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What if I tell you that there is a way to make money from home and be your own boss? If your answer is, “Heck, yeah!” then you should learn these 8 most valuable skills to learn to make money online in 2024.
Identifying product-market fit, sales psychology, and direct response copywriting are the most valuable skills to learn to make money online. Learn them and you have a better shot at success on the world wide web!
Learn these skills to make BIG money from home
If you want to earn a lot of money online you need to build a business. What’s BIG money? It’s going to be different for different people, but you can really make around $10,000 a month with a business that sells products or services online in less than a year.
Yes, you can find a high-paying job that let you work remotely. But starting an online business is the quickest way to get rich in 2024.
There is no overnight success, but when the hard work starts to pay off you’ll be earning exponentially! Yeah, it’s true exponentially!
So if you want to make it big, you can start by learning the list of skills on this list.
The first three are essential. The rest are good to have and work synergistically.
You won’t be a photographer —but you’ll know how to take eye-catching pictures. 📸
You won’t be a coder — but you’ll understand how to set up your own store on eCommerce platforms like Shopify. 👨💻
You won’t exactly film movies —but you’ll know how to make a TikTok ad. 🎥
And that’s going to be enough to set you up for success. 🏆
Think of it like learning to ride a bike instead of paying for Uber every time you need to go over walking distance.
Sure, you can learn to drive, but it takes time, you need to go to a driver’s school, get a license, and a car…
Or you can spend a few hours learning to ride a bicycle, get a usable one and save so much money and get the freedom that comes with it.
Here are the 8 most valuable skills to learn to make money online.
1. Finding profitable products (identifying product-market fit)
Most people make the mistake of going into a competitive market. Developing products cost money, not to mention the cost of marketing. Eventually, a lot of businesses fail because of bad planning and lack of research.
It helps to know the difference between the blue ocean and red ocean strategy so you’d know if you have a fighting chance.
What is it about? The difference lies mostly in the target market.
The blue ocean strategy means opening your business in a new market. You know, much like a whale thriving in the deep blue ocean.
The red ocean strategy, on the other hand, means choosing to compete in a much more saturated market. You can pretty much compare it to an ocean bloody after a cutthroat competition.
What is product research? It is a process to find out if a product idea is valid and will be successful or not. The process involves these important steps:
👉Gather information about your product's purpose. It helps you understand your buyers’ problems and build the necessary solutions.
👉Development direction. When you’ve picked the products for your business, testing a product will help you find out how to improve and perfect it.
👉Solve a pain point. Formulate solutions you can offer to solve a buyer/client’s problem. You are giving the message: “This product solved my problem. Therefore, I need it and I will buy it again.”
How does being able to identify product-market fit help you make money? Here are a few reasons why it’s a profitable skill:
- You are more likely to turn people’s heads. If you sell a product/service that meets a purpose, people are more likely to give you their money. This is why you should collect information about the market as well as users’ behavioral insights.
- You get repeat customers. You know what your buyers like or don’t like so they keep coming back to you.
- You know how to upsell. This way you’ll understand how the customer likes new offers and features.
- You maintain brand loyalty. This part of identifying product-market fit will make your product/offer relevant to people.
- You prioritize and save money. Knowing how to pick profitable products will also help you save money by steering clear of products that risk running you dry.
Your buyers are obviously what keeps your business afloat. If you don't know what they want from your product, you might end up wasting your most brilliant idea.
Being an expert product hunter means you are not wasting cash on a product that doesn’t make money.
Product-market fit is important. Before diving into the production phase, it lets you know whether your product or niche has a market appeal.
Being able to find profitable products is a pretty marketable skill to learn. Udemy has a few courses you can take to sharpen your skills in choosing the right products.
2. Sales / Psychology
Even the best product in the world won’t sell itself. This is where you should work your magic.
The reality is that your products and services are only as good as what your buyers think of them.
What is sales psychology? It studies the psyche of your target market. This way, you can better understand how you can sell to them.
Sales Psychology is understanding how people make decisions. It is a skill that will help you persuade buyers that your product is valuable.
Here are the reasons why it’s one of the important skills to make money from home:
👉It helps you save money on ads. This is because one ad is enough to convince your clients that they need your product/ service.
Like what your boy, Benjamin Franklin said: “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
👉You know how to zero in on your buyers’ emotional needs through empathizing with them.
Does Vicks vapor rub really heal cough? Heck no! But it makes moms feel they’re helping their babies feel better.
What is the relationship of psychology to sales? We are all emotional beings at the end of the day. To persuade a customer to buy from you, you should look into how the human brain works as well as social behaviors.
Check out this video below and find out how to increase your sales with simple psychology.
3. Direct response copywriting
There are many forms of writing (creative writing, journalism, technical writing) but the most marketable form is copywriting.
Content writing vs copywriting
What is the difference between content writing and copywriting? PURPOSE —that is what sets these two kinds of writing apart.
Content writing is designed to educate or entertain. On the other hand, copywriting is designed to persuade.
And then there’s direct response copywriting. Most text ads that involve direct response copywriting seek to compel readers to take action (an action that usually means spending money on your business 😉).
Here are some examples of direct response copy:
👉Landing pages. It is the next step toward a visitor becoming your paying customer.
In this example, you can see how the copy invites you to take action which is to start a free trial.
👉Email campaign. It is a way of nudging people regularly. It’s like you saying “Hey! I’m still here.”
But it can also be like a text from a friend saying “Let’s go!”
Here’s an email campaign below from Canva. As you can see, it invites you to join the challenge and “start designing with Canva”
What are the goals of direct response copywriting? It is for the reader to take an action the moment they’re done reading the text.
Take a look at the video below and find out how it helps drive revenue to your business.
Direct Response Copywriting 101 (Everything You Need to Know)
How to learn direct response copywriting
Study copywriting like your life depends on it. You can check out the ‘Success Works’ Copywriting Course And The Creative Copywriter Academy.
Put together a portfolio when you're confident in your understanding of copywriting. It will help you look at your work and improve on it.
4. Photography
How important is photography in business? Having high-quality images will help your business hook potential buyers. When you’ve got good photos, you have a better chance to catch the reader's (viewer’s) interest.
It also improves your visibility online. Remember, better online visibility means better income opportunities!
What makes a photographer when everyone is taking pictures? Almost everyone uses a smartphone with a camera. But being skilled in photography means having an “eye” for setting the shot.
You’d know the proper lighting that will make the image pop and make a product “pop.”
This also means knowing how to “stage” a product. This way, a buyer can better imagine owning it. That’s why it is also referred to as “situational” photography.
Eventually, the goal of photography in any business is to show a potential buyer how the product looks on them. We mentioned in the previous section to appeal to a person’s emotions. This works in photography too.
It is about presenting a scene that conveys an emotion to the viewer. It is less about a literal depiction of the business offering or features.
What kind of photos matter? Let me give you an example: I’d personally prefer a picture of a lamp on a bedside table. I can imagine reading under its light rather than an image of the same lamp with the background removed and replaced with a plain white.
Another thing about learning a bit of photography is being able to stand out. Let’s take eCommerce for example, a lot of other stores might be selling the same product that you are selling.
How do you make people buy from you instead of your competitor?
In the case of dropshipping, the majority of dropshipping stores use generic product images. It’s understandable to want to use your suppliers’ photos when you’re just starting. But at some point, you’ve got to level up or risk drowning in the boring crowd.
How will buyers choose you unless you have unique images?
Using your own photos is one of the best ways to outperform your competitors.
You can consider changing the background of your supplier images or order your own product and stage them at home. Aside from artsy photos, you can also consider custom packaging, strengthening your brand, and building a user-friendly store.
How to learn photography
Why hire a photographer each time when you can learn the basics? Sure, you won’t be a wedding *slash* event *slash* birthday photographer —but your listings won’t look like they’ve been taken in a basement.
Check out this video on how to take pictures of your products
https://youtube.com/shorts/NvuBmx9WHk0?feature=share
5. Videography
Videography is not only about capturing moving images on electronic media, such as digital cameras, videotapes, and streaming media. But it also involves methods of video editing and post-production.
How important is Videography in business?
You might think still images are enough, and most of the time they are, but videos are great for explaining your product or service.
Viewers retain 95% of your message when you use videos. I mean, it’s worth considering compared to only 10% information retention after reading written content. Videos can capture your target audience’s attention and understanding in under 2 minutes.
For example, while Instagram has always been a valuable platform for businesses, Reels create new opportunities for you.
It’s a feature on Instagram that lets you create short videos to appeal to your potential buyers.
Not only is the format highly engaging, but it also offers spectacular reach and discoverability benefits that can help your brand quickly grow your audience.
Here’s a Reel from Sniffspot that already has over 39k views and 1k likes.
Do people respond more to videos than photos? Yes. Research showed that 52% of marketers leverage video more so than images.
This might be the reason why TikTok has been getting a lot of attention. Unlike Instagram, TikTok thrives on casual and quirky videos.
Now, you can take advantage of TikTok’s ad opportunities like TopView Ads, In-Feed Ads, or branded effects.
So, are videos more engaging than photos? Video content is 12x more successful than other types of content. It does help with making viewers stay longer on your page. Videos generate higher engagement rates for you compared to both text and image content combined.
This explains how many bloggers have also resorted to creating their YouTube channels. They use their blog content as outlines for the video. Afterwards, they would list the links to their blog content, website, and social media in the description box.
Furthermore, you can also go back to the blog content and embed the YouTube video to help decrease the bounce rate.
How to learn videography
Your first step in learning videography should be getting a good video cam. But a phone with a decent camera can be enough. You can also attend workshops to learn the right techniques.
Check out the Cinematography Course from Udemy that will teach you to shoot expert video on any camera. You can also consider a course on Skillshare called Videography for Beginners where you can learn how to make short videos.
6. Web development
Web development involves creating, building, and maintaining websites and web applications. It could also include web design, web programming, as well as database management.
It sounds scary, but did you know that it's straightforward to make a basic website or even an e-commerce store in 2022?
Of course, you would need to learn basic skills. 5 years ago it would have felt like jumping through a ring of fire.
How important is web development in business? It can make a difference in how your potential buyers view your brand. For example, an attractive and easy-to-use website can potentially turn site visitors into paying customers.
Web development might be a bit technical —but developing a website design with an impressive user interface will result in a much better conversion rate. This means better business and more cash for you.
How can learning a thing or two about web development help your business? A well-designed website is essential for reaching a larger audience. It will generate more leads for you compared to a website that loads for eternity or something you can’t open on a mobile phone.
If your customer can’t open your website in just seconds, don’t be surprised if they leave and buy somewhere else.
Learning a few things about web development can save you between $5,000 - $10,000 from hiring an expert. Some of the problems web development experts solve include buggy third-party services, poorly written code causing performance issues, and un-optimized databases among others.
How to learn web development
Some of the important things you need to learn in web development are:
👉Concepts of visual design
👉Basics of HTML
👉Understand CSS
With the help of your website, you can gather and read customer reviews of your product. The creation and design of your website aid in promoting your business's brand. It makes sense to give it a little bit of TLC.
The Complete 2022 Web Development Bootcamp on Udemy can help you with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
7. Networking with smart people
According to Robert Kiyosaki, “The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.”
So what is networking like among professionals? Professional networking is when you build relationships with other people in the industry. This can be both in your career field as well as in other related fields.
Networking allows you to cultivate relationships with others in the business. It’s a symbiotic relationship that will be beneficial not only to you but also to the other guy. As they say: “No man is an island.” Yeah, it’s cheesy —but practical.
Here are a few of the benefits of networking:
🤝Strengthen business connections
🤝Get fresh ideas for your business
🤝Raise your profile
🤝Promote your business
🤝Get access to business opportunities
What do influential businessmen say about networking?
An article about Elon Musk mentioned how he was able to network with Peter Nicholson as he was looking for a summer job. Nicholson later became the chief economic adviser for the prime minister of Canada.
Could you believe it all started with a cold call? Eventually, the internship helped Musk figure out his future career.
Warren Buffett calls networking “the best investment he'd ever made.” A piece of advice he gave the students at Columbia University mentions:
“You move in the direction of the people that you associate with.”
According to Buffet, it’s important to associate with people that are better than yourself. You want to network with the kind of people you'd like to be someday.
You don’t want to be surrounded by “Yes” men who always give you what you asked (even when it’s a crappy decision).
How to learn networking
Networking can be pretty daunting so it doesn’t hurt to have a bit of preparation.
Business Networking: Online Course with Practice promises to help you build stronger connections with professionals you meet at conferences. This doesn’t mean you can’t apply it to eCommerce and other online businesses.
How do connections help a business? A company with healthy connections has access to information that can be exchanged quickly. Here’s why you make money in building relationships:
- leads to new business
- results in new referrals
- opens doors for you
In a dropshipping business, for example, having connections can lead you to the best suppliers.
Dropshipping is an eCommerce retail model where you can sell products without keeping any physical inventory. In dropshipping, you sell the product to the customer, and then pass on the sales order to a third-party supplier. The supplier then ships the order directly to the customer on behalf of the retailer.
You can imagine how important it is to know the right suppliers to make sure the stuff you’re selling meets your buyers’ expectations.
8. Paid ads and a hint of SEO
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” How does it help increase a business's online presence?
SEO helps improve your site to increase its visibility.
When people search for products or services related to your business in different search engines, you want your website or product listing to show up on the first page.
If you want to start an eCommerce store, you can also consider Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and much recently, Tiktok.
Now, you need to make sure you read and master the guidelines for creating ads across platforms. They’re pretty strict about it. For example, some medical products might seem to be a violation.
If you aren’t careful, you might end up spending money and time on an ad only for it to be taken down.
Take a look at this TikTok ad campaign from Biaheza and how the Ad was taken down for a supposed violation:
How does a good online presence help a business? A strong online presence allows your business to get discovered by new customers. This means more people willing to give you their hard-earned money.
Here are the benefits of having more touchpoints with your audience:
👉build your reputation
👉increase brand awareness
👉make data-driven optimizations
We’ve talked about SEO, now, let’s learn about paid ads. Paid advertising involves advertisers bidding to participate in real-time auctions. This is to show their ads within slots on a specific platform or network.
Google Ads and other PPC (pay per click) let you meet good-fit customers who are already searching for products and services like the ones you offer. PPC involves you paying a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.
Why is it important to know how to make an ad? PPC means you are paying good money for your ad to show up above everyone else’s.
To successfully manage a PPC campaign, you need to work smarter, not harder. Make the most impact in as little time as possible. Knowing how to make the perfect ad will free up precious time so you can focus on what matters most—growing your business and making more money.
Time is money after all!
Here’s what Google Ad looks like 👇
With Facebook ads, you set a budget for how many people you’d like to see it, and how long you want it to show.
Here’s an Instagram Ad
How to learn a skill fast?
Learning new skills can take time and patience. However, when you commit to learning something new, you can increase the chances for your business to grow.
How do you set goals?
Setting goals is important in learning new skills.
Here are a few of the best practices:
👉Set “positive” goals.
👉Be as specific as possible
👉Break big goals into small steps
👉Set realistic goals,
What is a learning curve?
A “steep learning curve” refers to the initial difficulty of learning something.
The learning curve model talks about training progress. It also takes a look at improving productivity and predicting learners' performance and improvement over time.
Learn valuable skills for your business success
You don’t have to master the skills on this list. But to learn enough of these 8 skills to learn to make money online and achieve synergistic effects will help big time. Well, you can even be your own marketing department!
“A jack of all trades is a master of none…”
but most people don’t know the rest of this quote, which is:
“...but oftentimes better than a master of one.”
Learning new skills will help you to achieve your goals. It will give you confidence and motivation to improve your business. Learning new skills is necessary, but don’t forget to brush up on your existing skills too.
