Quite frankly, navigating the world of online job freelancing can be a minefield. There are so many job opportunities out there, it gets to be overwhelming at times.
Not only that but discovering which freelance skills are in-demand at the moment can prove to be an even greater challenge. If you want to get your foot in the door and start working within your field of choice, you’re going to have to find the right skills to learn
Luckily, there are several marketable skills to learn that will help you advance in their respective fields.
5 Freelance Skills to Learn
If you want to get your start on places like Upwork, you’re going to need to pick a skill, learn it, and stick to it.
You’re more than free to learn multiple skills, but that’s a pretty ambitious goal at such an early stage. It’s best to choose one that you can master and, in turn, go on to earn as much as possible based on your acquired expertise.
Without further adieu, here are 5 in-demand skills to consider learning to get the online job you’ve always wanted!
1. Writing
Writing is one of the most sought-after freelance skills there is. So many businesses and services encompass some form of writing, whether it’s blogs, emails, product descriptions, social media posts, or other digital marketing materials.
Almost everyone needs a good writer, so there’s no shortage of online jobs out there. There is, however, an abundance of writers, making the job market quite oversaturated.
To navigate this problem, you’ll need to adopt as many skills as possible to help you stand out amongst the rest. You’ll want to develop business communication and learn other tricks of the trade like SEO best practices, analytics, as well as effective formatting for different styles of text.
2. Website Building
Similar to how almost everyone in business needs a writer, they almost all NEED a website as well. After all, most of that writing needs a place to call home.
Website building is an invaluable skill to learn these days. So much of how we interface with the world is done online, and good websites help facilitate even better business.
That’s where you come in.
Once you learn some of the basics of either building a website through a service like WordPress or coding from scratch, your skills will prove to be quite in-demand. People who want to start their own business generally don’t want to bog themselves down with learning how to make their own site; they’ll need to enlist the help of a website builder.
3. Coding
Coding is another highly marketable computer skill. In addition to helping you do the aforementioned website building, coding can also be repurposed towards other tasks like creating apps and software, as well as updating and adding more features to already existing products.
Although it’s by far the most intensive and all-encompassing of the skills mentioned here, it can also prove to be the most rewarding in terms of compensation. There’s a reason why coders are in-demand and it’s because not everyone can do it, or do it well for that matter.
4. Graphic Design
If you consider yourself a person with a keen eye for design and aesthetics, then graphic design might just be your calling in life.
Of course, it’s one thing to have a good intuition when it comes to design, it’s a whole other thing to have the necessary tech skills to execute and create these ideas on paper (or computer in this case).
Knowing your way around graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop is a marketable skill in and of itself. Couple that with a real knack for creativity and design, and you’ve got quite the repertoire of skills.
5. Teaching
Certainly a far departure from some of the other tech skills mentioned in this article, teaching is another freelance skill to help open you up to a wide variety of stellar online jobs.
Forget about the days when teaching was solely done face-to-face. Technically, it still is — but those faces happen to be thousands of miles apart. There are no longer any barriers to where, how, or who you can teach.
Naturally, teaching revolves around high levels of interpersonal and communicative skills, as well as an established background and expertise in the subject you choose to teach.
Several outstanding online tutoring services will be able to provide you with an easy-to-use platform. Here, you’ll be able to set rates and schedules to your liking, as well as pick which students you’d like to teach on any number of available subjects.
Conclusion
With any luck, this article has helped to illuminate the wide array of freelance skills to learn if you want to secure a great online job. Surely, you must have some idea of what you’re good at, it’s just a matter of applying that to another in-demand skill.
Modern-day telecommunication has made it far easier to work from home than ever before. The biggest challenge is picking what you want to do and sticking to it. Now it’s time to seal your fate and decide how you want to earn money online on your own terms.
