What’s up side hustlers, Jamasen here, CEO of LoopGenius and author of Beyond9to5. If you’re new here every week we’ll cover one major tactic to grow your business, the latest news in AI, and awesome tools and resources.

👋 In today’s newsletter:

• Highest-paying skills of 2023

• 3 ways to monetize your skills

• #1 ChatGPT prompt to find your unique skill

Highest-paying skills of 2023

Wondering if you have a skill people will pay for? Odds are, you do.

Remember that Instagram reel you created in 3 minutes? Well that would take someone else 3 hours.

The key to finding your unique skill is to identify three things:

👉 What you are good at

👉 What you enjoy doing

👉 What you do great that other people struggle with

Remember not to sell your skills short! Even if you think everyone knows how to use Powerpoint by now, trust us, they do not.

Try sending out a survey about your skill to your network before you monetize. Ask them what are their biggest pain points doing that skill, if they are currently outsourcing it for their business, how much time they spend doing it etc. This will help you figure out which skill to monetize, and even how to market your skill.

Now, without further ado, here are some of the highest-paying skills right now.

• Web Design: $75+/hour

• Graphic Design: $60+/hour

• Copywriting: $80+/hour

• Social Media Management: $55+/hour

• Content Creation: $200+/hour

• Engineering: $100+/hour

• Project Management: $80+/hour

• Email Writing: $60+/hour

• Content Writing: $60+/hour

• AI + ChatGPT Prompting: $75+/hour

3 ways to monetize your skills

So you found a skill people will pay for. Great. Now how do you actually get them to pay for it?

There are a couple key ways you can monetize your skills today. Think about how much time you realistically have, and how much effort you’re willing to invest.

Whether you’re looking to make extra cash or launch a full-scale business, here are the best ways to get paid for your skills.

Freelancing

Freelancing is more popular than ever, with 1.57B freelancers in the world 🌏. You can freelance as a side hustle or pursue it full-time after you get a few high-paying clients.

Where to sell your services:

• Join Contra. Contra is a freelancing platform where you can find high-quality jobs, build a portfolio and find potential clients.

• Use LinkedIn. Instead of applying to freelance jobs, try searching “Looking for a freelance (insert your role)”. Filter for posts, and reach out to clients directly who are hiring freelancers.

• Create a profile on Upwork. Upwork is another platform to sell your freelance services and apply to jobs.

How to get your first few clients:

• Build up your portfolio with mock projects. These can be mock blogs and newsletters, logo designs and social media accounts.

• Ask your friends and family if you can write, design or create content for them. Add these projects to your portfolio.

• Share your portfolio everywhere– LinkedIn, social media bios, DMs to your network etc.

• Apply to jobs on freelance marketplaces and job boards.

Digital Products

If you don’t have a ton of time, passive income is the way to go. You can sell templates, guides and other downloadable resources. The beauty of digital downloads is that you make them once, and never have to touch them again!

For example, if your skill is copywriting, you could create:

• A brand guide template for businesses to fill in

• CTA guide: 100 CTAs that perform well

• Headline guide: 100 headlines that capture attention

• Blog and article templates

…you get the point! Once you have your digital product ready, it’s time to show it off to the world (or at least your target audience). You can share the link to your products on social media, ecommerce sites, and Slack and Discord communities.

Where to sell your digital products:

• Etsy

• Shopify

• Stan Store

• Linktree 

Content Creation

Create content about your skill via a newsletter, podcast or social media. This strategy is our personal favorite because you can market your skills and monetize at the same time.

Here are some content ideas to get you started:

• Tips and advice for other people to learn your skill

• Tools that help you do the skill well

• Day in your life, featuring the skill

• Timely news related to the skill

The best part? If you decide to create a newsletter, you can repurpose that content into a podcast, reels, TikToks, etc.

As you build a brand around your expertise in that skill, clients will start approaching you for help. You can work with clients as a freelancer or even set up an agency.

But you can also make money monetizing your content. Check out the top ways creators with unique skills make money today:

• Run ads in your newsletter or podcast for other companies

• Create sponsored posts and videos on your social accounts

• Offer a subscription to your content

• Sell digital products to your audience (see above!)

Now go cash in on your skills– you’ve got this 👏 

#1 ChatGPT prompt to find your unique skill

Copy the prompt:

I want to monetize my skills via freelancing, selling digital products or creating content. Can you please help me identify what my unique skill is and how I can monetize it? Here's a bit about me: [Insert info about yourself] Based on the above information and the current market today, what do you think my unique skill is?

That’s all for now.

See you on Monday, side hustlers! 👋

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That's it for this week's edition of Beyond9to5. Stay tuned for more tips, news, and spotlights in our next issue. Until then, keep hustling!