insiderblmNew freelancers are always worried about most in-demand freelance skills. As a freelancer who has been moonlighting for over two decades, I have seen a lot of ups and downs in demand for trending and emerging skills. A skill that is high in demand for a couple of years goes out of demand in the future and is replaced by another skill.
I have seen Macromedia Flash, Swift 3d, and Freehand fade away like dirt in thin air. It was just about yesterday, Flash was a hot cake, high in demand and everyone was looking to get their website developed with cheesy flash animations similar to animation on 2advanced.com, a website that was an inspiration for many.
Time flies but it changes so many things along the way. Today, Flash is no more, eRain’s Swift 3d has gone out of business and Adobe Illustrator has taken over Macromedia Freehand.
In my blog posts, I have covered most in-demand freelance skills published by the world’s top websites. Every freelance marketplace publishes their in-demand skills on the basis of the trend that’s followed in their marketplace. However, I have observed, there are certain skills that have always been in demand and somehow by highlighting new, emerging skills — these evergreen skills don’t get a shout-out and find a place in the list.
As a Freelancer who has been in this business for a very long time and also as an instructor who has seen it more closely than many out there, here are my top 10 in-demand freelance skills for all freelance marketplaces. The order does not necessarily depict the number of projects or high demand.
The order is organized on the basis of my observation of projects on Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Freelancer.com, and Guru.com.
10- Data Entry/Virtual Assistant
Regardless of all major technical skills, data entry and virtual assistant jobs have always been in demand. These skills do not require any four-year college degree and are in demand on all freelancer websites.
9- Creative Writer
Usually, the requirement is to look for a writer who can write an SEO researched article that has a typical word length ranging from 500 to 2000. Often in such posts, the client specifically requests writers to do the keyword research so the article gets ranked when published.
Similarly, there is a huge demand for bloggers as well to write frequently for blogs.
8- Animations/Video Creation
All major social media websites prefer video content over pictures and text posts. This has increased the demand for video creation, animation because they gain better engagement. Even when advertised, they fetch better results.
YouTube has grown in huge popularity in the recent past. This has also raised the demand for video creation and animation. Software such as Fimora, Adobe Premier are very popular for video editing jobs.
7- Digital Marketing/Social Media Marketing
The demand for social media marketing, digital marketing services has surfaced up in recent years because of an increase in the usage of popular social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Linked In, and Pinterest. This tells us that they are going to hold a prominent place in the future as in-demand skills.
Small businesses are looking for DM (Digital Marketing) and SMMA (Social media marketing agency) experts to help them reach out to their potential clients and do business online.
Want to learn Digital Marketing or Social Media Marketing?.
6- React Native/ Angular JS/ WordPress
The demand for react native, Angular JS, and also WordPress can be seen in a good number of projects posted on major freelancing websites such as Guru.com and Upwork.com. It won’t be a bad idea to learn these skills and muster up the courage to land a proposal on these projects.
5- SEO
Everybody needs a website but without traffic, the site is good for nothing. SEO (search engine optimization) helps in the better ranking of a website in major search engines, Google primarily.
There are tons of courses out there on the internet but the one I like is on Udemy. You can master this skill within 6 months and practice it to learn more. Keep in mind, this field changes quickly because the algorithm for SEO on Google changes quickly.
4- Mobile App Development
80% and above of the internet population use smartphones to perform daily activities. This huge traffic has increased the demand for mobile app developers in recent years. Instead of developing native apps for iOS and Android, clients demand hybrid mobile app developers who can create apps for both iOS and Android.
3- Graphics Designing
The computer needs graphics so therefore the demand for graphic designers will also be there. Be it social media, website, or a print media requirement, graphic design projects are posted in a good number on all freelance marketplaces.
Also with more websites being built, the demand for UX/UI is increasing. It is also increasing for designing user interfaces of mobile apps.
2- Software Development
I fail to understand why Software development misses out as a top skill for freelancers?.
When I look at the projects posted on Upwork and Guru, I see good demand for desktop software developers. Clients are still looking for quality software developers to build their desktop and cloud-based software/applications.
1- Website Development
Keep it or erase it, yes —the website development has always been and will continue to surface up as the most in-demand freelance skill.
With a boom in internet access, small businesses are turning up in huge numbers to get their websites developed.
Amid COVID-19, the demand for eCommerce websites has increased a lot as can be seen from this report.
Website developers, regardless of the platform they choose to build the websites are in good demand on all freelance marketplaces.
