Yesterday, I bumped into an internet meme that had a picture of Kris Jenner with an incredible caption. You won’t believe what the caption said. “This lady birthed five girls that had no real talent and marketed them all into multimillionaires.” But for me, it was rather an awakening statement since Kris and her children wouldn’t be as successful today if it weren’t for one of the highest rewarding skills—marketing. Anyone who came up with that clearly doesn’t understand the broad perspective of a talent.
Whatever the case is, having an appropriate set of skills is important to succeed. But as many successful people suggest, formal education may not be the most effective way to acquire right set of skills anymore. That’s why it’s slowly being replaced with short-term education that focus on specific skills. Hence the good news: technology has ensured you don’t need to invest years and thousands of dollars to acquire right skill set to shape a career. Instead, you can learn any skill within a few months for almost free these days.
If you haven’t yet identified the relevant skills you need to guide your future in the right direction (in a world highly influenced by digital disruption), I’d like to highlight the five high-paying skills you should learn. Now allow me to briefly explain the skills that pay you great and earn you freedom from almost everything, be it financial or personal.
Let’s discuss them one by one.
Digital Marketing
We live in a world predominantly guided by capitalist values. Therefore, some of the most successful people have successfully sold their goods and services to ordinary people. Whoever sells the most are the wealthiest. There’s no denying this fact. That’s why marketing has always been an advantageous affair. And marketing is there where there is business. Now that people are in the digital world, the internet, to be accurate, marketing has a new name — Digital Marketing. Trust me. They’ll soon remove the word (digital) from ‘marketing’ since it’ll soon be the only way to do it.
Digital marketing is one of the highest-paying skills you can master in a few months if you’re serious about it. Though marketing has always been about persuading customers from the surface, it doesn’t follow the traditional pattern today. Instead, the customers have the upper hand, and they and decide what’s best for them. Therefore, inbound marketing.
You may feel overwhelmed to hear the digital marketing terms if you have little or no idea about the topic. But from my point of view, these terms only confuse people who don’t have time to understand them. But we need such people. After all, we need someone to pay for the service, don’t we?
Let me clear out some of the terms for you though I’ll only be scratching the surface.
SEO (search engine optimization): To put it simply, you optimize a website or marketing content according to what people search, so they find it on the search engine results page and visit it. Suppose people are searching for the best travel destinations around your location, and you have a travel company or work as a marketer for one. In that case, you’d want to include the phrase ‘the best travel destinations (in your area)’ and all other related phrases in your website content. Many methods help you identify what people are searching for, and many tools help you address their queries, which is basically what you do after becoming an SEO expert.
Content marketing: Content marketing is all about winning trust and converting leads into customers through the power of content. An ideal content marketing helps a business be visible and win customers. You can do it through problem-solving articles, FAQs, whitepapers, etc. But you want to be visible in front of your audience before winning their trust. That’s why SEO.
Social media marketing: You know, some people consider social media as the whole digital world. And there are many of them. Most are the target audience of many businesses. Therefore, social media marketing is essential. It’s all about marketing on social media platforms and convincing users. You can learn it within weeks. But be aware, there are different marketing strategies for different platforms.
Email marketing is a process where you collect emails of potential customers and market to them through email. It’s similar to old days direct marketing mail, only digital. Sites like MailChimp have made email marketing easy, and you can perfect it within weeks.
PPC: Don’t be confused with the fancy abbreviation. It’s just Pay Per Click, meaning advertisers pay for every click (or visit) they get. Remember all those ads that appear on top of search results?
Many companies, including Google, teach digital marketing for free on the internet these days. All you have to do is find the right platform and begin learning today. Here are some of the websites you should check out if you’re serious about acquiring digital marketing skills.
Copywriting
Copywriting is closely associated with marketing. Where there’s marketing, there’s copywriting. But it’s a special skill that requires a high level of passion, creativity, and research quality to make a career out of. If writing is your passion, you may want to write for businesses and help them make sales. In return, you’ll be rewarded an attractive compensation.
However, to land a copywriting career, you’ll need to develop a portfolio, so writing is an integral part of your learning.
Most copywriters write for Digital marketing today. Businesses need copywriters to write enticing landing pages, sales pages, and even emails. And there are very few people who can actually persuade people with a well-crafted combination of seven words.
Copywriting skills can reward your business too. Because at the end of the day, it’s the conversion that separates a successful business from a failing one. Many coaches teach copywriting for free. In addition, many books from successful copywriters, such as made to stick and The Boron Letters, can guide you to a successful copywriting career. So why not try it out by just investing your time and nothing else?
Blockchain
With digital transactions skyrocketing the value of cryptocurrency and new opportunities knocking on the door in the form of new ways, such as NFTs, there’s no denying that blockchain technology will rise to new heights in the coming years. But here’s a catch, there’s a shortage of skilled people.
Blockchain is a method of storing valuable data throughout a system where each computer holds a linked data record. It’s a more reliable and secure method than storing and accessing information from a single server since data is shared and duplicated across a system, making it harder to compromise. So there’s no wonder why it’ll boom in the future.
This article I found on medium lists the eight best free courses to learn blockchain. You won’t want to miss it if you’re thinking about making a career out of blockchain.
Graphic designing
Graphic designing has been one of the most lucrative skills for almost two decades since digitization revolutionized the world of creative designing. Now that nearly everything is digitized, everyone is on the lookout for the best designers. Today, numerous services on the internet offer designing services. Still, the demand for graphic designers is skyrocketing.
Graphic designers work together with everyone, be it writers, developers, managers, or clients. Therefore, you’ll more likely grow faster if you’re a graphic designer. Additionally, there are many business opportunities for excellent graphic designers on the internet today, such as freelancing and print-on-demand, to name a few.
Not many people are graphic designers. Yet, graphic designing is one of the easiest skills you can learn if you’re passionate about it. And you can learn it for free.
If you allocate enough time to learn this skill, let’s say three hours every day, you can become a graphic designer in a few months.
Video editing, motion graphics, and animation
According to a research report from Invisia, people retain 95% of messages from videos compared to only 10% from a written form. That’s why videos have become an integral part of content marketing today. And everyone is looking to hire good video editors. But it doesn’t end here! People earn a decent amount with the help of their video editing skills by only posting cool videos on YouTube every week.
If you’re good at editing and can make videos interesting by designing cool motion graphics, and you’re still unemployed, you must be doing something wrong. Businesses need videos to attract and educate their audience, and people need videos that answer their questions. So videos are in demand everywhere.
Let’s leap a step further and talk about animation skills. Learning animation can be a daunting task, especially if you’re an impatient extrovert who likes to get things done fast. Though it’s similar to illustrating, you’ll have to work on twenty-four sheets for a one-second clip. But if you’re someone who never gets bored with creativity, you can nail animation from scratch within a few months—not kidding! And you won’t believe the reward. There are very few good animators, and they are one of the highest-paid people in every creative office, much more than video editors.
So it’s your choice whether you want to be a video editor, motion graphics designer, or animator. Either way, these highly demanding skills will delight you.
You can learn video editing, motion graphics, and animation for free on the internet. Numerous YouTube channels offer great tutorials. However, if you want to pay some amount and have a decent knowledge with some certificate, visit Coursera, skillshare, Edx, and similar Edtech platforms.
What software you choose plays a vital role in terms of how you learn and guide your career. Although there are numerous free tools on the internet, I suggest you go for Adobe software for video editing, motion graphics, and 2D animation. For 3D animation, however, I think the world’s best tool for creators is Blender, and it’s free.
If you’re looking for quality editing and motion graphics tutorials, I recommend following Justin Odhiso on YouTube. This guy will teach you everything you want to learn to become an excellent video editor and motion graphics artist. For the Blender tutorial, there’s no other better tutor than Blender Guru. Don’t go for a paid course when you have an excellent 3D animation education for free.
And finally (this is important)
The above skills are one of the most lucrative ones right now. But it doesn’t mean you’ll get hired right away or make a six-figure income instantly. After learning these skills, you’ll need to demonstrate them because people want to know how good you are. So I suggest you make an excellent portfolio of what you can produce if it’s a high-paying job you’re looking for. However, if you want to start your venture, first identify what you want to do. Then develop the most crucial skill you should have to succeed: patience and consistency.
Michael Ghimire 
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