New Year's Resolutions that Stick: Freelance Skills That Are in The Highest Demand
In a new world with fewer long-term career paths, less-steady employment opportunities, and a greater acceptance of the “gig economy” mindset, more and more workers are turning to freelance and self-employment as a way of marketing their unique and useful skill sets and bringing in maximum income. For some, freelancing is a full-time job that becomes their sole source of income, while for others, freelancing is more of a side gig to help pad the bank account or build a resume.
Of course, some of the advice for freelancers in 2023 is the same as it would’ve been 5, 10, or 20 years ago: Be professional and courteous to build trust and a sense of reliability, know your worth so that you aren’t taken advantage of, and find your specific niche – the more specialized your expertise, the more people will seek you out when they need that particular set of skills.
However, that doesn’t mean the freelancing world is the same as it ever was. Most of the best freelancing opportunities in 2023 are almost all in high-tech fields, requiring a specific expertise that not all traditional employees have. But if you have the education and experience to handle the following roles, you too can become a successful freelancer in the coming year:
Web Design and Development
The internet seems so ubiquitous now that we’re all constantly connected, and it’s easy to forget that even two decades ago, the simple idea of having a website for your business was far from a given. And nowadays, businesses old and new understand that rather than handling web design and development on their own, it makes far more sense to just hire and pay a professional to get it right from the get-go.
When going into the website building space, you’re generally best-off specializing in either design or development. Web design is all about making an attractive, intuitive, and easy-to-use website that keeps people engaged and gives them easy access to the information they’re looking for. Web development is more technical, focusing on the underlying programming and coding that go into making a website fast, stable, and functional. Whichever you choose, demand remains hot – now more than ever, companies understand that having a website is the bare minimum for doing business!
Writing and Editing
Even though we all communicate each and every day, few people are truly natural wordsmiths. So if writing the perfect paragraph or taking a draft and whipping it into shape come naturally to you, your skills are can be put to use by just about anybody: Everything from writing web pages to crafting ad copy to editing self-published books can be a path to success if you have a way with words and can think through a thesaurus.
And writing isn’t just for creative spirits who flourish with flowery prose, either: In an increasingly data-driven world, smart, analytical people who can engineer sentences that catch the eye and attention of consumers are irreplaceable in the fields of search engine optimization, digital marketing, and more.
Content Creation
Writing isn’t the only creative pursuit that has the potential to bring in some serious freelance income – content creation in general is one of the hottest fields out there in the 2020’s. Whether it’s crafting a social media post that perfectly captures a brand’s voice, editing short-form video to become the next viral TikTok hit, or designing graphics that get shared around the world, every piece of content we see online was created by someone, and that someone could be you.
And if you’re not just into crafting creative content but truly understand how social media platforms and the internet function, social media management is a massive new field for freelancers worldwide. These positions combine a lot of skills, but if your talents lie in media literacy, creativity, community engagement, and reading/understanding data, a potentially lucrative career awaits.
Data Analysis
Speaking of data, if you’re a human spreadsheet, 2023 is your year to shine. Gone are the days of running a company based strictly on feel; today, everything is about hard data, which means there’s a constant demand for people who can crunch the numbers and give businesses guidance on where to go next based on what they find.
Whether it’s tracking click-through rates and ROI on digital advertisements, analyzing year-over-year sales trends, plotting product profitability, identifying future trends, and more, if you look at an Excel spreadsheet and naturally see more than just a jumble of numbers, your skills are in high demand for just about any industry and any business trying to genuinely succeed in 2023.
Emerging Technologies
It seems like technological advancement is not just continuing, but accelerating: just about every day we hear of some new trending tech and honestly, most of us can’t make heads or tails of what it all means and are more than happy to trust our money and our business success to those freelancers who have the time, passion, and smarts to stay bang up-to-date on emerging technologies.
If you know that artificial intelligence isn’t just science fiction but rather a field you can jump into; if you know that the Blockchain isn’t a new car theft protection tool but is actually new tech that has the power to change entire industries, your knowledge and skill sets are in demand.
Spotloan: A Smarter Way to Borrow
Freelancing has come a long way since the days when it was just graphic designers and consultants. Nowadays, just about any skill you have can be turned into a profitable freelance career, but especially if you can orient your skills towards the world of technology and the internet.
But freelancing isn’t just about your technical skills; it also means you now have your own business to manage, and sometimes that can require more resources than you currently have. At Spotloan, our simple online application process can help you qualify for the money you need, even if you have bad credit or need a loan quickly. All you have to do is go fill out our application to see if you qualify, and you could receive a decision within minutes. Fill out our application now!
