— SPACER —

Lesson #4: Are Your Skills Viable?

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”18″]Wahoo! You’ve got yourself a nice little list of skills to work with. Now what?

Now we find out if any of the skills you’ve narrowed in on are going to make you some moola![/text_block]

— SPACER —

Exercise:

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”16″]Using the skills you identified from the previous lesson, run them through the following exercise so we can figure out which one will bring in the money:[/text_block]
  • If your skill is predominantly online, i.e. you need a computer to complete any gigs that come your way, then start by checking out freelancing sites like Upwork.com and Freelancer.com — both of these sites have a job search bar. Start there. For those of you with more offline skills, jump to point #4.
  • Using the job search on these two sites, type in each of your skills and see what gigs come up. If you’ve got over a page full of gigs, then it’s safe to say that not only is your skill in high demand, but it’s gonna make you moola. But let’s take it one step further, just to be sure.
  • Let’s check out some niche sites, ones that focus more on a group of similar skills than on every possible freelance skill available. The easiest way to do this is to do a Google search. Search your skill + jobs and add “freelancing” before your skill. So if you’re a web designer, your search would look like this: “freelancing web designer jobs”. Note down how many options come up, and focus on the sites that are niche specific. For web designer, I found a site called www.project4hire.com. Again, if there are a number of jobs (5 or more) on that site that match your skill, it’s a great sign that your skill is viable and profitable. Keep a list of these sites for future reference.
  • If your skill is more offline, such as hairdressing, dog walking or beauty therapy, then you’re going to start your search on Craigslist.com — this site is worldwide, so make sure you choose your location when you visit. You’re looking to see if your particular skill is being advertised or requested. If there are 5 or more jobs or requests on Craigslist, you’re on to a winner.
  • But don’t stop there. You should also check out your local community center notice board, local newspaper classifieds and any other places you’d go to connect with others locally. If you see people asking for your skill or advertising your skill in these places, it’s a good bet that your skill is in demand.
[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”16″]This exercise might take a more than the 30 minutes we'd allocated to doing these lessons each day, but it's worth it. Dig as deep as you can to find the sites that need your skills, and make sure you keep a note of them. Write them down in your notebook or store them in a Word doc, Google doc or in your Evernote notebook – whatever floats your boat![/text_block]

You guessed it… now it's your turn!

[text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left” font_size=”16″]Take the time to really dig into today's exercise and really validate those skills. Time spent here saves you making a mistake further down the track…[/text_block]