What are the high-income skills that make you rich?
It is no doubt that we are in an era that requires skills, not certificates to get rich.Not just any skill, high-income skills. The workforce is constantly changing. Job security is no longer guaranteed. Certificates are losing relevance. In order to build and maintain a high inflow of money is this era, you need to acquire enough high valued skills that align with your interests. We are committed to seeing you grow and build wealth.
In this article, I will lead you into discovering the best high-income skills.
High-income skills examples
These skills are under:
- Digital marketing skills
- Technical skills
- Soft skills
- Non-digital skills (acquired without a degree)
Digital marketing skills
These are valuable skills that are worth learning.
They are also the future of most jobs.
Under this section, I will be discussing:
- Copywriting
- Content marketing
- Blogging and content creation
1. Copywriting
Is copywriting a high-income skill? Yes, it is.
Forbes has rated it as one of the most wanted skills in the year 2020.
The questions now are; what is copywriting?
Is it like normal writing? Can it be a good business to venture in fully?
Firstly, copywriting is the process of writing advertisements and promotional materials.
It is solely for marketing purposes to generate leads and traffic.
Due to digitalism, many businesses are going digital.
As a result of this, the demand for copywriters is increasing daily.
Copywriters can make up to $12,000 monthly.
Also can work as freelancers or marketing agents.
Either way provides a good stream of income.
A copywriter needs to acquire some sub-skills in order to be exceptional.They are:
- Sound content management skill
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expertise
- Creativity with pictures and images
- Diversity and sound knowledge of English grammar and punctuation
2. Content marketing
A content marketer is known as a master of many disciplines.
Content marketing is broader than copywriting.
Content marketing is the process of planning, creating, and sharing valuable content to potential customers in order to build trust and convert them into loyal customers.
RELATED: WHAT IS FREELANCE MARKETING?
A content marketer understands how to position content in order for it to reach its widest audience.
It is one of the high-income skills of digitalism.
A content marketer deals with:
- Positioning
- Promoting
- Trust building
- Pricing
- Placing of content
All of the above are for the sole aim of getting and maintaining customers.
People buy from brands they trust.
So, without good content to achieve this, good sales may not be possible.
No digital business can survive without effective content marketing.
Content marketing focuses on:
Storytelling
Stories are one of the best ways to get the attention of your audience.
Through stories, your audience gets to know you, like you, and likely trust you.
Stories are like baits.
You invite them over and consequently lead them into a transaction.
Education
Content marketing is not posting products with their prices every day.
It is educating your potential customers on the importance of the products.
Nobody will remove his or her money to buy a product they aren’t sure of.
Information
Giving the right information about a product, its composition, uses, and benefits help in building trust in the products.
Writing content
Content marketers are also responsible for writing content for websites, blogs, podcasts, and eBooks.
A content marketer must be a:
- SEO expert
- Social media influencer
- Good strategist
- Copywriter
- Leader (thought leadership is an important ingredient of a content marketer)
3. Blogging
Blogging is not just a high-income skill, but also a business worth venturing into.
According to the data gathered by Ahrefs, “there are over 600 million blogs in the world.”
Also, people search Google 121,000 times per month on “how to start a blog”.
With these statistics, you could see that the demand for good bloggers is on the increase.
Look at Linda Ikeji, the richest blogger in Nigeria.
Presently she is worth hundreds of millions.
You can be a freelance blogger by managing several clients’ blogs, or probably opening a blog yourself.
You now may be wondering how blogging works.
What does one need to be perfect in this skill?
Blogging is the combination of the skills of content creation, posting, linking, and content sharing in running and maintaining a blog.
Blogging is a skill that requires versatility in knowledge.
As a blogger, you need to be knowledgeable on various topics like arts, entertainment, trending issues, and politics.
As a blogger, you need to keep an ear for daily news.
To be able to get loyal followers, you need to be satisfying them by giving them the latest happenings around the globe.
When you have reached a given followers base, you can monetize it.
This is for those who want to own their blogs.
Remember, blogging is not a get rich quick skill.
Most importantly, a blogger must have an ear for the audience.
Give them room for interaction and listen to their comments.
Technical skills
These are high paying skills to learn.
Though they may be expensive to learn, they help build a reliable and strong income base for those that acquire them as skills. They are:
- Cybersecurity
- Cloud computing
- UI/UX design
- Software development
- Data visualization
- Mobile Development
- Product management
1. Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is one of the most sought after high-income skill of the year 2020, as rated by Forbes.
The advent of the internet of things (IoT) has made many companies and businesses go digital.
These companies and businesses deal with sensitive data of their customers and their organization.
This made the need for security to be very high.
Famous companies like Chipotle, LinkedIn, Sony, and others have been hacked in the past.
Learntocopewith.me- a technical website estimated that by 2021, the world would lose $6trillion to cybercrimes.
This had made companies and business to demand greatly for the skill.
Within just one year, the demand for the skill of cybersecurity has grown to 132%.
That’s interesting, right? Getting this skill will be one of the best decisions you will make this year.
The good thing about this skill is that there is an already waiting market for you.
The average income of a cyber-security expert is approximately $99, 800 yearly.
2. Cloud computing
As the day goes by, more companies and businesses are switching from classical server infrastructure to cloud solution.
This has led to high demand for a specialist with cloud computing skills.
The market for public cloud service is estimated to grow by 17% in 2020.
For one to be an expert of this digital high-income skill, you must master the following:
- Database skills
- Linux
- Programming
- Quality assurance
- DevOps
Database skills
The globe creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.
As a result, more companies are demanding professionals with skills.
It helps to collect, manage, store, and access data.
In acquiring this cloud computing skill, one needs to invest in learning database querying languages which are;
- MySQL
- SQL
- MongoDB
- Hadoop
You can learn only one of the database languages if you wish.
But if you can learn all, it will be better.
It will increase your chance of getting more money.
Linux
Businesses and companies are on the high hunt for cloud computing professionals with skills to design, administer, build and maintain Linux servers in a cloud environment.
Programming skills
Programming skills help the cloud computing professional to build and manage applications to unlock the full capabilities of the cloud.
It is like Python, Perl, and Ruby had been the most used programs in the cloud ecosystem
Quality Assurance
This is one of the must-have skills of a cloud computing specialist.
It helps to make sure that the software produced by these specialists meets the quoted quality.
DevOps
Development Operations helps the cloud computing specialists to maintain the lifecycle of the entire software and integrate it into a safe account.
3. UI/UX Design
Although both skills are in one family, one is more complex than the other.
They are, however, both high-income skills.
User Interface (UI) skill solely focuses on designing the interfaces of apps and websites to appear visually appealing and to allow for easy users’ navigation.
User Experience (UX) focuses more on researching and testing every element of interaction to enable users to interact best with the company website.
It also deals with coordinating UI designers.
If you want to focus more on visuals and outlook of pages, websites, and products, then UI is the best for you.
With the skill of UI, websites and products can design to look beautiful and appealing.
But if you are more of the person that likes carrying out in-depth analysis and testing to help the business operate seamlessly, then UX is for you.
Adobe, in its survey on companies, stated that 87% of managers’ number one priority was hiring more UX designers.
With this skill, you can grow a balanced income base.
Its importance made it a high-income skill.
To be regarded as a guru in this skill, they are some attributes and knowledge you need to have:
- Wireframing and UI prototyping
- Visual communication
- UX writing
- Coding
- Interaction design
- Analytical reasoning
- UX research
5. Software development
Software development is the process of creating, designing, programming, and maintaining applications and software frameworks.
It is the combination of several high-income paying skills:
- Web designing
- Game apps development
- Android development
- IOS development
Web designing
Web designing is one of the most sought after skills.
The number of websites on the internet is mind-blowing.
Every day, more organizations, both profit-making and nonprofit making ones are all opening websites.
An individual with this skill can either choose to work as a freelancer or not.
Web designers with high-level skills like JavaScript and SaSS are in huge demand.
Game app developer
Game app development is a high-income skill that fetches good money.
Also said to be charging $150 to $250 per hour.
Although this skill is more complex than web designing, it involves one having or acquiring a sound knowledge of UI.
Android development and iOS development
Android development and iOS development are almost the same.
The difference is they both work on different software base done on android smartphones.
iOS development is strictly on iPhone or Apple products.
Both can generate an income base of approximately $139,000- to $144,000 yearly.
5. Data Visualization
Data visualization aims at converting raw data into understandable data.
It is a way of presenting data in spreadsheets, reports, graphs, and charts that allows for easy understanding by non-technical minds.
Data visualization is a way of giving abstract data a tangible shape through colourful pictures, graphics, and dashboards.
Data visualization is one of the most sought after high-income skills.
Imagine if there are no data visualization experts to covert the over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data produced daily.
It will be like leaving the crude oil to waste in the ground- given that there are no refineries to bring out the treasures embedded in it.
Data visualization experts help companies in:
- Identifying organizational weaknesses
- Forecasting of trading volumes
- Forecasting of sales prices
- masking right decisions
- Understanding visually displayed data.
No large company or organization can survive without data visualization experts.
KD nuggets predicted that data jobs would grow to 2.7 million by 2020, with an average salary of nearly $60,000 yearly.
6. Mobile development
There are about 3.5 billion Smartphone users globally, and the number keeps increasing daily.
That means the survival of these mobile tech companies is not dependent on websites or marketing.
It depends on apps development.
Learntocodewith. I predicted that the global app would be worth $6.3 trillion by 2021.
That is, more money is migrating to this sector.
The gradual transition of mobile apps to augmented reality has led to an increase in demand for mobile developers.
Mobile developers who are versatile in beacon technology, VA/AR, and the Internet of Things have a greater advantage.
You can work as a freelancer.
Create mobile apps and sell them to tech companies.
You can also get paid employment in a tech company.
The average salary is normally $96,000.
This is one of the best high-income skills of this digital age.
7. Product management
Product management is a skill that involves bringing out the best in a product.
It could be a software product or a physical product.
A product manager is any individual who has sound knowledge of market trends and can customize products to meet up with the market dynamics.
The product manager employs the best marketing strategy to penetrate the market.
A product manager must possess the following skills to stand out:
- Technical expertise: must have sound knowledge of technical product architecture
- Knowledge of relevant products and internet trends: must be open to new ideas and concepts
- Coding: must be good at writing codes
- Good writing skill
- Visual designing
A product manager is to serve as an eye for the company.
Follow the trends and beat the trends with your innovation.
Also, the product manager must be creative and innovative.
It is one of the high-income skills.
Individuals with this skill are well paid.
Soft skills
You may ask if soft skills are high income-oriented? Yes, it is.
Sounds strange right? Some soft skills bring in money more than some hardcore skills, while the soft rest skills serve as ingredients that fuel the effectiveness of hard skills.
In this section, I will be discussing six soft skills which are:
- Public speaking
- Creativity
- Learnability
- Collaboration
- Emotional intelligence
- Persuasion
1. Public speaking
In the article posted by Forbes, public speaking skill is one of the top skills of 2020.
Dynamic and strong public speakers are in great demand by many corporations.
They tend to earn leadership positions and important client contact roles.
Then what is public speaking? Is it just talking in front of people or on the stage? The answer is NO.
Public speaking is a soft skill that requires good communication skills, interactive ability, and the ability to engage with an audience.
The skill of public speaking does not only come during speeches and pubic talks.Also used in:
- Professional presentation of reports and findings
- Motivational speaking
- Management
- Sales representative
- Training events
2. Creativity
Creativity is a core ingredient in all technical, digital, and non-digital high-income skills.
LinkedIn reported that creativity is the most demanded soft skill for the year 2020.
Organizations and corporations are greatly looking for people who can creatively address and tackle problems in the work arena.
And also creatively bring out an initiative that can give the organization an upper hand in the market sphere.
3. Learnability
Learnability is one of the defining features of the skill revolution.
It is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
The dynamics of the world market, which is fueled by artificial intelligence, has brought in innovations and changes.
The learnability skill has made for easy adaption by organizations and specialist of hard skills.
No individual without the skill can maintain his or her relevance in this digital age.
4. Collaboration
The collaboration skill, which is also known as teamwork, is an important skill for any professional.
No organization can progress without collaboration among its various units.
In projects like marketing, research, data analysis, and presentation, it usually involves more than one person or unit working together to make it a success.
Collaboration as a skill helps an individual or organization to leverage meaningful relationships.
5. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is a soft skill that helps one build a solid income base.
Individuals with this skill can be authors.
Authors like Daniel Goleman, Jean Greaves, Joshua Freedman, and the rest are making millions just by being authors of emotional intelligence books.
Also, emotional intelligence experts are well paid.
They are one of the highest-paid soft skill trainers.
Now, you can see why it is in as a high-income skill.
Some of you may be wondering how this emotional intelligence skill is like? So here is it.
Emotional intelligence is a learned skill that helps in identifying, understanding.
And assisting humans in expressing emotions in healthy and productive ways.
It is a great tool in building high performing teams in the workplace.
It is a skill that helps companies’ managers to be able to handle the different behavioural traits of their employees.
And also to channel them in achieving organizational goals.
It is also an important skill that ensures success in marketing.
It helps you to understand the emotions of your clients and how to leverage it to build trust on the side of your client.
6. Persuasion
It is a valuable skill for enforcing results in the organization and building one’s income base.
Also have skill helps the bearer to influence others into coming into his or her terms.
It is also used for presenting an effective argument and in the marketing of brands or personal products.
One cannot effectively succeed in the marketing sphere without this skill.
Persuasion is manifest in various forms during marketing.
To be an expert with this skill, you have to have sound knowledge of:
- Effective communication ways
- Active listening techniques
- Logic and reasoning
- Negotiation
- Interpersonal skills
- Emotional intelligence
- Marketing strategies
Non-digital skills
In this section, I will be treating high-income skills without a degree.
Most technical and digital skills involve some form of certification and tertiary education.
Not evrybody has the money to enrol and learn these skills, even though they are high-income skills.
They are very expensive to learn.
Even in the non-digital spheres, some skills bring in good money and do not require you to stress yourself by taking a course. They are:
- Catering
- Fashion designing
- Photography
- Driving
- Carpentry
- Hairdressing
1. Catering
Catering is a high-income skill that can be learned very well within two months.
If you are a fast learner, within one month, you would have learned.
Then you can launch it as a personal business or work for a hotel.
Chefs these days are paid very well, even more than some government workers.
Catering has specialized areas.
You can decide to be skilled in:
- Intercontinental snacks
- Fast foods
- African dishes
- Foreign dishes
2. Fashion Designing
Are you looking for a non-digital skill to build an effective income base?
Then fashion designing is one of the best options.
To learn fashion designing, it normally takes three months.
Some people tend to take more time duration than others.
The good thing about this business is that there is always already a market for it.
If you are very good at the skill, you could make up to $250 or more weekly.
You can specialize or combine any of the following:
- Ankara designs
- Sportswear
- Bridal wears
- Kiddies wear
- Corporate wears
3. Photography
Photography is a high-income skill that can fetch you an hourly wage of $25 if you are good at your skill.
And is one of the most demanded skills now in a place like:
- The modelling industry
- The Fashion industry
- Journalism, and
- Sports
All you need to do is to perfect the skill.
The rest is history.
With this skill, you can decide to be a freelance photographer or establish it as a personal business.
The most rated photography skills are:
- Landscape photography
- Architectural photography
- Fine arts photography
- Street photography
- Mono (white and black) photography
4. Driving
It’s not just a skill for pleasure.
And could use to build a solid income base.
The introduction of driving companies like Uber, Taxify, and the rest have modified the business of driving into a lucrative one.
Driving can be learnt under two weeks or a month, depending on how fast the learner learns.
5. Carpentry
Will carpentry increase my income base?
Yes, it can and will give more than you imagine.
Carpentry does not include fully composite of these roadside woodworks.
Although it a minor part of carpentry.
Carpentry can be more lucrative than these.
Think of how much those woodworks in your home cost.
Who made it? It was a carpenter, of course.
The colourful sofa and chairs in the sitting room were all made by carpenters.
Your bed stand, drawers, and mirror stand were all made by carpenters.
So carpentry is a high-income skill worth learning.
6. Hairdressing
Hairdressing is one of the skills that ensure a steady flow of income.
It’s a skill that cannot go into obscurity because of its immense importance to man.
You can start up a business of a shop hairdresser or a mobile hairdresser with this skill.
Either way is good.
It is one of the prized skills of the fashion and modelling industry, as it helps in the marketing of their products.
In a nutshell, the usefulness of the hardcore skills cannot overemphasize over the soft skills.
Both required for wealth creation in this digital age.
Remember that we are entering an era that mental intelligence without skills to prove it will not regard.
