Media Management, Consulting, Writing, etc. You can find jobs on sites such as Remote Work and Jobs for Digital Nomads or The Remote Work Group for Digital Nomads. As well as posting jobs, often from other nomads with online businesses, the people in this group offer numerous links to and information about jobs, networking sessions, meet-ups, coaching and training services and good advice.
There are also groups for nomads who are also running or starting a business; Digital Nomad Entrepreneurs (22,443 members) is an active Facebook group.
There are two separate Facebook groups that deal just with Bali: Bali Digital Nomads (6,040 members) and Digital Nomads Bali (1,930 members). For travellers wanting to focus more narrowly, there are groups like Ubud Digital Nomads (whose get-togethers often feature yoga and full moon ceremonies; this is Ubud, after all) or Canggu Digital Nomads. These groups are great for people already living in the area, who want to meet up with other nomads, join forces to work on a start-up or are seeking roommates. They are also good for people who have decided they want to live in those areas and are seeking some solid advice from nomads who know these places well.
Wherever you roam as a digital nomad, there is a group that help you, support you, give advice and is filled with people living the same lifestyle as you. Life is always better with a support network.
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