Every day there are more people who decide to leave their conventional jobs and start working as freelancers in something that they are passionate about.
If that is your case, here you will find the best skills to learn for a profitable and remote freelancing career.
If you like activities such as web development, graphic design, writing, or even doing voice overs, you can turn them into your work and generate monthly income thanks to it.
However, before choosing what you will do, you should find out about the job possibilities that a career offers you.
Online Learning Platforms
To learn new skills that increase the value of your work and your catalog of services, you can use an online learning platform.
There are many types of which you can choose, it is a matter of seeing which one suits you best. In general, these platforms offer paid courses that in the end give you a certificate for having taken the course.
You can add these certificates to your CV or show them on your portfolio website to generate trust and credibility in your clients.
Here are some platforms you can try:
Udemy
Udemy is one of the oldest online learning platforms on the market. On this website, you will find courses that start at $ 12.99 and are taught by experts, people who have truly achieved success thanks to what they are teaching.
The good thing about this modality is that unlike a face-to-face course where you must attend at a certain time, these classes can be taken at the time you want and learn at your own pace.
LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is a learning platform that belongs to LinkedIn. If you have a profile on that social network and try LinkedIn Learning, the platform will suggest the courses that best suit your area and work experience. while also offering courses that are highly demanded in each niche.
If you are a premium member on LinkedIn, you can easily access this website, otherwise, you will have to pay a monthly subscription of $29.99.
At the end of each course, you will receive a certificate that you can attach to your LinkedIn profile or show it wherever you prefer.
Coursera
Coursera has specialized programs and courses related to different topics such as business, history, computer science, physical science, languages, arts, and humanities, among a wide range of these.
Each course on Coursera is taught by the best instructors from the best universities and educational institutions in the world.
Apart from recorded video lectures, each course offers different tools to enhance your learning experience.
The prices of each course on Coursera can be very high because they are taught by major universities, but the platform also gives you the option of requesting financial aid to take the course.
You just have to explain in detail why you need it and wait for the approval.
Best In Demand Skills To Learn For Freelancers
Now that you know what platforms you can try, here is a list of suggested skills that you can learn to start your freelance career, increase your audience and profits.
SEO Specialization
Search Engine Optimization is a set of techniques and tools that serve to optimize both web pages and landing pages, so that search engines, such as Google, can read them more easily and quickly.
Google today prioritizes those websites where their pages are being optimized and where relevant, new, and updated content for the user is uploaded.
Based on this, websites acquire their page rank. SEO is not only used for search engines but also for users.
It is essential that each page is relevant to the content and that they speak clearly and specifically. It is something that every web page needs so it is a skill that is in high demand.
Being well-positioned in a search engine like Google is very important for a business or website to receive attention.
In fact, being in the top five results of each search guarantees that your website will be visited the most.
With SEO skills you can work as an article writer for web pages and you can also advise other people so that they can position their websites. It is basically a highly sought after skill among copywriters.
Recommended Courses
- Complete SEO Training With Top SEO Expert Peter Kent! – Price: $21.99
- SEO For WordPress [Beginners]: #1 Step-by-Step SEO System – Price: $18.99
- Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Become an SEO Expert – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing represents a perfect opportunity for companies to strengthen the emotional bond with their customers and boost their sales.
It is the set of actions carried out by a company, institution, or independent professional, to promote its products/services and build a link with its target audience with the help of social networks and blogs.
This is a fundamental element for all companies that need to sell a product, so all companies need one.
In fact, 54% of people usually use social networks to find product recommendations, so it is convenient for every company to have an online presence.
If you specialize in Social Media Marketing, you can work for any company that needs to sell something or wants to publicize its services.
Recommended Courses
- The Complete Digital Marketing Course – 12 Courses in 1 – Price: $18.99
- Social Media Marketing: Strategic Approach to Reach Buyers – Price: $18.99
- Facebook Social Media Marketing – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Become a Social Media Marketer – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Teaching English
Teaching English is also a job that you can do completely freelance, without having to have face-to-face classes with your students.
If you master the grammar and have the ability to teach it academically to other people, you can invest in learning how to teach it properly.
Remember that even though it is your mother tongue, clients care that you have a certificate that endorses your skills.
If you teach English you can work teaching other people independently or also working for an online academy such as VIPKiD, which is responsible for connecting teachers with students around the world.
There are currently 1.5 billion English learners in the world and many more who want to start, so it is certainly a niche with job possibilities.
Recommended Courses
- Teach English Online: find students and start teaching now – Price: $18.99
- Skills Upgrade: Teach Business English (Language Teaching) – Price: $18.99
- Teach English Now! Foundational Principles – Price: Free (with financial help)
Graphic Design
The graphic design area is very broad and there are many things in which you can specialize, but they all start from the same, knowing how to handle the most used programs in this niche, such as Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
If you are a graphic designer, you can work designing logos, creating banners, generating the graphic identity of companies, among others.
Every year the employment of graphic designers increases by 3%, which shows their growing demand. Absolutely every company needs to invest money in its image, without this they cannot exist.
For that reason, graphic designers are so important to many companies.
Recommended Courses
- Graphic Design Bootcamp: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign – Price: $18.99
- Become a Professional Graphic Designer – Price: $18.99
- Fundamentals of Graphic Design – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Graphic Design Careers: First Steps – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Freelance Writing
There are many types of freelance writers, not only because of the type of work they have to do but also because of the topic they focus on.
There are ghostwriters, creative writers, blog writers, among others, although the most common projects in this niche are usually related to copywriting, proofreading, and writing blog posts and magazine articles.
Some are dedicated to writing exclusively on medical, financial, cooking or entertainment (or any other topic).
If you want to be a freelance writer, you must first specialize and define what and how you would like to write about.
Being a freelance writer you can work for web pages, magazines, production companies, blogs, among others. It is actually a very broad niche.
Recommended Courses
- Freelance Article Writing: Start a Freelance Writing Career! – Price: $18.99
- Start A Profitable Freelance Writing Business In 5 Weeks – Price: $18.99
- Writing and Editing: Word Choice and Word Order – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Learning to Write for the Web – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Proofreading/Editing
You could say that this skill is related to freelance writing, but it consists of checking the spelling, punctuation, and grammar of a text.
However, this task does not end there. Proofreaders and editors also ensure that a text, in addition to being correct, is accurate.
They fight redundancies and ambiguities, check the typographical coherence of the text, the use of capitalization, the spelling of the names of people and places, and make sure that the technical terms are used properly.
They propose lexical changes when the chosen word carries unwanted connotations and control the inappropriate use of terms.
They do all of this while preserving the personal style of the author of the text.
Proofreaders often work for publishers or freelance writers. They are also often highly sought after by academics or students, to correct their texts to perfection.
Recommended Courses
- Editing and Proofreading Course: Proofread Errors Like a Pro – Price: $18.99
- Ultimate Writing Editing Masterclass +An eBook with Examples – Price: $18.99
- Writing and Editing: Revising – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Editing and Proofreading Made Simple – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Web Design
The role of web designers extends beyond crafting aesthetically pleasing websites that offer seamless user experiences. They’re also tasked with creating meaningful digital content.
Thus, it becomes imperative for web designers to not only hone their design expertise but to comprehend their clients’ requirements and how users typically engage with websites.
For these design professionals, mastering the art of ensuring a flawless user experience is indispensable.
Additionally, acquiring skills such as incorporating graphics, and fluency in web design languages like HTML, proves highly beneficial.
Today, the internet reigns as the most prevalent and crucial platform for communication. Websites have become indispensable tools not just for businesses, but also for individuals, organizations, events, and more.
In our contemporary world, it’s a rarity to find anything that lacks a digital presence.
Given the high demand, web designers are vital for the successful operation of websites. In fact, the design aspect of a website accounts for 75% of a brand’s credibility, underlining the importance of web design for any business’s prosperity.
Recommended Courses
- Build Responsive Real World Websites with HTML5 and CSS3 – Price: $25.99
- Running A Web Design Business – Price: $18.99
- Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Learning Responsive Web Design in the Browser – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Video Editing
Video editors are responsible for giving meaning and purpose to a series of videos, to convey a message.
This niche is very wide since there are video editors who are dedicated to different things or who specialize in different editing programs, such as Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, or After Effects.
The key to getting more clients as a video editor is to specialize in something specific and your work possibilities in this area will depend on that.
As a video editor, you can dedicate yourself to only special effects or only color correction, for example.
This profession is also projected to grow 22% in the next 10 years, so it is a good niche in which to invest your time and effort to grow professionally.
Recommended Courses
- Adobe Premiere Pro CC: Video Editing in Adobe Premiere Pro – Price: $18.99
- VIDEO EDITING. Techniques loved by pro broadcast filmmakers – Price: $18.99
- Mastering Final Cut Pro – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Foundations of Video: The Art of Editing – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Excel Management
Taking into account the versatility of Excel, learning Excel should be one of your priorities if you want to apply for a job more easily.
Today, everything is computerized, so knowing how to work in Excel will allow us to access a lot of different positions, especially since 89% of companies use Excel to keep their business accounts.
Excel is one of the most complete programs, so it can be used for any task, from taking an inventory in a company to carrying out invoices or managing all kinds of things.
These are just a few small examples of what Excel is for, but basically, its functionalities can be applied to any company regardless of the activity to which they are engaged.
Recommended Courses
- Microsoft Excel – Excel from Beginner to Advanced – Price: $28.99
- Microsoft Excel – Advanced Excel Formulas & Functions – Price: $18.99
- Excel Skills for Business – Price: Free (with financial help)
- Excel: Create an intuitive and powerful dashboard from scratch – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Virtual Assistance
A virtual assistant is in charge of giving support to a person or team, specifically to help them maintain the order of their work, to complete tasks, to carry out activities and to remember events of a schedule.
However, your job may also include providing marketing or web design services, or other things. It all depends on the area in which they specialize.
For example, a virtual assistant can specialize in marketing, corporate or public relations.
Other virtual assistants perform a variety of tasks but within a specific sector. For example, a virtual assistant for real estate companies.
Freelance virtual assistance is a job that you can do from anywhere and even work for clients who live in other countries. Working in this way allows you to have a wider range of clients.
When you are a virtual assistant your field of work possibilities is quite wide since you can provide your service to different areas, depending on what you choose to specialize in.
Currently, virtual assistants are very valuable for any business or venture since by hiring one, a company can reduce its operating costs by up to 78%.
Recommended Courses
- Must-Have Tools for Virtual Assistants – Price: $18.99
- Work From Home as a Virtual Assistant – Price: $18.99
- Double Your Virtual Assistant Income with a Niche Skill – Price: $18.99
Transcription
Transcription is an online profession that anyone, with the ability to write fast, can develop.
While it requires good spelling and typing skills, you do not need to invest in special equipment or require a specific certification to do this.
Although of course, there are skills that you can acquire through an online course that will surely increase your value as a transcriptionist.
There are many occupations for which transcription work is essential. Just think of a journalist, a writer who instead of writing records their works or even a student who uses their phone to record classes instead of taking notes.
Transcriptionists are also required to write subtitles for videos, legal and court hearings, organization conferences, among others.
You can see that transcription is essential for the development of their activities and that, in turn, those interested do not have the time to do it.
That is when your work is necessary so that other people can also carry out theirs.
Recommended Courses
- Transcription Skills – Learn Beginning to Advanced Skills – Price: $12.99
- How to Become a Medical Transcriptionist – Price: $12.99
- Master the Expander: The #1 Tool for Transcription! – Price: $11.99
- Use dictation and transcription to save time – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
WordPress Development
By becoming a WordPress developer, you will have a guaranteed niche of clients to which you can help develop their web pages.
You can dedicate yourself to creating themes, plugins, widgets amongst many others for a client or sell it independently on any platform.
In fact, 35% of web pages that exist are made with WordPress since it is one of the most used platforms.
For that reason, there are always many clients looking for web developers who specialize in WordPress.
If you decide to work exclusively with WordPress, it is also a good idea to specialize as a Back-End, Front-End or Full-Stack developer.
Recommended Courses
- Complete WordPress Theme & Plugin Development Course – Price: $10.99
- Beginner WordPress Website Design and WordPress Development – Price: $10.99
- Build a Full Website using WordPress – Price: Free (with financial help)
- WordPress: Developing Secure Sites – Price: Included in LinkedIn Learning membership
Website And Mobile Design
There is a big difference between designing a web page that will be visible on a computer and designing one that will be visible on a mobile device.
This difference is considerable since it is not possible to establish a specific format for mobile, due to the large number of models, sizes and large differences in resolution in the different types of mobile devices.
Web and mobile designers make sure that each person has a pleasant experience when using a website from their phone.
For companies, it is crucial to have this since 74% of users usually return to a website if they could use it from their phone, so you can work designing websites for companies of all kinds that need this service.
It would also be very useful for you to learn about UX / UI design, which are highly appreciated skills in web design and development.
For this reason, the profile of the UX / UI designer is one of the most demanded in the labor market and both have to do with the way in which users interact or use an object within a web or app.
Recommended Courses
- Learn Adobe Xd Webdesign: Design websites from zero: UX & UI – Price: $10.99
- UX Design for Beginners – Learn User Behavior & Psychology – Price: $11.99
- Mobile Interaction Design: How to Design Usable Mobile Products and Services – Price: Free (with financial help)
Translation
If you have thought about working as a translator, you should bear in mind that you need an interest in languages, fully master two of them, and consider learning others.
The more languages you speak, the more job opportunities you will have.
Apart from that, it would also be good for you to specialize in an area of translation, such as legal papers, medical or other technical issues.
Each niche has a language and series of terms that differ from others, so if you can guarantee a client that you are an expert in translating documents on a certain area, it will make you more valuable.
Being a translator you can work for a large number of clients on a freelance basis and some of them could even be large companies.
Think that all the content you consume can be translated, into movies, video games, books, and instruction manuals.
You always need someone to deliver that information in another language.
Also, the demand for translators is also expected to grow 20% within the next 10 years, so it is a niche with many job opportunities.
Recommended Courses
- How to Become a Translator without a Degree – Price: $10.99
- Financial Translation – Price: $10.99
- Translation Quality Management – Price: Free (with financial help)
Copywriting
Copywriting is closely linked to marketing, mainly digital. It is a practice that involves any type of copywriting, be it advertising like product descriptions or descriptions for a social network post, public relations or internet marketing.
Specializing in one area will benefit your career as a copywriter. If you are a copywriter you can work for an advertising agency, for a magazine or for any company that needs to sell or promote something.
Any type of written material within these niches can be called “copy”, precisely because it is a copy that will be widely disseminated.
The difference of copywriting for the editorial or news writer is in the fact that the copywriter encourages the reader to perform an action, which can be a purchase, a download, a subscription to a newsletter, while the others have the function just to inform or comment.
Recommended Courses
- Copywriting – Become a Freelance Copywriter, your own boss – Price: $11.99
- The Complete Copywriting Course : Write to Sell Like a Pro – Price: $10.99
- The Strategy of Content Marketing – Price: Free (with financial help)
Accounting And Bookkeeping
Any company or person that develops an economic activity needs to keep accounting of all its income and financial processes in general. Hiring freelance accountants or bookkeepers is something that many companies are choosing to do since hiring these services is cheaper than hiring someone in their companies.
As a freelance accountant or bookkeeper, you can work offering your service to companies or businesses, even to other freelancers. Try to be 100% updated and train constantly.
The effectiveness of being a freelance accountant goes hand in hand with academic preparation.
Learn from related areas such as sales, marketing, finance, international business and administration, all in order to deliver a more comprehensive service.
Recommended Courses
- Accounting- Financial Accounting, Cash vs Accrual Accounting – Price: Free
- Financial Accounting & Excel–Comprehensive Accounting Course – Price: $10.99
- Complete Financial Bookkeeping and Accountancy Course – Price: $10.99
Voice Acting
Voice actors and actresses are the performers who appear with their voices in movies, cartoons, video games, documentaries or advertisements, among many other formats, or they put voices in commercials and radio or television spots.
If you specialize in voice acting, you can dub television series, documentaries, commercials and work in event or film and television production companies, recording studios or also perform special effects.
When working as a freelance voice actor, you should not only learn to manage your voice but also to record your own audio with good quality, since it is a job that you will possibly be doing alone and from home.
Your customers will not only care that you do good dubbing but that you deliver a quality final product.
Recommended Courses
- Voice-Over Training: Record And Edit Voice Overs Like A Pro – Price: $11.99
- Voice Training – 30-Days to a More Confident Powerful Voice – Price: $10.99
- Voice Training and Voice Over Essentials to Work from Home – Price: Free
Illustrator
Illustrators are responsible for making graphic pieces with different purposes.
Some are in charge of making artistic illustrations for books, children’s books, posters, album covers, among others, and there are also illustrators who work in fields such as design, advertising and marketing.
Training is essential to work as a freelance illustrator. Not just before you start, but throughout your career. The digital illustration courses are constantly renewed with state-of-the-art tools, channels and programs.
It is important that you keep up to date with the news in your niche to stay relevant to your customers.
By being a freelance illustrator you must also learn how to promote and sell your work, through freelance platforms, web pages and creating a portfolio website.
Recommended Courses
- Adobe Illustrator CC – Advanced Training Course – Price: $10.99
- Editorial Illustration Tutorial: From Drawing to Photoshop – Price: $10.99
- Create Intuitive Illustrations in Gravit Designer – Price: Free
Mobile App Development
There are currently 2.7 billion smartphone users in the world and of all the time that these people use their phone, 90% of the time is spent using apps.
It is through apps that users can carry out so many things from their smartphones and that is why the development of mobile apps has become so relevant and in demand.
As a freelance developer you can offer your services through freelance platforms or known clients, to develop apps that fulfill a goal and that make people’s lives easier.
You can also specialize in developing native apps, which are those that have been developed with the software that each operating system offers to programmers, web apps and hybrid apps.
Recommended Courses
- Running a Mobile App Dev Business: The Complete Guide – Price: $10.99
- Android App Development using Android Studio – Advance – Price: $10.99
- How To Find A Profitable Mobile App Idea – Price: Free
Pro Tips
You Need To Practice
It is important that you take courses and get certifications, but it is also crucial to practice the skills you are learning.
To begin with, you can practice doing work for friends and acquaintances and thus begin to gain experience.
Create a Specialized CV
Clients are interested in seeing your CV, but be sure to create one based on the skill you want to promote.
For example, if you want to work as a transcriptionist, do not make a CV including all the jobs you have had, but only those related to your niche.
Start Small
When you start working as a freelancer it is difficult to find clients, but online job platforms are a good place to start finding clients and your first jobs.
If you do not have experience, it is likely that at first you will only find low paying gigs, but that is a good way to start. When you have more experience, you can opt for better paid jobs.
Never Stop Practicing and Learning
Yes, it is possible to turn your freelance career into a business that gives you stability and a constant income of money.
The first step is to choose well what you want to do, know what area you can work in and what kinds of things you should do in that job.
After choosing, you should not only dedicate yourself to work and find clients but also to improve your skills every day, through online courses. That way you will get certifications that will add value to your work.
It is necessary that you make an effort to see the results of your freelance work, if you are constant and work hard you will see that you can dedicate yourself to working on what you are passionate about.