The Teenage Hustle: Making Money and Building Your Skills

The Teenage Hustle

Skills that earn money have remained crucial throughout the history of mankind, especially now, when science has made remarkable progress and allowed us to earn bread through devices as small as laptops and smartphones.

You could be staying at home, sitting in a chair all day, and earning money by simply moving a computer mouse around or typing on a keyboard.

Yes, I’m talking about earning money online, more specifically, freelancing. 

Freelancing is a gateway wide open to every individual who wants to earn money from home by using their skills.

But often, young individuals, especially teenagers who are new to the world of freelancing, become confused as to what skills they should learn to secure a bright career. Questions like Is this skill well-paying? Or Does this skill have scope? come to mind and confuse them as they start exploring skills.

If you are also confused about choosing the right skill for your freelance career, then keep reading, because I will help you explore some of the freelancing jobs that are well-paying and have scope in this article.

But first, let’s understand freelancing.

What is Freelancing?

Freelancing is self-employment.

In freelancing, you offer your skills as services to clients in exchange for money.

Self-employment means you don’t commit to working in a company or a business, rather, you work independently for the clients you like and make your own decisions.

Why Freelance?

Although there are several other ways to earn money, freelancing offers you flexibility, which makes freelancing what it is. Here are some reasons why you should opt for a freelance career rather than any other.

Freelancing gives you the flexibility to:

  • work from any place, at any time
  • take on or reject client proposals or follow-ups
  • set or bid for your own pricing
  • work in your personalized style
  • learn more and expand your skill set
  • work for local or foreign businesses

If this flexibility suits your preferences, then freelancing is for you.

Where to Find Freelance Jobs?

Freelancing jobs are offered by online platforms called freelancing websites. 

Many freelancing websites exist that offer earning opportunities, including:

  1. Fiverr.com
  2. Upwork.com
  3. Freelancer.com
  4. Guru.com
  5. PeoplePerHour.com
  6. Behance.net
  7. 99Designs.com

All of these platforms are reliable and are available globally. Most skill mentors, however, recommend getting started with Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer.

Now that we understand freelancing, let’s uncover some of the skills that you can choose as a beginner.

Freelance Skills for Beginners

As a beginner, there are hundreds of skills for you to choose from. You can go for something generic like content writing, or giving English lessons online or something as niche as designing cute digital illustrations for kids’ socks.

Though niche skills have low competition, you might need to consider a broad category at first, then develop and refine respective skills to advance to specificity.

Take a look at some of the freelancing skills with good demand and scope:

1. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is the promotion of goods, or services of a business or individual via social media.

Social media marketing has become one of the most demanding jobs due to the surge of social media worldwide.

Every few minutes on a social media platform, you might see an ad promoting a brand. That advertisement is responsible for driving sales for businesses and is credited to social media marketing.

If you take an interest in social media and its trends, social media marketing might be your step forward to a bright career.

2. Graphics Designing

Graphic Designer

Graphics designing is creating visuals, such as brand logos, book covers, brochures, and illustrations to communicate messages.

Graphics designing remains one of the most in-demand freelancing jobs even after the advent of generative AI — which by the way is a testament to the fact that AI is not replacing human artists any time soon.

Graphics designers cover various designing skills such as web designing, UI designing, logo designing, character designing, packaging designing, videography, typography, motion graphics, animation, illustration, and more.

So, if you have a creative side, consider graphics designing a fun and reliable career. The benefits of becoming a graphic designer include the opportunity to unleash your creativity, work on diverse projects, and contribute to visually communicating messages effectively.

3. Writing & Research

Writing and researching have a vital role in e-commerce,

Writing refers to the skill of composing a text to convey a message, idea, or concept.

The field of writing covers a vast array of jobs such as copywriting, SEO writing, content writing, creative writing, and many more.

Like designing, writing is another fine art skill that remains in demand even today despite the rollout of AI. In fact, in most cases, AI has only changed how writers write, but not the fact that they write.

  • Research

Writing requires you to have a grip on a language. However, researching also becomes crucial in some writing jobs, such as content writing.

The rule of thumb in research is that the more the research, the better the understanding of the topic, which will help you write better. But sometimes, intensive research can take a toll on your time to write.

If you have too much to research, but little time to write flawlessly, then using a free paraphrasing tool will help you breeze through this challenge.

An online paraphrasing tool, such as Paraphrasing-tool.ai, uses advance AI technologies to paraphrase a piece of text without distorting its meaning. It helps eliminate errors from your writing and improve its quality. So, you just need to write a rough piece of text and then paraphrase it using the paraphrasing tool, the tool will remove its grammatical errors and shape it properly.

Utilizing AI tools like an online paraphrasing tool will save you time in writing, leaving research, and outlining your only concern.

4. Web Development

Web development refers to the creating, building, and maintaining websites and web applications online.

Websites continue to be the heart of e-commerce and other online matters such as entertainment, social interactions, learning, and news and updates.

That’s why web development is one of the skills that has only increased in demand and scope over time. With higher demand comes better pay, and greater chances to secure a bright future in this field.

If websites are what piques your interest, then web development might become your cup of tea.

5. Software Development

Software developer

Software development is designing, creating, and maintaining computer programs using a computer language.

Software development is often referred to as programming, though development and programming have some differences.

Companies around the world continue to develop new software and products that aim to provide people with diverse solutions to everyday digital problems.

Software development has a wide array of applications, such as developing games, learning apps, communication apps, and application tools like calculators.

If a bunch of code lines coming to life and functioning as an application is your topic of interest then software development might be your ideal career.

6. SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or simply SEO, is the activity of optimizing a website for a search engine like Google.

In other words, SEO refers to enhancing a website to improve its ranking on a search engine.

And hear me out, SEO is a powerful skill. Every website owner ever wants their website to rank at the top on SERP, and guess what? This is done either by PPC — which involves paying money for ads to see quick results — or by SEO, which involves ranking organically (without money) to yield long-term results.

Although both strategies have their own places and may be executed together, SEO leaves a far bigger impact on a website’s performance on SERP than PPC. 

That’s why companies hire SEO specialists to work with them, often for long terms. Thus, SEO continues to be one of the most demanding and decently paid freelance jobs online.

7. Project Management

The title project management speaks for itself. Project management refers to using knowledge, skills, and techniques to complete specific tasks.

Businesses around the world need project managers to handle their projects efficiently and reliably.

Hiring a freelance project manager is more convenient and time-efficient than hiring a project manager traditionally. So, businesses that seldom need project management tend to outsource them via freelancing platforms.

Project management requires a good skill set such as time management, resource management, effective communication, and leadership. That’s why it is not every other individual’s forte, making this job high-demanding and well-paid, now and in the future.

If you think you are good at leading and managing time and resources, project managing might end your search here.

Final Words

Choosing your ideal career can be tough if you have no inclinations toward a specific field already. However, it is never too late to learn and develop new skills. We encourage you to explore as many skills as you like until you find what you want to do in your life. Freelancing offers you countless opportunities to make money with the skills you love. So, choose a skill that you find interesting and love doing, because not only will it make you passionate about your work but also excel in it, allowing you to earn money and live a stable lifestyle.

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