Do you want to start working as a freelancer but are hesitant because you believe you lack the necessary skills? Well, you're not alone. Many young people are in the same situation.
Most people believe that in order to work online, you must have specialized knowledge. However, that is not so true. You may apply some of the basic skills that you already have acquired to earn money online.
We have put up a list of entry-level freelance jobs that you may apply for even if you don't have any prior experience for people looking to start making money online. Consider this a list of short skills for freelancing you may learn if you feel that what you already know is missing in any way.
Let's begin!
General Virtual Assistance
Virtual assistants support clients remotely with administrative, technical, or creative tasks in the most basic sense. Imagine yourself taking on the role of someone's personal assistant, but you only assist online.
The nice part is that, even without prior experience, you may begin working as a virtual assistant.
For example, a client requests information on the many churches in Aurora, Colorado.
The task is simple. You only needed to use any tool to search churches in the specific region, get information about them, and then copy and paste the results into a spreadsheet and deliver it.
Does that strike you as requiring a specialist skill? No, it was just as it seemed. You can easily start freelancing with this basic skill.
There are many domains in which you can offer virtual assistance services.
- Admin
- Social media
- Graphics
- Ecommerce
- Real estate
- Content
For starters, if you don’t have any other skill besides knowing how computers work, then you can be a general or admin virtual assistant. It has the easiest tasks and is mostly about:
- Internet research
- Email management
- Documents and files management
Content Writing
Writing is probably one of the most ancient jobs in the world.
When you say content writing, it refers to the process of producing written web content, usually for marketing purposes. Written content has many forms, with the most popular ones being:
- Articles
- Blog posts
- Video scripts
- Podcasts scripts
- Social media content
Companies will always require someone to create their content, even with the advent of new media forms like videos and audio and the danger of AI replacing writers.
There will always be something for you to write about and earn online. Even better, because most will want you to write for them continually, once you get repeat clients, you won't need to keep searching for new ones.
The drawback is that you might occasionally have to write on subjects that you don't particularly enjoy. You should thus narrow your focus and write about subjects and industries that you find interesting.
Editing and Proofreading
It's a simple freelance service to edit and proofread. All that is left to do is proofread the previously written content for spelling, grammar, and formatting errors before delivering it.
You may make a lot of money as a proofreader or editor if you have a solid understanding of English syntax and structure.
Editing: This step often occurs first and aims to fix errors in the grammar and clarity of the language.
After editing, there is a step known as proofreading, which is more of a cursory review or the last check of the piece.
Several tools will enable you to complete your task with a few clicks. Grammarly is a good example.
However, they are frequently combined, and it is commonly believed that you must perform both tasks if you have a contract for proofreading or editing. You may always get clarifications from your client.
You may always check out freelance sites while looking for an opportunity. There are frequently editing and proofreading jobs posted there by firms and agencies. However, if you know any content writers, you may also inquire with them to see if they are aware of any such changes.
Social Media Management
It is a highly in-demand freelancing skill and needs some basic knowledge that most of us already know. For the straightforward reason that you already understand the ins and outs of the most well-known social media sites, social media management is another task you can start working on immediately. The necessary strategies for social media management are still to be learned.
Social media management is the process of generating, publishing, marketing, and managing content across social media platforms and managing the online presence of a specific profile or page on such networks.
The most common platforms for social media management are the following:
You are halfway there if you have an account on these sites and understand how to utilize them.
In contrast to managing your own account, managing someone else's online presence requires you to consider social media management as a way to boost that brand's or company's visibility.
Customer Service Agents
You must deliver simple services like responding to emails, chats, messages, or calls. Companies will pay you for these simple tasks.
By the way, there are different kinds of customer service work that you can do, including:
- Customer service representative
- Telephone research interviewer
- Customer success manager
- Customer support engineer
- Implementation Specialist
- Call center agent
- Live chat agent
Although each of these fields requires knowledge, the common thing is effective communication skills, and you can handle annoyed customers over the phone while remaining calm.
The disadvantage of most customer service positions is that you will be required to report to work at a set time, much like an employee. In contrast to other options available, you will need to stick to a timetable corresponding to the hours when your target clients are awake.
Transcription
Transcribing an audio or video recording into text is what transcription is about. In other words, the finished output is a verbatim textual transcription of the audio or video recording.
Transcription services existed before the internet. Clients send a disc or tape to the transcriber, who then mails the finished document back to the client. Usually, this procedure takes days.
Now that we have the internet, there is still a significant demand for freelancing transcription opportunities from different industries, including:
- Podcasters
- YouTubers
- Executives
- Coaches/mentors
It's not necessary to have specific expertise to transcribe. In reality, you have to pay close attention to what the audio or video clip tells you, write it into a document, check the grammar, and email it to the customer.
Email Writing
If you have subscribed to newsletters, you must have known by now that companies regularly send emails to their subscribers. Most of the time, those emails were written in advance.
That is why there are a lot of opportunities involving email work, including:
- Email writing
- Email marketing
- Email automation
You must already be aware of the fact that businesses send their subscriber’s emails on a regular basis if you have signed up for newsletters. Those emails were often prepared in advance.
If you want to increase the opportunities available to you further, learn how to use email marketing platforms like:
- Mailchimp
- Convertkit
- Aweber
Fortunately, besides being able to write, you don't need any further abilities (persuasively). If you are good at selling, there may be some prospects for you, as many businesses use email marketing to boost sales. If not, you may make do with sending out emails, typically in the form of newsletters.
WordPress Management
WordPress is a Content Management System used to manage websites. Most websites are built on WordPress, but many people do not know how to install it, set up a website, and manage it. Here you can take benefit of this.
WordPress installation is easy; anyone can do it in just a few clicks. Clients are happy to pay $10 to $15 for this simple task. You can also offer your clients related freelancing services of WordPress Management, including article publishing, optimization, plugin installation, etc.
Image Background Removal
Many e-commerce companies need their product pictures with transparent backgrounds. Here you can charge them a fair amount for removing the experience. Many are earning a good amount by offering this simple and basic freelancing skill. You may think that it requires you to master Photoshop or any other photo editing tool, but you can perform this task using online tools that are free and easy to use. A list of such tools is given below.
- Remove.bg
- Picwish.com
- Photoscissors.com
- Removal.ai
User Testing
Without acquiring new skills, you may earn a respectable earning by testing out applications and websites. You'll need a smartphone or laptop to complete it, but apart from that, all you need to do is turn up, comply with all requests, and collect your payment.
Disclaimer
Please don't consider this list an all-inclusive list of basic freelancing skills. You might be able to rapidly apply for a few online earning jobs that are not on our list or learn how to do so. We can say with certainty that everything shown here will make it easy for you to locate an online opportunity.
Author: Faiza Khan
