It’s not as common, but from time to time in Thailand or on your travels elsewhere, you meet someone who has figured out how to fund their Thailand dream lifestyle or life on the road with freelance writing. Yeah, sure, you might be thinking—I’ve heard that one before…With all the misleading information out there and websites that tell you that you can make money but just try to get you to spend, its easy to dismiss this one as a far-fetched dream, but the truth is that it’s a reality—a reality that is more achievable than many of you realize.

How do I know this is a reality? Well, because I make my money as a freelance writer, of course. It’s not a bad gig at all—mainly due to the fact that you can do it from your laptop anywhere in the world. Most people think you can’t make money doing something like that because of all the cheap writers out there—it doesn’t take much time over at the common freelance sites to realize the bulk of writers are writing for pennies of what you could ever afford to live on.

But the reality is this. People who pay cheap writers tire out quickly. Cheap writers are often from India and China—their work ethic is not in-line with the American and European Ideals, but they are not native English speakers. Many of them have a great handle on the language, but that still leaves a lot of awkward sentence structures and other compositions that don’t make sense to a reader who was born in a Western country. Talk to a few clients and you will soon have a collection of horror stories about hiring on the cheap.

The answer is people like us who want to take a Western work mindset and superior writing skills on the road. We bid higher and we don’t always get the jobs, but when we do we are being paid a premium and don’t have to work as long to make enough income as we would if being paid a lower price .

We can focus on higher quality, we have more time to relax, and the clients are happier with results. Everyone wins. Consider that the top 6 earning freelance writing companies on elance.com, the Internet’s number one outsourcing site, are all based in the United States. Go see for yourself.

Outsourcing is a growing business for many reasons. With the economic recession in full swing, more and more corporations and small businesses are rethinking the need to do everything in-house. Instead, they are shifting to online sources and having employees work from their homes.

While many people are crying foul and throwing a fit because they assume that means jobs leaving the country, what they have failed to realize is that a huge percentage of outsourcing is to Western companies and Western professionals. Furthermore, what this does for Americans, whether you want to travel or not, is provide the opportunity for an ideal lifestyle.

Instead of complaining that jobs are leaving the country, YOU can leave the country, or if you would rather stay at home, you can do that too. With a little initiative and perspective, we now have the ability to work anywhere in the world, whether it be a bungalow overlooking a beach in Koh Phi Phi or in our living room back at home. Remote working has become a very achievable reality.

Another reason outsourcing work has become so prevalent is that the Internet continues to grow in size, power, and functionality. More and more offline businesses are realizing they have no choice but to step up the game, but just because they want to market online doesn’t mean they have the writing skills or the time to write. There are plenty of people who need content for websites or articles to market their business. There is no shortage of work for online writers.

One great place to find work is to set up a profile on elance.com. Start out at a low rate, build up some positive feedback, and then begin to raise your prices. Think about it this way, if you can get your rate up to $10 for a 500 word article (very achievable), you could produce 5 articles 5 days a week, and you would be making $1000 a month—plenty to live in a place like Southeast Asia.

What’s more is that there is no real ceiling in this business if you commit to and deliver quality every single time. Set up a website to pull in more traffic, frequent internet marketing forums, scour craigslist for jobs, and build yourself a good reputation.

It is no stretch of the imagination to get double the prices I mentioned if you put your mind to it, and 10 articles or more a day is doable e if you put in the effort. Ebook writers often charge 1.5 times their article wiring rate, and experienced copywriters can make thousands of dollars off a single website.

There are also loads of opportunities for upsells in this business, as many busy Internet marketers need to outsource a lot more than just content production—seo optimization, website design, article spinning,, article marketing…. If you know what you are doing, it is very possible to make $1000 a day in this field.

In this plagued economy, outsourcing is one of the strongest, fastest growing industries there are. Opportunity is ripe to make your money, so consider stepping away from the stressed masses back home and heading off to a bungalow overlooking white sand beaches in some of the most magnificent locations in the world.

Sure, you’ll spend most of your time in front of your computer screen hammering away at the keyboard, but with the waves lapping the beach outside your window, a glass of fresh coconut juice sitting by your computer, and days of scuba adventure on the weekends, there’s really no reason to complain.

And don’t stop at freelance writing. Plenty of other stuff is being outsourced as well—admin, web design, programming, translation….you name it and it’s likely being outsourced.

The Thailand Dream is well within your reach. Grab hold.

Let me know if you have any questions or need advice about freelance writing by commenting here—I’m glad to give some pointers to those out there making the most out of life.