The Freelance Skills That Actually Paid Me as a Beginner

Every January, someone publishes a list of the highest paying freelance jobs. I’ve read plenty of them. They usually start with blockchain developer and end with a link to a course.

This list is smaller and more honest. These are the skills that paid me, a beginner, starting in 2019. I won’t quote rates. They change by platform, country and month, and anyone giving you a number without a source is guessing.

1. Video editing

Why it pays: every business wants video, and very few people enjoy editing it.

My early clients included a fashion creator in Australia, whose vlogs and product videos I have edited since 2019. Later I spent four years editing course videos and a podcast for a claims-adjusting school in the United States.

How to start: learn one editor well, then re-edit an existing YouTube video in your own style as a sample.

2. WordPress websites

Why it pays: small businesses need websites, and they need someone to keep them running after launch.

WordPress is where I spend most of my working week now. Across all my skills, I have now completed more than 210 projects, and many of the best ones started as a small request.

How to start: build a site for a friend’s business or a local mosque, church or club. Real content teaches more than a tutorial does.

3. Shopify and ecommerce management

Why it pays: an online store is never finished. Products, photos, descriptions, discounts and reports keep coming.

Since 2020 I have managed Shopify stores for two US companies that sell industrial scales. It isn’t glamorous work, but it is steady, and steady pays the rent.

How to start: open a Shopify trial, build a demo store with ten products, and write proper descriptions for every one.

4. Graphic design

Why it pays: every post, ad, brochure and email needs a visual.

I designed for two Australian companies for several years, and today I make Amazon storefront graphics and print materials for my ecommerce clients.

How to start: redesign three real social media posts from a local business, and show the before and after.

5. Podcast editing

Why it pays: podcasters love recording and hate editing. That’s the whole business model.

I’ve edited podcasts for clients in Canada, the United States and Australia.

How to start: record a ten-minute conversation with a friend and edit it until it sounds like a show.

6. SEO and content writing

Why it pays: a website nobody finds is an expensive business card.

I learned SEO because my own sites needed traffic, and now it’s part of almost every project I take on.

How to start: write one helpful article on a topic you know well, and learn to use a free SEO plugin properly.

The skill behind the skills

Clients don’t really pay for skills. They pay for a problem to disappear. The beginners who earn well are the ones who combine two skills, such as a website plus SEO, or a video plus the thumbnail, so the client only has to make one phone call.

If you’re wondering which one to learn first, pick the one you’d still do for free on a slow Sunday.

I picked six. Please don’t ask me about my Sundays.

Shahzad Sadiq