If you want to be successful in 2021, it's important to continue learning and adapting your skill set so you can put yourself in the best position possible. By increasing the value you can provide you are also securing future streams of income which is the foundation of any healthy business.

#1) Web Design & Landing Page Design

The first most in-demand freelancing area is Web Design and Landing Page Design. As more and more businesses shift to the online marketplace and those who just started a business, or companies that are transitioning from working at a physical location to the online marketplace all need a Website Design. This is a great opportunity for freelancers because there's millions of businesses that are in high-demand of needing this service done for them. There is also a demand for Landing Page Design with the businesses that already have websites but they're not converting as good as they could be. On top of that, businesses that are launching new products, new services, or new softwares, all need different websites and landing pages that need help getting built and set up so that they can sell those products and services.

Since more competitors are going online, this means businesses need help with more brand exposure through running ads. This is where having a high ranking website and landing page comes in. To get the word out there about your new product/ service and after you are promoting the message you ideally want to send people back to a website, or to a landing page. Nowadays, it's no secret that you need to advertise when it comes to business exposure. You can rank organically in the search results, but if you want to really grow a business and scale you need to pay to play for advertising. Whether that's social media advertising, search engine marketing, or video advertising that is where all of this demand is generating when it comes to web design and landing page design. 

Many businesses also need a website and landing pages designed so they can get the most conversions. For example let’s say you have a landing page that's converting at 5%. If you can go to that company and create a landing page for them that converts at 10%, then you've just doubled their revenue all by simply changing up their landing page design. More and more businesses are recognizing how helpful this service is, and with all the tools out there such as Clickfunnels, Duda, SquareSpace, and Wix it makes providing this service for business owners much more fluent and easier. All of these different softwares are also drag and drop so that you can go out there right away, and practice mastering this skill and get paid in 2021.

The second most in-demand skill for 2021 is Development. This in demand skill is an overarching category where you have software development, website development, and you have mobile app development. It's basically developing the back end of how things work. This is different coding, and it's different coding languages that you can learn. 

There's also a lot of different coding languages and different applications that you can use your development knowledge and that's the great part about freelancing, because you're never stuck just in one category. You can try out a skill and start to get some experience with it and you can either decide to get more advanced with the skill, or widen your skillset and bundle multiple skills together. This is a massive opportunity for you to take advantage of that if you are into development or if you just think that it might be interesting and good for you. I highly suggest to go out there and to start making more money in 2021 by performing this skill.

Here's Upwork's list of the Top 15 Tech Skills

Upwork’s top 15 most in-demand tech skills (based on gross services volume):

1. JavaScript
2. CSS
3. HTML
4. Website Development
5. PHP
6. API Development
7. WordPress
8. HTML5              
9. Web Design
10. Python
11. Web Application
12. API Integration
13. jQuery
14. MySQL              
15. React

The third most in-demand skill for 2021 for freelancers is Video Editing and Explainer Videos. Video editing has always been an in-demand skill but as more companies are focusing on social media, and on their website, business owners are seeing how videos are the power player because videos drive massive engagement and views and show up most in the alogrythm. It's no secret that all these massive search engines and social media empires are prioritizing video content such as Google, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Wherever there's a massive need for something, that's where the demand is, and if you can go out there, learn how to create explainer videos, learn how to edit videos together, and learn how to create promotions for companies then you can package your services together and start a side-hustle job by video editing on nights and weekends.

Or if you want to turn it into your full-time gig you can become a full-time video editor and earn up to 6 figures a year or more. I highly suggest if you're interested in video editing to try it out. There's even platforms, services, and software out there to help you edit videos. You don't need to have a college degree just to create an awesome video. If something interests you then practice it on your own first. Then you can get a client for this in-demand service and test to see if video editing or creating explainer videos is a good fit for you.

#4) Consulting

The fourth in-demand skill moving into 2021 as a freelancer is Consulting. Consulting is an overarching category of services and skills you can provide. For example, you can be an online advertising consultant, sales consultant, or you can be a marketing strategy consultant. As a consultant, you help businesses by providing some in-depth knowledge to them on something that can help them make more money. This in depth knowledge you share with them is stuff you've already done before for other businesses successfully. So let's say for example you've been managing Facebook Ads for a long time, instead of being the one to always set up those ads and manage and monitor them on-going, you can get to that next level once you have good results. 

This is the consultant role instead of you being the one that actually sets up all the campaigns and has to do all that day-to-day work, you can work with companies for $1k-$5k per month and provide them your high-level strategy. Other things you do as a consultant is you give them helpful suggestions based on their business model and you give them advice on what different platform strategies you would use and what your budget allocation would be, etc. If you already have some advanced knowledge on a specific business model, type of advertising, etc. then consulting is a great skill for you to take advantage of.

#5) Online Advertising

The fifth and final most in-demand freelance skill to provide moving forward into the new year is Online Advertising.

As the online marketplace and social media platforms become more crowded, it becomes more difficult to reach the amount of users you would like organically. That's why companies hire freelancers to manage their online advertising campaigns so they can continue growing their companies.

Online advertising consists of Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Advertising, Video Advertising, Email Marketing, and Display Advertising. The online ad space is a multi-billion dollar industry which continues siphoning companies previous radio, tv, billboard, and print ad budgets.

 In order to be competitive post 2020, businesses understand they have to embrace the digital space with 100% enthusiasm if they want to survive. It's crucial for them to stay in contact with their existing customers as well as attract new ones via online advertising and in order to do that they need freelancers who specialize in this skill. It's common for this skill to pay anywhere from $500 - $2,500 per month on average, making it a highly profitable skill to develop.

In Conclusion

I hope this was helpful for you to outline some different areas in freelancing you can start to look at to expand your knowledge, to expand your skill-set, and ultimately make more money in the New Year.

When you dedicate yourself to the advancement of your learning, you will be in the best position to make the most amount of money going into 2021.

If you're interested in learning more about freelancing and getting clients on Upwork,  I have a course on Udemy. Check out the first lesson free here!

I look forward to your success!

Paul Mendes | Profitable Freelancer

Ready To Take Your Freelancing Career To The Next Level?