18 Best Freelancing Skills for Beginners to Learn Quickly in 2023

Ever thought of a freelance skill you can learn and use to start making money on the side? Or, you’re considering one of the best freelancing skills for beginners that you can learn quickly? 

More than ever, freelancing has gone beyond a job on the side for many. That’s because it can now help make a full-time income from home.

Interestingly, there are tons of freelancing sites you can leverage. They include platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and so many out there. 

So the list of top and best freelance skills for beginners have been compiled for you. Thumb through carefully and then choose, in the end, the one that best suits your needs. 

18 Best Freelancing Skills for Beginners 

1. Audio Transcription

Have you ever done any audio recordings that you wanted to get transcribed? If yes, that only tells you that the ability to do audio transcription is a marketable skill.  

Yes, it is. And there are clients out there who are willing to pay for service. It could be the audio of an interview, a speaker’s speech in a memorable event, or otherwise.

As a professional audio transcriber, you help many people (your potential clients) to convert audio files into written format. And to do this, you charge them a fee, which depends on a couple of factors. 

They include the length and clarity of the audio and the time it will take you to complete the task, amongst other things. 

But the most important thing is that you profit from whatever work you do. However, there are a handful of audio transcription tools and software that make the conversion of audio to text easy. Some good examples include OTranscribe, AmberScript, and Google Drive, amongst a host of others. 

What other things and skills do you need to be an effective freelance audio transcriber? 

There is no specified official qualification to becoming a pro transcriber. If you want to be an English audio transcriber, you need to have an excellent understanding and command of English. 

And aside from the tons of audio transcription software available on the internet, you need essential equipment such as a sound personal computer, headphones, etc. 

2. Career Coaching

The demand for career coaches keeps rising as more people search for jobs. While others want to choose career path, some seek a career change. 

And as a career coach, you help them achieve these. 

For those who are job-hunting, you can assist them in developing skills and competencies that will facilitate their job search. It may include reviewing (and rewriting) their resume, helping them write a job cover letter, and giving top-notch interview tips. 

How do you develop this freelance marketable skill? 

You start career coaching as a newbie freelancer. But you must be adept with the labor market and what employers are looking for. 

With that said, a background in human resource management will give you an edge. And would help you serve your clients better. You can also take a career coaching course on sites like Coursera or Udemy to help coach your clients professionally. 

3. Consulting service

More than ever, many registered businesses are going online. And their owners seem overwhelmed by all these, causing them to need consultants. 

Now you may be asking how offering consulting is one of the freelancing skills for beginners.

It’s because you can market it to clients, even though you’re new to freelancing. It could be that you’re a management consultant based on your experience in the corporate world. 

You only have to have a good background in whatever service you want to consult for. It could be SEO consulting. That’s, using your SEO knowledge and expertise to help businesses get through the SEO ordeal their business faces, particularly their website.

Those are only some examples. Freelance consulting is not limited to that. It could be on anything you know and for which potential clients are ready to stake their money. 

4. Copywriting

With the internet and social media, the demand for copywriters by businesses and ad agencies continues to rise steadily. I mean, sales need to be made. 

And that’s what copywriting is all about: selling in writing. So copywriters essentially write for advertising or any other form of marketing. It could be direct response copywriting, SEO Copywriting, or others.

While copywriting sounds complex and hard to learn, the good news is that you can learn it like any other skill. But that would mean reading books on copywriting or taking a few courses put up by professionals. 

Platforms like YouTube make it fun and less expensive to learn it. But it takes time to learn it as one of the best freelance skills. 

Once you start learning a few things, like crafting a powerful headline or an irresistible offer, you must practice. Soon, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve learned to start billing potential clients who need you to write compelling copies for a website. Be it Facebook ad or otherwise.

5. Virtual Assistant

Do you have excellent communication and organizational skills? And you want to control the number of hours you work, who, and where you work? 

Then becoming a virtual assistant is what you should do now or in 2023. But first, you must learn the freelance skills of a virtual assistant. And they include:

• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Time management
• Organization
• Customer service
• Writing
• Project scheduling 

As a virtual assistant, you help small business owners or managers take care of administrative duties such as attending emails, receiving and making calls, etc. This will help them focus on superior aspects of their businesses to achieve personal and business efficiency.

That said, taking up a course and getting a couple of certifications will increase your credibility in the eyes of your potential clients.

Related Post: Easy Business to Start with little money

Best Freelance skills You can learn quickly

6. Content Writing

The web lives on content. So if you love writing and are good with research, you’re almost good to start earning as a content writer.

But as a beginner, you might have to niche down because content writing is so broad. 

Content writing involves researching, writing, editing, and publishing content on the web for digital marketing purposes.

And this content could be blog posts, scripts for videos, press releases, white papers, descriptions or reviews for products, and social media posts. And many more. 

Aside from niche down to a specific form of content writing, you need to learn some technical skills to become successful in your freelance journey as a content writer. 

For example, say you want to focus on blog writing in technology, mental health, or any other niche. You would have to learn Search engine optimization (SEO) because most of your potential clients want articles or blog posts that will rank well on Google and other search engines.

That way, they get more leads and customers who will buy whatever service or products their businesses sell. So as you help them achieve that, you make pretty cool bucks. 

You can take SEO courses on platforms like Udemy, Coursera, and others. Some are free, and others are paid options. In addition, YouTube can be a fantastic means to learn because there are hundreds of SEO specialists; sharing helpful and high-quality videos on the subject of SEO. 

7. E-book Writing 

On freelance sites like Fiverr, and Upwork, there are tons of clients looking for freelance writers to write eBooks on different topics and niches. 

Again, you must know your onions on what topic you decide to work on. It could be ghostwriting romance novels or other fiction or nonfiction writings.

But to succeed with this freelance skill as a beginner, you need to educate yourself about the technical aspect of eBook writing–talking about book formatting. 

For example, Amazon is the most popular e-commerce store to its specifications for eBooks and other types of books. That Knowledge may be handy if your potential clients would need it. 

That’s because, as an eBook freelance writer, your goal should be helping clients to achieve their publishing goals.

8. Graphic Design Skill

In an age where attention is fast becoming a scarce commodity on the web, many personal and business brands consistently desire to win audiences’ attention and hearts. 

And a sure way to do that is by having amazing graphics in their content. So you see, graphics design is an in-demand freelance skill you can learn as a beginner.

You can learn graphic design skills for free, using great graphics designing software like Corel draw, Adobe Photoshop, and Canva, amongst others. That will take time, perhaps weeks or months. But how fast you learn depends on your motivation and desire.

That said, as a freelance graphic designer, you create virtual concepts for businesses to help captivate, communicate and educate their consuming audience. You can help to develop graphics layouts and designs for brochures, advertisements, reports, and magazines.

Best Freelancing Skills for Beginners

9. Project Management

Businesses in different niches and industries require freelance project managers to help them handle specific projects from start to finish.

That makes project management skills one of the best freelance skills for beginners, which is sought after by lots of organizations.

But these organizations want to be sure that whoever they’re hiring has good experience in managing and successfully handling projects within deadlines and scope.

Beyond having project management experience, possessing a degree or relevant certifications in Project Management Professional (PMP) can cause a profound boost to your credibility and chance of landing your first job as a freelance project manager.

Moreover, the skills below are significant to your success as a newbie project manager starting in freelancing:

• Managerial skills
• Attention to detail
• Ability to manage stress effectively and independently 
• Multitasking skills and the ability to different elements that are instrumental to the success of the project 

10. Editing and Proofreading 

Having written content to publish is great, but that’s not enough. But the question is, how are these pieces of content good enough for publication?

That’s where the service of a professional proofreader and Copyeditor becomes indispensable. Is there anyone who likes reading any piece of writing full of fluff?

Certainly no! That sucks more than anything else you can think of. It can cause cramps in someone’s stomach (just kidding!).

So if you have a good command of the English language and can spot typos fast and accurately, then you have a job for yourself. Though you can get better at it, whether you’re a beginner or not.

There are excellent tools to ease your work as a freelance copy editor but remember your credibility matters. That’s why you should hone your skills to give your potential clients the best they can get as far as the editing of their manuscripts is concerned. 

It could be an academic thesis of a student or a lecturer, a manuscript of an aspiring author, etc.

List of Best Freelancing Skills for Beginners [Cont’d]

11. Photography

The photography business is becoming a legit source of income for many, including high school students. That’s because you don’t need a degree or paper qualification to be a freelance photographer except for your photography skills.

As a freelance photographer, you’re your boss. You take quality photos for clients or sell your art photography to paid stock image websites.

Opportunities that come your way as a freelance photographer are almost limitless. From capturing a series of weddings, and high school proms to one-off photoshoots for individuals, families, and physical products of business owners for online marketing.

However, you’ll need to market yourself leverage on portfolio websites and social media once you’ve honed your expertise to earn high-target clients.

12. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In the digital world, the term SEO has gained astronomic popularity in the decades. That’s because of its profound impact and significance to businesses. Small or big.

As a result, SEO is a lucrative career for anyone who wants to make a good amount of money online. No wonder several organizations worldwide are ready to pay what it costs to hire professionals to join their teams. Either on a full-time engagement or a freelance contract.

That could be you…right?

But you must learn the basics and different types of SEO, which include:

• On-page SEO (on-site SEO)
• Off-page SEO (off-site SEO) 
• Local SEO
• Technical SEO

As an SEO specialist, you help businesses generate leads and increase the conversion rates for their business. You achieve that by mapping workable strategies and techniques to get their content and web pages high-ranking positions on search engines like Google and others.

13. Social Media Marketing

As of April 2022, a study shows that 4.7 billion people are social media users, which is estimated to be 59 percent of the world’s population.

Thus, the need for many businesses to engage with their audiences on social media continues to go up. They want more followers and, of course, more turnovers to make more profits, which is their primary goal in business.

Thus, if you can achieve all of this for them, you earn good money. But you must know how the different social media platforms work. So enrolling in relevant courses in social media marketing would be a good start for you.

And once you’re properly educated and trained, you can then start helping business brands strategize effective tactics that they can employ to achieve the following: 

• Increase followers
• Create and monitor successful social campaigns
• Scheduling posts and content creation 
• Reviewing analytics from these platforms 
• Result-driven communication with key stakeholders and preventing careless violation of social media policies.

Learn Quickly the Best Freelance Skills for beginners 

14. Translation

Our world today thrives on information. But any piece of information becomes valuable when it is understood. 

And as you know, differences in language are a barrier to effective communication. 

Imagine the difficulty an Englishman would undergo when trying to communicate with a Chinese man who doesn’t understand English.

That’s where a translator comes in; to break this ancient communication barrier. But translators are usually good with two or more languages.

That’s the first qualification for you as an aspiring freelance translator. Because tons of clients would want you to translate a resource material (either in text or video format) from one language to another.

Note these clients may consist of individuals or businesses trying to pass a message to a foreign targeted group. So when translating, you need to take culture, context, and tone into perspective. That way, you’d be able to deliver nothing less than quality to your clients.

15. Video Production

Today many clients are looking for video production experts on freelance sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and the like. These videos get published on Vlog platforms like YouTube, Instagram, etc.

So they want freelancers with excellent video editing skills that make their videos come out as professional as they can. The goal is to make the video appeal to their AUDIENCE and needs.

Thus a good start would be learning one or two modern-day video-making and editing software and becoming an expert ready to sell your service.

16. Video Scriptwriter

Video filming or production may get extremely overwhelming– and frustrating– if there’s no script. That’s true since a video script serves as a blueprint for the video.

Yes, it gives direction to the entire video production. 

As a video scriptwriter, you bring imagination to life by describing the scenes and dialogue to take place in a video. Today YouTubers often seek scriptwriters for their videos.

A good knowledge of the genre or niche of the video is essential as a freelance video scriptwriter. But then, you know the structure of a compelling video script and how to write one. There are three major parts of a YouTube video script are:

• An introduction and hook to draw viewers into your video.
• The problem or question you’re trying to address
• A conclusion accompanied by a call to action.

17. Voice-Over Acting

To send out their brand messages and stories, business individuals and organizations continue to look for professional voiceover artists.

If you have great eloquence in speech, becoming a voiceover artist may be a freelance career you should consider. 

As a voiceover actor, you can work on a wide range of freelance projects as long as there is an excellent script to act out with your voice. Some are voiceovers for audiobooks, documentaries on radio or television, video games, commercials, and more.

18. Web & App Development

 Web & App development is one of the best freelance skills for beginners, though demanding because of its technicalities. But when adequately learned, the earning potential is massive.

That’s because new businesses keep launching their website daily while existing apps create Apps for their businesses.

As I said, the skill set here is technical because it involves coding. So if coding is not your thing, web and app development may be a no-no for you. 

How to learn freelancing skills for free [Best for beginners]

There are tons of resources online, which you can take hold of as you get serious about learning one of those skills explained above.

And of those places is YouTube. 

Once you pick one of the outlined best freelance skills for beginners, you can start browsing relevant videos that address that topic. 

However, note there’s a limit to how much you can learn for free. Also, learning for free involves a lot of trial and error and may take more time than when you’re on a structured paid course.

In any case, do what best suits your needs and what your budget can capture. 

Final Thought on Best Freelancing Skills for Beginners

Learning a skill takes time. Be patient and not in a rush. It’s like enrolling for a course in college or the university. 

You don’t get your degree the next day, week, or month. It takes time: some in the classroom, library, or in study group learning.

So take your time to learn. “The more you learn, the more you earn,” says Brian Tracy.

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And If you have any thoughts to share, use the comment section.