Top Remote Freelance Skills To Offer In 2023
Today there are plenty of remote freelance skills that you can learn and offer to clients without any professional qualifications or previous experience. By learning these skills independently, through platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Udemy or Skillshare, you’ll be able to start your own solopreneur business and earn money from Spain or anywhere in the world ,with just a laptop and an internet connection.
You can even find free resources online to get you started, or to help you decide what paid products are worth your investment, to really refine your skills.
Then you will be able to launch your self-employed career from Spain or anywhere else, even become a full-time digital nomad - because your work will be totally location-independent and under your own control.
What follows are not the only skills you can monetise, but some important ones you might want. to think about if you're planning a new career:
Communications skills for freelancing
One of the most important things that freelancers need is great communication skills. This means being able to write clear, concise emails and messages; express yourself clearly on social media. You also need to be able to conduct client interviews over the phone or online, and provide customer support when needed.
These are all essential components of any successful freelance business, so make sure you focus on developing them. Whatever business you create, have to be able to tell people about it. Never stop reading, writing, and learning! These are all vital remote freelance skills.
Freelance writing and editing
Another important skill is being able to write well. There are lots of businesses out there that pay good money for high-quality content, on a range of topics. What do you know more about than most average people, to write valuable articles on that subject?
If you have great writing skills and can research hard-to-find information, then this could be the perfect career for you.
When it comes to skills clients need, for most content marketing there's a baseline of being able to write reasonably well that must be met. And after that, subject expertise is much more important. I have been writing professionally for decades, but for most content marketing (as opposed to journalism or ghostwriting), given the choice between me or you for a dental products blog, it makes more sense for the client to choose you, if you're an experienced dental nurse who can write adequately.
So, define your niche, and start shouting about it! Create samples, publish them and build a portfolio, to show what you can do and what you have to offer.
Creating content for brands
As well as being hired to write, you can also create content that is interesting and relevant to you, and then develop your own customers, or partnerships with brands.
For example, many travel blogs are full-time businesses in their own right. Perhaps you have settled in a little known Spanish town, which lacks great information for tourists and visitors? Why not create a blog to highlight all that you love about it, including video and photos.
You can interview local businesses, build up an audience, and learn to improve your search results ranking (see below.) Eventually those businesses will be happy to pay to advertise with you, because you will have the audience they want.
Building that audience is the critical remote freelance skill needed here. Other brands will then pay you to promote their products with sponsored content, on your website, or on social media. Remember, your reputation is your asset, and seek out authentic recommendations you actually mean! Partner with brands who share your values and interests, and always be transparent about paid sponsorship (including free review products.)
This makes a win-win-win for all sides of the deal - the brand, you the creator, and the audience you serve.
Editing is its own freelance skill
Many freelancers also offer editing services alongside their writing skills. Whether you’re editing someone else’s work or offering proofreading services to your clients, the ability to spot and correct any errors in spelling, syntax, formatting and style is essential for anyone who wants to succeed in this industry.
Developing a keen eye for detail helps. And you can take online courses on subjects like grammar rules and punctuation techniques. Of course there are plugins and tools like Grammarly, but they're tools, not editors! You will begin building up a portfolio of satisfied customers as soon as you start freelancing.
Meanwhile, working with a great editor is a fantastic way to hone your own writing chops, for any writer.
Digital marketing and SEO remote freelancing skills
Learning SEO and digital marketing skills is an essential part of being a successful freelancer or digital nomad, whether you use these skills to promote what you do, or sell them to clients.
For starters, it’s important to understand the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). This involves optimizing content from blogs to websites and even digital ads, so they are seen most often by the right potential customers. You need to learn how keywords are evaluated, strategically placed throughout your content, and updated regularly to maximise visibility. Additionally, internal linking between pages on your website to help Google understand what each page is about, is also important.
It's not just search...
Digital marketing goes beyond SEO as it requires knowledge on how to effectively use social media platforms alongside other channels - such as email campaigns and influencer partnerships. Through monitoring analytics data and optimizing ads accordingly, you can get a better understanding of how different strategies are performing and adapt accordingly.
Ultimately, learning SEO and digital marketing skills can help freelancers and digital nomads increase reach while also minimizing costs. With a well-rounded understanding of these tactics, you can become more effective at promoting yourself or products/services online. And you won't waste money on costly campaigns that don't generate results.
Once you learn the basics, there are a million blogs for staying up-to-date with industry trends will ensure that your strategies remain relevant, so you don’t fall behind in the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. Then you can offer these remote freelance skills to help your clients bring their goods and services to market in any industry.
Learning SEO & digital marketing skills aren't something you can do overnight, but if you take the time to truly understand it, then you'll find yourself with a great advantage over many other professionals out there looking for freelance gigs or remote employment opportunities. Learning one niche channel in great depth is a good tactic, for becoming the go-to expert... for language academy podcast marketing, or something like that.
You don't need a degree or certification either; there are plenty of great resources available online that can teach anyone interested everything you need to know. From optimizing websites for search engine results pages (SERPs) to strategies for developing successful campaigns on social media channels like Facebook & Instagram, just use your own search skills to start learning today.
Low-code and no-code developer skills for remote freelancers
Low-code and no-code development skills are becoming increasingly popular for freelancers as they can be taught quickly, allowing professionals to provide valuable services in a shorter period of time.
Tools like these allow users to create entire applications without writing any lines of code at all. Both offer great benefits to freelancers in terms of the time and energy saved while still creating quality applications that you can deploy faster and with less effort than traditional coding models.
This means people with limited or no programming experience can begin creating powerful, customized applications without needing any background in software engineering or computer science. They provide an opportunity for those who haven't got technical skills but have ideas for innovative solutions that require software implementation, enabling them to get their projects off the ground quickly.
For anyone interested in developing these new skills, there are plenty of online resources available such as tutorials, webinars, and free courses from tech giants like Microsoft and Google. As well as great content produced by the tools themselves, like Notion, Podia, Webflow and Bubble.
No code means learning by doing!
Additionally, there are countless forums where developers share tips and tricks on how best to use these technologies when building applications or solving problems in a variety of fields including finance, healthcare, retail, logistics, etc.
To an extent, you just need to download them and have a go. My "Remote Work Spain content production dashboard" in Notion is very much a work in progress with a grand name! But every time I try to figure out something new and it doesn't work as expected, I learn something new instead.
I am not planning to offer these services professionally, but will always take on any new learning which can help me refine my own workflows. I have no coding or development background whatsoever, just a nerdy curiosity combined with extensive business and collaboration experience, which makes me want to learn and make thing better!
Lots of people have built entire businesses, using low or no-code tech stacks, and this makes me very excited for the flexible freelance future of work.
What remote freelancing skills will you bring to market in 2023?
We have discussed a range of remote freelance skills that will be in high demand in 2023. But what about you? What unique skills do you bring to the table? How can you combine your current knowledge and experience with one or more of these freelance options to create a niche offer that is irresistible to potential clients?
The best way to find out is to experiment! Try out a few different combinations and see what works best for you. In no time, you’ll be ready to start offering your services as a remote freelancer and taking your career into your own hands.
Then you can successfully operate as a remote worker in Spain or anywhere else, with your own location-independent digital business-of-one.