I used to hate 9-5 jobs, employment, career and stuff, but maturing, I started to understand that not only is it good to have jobs and employees, it is mandatory to have them. However, unlike us, human beings, not all jobs are created equal. Here’s a complete list of the most profitable skills to learn online free – Salary, difficulty & demand.
Please keep in mind that to become a really good professional you’d have to put in the work, really hard effort. What we’re going to discuss in the article is the actual opportunity, so we’re not talking about becoming the best professional in the field.
Profitable skills:
- Marketing
- Digital marketing channels
- UX/UI
- Content writing
- eCommerce/Dropshipping/Affiliate
- Comparison table
What we’re looking at
Average salary: Always keep in mind, there are no limits, but I’ve tried to add an average range of salaries for different levels of experts.
Difficulty: How much difficult it is to learn the specific skill/profession, how much available content is there online.
Demand: This is rather easy to understand, how much demand the profession/skill has in the market.
Freelancing opportunities: The flexibility and easiness to the job on a freelance basis. As in acquiring clients from overseas and getting paid.
Time to learn and start: How much time you need to get your first job or internship.
Time to master: How much time you need to become a high-level skilled professional in the field. Keep in mind, that time is not the only definite parameter, one might be low-skilled even after 10 years and vice versa.
I have tried to give the general picture, nothing here is a definite rule, it all depends on the individual, in this case, YOU. I have also excluded coding-related skills, as they are not so easy to learn, if you know what I mean.
Marketing
Avg. salary: 1’500-12’000$
Difficulty: Hard
Demand: High
Freelancing opportunities: Not so much, mainly preparing strategies.
Time to learn and start: 1-2 years
Time to master: 6-7+ years
Marketing is one of the most demanded professions around the world, although digital marketing has higher demand, marketing itself is a highly-appreciated profession. However, when it comes to marketing, companies usually look for experienced and dependable professionals.
Digital marketing:
Avg. salary: 700- 6’000$
Difficulty: Medium/hard
Demand: Very high
Freelancing opportunities: A lot
Time to learn and start: 6-12 Months
Time to master: 6+ years
Although, you can never become a good digital marketer without knowing marketing, but somehow due to the high demand knowing marketing is sometimes overlooked. If you’re taking the path of digital marketing, make sure to learn marketing theories overall and learn to adapt marketing strategies to digital channels.
Social media
Avg. salary: 300 – 2’000$
Difficulty: Easy
Demand: Very high
Freelancing opportunities: A lot
Time to learn and start: 3-6 Months
Time to master: 3+ years
On the long run, usually, it is a handicap to be specialized only in social media, however on the short run, it is really fast, easy-to-learn and a good career starting point. Try to pay attention to the bigger picture and to be able to adapt digital marketing strategies to each social media channel accordingly. Don’t bulk your content.
SEO
Avg. salary: 500 – 3’000$
Difficulty: Medium/hard
Demand: High
Freelancing opportunities: A lot
Time to learn and start: 3-6 Months
Time to master: 3+ years
Doing SEO requires a lot more technical information and knowledge about the web, websites and a bit of coding than it requires for any other digital marketing channel, however the rewards for that knowledge is paid in cash. SEO is one of the most demanded professions in the world to the extent that it has its own division (on-page, off-page, technical, etc…).
Here’s an article that gives a general overview of what SEO is and how to do it.
Paid ads
Avg. salary: 500 – 2’000$
Difficulty: Medium
Demand: Medium
Freelancing opportunities: Plenty
Time to learn and start: 3-6 Months
Time to master: 3+ years
Although PPC specialists with deep understanding of platform-specific tricks and tweaks are always more appreciated than others, overall PPC and paid targeting is a profession with high demand. Ad platforms are so easy that anyone with a bit of English knowledge and common sense can run ads, but it takes a real specialist to create ad campaigns and funnels that make money.
UX/UI
Avg. salary: 500 – 4’000$
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Demand: High
Freelancing opportunities: A lot
Time to learn and start: 6-12 Months
Time to master: 5+ years
I look around and all I see is websites, websites everywhere. A good UX/UI professional with a good understanding of what the requirements of a given website are will give very practical and functional solutions that will please the visitors of the website. Since almost every business needs a website UX/UI becomes an inseparable part of the process.
Luckily, for beginners, you don’t need much creativity, there are tons and tons of UX/UI design examples, done by top professionals, available as a source of inspiration and motivation that you can use. Like Dribbble and Behance.
Content writing
Avg. salary: 300 – 3’000$
Difficulty: Hard
Demand: Medium/high
Freelancing opportunities: A lot
Time to learn and start: 6-12 Months
Time to master: 3+ years
Another profession with high-demand, no matter what the business does, they need content, whether for social media posts, blog articles, emails, sales pitches or any other reason. Content is one of the most important aspects of any marketing communication.
If you want to make more money, then beside learning good English, and good writing skills, learn SEO content writing, it will double your salary.
eCommerce/Dropshipping/Affiliate
Profitability: 1$- Sky’s the limit$
Difficulty: Hard
Demand: Strategical
Freelancing opportunities: Financial stability and freedom baby
Time to learn and start: 6-12 Months
Time to master: Depends
Moving on from salary-based jobs to entrepreneurial skills, ecommerce is the past, present and future. Learning ecommerce skills will set you up to financial stability faster and quicker than any other skill in this list. You have to bear in mind that, just like any other business, there are risks that come with it.
This is not a salary-based job, this is business, you’re responsible for yourself, self-discipline in the field will either make you or break you.
Sky’s the limit when it comes to making money, but it’s not all sunny and warm, learning theoretical skills are not merely enough. Failure is inevitable. But still, it is worth it.
Here are some differences between ecommerce, dropshipping and affiliate.
Ecommerce requires more investment thus more risks, you need to handle inventory, shipping and orders. The strategical part is crucial, product quality, production all come in as challenges that you need to take care of.
Dropshipping on the hand, doesn’t require much investment, only website building and marketing costs. However you must know that the potential usually is not as big.
Affiliate is just like dropshipping in the sense that, usually, all you need is a website and marketing, and the growth potential is huge.
Comparison table
| Marketing | Digital marketing | SEO | SMM | Paid ads | UX/UI | Content writing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. salary $ | 1500-12000 | 700-6000 | 500-3000 | 300-2000 | 500-2000 | 500-4000 | 300-3000 |
| Difficulty | Hard | Med/hard | Med/hard | Easy | Medium | Med/hard | Hard |
| Demand | High | Very high | High | Very high | Medium | High | Med/high |
| Freelance | Not much | A lot | A lot | A lot | Plenty | A lot | A lot |
| Time to learn | 1-2 Years | 6-12 Months | 3-6 Months | 3-6 Months | 3-6 Months | 6-12 Months | 6-12 Months |
| Time to master | 6-7+ Years | 5+ years | 3+ Years | 3+ Years | 3+ Years | 5+ Years | 3+ Years |
