Having the confidence that you’ll always be able to make money is life changing. 💸
Working on money making skills is essential when we’re young, so that you can afford to do that unpaid internship, or you can afford to travel the world for 6 months, or that ticket to Taiwan to work abroad.
If you’re young and you want the freedom to do what you enjoy and whatever you want, having money making skills can go a very long way. Because while you’re on your search for that fulfilling activity, you still need to be able to put food on the table. If you know how to live cheaply and have your priorities straight, then you won’t need much. 😉
And we have a huge advantage over older generations: the internet. All the money making skills in the list are online tech skills. Why? Because working online is the most flexible and easiest way to make money, and in the future we’ll only be having more tech, not less.
The list has 6 money making skills – I recommend mastering at least 2 of these 6 skills. Try them all out, and see which one tickles your pickle 🥒. At the bottom of the post I explain how to master said skills ⬇
1. Translation
Speaking 2 languages fluently is a huge plus. By being born bilingual, your parents automatically gave you a money making activity. Incredible. 💁♀️
If you speak two languages fluently, develop and practice some translation skills (which are not that hard at all). This comes with practice and by reading other people’s work. Then, pop onto Upwork and look for someone who needs something translated and try it out. Pop onto Fiverr and create a translation gig. Pop onto reddit at r/hire and try there.
If you keep searching and trying, you’ll eventually build up a portfolio and a technique. You won’t make much at the beginning, but as usual with effort and consistency, it grows.
I personally used to translate Spanish to English and vice versa. It’s a skill I have now developed and thanks to that I am confident I will always be able to make money online translating. I’m not going to lie I do find translation pretty boring, so it’s more of my ‘backup skill’.
2. Teaching
‘But I only speak English! And a bit of middle school French!’ 😢
It’s all cool, you still have teaching. In fact, if English is your native language, teaching can be very lucrative since it’s such a high demand language, especially in Asian countries.
In China I was making 30€ an hour teaching English, and some people teach English online for a decent $20/hour.
Once again, teaching may not be your cup of tea – but if you’re not sure yet, why not try it out? It can all be set up from the comfort of your home. Check out these websites to get started:
And if none of these work, you can once again sell your services on Upwork and Fiverr. (there are still some gigs out there of my Spanish teaching times…)
3. Programming
This is a skill that definitely requires more dedication and effort, but can be very lucrative and helpful in the future. If you master this skill, you’re pretty much good to go.
You can start simple, by learning how to build websites and design them – with this you can already charge others to build their websites. Ka-ching. 💰
Or you can go deep and take the time to become a programmer. It might not be a year before you make money, but in the long run it will be well worth it.
If you feel this is a skill that could make you money, you can learn programming for free at Codecademy or pay $25/month for Treehouse. Programming is a seriously great skill to have since programmers are high in demand and with our crazy innovation this won’t be changing any time soon. A pretty good deal to have.
Doggo ka-ching
4. Digital marketing
Digital marketing basically means copywriting, managing social media and SEO. It’s not hard at all, but it requires practice so that you know what you’re doing.
Practice can be achieved by being someone else’s Virtual Assistant for a while – they tell you what they need done, you complete and you learn.
You usually charge by the hour, so the first few clients you have you won’t make much, however once you build up a bit of portfolio you can charge $20/hour +, which is not too bad as a side gig (better than minimum wage 😉).
It’s another skill that’s always useful to have since people always need someone to do their digital marketing. You also learn how to sell yourself, how to put yourself in the position of the client and how to manage the online world. A pretty good package 🎁.
5. Design
By design I mean designing Pinterest pins, nice Instagram posts, doing a cool logo design, making animated gifs, etc.
If design is something you’ve always liked doing, there is a huge market on the internet to sell. If it’s something you’re a beginner in but want to learn more about, check out a Youtube series such as Learn Digital Design or Tasty Tuts and try it out. I think it can be a fun skill to build and sell – although there is a lot of competition out there.
By combining design with digital marketing, you can sell a pretty cool package to clients 😉.
6. Writing
Writing is a skill you either like doing or you don’t. If writing essays was torture for you in school, then this may not be the skill you want to develop.
However, if you don’t mind it and enjoy writing, it’s a skill that can go a very long way. You can write articles, short stories, show notes, entire books and reports. There’s a huge variety of stuff you can write, which means there’s a huge variety of clients. 👌
Once again, you won’t get paid much at the beginning, but building that portfolio is essential. Start off with the usual sites like Upwork and Fiverr, find some clients and then move them to Paypal once you trust them and don’t want the platform to take a cut.
How do I master a skill?
I’m going to be honest here, you won’t make much with this online work unless you want to do it full time – which will most likely burn you out. This is for side income and side hustles, for starting out and giving you confidence, for giving you a bit of freedom and flexibility.
These are all different 6 skills, some which require more effort than others to master. For me, mastering a skill means having had at least 2 clients that paid you to use that skill.
It doesn’t mean you need to keep that client – but it means that you now know people are willing to spend money to get you to do said skill, which means you’ll certainly find clients in the future. 😎
Personally, I’ve mastered 4 of those 6 skills above (and a little bit of design). Does that mean I still do translation and teaching? No – it simply means I’ve done it before, got paid, and I know I can do it again. It’s given me the confidence that I can always use that skill to make money.
It’s important to realise that I am not saying dedicate your entire life to designing Pinterest pins, translating texts and teaching English to Chinese kids. I am saying develop two of those skills so you know and are confident that you will never be truly broke. It doesn’t have to be your passion – you’re building these money making skills so you have the freedom to search for your passion.
And it’s not just that – developing these skills mean you can some extra money in university, you get to put something interesting on your CV and you get to save and invest early on in life.
Remember, now is the best time to be alive. Thanks to the internet we can travel and work at the same time, work from home and work with clients from the other side of the globe. This is a list of 6 skills you can try out to give you pure freedom. And as the internet evolves and opens up more opportunities, you’ll be able to develop more and more skills to sell online. Remember, millennials, we have grown up having to adapt – so let’s continue adapting! 🧠
Are there any other online tech money making skills you know of? Lemme know below 😛⬇