Do you have some skills that you are wondering how you can monetize? Here are some practical ways you can sell your skills online.
5 Ways to Sell Your Skills Online
With the increasing rate of online job opportunities, more and more people are shifting to working from their homes. The internet currently offers an array of great opportunities that you can tap and make good money.
However, you must know how and where to sell your skills if you must make it big in online jobs.
Sometimes, getting things running in the online arena and being able to make money can be a tricky affair. You may have all the expertise required, but getting that first client or finding a gig that can earn you some cash proves difficult.
There are numerous jobs out there that suits your skills, and all you need to do is to find the right one.
Every skill you have remains useless unless you can apply it. You need to know how to get your expertise into the market and let clients see what you can do.
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To help you crack this nut, I have therefore compiled a list of the most effective ways that will help you market and sell your expertise online.
However, before we delve into those ways, let’s first see how you position yourself.
Table of Contents
Build Your Competitive Advantage
In anything that you will do, it is not about how much skills you possess. It is all about what that expertise can do for the client.
How will the client benefit from your skills? That’s the most important thing.
Therefore, instead of you selling the skills, let the client buy the benefits he will receive as a result of your skills. Therefore, since the online market is overcrowded with competent individuals, in as much as there are many jobs, you need to stand out.
Create a competitive advantage against your competition based on your strengths and what you are good at.
For example, the benefits you can sell may include tangible and intangible ones. The physical benefits include things like growth in revenue, customers, and profitability, among others.
On the other hand, the intangible benefits may consist of time efficiency, peace of mind, and zero hassles.
With this in mind, you can now pitch your proposal to your client, putting into consideration what is it that they desire. When pitching, there are two types of pitches which include an ordinary pitch, and a benefits pitch.
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An Ordinary Pitch
An ordinary pitch, in most cases, focuses on the skills. For example, “I possess web design skills to build great websites that are standards-compliant.”
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A Benefits Pitch
On the other hand, the benefits pitch will concentrate on the benefits the client will get, rather than the skills. For example, “I provide web design services that will help increase your website traffic, and increase the conversion rate.”
When you concentrate on the benefits, it means that you are tackling the client’s problems or pains. This shows the client that you can solve their problems, which gives them more confidence in your work.
How You Sell Your Expertise Online
Here are a few ways to sell your expertise online to make extra income.
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Sell Your Skills As A Freelancer
Due to the advancement in technology, and the availability of the internet, numerous individuals and companies are embracing hiring through online platforms.
There are many online platforms that help to connect clients with freelance experts. Therefore, if you were wondering how you can sell your skills, these platforms are a great way to do it.
Currently, freelancing sites are one of the best places you can sell your expertise. By signing up with these platforms, you have a chance to sell your skills to the large pool of clients requiring such skills.
The ultimate freelance platform out there is Toptal. Think of the name as “Top Talent.” With this platform, you'll need to take a few tests to see if you qualify.
But if you are top talent, you'll have access to some of the top freelance gigs out there.
Some of these freelancing sites include SolidGigs, FlexJobs, Gotranscript, among others.
We like FlexJobs because of the quality of freelance jobs out there and offered by real, qualified companies.
Some of the skills you can sell on these sites include article writing, web content writing, blogging, copywriting, technical writing, editing and proofreading, and data entry, among others.
In the world of the internet today, it is virtually possible to sell anything online. As long as you have some skills, you can easily find people who require such expertise and earn from that.
If you wish to make money as a freelancer, here are several platforms you can try:
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Fiverr.com
Fiverr is one website that connects freelancers with potential clients. With Fiverr.com, freelancers can sell almost any skill.
These include anything from video animation, music & audio, graphics & design, business, digital marketing, to writing and translation, among others. There are thousands of Fiverr jobs that you can earn from.
All you need to do is find what you are good at and create a brand in it. But how do I get the jobs in Fiver? Well, here is how it works:
The first thing is to visit their website and create an account as a seller. After you have an account and you can sign in, then create a gig, set it up and offer it to the global audience.
If you deliver great work, Fiverr will notify you when a client needs your work, and you can discuss more details with the client.
Whenever you agree on the terms with the client, your payment will be transferred to you when the order is complete. Fiverr is a great source of gig jobs where you can sell your skills to the largest pool of global clients from where you are.
The awesome thing about this Fiverr is that you don’t need to bid for a project. All you require to do is create an excellent gig, and the interested client will buy. The price for a gig ranges from $5 to $10,000.
For those looking for freelance services, Fiverr is one of the world’s largest sites, that offer freelance services for businesses. This makes Fiverr a site where your skills can never go unnoticed.
And for this reason, if you have great skills, this is a platform that can help you make a lot of money online.
If you like doing small gigs for money, it's one of the best apps to make extra money.
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Upwork
Upwork is another great freelance site from which you can make a lot of money working from any location. Just like Fiverr, this platform connects people with various skills, with the people or companies in need of such skills. However, the major difference with Upwork is that you have to bid for projects.
To join Upwork, you have to sign up with them and create your profile. After they have approved your profile, you can now start bidding for projects depending on your area of expertise.
The platform just like in Fiverr contains numerous projects that you can apply for.
If you send a proposal and the client gives you the project, they will set a milestone and deposit the agreed amount in Escrow. Once you are done with the gig and the clients approve, Upwork will send you the money in five days.
The amount per project depends on its size, as well as your agreement with the client. There are both long-term, as well as short, one-time projects. Therefore, if you were wondering how you can sell your skills, try these freelance sites, and start making money online.
Other websites that offer fantastic gig jobs include:
- Fourerr
- Zeerk
- Guru
- Gig Bucks
- Five Squids
- Ten Bux
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E-Books
Although some may see e-books as being old school, while others may find them to require a more initial investment, they are still awesome ways of earning online. In fact, e-books can prove to be a very lucrative way of selling your skills online.
For example, if you are a mechanic, you can create a series of e-books such as, “step-by-step guide to doing it yourself.” If you a musician, you can write an e-book of something like “a comprehensive guide to master your guitar.”
All you need to do is make your book interesting an easy to understand.
After you are through writing your book, you can offer it as a PDF download through services such as PayLoadz or DPD. This way you can get more and more people to download it.
See Related: How to Make Money Without a Website
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Consulting
If on the other hand you are an experienced business person or you have knowledge that can help grow new upcoming businesses, you also have a chance to earn online.
If you want to be a consultant, I'd highly recommend Toptal as well.
This is a great platform for consultants to earn great money. Especially if you know a technical skill like finance or digital marketing.
Numerous people and startup businesses are willing to pay to get a piece of that knowledge to help them grow.
If you want a secondary stream of income from your business, online consulting is something that can also give you good money. And, just like there are freelance sites, there are also some apps that you can use to offer your advice for money.
For example, Ether is an app that enables you to set offer your expertise to willing clients. This web app offers you a free-toll 888 phone number that is set to forward to your personal line.
With this line, you can set the hours you are available and the amount you charge for the consultation. You can then open the line for business when you are available.
See Related: How to Make $200 Per Day
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Sell Online Courses
If you are up to the task, you can create some courses and sell them online. The courses may be about any field that you are good in. However, you should research on which topics are trending and what clients want more.
This is a great way you can use to sell your skills online. With apps like Odijoo, Litmos, or WiZiQ, among others, you can build web-based courses that teach your audience in a step by step manner.
Whichever your area of expertise is, you can use online courses as a way to share your expertise and make money online.
To make your courses more appealing, you can include multimedia and additional reading material. In addition, you can even include some of your e-books as a reading requirement. Lastly, you can offer assessments to enable your students or learners to assess their progress.
Since the internet has become a hub for answers to the various questions people have, it is very easy to capture their attention. With the right information, you can earn good money with your courses.
People search for virtually anything on the internet and thus a great opportunity to earn from it.
See Related: Best Side Jobs for Nurses
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Use Service Apps
There are numerous apps that are designed to connect service providers with service seekers. For example, in the field of beauty, as well as fitness & wellness, there are apps such as:
- BBforME, an app which links beauty and fitness experts with potential clients. Some of these clients even want the services offered to them from the comfort of their homes.
- Booksy, which is an app for independent hairdressers. This app caters to barbers, salons, as well as other beauty businesses. All you need is to get discovered, complete the bookings, and you are ready to manage clients.
- theCut free app. The app helps to connect barbers to potential clients within their area. The app also helps the user to take bookings, as well as schedule appointments and receive payments from a single place.
- FindYourTrainer, which is an app that helps personal trainers locate potential clients, or get found by customers.
All these apps help a service provider to find potential customers in an easily organized manner.
Therefore, if you have sat on your skill, you must think twice as you can earn even more money by selling it online and by building a successful business online.
Conclusion On Ways to Sell Your Skills Online
Whichever the skill or expertise that you possess, there is an immense pool of opportunities for you to make money with it online.
I hope this guide on the various ways to sell your skills online will help you find the best ways that suit you and start making more money.
What are your views about selling skills online? Kindly share in our comments area below.