Most In-Demand Freelance Skills & Their Income Potentials

A lot of people ask about the most in-demand freelance skills, simply because they want to know which skills they can learn and make money on freelance websites. But already, almost everyone has one skill or the other that can start earning you money NOW! You either don’t know how to monetize it or are ill-informed about its monetary potentials.

Skilled people, especially citizens of tier 2 and tier 3 countries have found ways of making money with their skills by using their skills to work for people and businesses based in mostly tier 1 countries.

This works out very well because labor is very expensive in tier 1 countries, and the shift in skill interests has meant that workers with certain skillset are declining, yet the work they do remain.

In order to start making money as a freelancer with the skills you have right now, you only need to know the right freelance platform where your skills are in high demand, then pitch it, and the money starts coming.

In coming up with this article, my team and I conducted research on top freelancing websites. What you have here are the results., I will walk you through the skills that are in high demand in top freelancing websites

Top 10 In-Demand Freelance Skills: How We Got The Statistics

We used SEO tools like Webtimizer, Ahrefs, and SEMRush to check the pages receiving the most traffic on top freelancer websites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com.

For these sites to receive such traffic, it means that people visit those pages for their content, which obviously are the services being offered by those with freelance skills.

We then crunched the data from these sites, filtered out estimated visits by online bots and the service providers themselves. So what we have left is what we provide here for your perusal.

Top 10 Most In-Demand Freelance Skills in 2021 and How to Monetize Them

The following are the 10 top freelance skills on Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer. They are the skills mostly used by those who know how to make money on the best freelancing sites

1. Social Media Management (Average Revenue Per Gig: $200)

Social media is one of the fastest ways for businesses to reach more people in today’s digital world. Getting visitors to your website organically takes time, but with social media, you can get instant results. This is why many brands are using social media to reach out to their potential customers.

But not many have the time. As such, many businesses are now in search of social media managers to help them maintain a good social presence and attract more followers and engagement.

Here are the monthly visit metrics we gathered from our top freelance platforms for the term Social Media Management.

• Fiverr: 3,563 visits per month (cumulative for “Social marketing – 3,132,” “Social media management – 230,” and “Social media Advertising – 201.”
• Upwork: 5,011 visits per month (cumulative for “Social media managers – 3,179,” “Social media management – 1.157,” “Social media marketing – 1,066,” and “Social media consultants – 675”
• Freelancer: 207 visits per month (cumulative for “Social media marketing – 117,” and “Social media management – 90.”)

Freelance Income Potentials For Social Media Manager

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $200. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $200 per gig on average.

Final Thoughts: If you have social media management skills and considering a freelance platform to join, I will advise you to go for Upwork and Fiverr. This is because they have some considerable monthly traffic compared to Freelancer.

2. Logo Design (Average Revenue Per Gig: $55)

Logo design is one of the most in-demand freelance skills in graphic design and rightfully so. This is because most businesses need a professional logo to represent their brand. And no one wants to take the chances of designing their own business logo except he is skilled in the art.

To become a logo designer, you need to be skilled in how to use graphic software like Illustrator, Photoshop, Corel Draw, and the likes.

Here are the monthly visit metrics we gathered from our top 3 freelance platforms:

• Fiverr: 185,000+ visits per month
• Upwork: 24,000+ visits per month
• Freelancer: 1,500+ visits per month

Logo design was the most in-demand skill on Fiverr, with over 185,000 monthly visits. This makes it the most in-demand skill on Fiverr. Some of the terms used for it are “logo design,” “gaming logo maker,” “creative logo design,” etc.

On Upwork, logo design isn’t as popular as it has about 3,990 monthly visits. However, when combined with the frequently searched term on Upwork which is “graphic design,” and “graphic designers,” you get a total monthly visit of 24,000.

On Freelancer, logo design only boasts about 1,500 monthly visits.

On average, most top sellers have 1,000+ reviews on Fiverr which means that there’s a lot of money to be made with this skill.

Freelance Income Potentials For Logo Designer

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $55. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $55 per gig on average.

Final thoughts: Logo design is still a great freelance skill to acquire and you can make money with it by signing up on these top 3 platforms. Our top recommendation will be that you go for Fiverr if you are a logo designer due to the fact that they have the most traffic. Although the competition might be much, it might be worth the effort.

3. Data Entry (Average Revenue Per Gig: $35 per hour)

Data entry is one of the top skills demanded in all the three platforms we assessed – Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer for the most in-demand freelance skills. This is a very simple skill and yet very much in demand. This is because not many people have the time nor the patience to type tens or hundreds of pages.

As such, they look for data entry specialists. Another name for this skill is “typing” and all you need is a PC and the ability to type fast and accurately. Data entry jobs may include updating e-commerce website stock (mostly through excel sheets).

Here are the monthly visit metrics we gathered from our top 3 freelance platforms:

• Fiverr: 19,600 visits per month
• Upwork: 151,000 visits per month
• Freelancer: 19,501 visits per month

This includes a combination of the key terms “data entry,” “typing,” and “copy typing”.

Freelancer Income Potentials For Data Entry

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $35. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $35 per gig on average.

Final Thoughts: If you are fast with the keyboard, then you have the skill to become a data entry specialist. From our analysis above, Upwork would be the best freelance platform to go for as a data entry specialist.

4. Copy Writing (Average Revenue Per Gig: $55)

Writing is one of the best freelance skills that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. People need writers for their blogs, education, etc. Writing has a lot of specialties within it such as article writing, book writing, blog writing, resume writing, copywriting, etc.

Whichever one you’re good at, you should just monetize your skill by opening a gig on any of these freelance platforms. But before doing that, let’s take a look at the number of traffic that these skills get. This is an indicator of how many people are looking for such services.

• Fiverr: 14,955 visits per month
• Upwork: 40,554 visits per month
• Freelancer: 1,600 visits per month

The figure on Fiverr is a cumulative figure of “Resume writing services – 8183,” “Articles blogposts – 3670,” and “Scriptwriting – 3102.”

The figure on Upwork is a cumulative figure of “Writing- 14,588,” “Copywriters – 7264,” “Copywriting – 5849,” “Content writers – 5138” “Article writing – 4541” and “Online writing – 3174.”

The figure on Freelancer is cumulative of “Online writing,” and “Ghostwriting.”

Income Potentials For Freelance Copy Writer

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $55. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $55 per gig on average.

Final Thoughts: If you are a writer that wants to monetize your skill, Upwork should be at the top of your list of freelance platforms, followed by Fiverr.

5. Web Designing/Web Development (Average Revenue Per Gig: $290)

Every aspect of the market is becoming digitalized and businesses are more concerned about their online presence. They want to be able to offer their services online and interact with their customers better.

Due to the demand for websites from businesses, web designing has become one of the most in-demand freelance skills on freelance platforms. And the great thing about this skill is that it pays more than the other skills we’ve discussed so far.

Here are the monthly visit metrics we gathered from our top 3 freelance platforms:

• Fiverr: 7,714 visits per month (cumulative for “Web designing – 5,307,” and ” Web programming services – 2,407.”)
• Upwork: 40,554 visits per month (cumulative for “Web designers – “14,485,” “Web developers – 7,769,” and “WordPress developers – 3,474”
• Freelancer: 1,888 visits per month (cumulative for “Web design – 1,240,” and “Web development – 648.”)

Income Potentials For Freelance Web Designer

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $290. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $290 per gig on average.

Final thoughts: If you are skilled in Web design or web development of any form, you can make money by freelancing on Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer. However, Upwork should be your first go-to place as there is more demand for Web designers on Upwork than on the other two platforms.

6. Virtual Assistants (Average Revenue Per Gig: $60 per hour)

Many business owners struggle to manage their time and keep up with multiple tasks. Many business owners and companies are looking for virtual assistants to help them achieve their goals. Virtual assistants are more than just virtual secretaries.

They can help you plan your day and respond to your emails. There are many skills and expertise that you can choose from, including freelancers who specialize in marketing, accounting, or e-commerce.

Virtual assistants who are free to work as freelancers can be a great alternative for companies that offer virtual assistance. Although the tasks that you will perform as a virtual assistant may vary from one company to another, it is essentially about managing the business activities.

You can become a virtual assistant if you have excellent communication skills and time management skills. Here are the number of monthly visits our top 3 platforms get for virtual assistants.

• Fiverr: 7,610 visits per month
• Upwork: 31,696 visits per month
• Freelancer: 1,048 visits per month

Income Potentials For Freelance Virtual Assistant

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $60. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $60 per gig on average.

Final Thoughts: If you have the capacity to work as a Virtual assistant, you should first consider Upwork as they get more traffic for the skill. You can also consider Fiverr afterward.

7. Photo Editing/Retouching (Average Revenue Per Gig: $40)

As another top in-demand freelance skill, Photo Editing or Retouching of photos is an art form, which requires talent, experience, and skill. You must be skilled in Photoshop or similar advanced photo editing software to be able to do this job.

As you can see, from our research, this skill made it to our top 10 due to the demand for it. So why not make money off your skill? You can learn Photoshop on platforms like Udemy, do some sample projects, and offer your services on freelance platforms.

Let’s take a look at the number of people searching for these skills on our top 3 freelance platforms.

• Fiverr: 7,921 visits per month
• Upwork: 5,981 visits per month ((cumulative for “photography – 2,353,” and “photo editing – 2,067,” and “adobe photoshop – 1,561.”)
• Freelancer: 1,080 visits per month (cumulative for “photography – 650,” and “photo editing – 430.”)

Income Potentials For Freelance Photo Editor

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $40. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $40 per gig on average.

Final Thoughts: If you are skilled in Photo editing or how to use photoshop, you can make money by offering your services on Fiverr and Upwork as those two platforms get the most visits from people who are searching for such services.

8. Video Editing (Average Revenue Per Gig: $70)

A lot of online content today is videos as that is what moves a lot of today’s online audience. Video editors and videographers have many opportunities due to this huge demand. You can make a lot of money selling video editing services on online freelancing platforms if you have the right skills and tools.

Before you start your Fiverr video editing career you should choose the genre you would like to work in. This could be video ads, music videos, or documentaries. This niche has a lot of competition so it is important to narrow your focus in order to get more buyers.

Learn how to use video-editing software, or look online for tools that allow you to edit videos with ease. Here are the monthly visit metrics we gathered from our top 3 freelance platforms:

• Fiverr: 2,367 visits per month
• Upwork: 6,181 visits per month
• Freelancer: 660 visits per month

Income Potentials For Freelance Video Editor

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $70. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $70 per gig on average.

Final Thoughts: For video editors, our first recommended platform is Upwork and the second is Fiverr due to the number of monthly visits they get in a month for video editing alone.

9. Online Marketing/SEO services (Average Revenue Per Gig: $320)

Today, every business wants to gain more exposure on the internet. This is why many are looking for online marketing professionals to help them out in this area. Although online marketing comprises many different specialties such as SEO, PPC advertising, etc. in this regard, we will be focusing on SEO as an in-demand freelance skill.

SEO comprises both the On-Page and Off-page SEO optimizations. On-page SEO is about optimizing your site content so it can rank higher on search engine result pages. Off-page SEO is a category that includes activities outside of the website. It helps to establish a website’s authority. A part of Off-Page SEO is link building.

Here are the monthly visit metrics we gathered from our top 3 freelance platforms for the term SEO.

• Fiverr: 7,075 visits per month
• Upwork: 3,419 visits per month
• Freelancer: 516 visits per month

Income Potentials For Freelance SEO Manager

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $320. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $320 per gig on average.

10. Translation (Average Revenue Per Gig: $50)

Translation is one of the popular and in-demand skills on both Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer. This is a special skill for people who can speak some of the other popular languages aside from English such as Spanish, French, etc.  So if you are fluent in more than one language, translating content is a great way of making money with freelancing.

Users of our top 3 freelance platforms come from nearly every corner of the globe so it covers almost any language you can think of including Asian and African local languages.

To translate their content into another language, they need professional translation services. Translating documents, articles, scripts or product descriptions can be a skill you can sell on Fiverr.

These are the monthly visits we gathered from our research:

• Fiverr: 21,200 visits per month
• Upwork: 8,616 visits per month
• Freelancer: 1,600 visits per month

Income Potentials For Freelance Language Translator

• Average Revenue Per Gig: $50. As a social media manager, you can earn up to $50 per gig on average.

Final thoughts: If you are especially skilled in any major foreign or local language aside from English, you should consider opening a gig on Fiverr and Upwork.

In conclusion

The purpose of this research is to take the guesswork out of the picture and give you exactly what works based on the thorough research we have done. There are other good freelancer skills that might pay more than the ones listed above such as software development, ethical hacking, crypto programming, etc, however, there are not many demands for them.

This is not to say that if you are good at them, you should put out your services on any of these freelancing platforms. But the purpose of this article is not to categorize the highest paying freelance skills but to list them by their demand.

So which of these freelancing skills in high in demand are you good at? Remember that you can learn any of these top skills on e-learning platforms like Udemy. Comment below let us know.