I am a student so I know what it feels like to be in school without a source of income.
A lot of students have been struggling with what skill they need to have some little pocket money while in school.
One of the major challenge about choosing a skill as a student is that you can’t pick a random skill because you still have books to read. Online skills have proven to be less time consuming and easy that’s why in this post I’m going to list out profitable online skills for students.
On the other hand, this post is also for freelancers.
When I was in school, I made a decision to learn a skill and make money be being a freelancer. In this post, I am going to also give tips on what skills you should learn if you want to go into freelancing.
Web Content Writing
The first skill on my list is content writing, the reason why I put this one first is because it is easy to master and it is very easy to get a gig with a writing skill.
A lot of students don’t know that you can make money as a writer online because they think writing entails writing books only.
Content writing is what introduced me to the online world and this particular skill was one of the reason I was comfortable in school because I was always having one gig or the other.
One good thing about web content writing is that there is always someone who needs a writer; companies, blogs, ebook writers and a whole lot of people are always looking for writers to hire so there is always someone to sell your writing skill to.
To become a successful content writer, you should be an avid reader and you must be good with words and punctuations.
You can start getting content writing jobs by registering on online forums like Nairaland, you can also join blogging Facebook groups and advertise your skill, you can also register on freelancing websites like Fiverr.com.
Blogging
What if you get paid by sharing your opinion online or rather teaching people online.
A blog is a website that allow people share their thoughts or teach people online.
This website you are currently on is a blog. Blogging has received traction in Nigeria over the years and a lot of students including myself are benefiting from it.
One good thing about blogging is that you get paid for doing what you love and the means of monetizing it varies as you can monetize it by using advertisement platforms like Google Adsense and also affiliate marketing.
You can also monetize your blog by selling products on it or selling courses or ebooks.
Unlike other online skills which requires you to spend a lot of time learning, blogging doesn’t require you to spend months learning it as you don’t need any technical knowledge to setup a blog, you also don’t need to be a tech savvy to own a blog.
And along the line, if your blog can pull in a good amount of traffic, it will attract sponsors and advertisers to your blog.
Software/Web Development
Software developers are another type of freelancers that make good amount of money online.
One thing about software or web development is that it isn’t suitable for students but freelancers because you need to give it your time.
Nevertheless, you can start learning software development as a student but your school would really be a stumbling block to you practising it.
The good side about learn software development is that you can learn it online for free although it will be limited because there are somethings that you need to learn personally from an experienced person.
You can kickstart your website development or software development skill by learning on free coding websites like W3schools or freecodecamp.org.
Incase you want to learn online, you should learn it in this order;
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- PHP
The codes and programming languages above should get you started in having a software development career.
Now I know that your question could be “how can I get jobs as a software developer”? The answer is there is always a job for them as you can work for an organization, work remotely for a company or work as a freelancer by registering on freelance websites.
CV/Resume Writing
A CV (acronym for curriculum vitae) is an abbreviated piece of a person’s education, experience, achievement, skills and other qualifications that would make an employer interested in a job seeker.
As a student, you can make money by writing resumes for people because every body who wants to submit their CV to a company would do their possible best to see that they convince the company that they are qualified for the job with their beautiful resume.
A lot of people underate this skill because they think everybody can write a resume but it is not so.
CV/resume writing is a skill that you can monetize because there are a lot of people who visit freelance websites looking for people who can write a perfect resume for them.
As a CV/resume writer, your work is to compile your client’s work experience, educational background and area of expertise. The major things you need to learn to be a resume writer is you have to heighten your research skill, you also need to have basic computer skill and you must have a good communication and writing skill
There are a lot of websites that teaches resume writing for free so just go online and surf the net and become an independent student.
Social Media Manager
Social media are one of the biggest platforms on the internet and there are a lot of companies who uses the internet to get clients, make sales and even advertise their products.
Every company who make use of social media for their job needs a social media manager.
The social media management skill is one of the under looked skill and they people who are into it in Nigeria are very few making it easy for anybody who intend going into it to land a job.
If you are enthusiastic about social media then this skill is for you.
As a social media manager, your job is to be in control of the company’s social media accounts which means you’d be responsible for the growth and customer interaction of the company as long as it concerns social media.
As a social manager, it is advisable to up your skill by learning how to run ads on various social media platform because this can boost your CV and resume.
One thing you should also know this that social media managers are not limited to working for companies or organizations only.
Influential individuals like singers, entrepreneurs and other public figures usually need the work of a social media manager to update their social media profiles or pages.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a broad skill that a student or an intending freelancer can learn.
A digital marketer is a person that helps in devising strategies for companies to make sales on their product or services.
Like I said the digital marketing skill is very broad and involves many skills, you can choose to learn it generally or niche down to a particular skill. Some of the skills in digital marketing involves; selling on online stores, affiliate marketing, SEO consultancy or reselling of products.
I forgot to tell you that it isn’t compulsory for you to work for someone to earn money as a digital marketer as you can sell your own digital products, you can sell on Jumia and other ecommerce websites that allows vendors.
You can also be an affiliate marketer by promoting products to your audience and then getting a percentage for every sale you make.
You can also be an SEO consultant, SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimization.
With this skill, you can advise business owners on what to do to make their business visible using search engines like Google.
Video Ad Creator
Another skill which a student can learn is editing videos for aim of advertising.
Many companies use videos as a means to advertise their products, these companies need videos editors who are good at creating captivating people which would make the viewers interested in patronizing them.
This skill is in high demand because thousands of Nigerian businesses run online advertisement with videos hence they are in need of people who can create interesting videos for them.
Apart from that, there are a lot of people who need video creators to work remotely for them, you can find these people on freelance websites.
YouTubers also need video editors for their channels, you can create good videos for YouTubers.
You can also work for online tutors who know how to teach but are finding it difficult to create videos.
You can learn this skill online and then head on to promoting yourself online by creating short sample videos and posting them on your social media accounts or YouTube channel.
Graphic Design
Graphic design skill is also a skill that is in high demand.
One thing about graphic design is that it works both offline and offline.
Graphic designers are people who gives virtual representation by creating images that expresses or passes a message.
Graphic designers are in high demand because their target market can found almost everywhere for example, graphic designers are needed in corporate organizations, government or private companies, people who host conferences also need graphic designer, printers also need graphic designers for complex design jobs.
One good thing about learning graphic design is that you can learn it online and you don’t need to pay a dime to learn it.
It also doesn’t require you to own many equipments as you can comfortably do it by having just a laptop.
Formerly, carrying out graphic designs with a phone wasn’t advisable but you can now do it with a phone as there are new graphic design applications that are now available to mobile phone users.
You can start your graphic design skill by learning how to use these applications; Photoshop and Corel draw.
Conclusion
That’s all concerning online jobs for students in Nigeria.
I hope you use this post as a leverage to learn an online skill and become a successful freelancer while studying.
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