Freelancing is making rolls all over the world for a few past years, and it has emerged out to be an exciting industry that is paying lucrative incentives to skilled freelancers. Just because it allows you to work the way you want and on your terms, there are many out there who are keenly interested in pursuing a career as a freelancer but is it really worth it? And if it is, what are the top-paying skills that you should master to be able to recognized as a top freelancer? Let’s discuss it today.

Whenever someone talks about freelancing, it seems like it’s just about creating a profile on one of the freelancing platforms and you are all set to start earning. But practically, it’s much more complicated than this. There are millions of freelancers just like you who are having the same skills and offering similar services to their clients, the point is what makes you better than them? There can be many answers to this question but the one that stays on top is the quality of work you are offering while exhibiting your best skills.

For example, if a writer is making $10 for writing a 1000 words article and some other writer is earning $500 for the same task, that surely means that the latter one offers more quality, is more experienced, and has more skills. Having said that, it’s a lot more complicated than it looks but if you know the way around you and you have a sound knowledge of your market and niche, you can make it big as a freelancer.

List of 5 Highest Paying Freelancing Jobs:

SEO Expert:

Since digitalization started to dictate things, there popped-up many new fields and jobs that previously never existed. SEO is one such field that has gained immense importance in the last 10 years. Inbound marketing has changed the way for businesses to advertise themselves and communicate with their clients and SEO experts help them in doing that. SEO has become an in-demand and high paying job. If we just about the scope of this field in the USA, SEO experts earn around $45000 to $70000 per year, this speaks volumes about the demand and paying scale of SEO expert jobs.

Becoming a freelance SEO expert has a great future path and in the coming days, when we’ll witness more digitalization, its demand will only rise.

Content Writing:

The rise of this particular niche is commendable, thanks to the growth in online marketing and the introduction of new methodologies. Content writing is a field that goes hand in hand with digital marketing and SEO especially. If you are good SEO and lacks the skill of creative writing, you may need to develop the skill of content writing and similarly, if you are a good content writer and are lacking the basic SEO skills, you may not get your content noticed.

In my case, I have started as a content writer two years ago and now I have developed a few things such as creative writing and technical writing. Currently, I am earning around $2000 per month and sometimes more than that.

To be a successful freelance content writer, you need to learn and read a lot as it requires a lot of research to be able to write something that matters to the users. Also, how much utility you are providing to users through your writing?

Software Development and Programming:

Software development is a skill that not everyone can master as it contains technicalities and complexities not everyone can handle. That is why they say, “A good programmer always stays in-demand”. In my freelancing career, I have met software developers that earn access to $1000 per hour and that is something remarkable. The reason why they earn this huge amount is they exhibit great coding knowledge that most of the programmers lack.

If you are about to start your freelancing career as a software developer/programmer you need to have great coding skills. You may not get to earn $1000 per hour straight away but if you keep on building your reputation and improve your skills with every project, you will gradually and surely reach that landmark.

UI/UX Design and Development:

Web designers are in great demand. However, the freelance web design industry is quite crowded at present because web design is easy to learn and code websites. Geez, even I have been working on web design for some time and have started my own web design agency.

The best thing is to find a niche in this field. Jonathan Wolf, for example, earns over $5,000 a month by building WordPress websites and customizing small themes. If you offer the right kind of service to the right customers, you will probably gain more.

Video Making and Editing:

Since the inbound marketing started making its presence felt, business owners like to get their brands to be advertised through videos. No doubt that videos gain more public attention than static media posts and a brand can deliver its message more effectively through video ads. This has surged the demand for video makers and editors in recent years.

Freelance video editors in the US earns around $72,000 per year, while more experienced video editors make around $122,000 per year.

If you are good at creating videos and putting up small video clips together, this could prove to be a great career path for you as a freelancer.

Important Takeaway:

We see a lot of discussion happening around us about billionaires and their acquisitions, but we should keep one thing in mind that there’s no alternative to hard work. If we talk about a business that is doing wonders and has become a giant, it’s something that has not happened overnight. There’s a lot of hard work and sleepless nights behind it.

The idea to earn quick money is not bad but one should keep this thing in mind. It takes time for wonders to happen and fortune favors those who are brave and who work hard. I hope you enjoyed reading this piece and I hope it motivates you in starting your career as a freelancer.

About the Author:

This article is written by Wilson Alton – a technical content writer at SoftCircles. SoftCircles is a US-based software development company that offers cutting edge and scalable software solutions for businesses of every size. If you are in a quest to get top-quality custom software development services, get in touch with our business development team.