8 High-Paying Skills You Can Pick Up in Your Spare Time

The value you bring is directly proportional to the skills you've acquired. The more skills you learn — or the more thoroughly you master your current high-income skills — the more value you can bring.

The more value you add to your clients' or organization's lives, the more money you'll be able to make. Value, skills, and earnings are the best of friends.

I'll concentrate primarily on high-income skills that you can learn in your spare time without a college or university education.

I believe we can all agree that doctors, lawyers, and engineers are high-paying professions, but these skills cannot be learned in your spare time without a formal education.

Creating Content

We are living in a creator economy. YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and Instagram influencers are some of today's biggest stars. In fact, we spend more time per day on average consuming digital media (such as YouTube or podcasts) than traditional media (such as TV or radio).

In the creator economy, there is a lot of money to be made. And, no, you don't need a million followers to make money online. I currently have 13.5k Medium followers (and a similar size email list), and I make a full-time living here on the interwebs.

Keep in mind that, while anyone can start a YouTube channel or publish on Medium, content creation is a skill that must be honed. Your first videos or articles will most likely be a flop and receive no views. That's fine.

The important thing is that you're starting by honing your content-creation abilities. You have entered the creator economy.

Greetings:)

There is now a platform for every type of content, whether it is video, blogging, audio, or images. When you first start out, I strongly advise you to focus on creating content that plays to your natural strengths.

If you're not good in front of a camera but a great writer, instead of making videos on YouTube or TikTok, join Medium, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Start a podcast or YouTube show if you're not a great writer but can keep people interested in your stories. The more you play to your strengths, the more views and followers you'll gain. The more views and followers you have, the more money you will earn.

Marketing

Every company requires marketing. Every single one of them. This means that high-quality marketers are in high demand. We're talking about branding experts, ad specialists, digital marketers, and content marketers, to name a few. Marketing is an essential component of any business.

It is not enough to simply have good products or services; you must also have good marketing in order to grow. Your potential customers will not even know you exist if you do not market to them.

How can you expect people to buy from you if they don't even know you exist?

Because marketing is such a broad subject, I recommend you start with a specific marketing sub-skill, such as:

Branding

Advertising through Content Marketing
Marketing on Social Media
Marketing from one company to another
Search Engine Optimization Marketing
Email Promotion

I studied marketing at university, but the self-studying I did in my spare time taught me a lot more. Many of the most effective marketers do not hold a marketing degree.

Instead, you can learn marketing by reading books written by successful marketers or entrepreneurs who speak from personal experience, taking online marketing courses (such as those offered by SkillShare), and studying the marketing strategies of today's most successful brands.

Furthermore, there is no better teacher than real-world experience. Consider starting an online side hustle to put your marketing knowledge to use. That has been the most effective way for me to hone my marketing skills.

Overall, whether you work for yourself or for someone else, marketing is a high-paying skill. It's as simple as that: better marketing equals more sales.

Sales

Most businesses require excellent marketers and salespeople. Keep in mind that sales and marketing are not the same thing. Being a good salesperson does not always imply being a good marketer — and vice versa.

For example, you might be great at creating ads but not so good at converting a prospect to a client in a one-on-one sales conversation. You may be an expert at brand building, but not so much at creating high-converting sales funnels. It's a completely different game.

University is not the place to refine your sales skills. It's far too dry and theoretical to teach you how to sell. Instead, read a few books by some of the best salespeople and apply their advice as soon as possible in real life.

My personal favorite is 'The Sell: The Secrets of Selling Anything to Anyone' by Fredrik Eklund, New York's top real estate broker.

Overall, if you're good at sales, you'll be in high demand for a variety of companies. Because your skill directly contributes to a company's bottom line, you can expect to make good money — whether in the form of extra commissions or a large paycheck.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the art of writing persuasively in order to persuade readers to take a specific action. It's most commonly used on sales pages to convert readers into customers, but it can also be used to convert readers into email subscribers or followers.

Copywriting is a highly valuable skill because it directly increases the sales of a business, whether it is your own or one for which you work. The more convincing your writing is, the more money you will make. It's as simple as that.

Any content creator, writer, or marketer, in my opinion, should learn the fundamentals of copywriting. Copywriting, whether you're selling a product or not, will improve the overall quality of your writing and make content more engaging for the reader.

Investing & Personal Finance

Everyone, in my opinion, should learn about personal finance and investing. Whether we like it or not, it's a necessary part of our lives. It astounds me that it is still not taught in schools today.

Isn't that crazy?

Nonetheless, we must all deal with money. And the more you know about it, the more money you'll make and keep. As a result, learning about personal finance and investing is one of the most important high-income skills to acquire.

It irritates me to see hardworking people suffering from crippling financial stress because they were never taught how to manage their money. Most of us have been dealt a bad hand due to a lack of global financial education.

It's time to make a change.

Fortunately, managing money isn't rocket science. It's a skill that you can easily learn in your spare time by reading books by successful investors. You can completely change your financial future by following a few simple rules.

The terminology used in personal finance and investing is the most difficult aspect. To make it appear like rocket science, the investment world purposefully uses complex terms for relatively simple things. It is critical to understand all of these terms and become financially literate.

Investment managers hope that by making everything so complicated and intimidating, you will be too scared to invest on your own and will instead hand over your money to them. As a result, despite the fact that roughly 80% of active financial managers underperform a passive index fund portfolio, they profit handsomely from handling your money.

Overall, take complete control of your money and learn everything there is to know about personal finance and investing. Learn about saving, inflation, stocks, index funds, cryptocurrencies, real estate, and, yes, taxes. Mastering these financial skills can truly change your life.

Production of Video

Video production is becoming increasingly important in marketing, content creation, and other aspects of business. It's one of the first tasks that companies hire freelancers for because it's usually a time-consuming task that requires highly specific skills.

For example, when I created my online productivity course, I used Fiverr to hire a freelancer to do all of the video editing. It saved me countless hours while also improving the overall quality of the course.

Overall, video production is a high-paying skill because it requires specialized abilities. It's in high demand to edit videos for online courses, create video ads, or do any other type of video production.

Graphics Design

Graphic design, like video production, is a highly specialized skill that is in high demand. Whether it's designing logos, visual marketing assets, or even PowerPoint presentations, the ability to create beautiful designs is highly valued.

When I created the Peak Productivity Planner, for example, I had no choice but to hire a graphic designer. I had to pay someone else to design the daily and weekly productivity pages because I lacked the necessary skills. This is one of the characteristics of a high-earning skill.

Coding

Coding is becoming an increasingly valuable skill in a business environment that is becoming increasingly digital. Most businesses nowadays require an app, website, or software program — and they are willing to spend a lot of money on it.

I spent over a year working at a start-up that created an app for the medical industry. I can tell you that the company's stars were the software developers. Because the quality of the app was literally in their hands, they were extremely important to the company.