The online marketplace has increasingly been diversified. More clients are seeking specialized skills for jobs that they need to get done. More freelancers are putting themselves out there, with their own subset of skills. 10 to 20 years ago, it would have been okay to simply sign up for an online platform using generic skills. But this won’t work in today’s world, for many reasons.
Firstly, we are busier than we used to be. Our lives are becoming increasingly crowded with work, family, extracurricular activities, social activities (church, volunteer work, etc.) Because of that, we simply don’t have time to learn “all” the skills that we can learn online. Secondly, when it comes to skills for jobs online, clients are looking for specialists. In other words, they want freelancers who are particularly good at a specific skill subset. For instance, you stand a higher chance landing a job as an article writer, than as an article writer/web designer/content manager/photographer/videographer.
What does this mean for the new freelancer who is looking to get started working online? Simple: pick one skill subset and go with it. And once you have mastered it, start to diversify.
But how do I know which skills subset to pick though? And how do I know that my skills are actually in demand and would make me land an online job?
Great questions: this is what we will discuss in this article.
Step 1: Figure out your best skills for jobs online
Identifying your online work skills is the first step you need to take to land your first online job. One of the most common barriers/mindset blocks I have heard from coaching 100+ people who wanted to start working online is this: “I don’t have skills to work online”. This is only one of the false ideas that people have about working online. And this almost always led me to the follow up question: “How do you know?”
The truth is this: most of us already have at least 1 in-demand skill for jobs online. We just don’t know it yet, or don’t know how to identify it. Yes, working online requires another subset of skills that are peculiar to the digital technology age. However, at the core, the technical skills that you need can be transferred from your physical work experience to an online job setting.
For instance, if you are already doing graphic design for the company you are working with right now, you can do graphic design online as a freelancer. Same job description, same requirements. The key difference is, your clients will be online instead of on site. You will be communicating with them using specific online communication tools, instead of just… walking to their office. If you are an English or Math teacher at a local high school, the same concept applies. Instead of taking the bus everyday to go to school, you will be teaching your class online. And to be quite honest, avoiding commuting fees is one of the top reasons why people start working online!
Bottom line? In 90% of the cases, you already have at least one skill that you can use to get started working online. And that is the skill you would have most likely developed from your work.
But that is not all: what about the skills that you learned at school? As extra-curricular activities? Or the skills that you developed when you were a kid? Perhaps skills you developed in your social groups? These skills count too! In fact, a lot of the skills that we tend to dismiss play a huge role in solidifying your online profiles. And recognizing these skills would reduce the number of skills you have to learn to work online.
To make this process 1000 times simpler, I developed the perfect workshop for this. It is a free minicourse that will show you exactly what unique skills you “already have”, to work online. In 5 simple steps, you will get 100% clarity. No more guessing. You can access the free minicourse here!
Once you have identified the skills you already have, the next natural step is to figure out the new skills to learn for online jobs.
Step 2: Identify new skills to learn (for online jobs)
You might be wondering: if I already have skills for jobs online, why should I learn new ones?
Great question. Here are 3 reasons why.
Firstly, the online marketplace is dynamic and ever changing.
This means that you also need to think about staying up to date to remain competitive. If you already have a strong set of profitable online work skills, you might not have to learn new skills right away. However, as you are progressing as a freelancer, you need to build new skills to get more competitive.
When I started working online, I began in the English-French translation niche. However, I quickly realized that there were a lot more job opportunities in the “medical writing” niche. I asked myself the questions: “do I want to stick to the translation niche because this is what I have been doing? Or do I want to expand to medical writing as this is one of the in-demand skills for jobs online at this time?” And there you have it.
Secondly, learning new skills help you to expand within a niche.
If you are having a cocktail and you are looking for a chef, would you hire a chef who knows how to make quiches only, or one who can make quiches, sandwiches and tarts? Let me explain. In this example, you are looking for someone who can make small, snackable meals. Whether or not you are planning to serve only quiches at your event is not 100% relevant, because you will be more naturally attracted to the chef who can make other types of “snacks”, even if he specializes in quiches.
The same applies for the online marketplace. If you are an article writer and you only write medical articles, then you will appeal to clients who want medical articles. But if you also write business articles and SciFi articles, then your client pool automatically widens and you get more opportunities to land other online gigs. Note that here, you’re still staying in the ‘article writing’ niche.
Thirdly: when you learn new skills online, you get certificates (validating your new skills), and these help to build the “ online work trust factor”.
Some of the skills that you already have might be skills that you learned as a result of being involved in something (learned on the job, etc.) But taking skills courses online is a whole different level. When you sign up for an online skill course, you get specialized knowledge in that niche. This makes you level up automatically. Moreover, you can get a course completion certificate which further validates your newly acquired skills.
With that in mind, you’re probably wondering: what are the most profitable skills to learn for online jobs?
This, once again, is a great question. Based on my research and my experience, here are the top 9 skills currently in high demand when working online. These skills have been in high demand for the past years, and the demand keeps increasing. You can access the skills to learn online cheat sheet for free here.
Now that you know what are the skills to learn online, the next step is to … actually learn the skills!
Step 3: Sign up on top websites for in-demand skills to learn online
If you look up “websites for skills to learn online”, you will probably find a thousand + results. Navigating this new space can be extremely overwhelming. Which website should I use? Which one is the best? Which one is free? Which one is not? So many questions that can give you analysis paralysis, and information overload!
I have worked online for almost a decade, and have coached 100+ people to this date. With my experience, I have had the good fortune to actually see new online skills websites grow, some fumble, and others, expand. I have used several of them, and also “cancelled out” so many. I’ve also gotten a pretty good feel of which websites should be used based on the type of skills you want to acquire.
With that in mind, I created a list of my top recommended websites to learn freelance skills for FREE! I highlight the best skills to learn on each website. That way, you can navigate it easily and specifically focus on the websites for the skills YOU want to learn.
Got questions? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
I am looking forward to supporting you on your online work journey 🙂
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