16 Best Freelance Skills to Master in 2023
By Freelancing can open the door to a career of setting your own hours, having autonomy over what projects you work on, and deciding how much you want to work.
But to succeed, you’ll need to choose an in-demand freelance skill that you’re naturally interested in. Next, you’ll have to spend time honing your skills and learning as much as possible.
Here’s a guide to the top 16 in-demand freelance skills, their earning potential, and where to learn them.
How did we arrive at the annual salary and hourly rate?
We studied freelancers of all experience levels on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork to better understand how freelancers of different skill sets and experience levels charge for projects, either on hourly rates or different payment terms. We also reviewed individual freelancers’ websites to build a more diverse data pool.
Analyzing these results helped us build a picture of the average rate freelancers in each industry charge. Remember that the annual salaries and hourly rates mentioned throughout the article are to be used as a guideline. They’re average benchmarks––not a maximum or minimum rate. As you research different freelance projects and contracts, you may find that some offer more or less compensation.
If you’re getting started as a freelancer, these rates can help you figure out ballpark figures. Your own unique experience, skillset, and industry niche will shape how your charge clients more than anything else.
Top 16 in-demand freelance skills
Before you decide which freelance skills to learn, take a look at our list of the most in-demand freelance skills. Mastering one or more of these skills will help you level up your freelance career.
1. Blockchain and cryptocurrency programming
Average annual salary: $130,000
Average hourly rate: $150
Blockchain is a programming language that manages and holds information about cryptocurrency transactions. Unlike other programming languages, it’s highly resistant to external modification. While it’s still a new cryptocurrency, blockchain is now the number one data managing technique.
Because of its robust transaction security, many industries like law, logistics, and finance use the technique. But since it’s so new, there aren’t that many specialists yet. So if you have blockchain skills, you will likely be in demand with many clients.
Where can you learn blockchain?
Platforms like Skillup have courses aimed at teaching beginners the basics of Blockchain.
2. Mobile app development
Average annual salary: $110,000
Average hourly rate: $70 – $80
As people spend more time on their phones, the demand for app developers is also increasing. Organizations are looking for freelancers to code, design, and test mobile apps.
You’ll need some specific coding knowledge as a freelance app developer. iOS apps use Swift coding language. Android apps use Java or C++. When you know this, you can choose to learn one language or all three to become an expert mobile developer.
Where can you learn mobile app development?
Udemy has a course that takes you from complete beginner to creating an iOS AppStore quality app.
3. Website design
Average annual salary: $80,000
Average hourly rate: $80
Web designers usually have multiple skills like website coding skills including languages like HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) since they usually work with front-end developers to code each site.
Web designers usually choose to specialize in one or more of three categories:
- User Interface (UI) Designers handle all functions on a website like button placements and navigation making them as user-friendly as possible.
- User experience (UX) Designers create sites that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.
- Visual design Combines both UI and UX skills.
Where can you learn web design?
Learning platform Coursera has hundreds of web design courses suitable for all levels:
4. Amazon web services development
Average annual salary: $115,000
Average hourly rate: $80
AWS is the world’s largest cloud storage platform. But it’s known as being unreliable—prone to system failures and cyberattacks. As a freelancer, you could provide cloud managing services to companies that use Amazon’s online storage.
Where can you learn Amazon web services development?
The AWS site has many online courses with content for beginners up until cloud storage experts. You can also take an exam that provides you with an official certification upon completion.
5. Artificial Intelligence development
Average annual salary: $100,000
Average hourly rate: $70
Even though AI is a relatively new concept, it’s only set to grow in use and popularity over the next few years. Since most AI is designed to make everyday life easier, specialists design lines of code and algorithms with daily problems in mind.
AI specialists need to know how to build algorithms, as well as program voice or facial recognition software.
Where can you learn Artificial Intelligence development?
Platforms like Coursera and Udemy have multiple courses on AI.
6. Website development
Average annual salary: $100,000
Average hourly rate: $80
Given the shortage of web developers, there’s a huge demand for freelancers with web development skills.
Choose from three different specialty areas:
- Front-end developers build online items that directly interact with users like login pages, user buttons, and click buttons. They program everything that’s visible on a website.
- Back-end developers build the internal side of the site that’s not visible to visitors. This includes the foundations of the site as well as databases, and servers.
- Full-stack specialists can manage both the front-end and back-end of the site.
Where can you learn web development?
You can learn the basic skills needed to become a web developer on Codecademy. Then when you’ve completed the novice levels you can move on to advanced courses. Each level has interactive tasks which make the process more fun.
7. Accounting and bookkeeping
Average annual salary: $75,000
Average hourly rate: $50
Many people don’t know how to file their taxes and efficiently manage their business finances. That means there’s often high demand for freelance accountants and bookkeepers.
Small business managers often hire freelancers to complete quarterly tax returns, manage payroll, maintain accurate financial records, and build financial reports.
Where can you learn accounting and bookkeeping?
The Becker CPA Exam Review provides everything you need to get CPA certified and start working as an accountant or bookkeeper.
8. Data analysis
Average annual salary: $80,000
Average hourly rate: $40
Data analytics is another fast-growing sector that’s created a huge demand for workers. Data analysts compile, organize, and interpret data to build informative reports for businesses. These reports show trends and patterns for businesses to keep in mind for strategy and development.
Coursera has hundreds of free data analysis courses as well as paid ones that give you a certification
9. Writing
Average annual salary: $70,000
Average hourly rate: $45
So many businesses need online web content and don’t have an in-house team to write everything. Content is usually an ongoing need for businesses, so it presents a great opportunity for freelancers looking for regular tasks.
Freelance writers can choose between being generalists or writing only about a specialist niche. Sticking to one or two niches is often more profitable as you’ll gain subject matter expertise and be able to charge more for your words.
The best part of starting out as a writer is that you don’t need a certification. As long as you have knowledge of your chosen subject and can write, you can improve your skill through courses and practice.
Where can you learn about writing?
Skillshare has several courses for beginner freelance writers.
10. Editing
Average annual salary: $60,000
Average hourly rate: $40
As long as there are writers creating content, businesses will need editors to review their work. Editors usually check for spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, sentence structure and coherence, factual correctness, formatting, and if the content follows company guidelines.
Just like writers, editors can be generalists or focus on editing one or two types of content in a specific industry niche.
You don’t need a certification to start editing. But you’ll need high-level attention to detail as well as solid punctuation and grammar skills.
Where can you learn about editing?
Coursera has some university-led editing courses that cover the fundamentals:
11. Career coaching
Average annual salary: $80,000
Average hourly rate: $60
With people increasingly conscious of their work-life balance, career changes are becoming more common. People who are dissatisfied with their current job roles might feel like they want a change but don’t know how to do it.
As a career coach, you’ll help your clients improve their quality of life by helping them fulfill their passions instead of just paying the bills. While career coaches are in demand, the field is competitive as more and more people choose this flexible career path.
To stand out, create a solid personal brand. Think about who you are as a coach, what made you choose it as a career, and how you can help people feel more fulfilled in their careers and life.
You’ll need to draw on your own life experiences to help you relate to others going through similar phases. But to help you understand the fundamentals of coaching, it’s a good idea to enroll in a course.
The World Coach Institute created a set framework and enables you to become a qualified life coach:
12. Shopify development
Average annual salary: $90,000
Average hourly rate: $80
As a go-to platform for people setting up an ecommerce store, Shopify developers are in huge demand.
You can build the Shopify store and then charge a fee for maintaining it. If you bring a new client to Shopify you can also charge Shopify a commission fee.
Skillshare has a top-rated Shopify development course that’s led by developer Chris Dodd:
13. Social media marketing
Average annual salary: $70,000
Average hourly rate: $60
Many businesses with social media don’t have the time or know-how to successfully run their social media accounts. That’s where social media freelancers come in.
Day to day you’ll plan clients’ social media campaigns, ensure posts are correctly uploaded, and engage with followers. The idea is of course to boost engagement, follower counts, and business leads.
To be successful, you’ll need to know your way around social media platforms and understand how their algorithms work.
Udemy has loads of social media marketing courses to get you started:
14. SEO
Average annual salary: $100,000
Average hourly rate: $100
SEO is another digital marketing skill that businesses with websites always need. Since most people don’t click beyond the first page or even the first three results, SEO continues to be an in-demand skill.
You’ll need to be both technical and analytical. You’ll also need to stay updated with SEO trends and news around Google algorithms.
SEO specialists must be comfortable using multiple tools and creating detailed SEO reports for clients.
There are loads of paid and free SEO courses out there. To get started, we recommend reading Moz’s SEO Learning Center. The best part is that it’s free.
15. Graphic design
Average annual salary: $60,000
Average hourly rate: $30
Graphic design freelancers work on a huge variety of projects in web development, marketing, corporate communications, social media, and user experience design. That means no two days are alike and you’ll often have to adapt to new challenges and deliverables.
To be a freelance graphic designer, you’ll need a solid portfolio to demonstrate your skills and expertise. You’ll also need to know your way around a few Adobe design programs.
Skillshare has many different Adobe design courses to get you started with the basics:
16. Video editing
Average annual salary: $60,000
Average hourly rate: $30
As businesses increasingly produce more video content, they need video editors to help them in the production process. Video editors take the raw footage and cut, curate, and format it in a way that the client wants.
Video editors often specialize in using a specific video editing software or they use a few depending on the client’s needs. There are loads of free video editing tutorials on YouTube, or you could take an Adobe Premiere Pro class on a platform like Udemy.
Learn an in-demand freelance skill in 2023
So there you are—an idea of the top freelance skills in 2023. Learning a couple of these (and doing them well) will set you on the path to a fulfilling and long-lasting freelance career.
First, think about your current skills and what interests you already. Based on this, consider what would be a natural fit and how you could create a service offering as a freelancer.
Remember that the key to a successful freelance career is to never stop learning. When you invest in your learning, you invest in your career. Ready to start freelancing? Check out the AppSumo Store, we have some of the best software deals running to get you set up.