Top High-Income Skills to Learn in 2024 - Boost Your Earning Potential

In today's rapidly evolving job market, staying ahead of the curve is crucial for career success.

As we move further into 2024, certain skills are becoming increasingly valuable, offering the potential for substantial financial rewards. Whether you’re looking to switch careers, negotiate a raise, or future-proof your professional life, mastering these high-income skills can open doors to lucrative opportunities.

Let’s explore the most in-demand abilities that can significantly boost your earning potential this year.

AI Proficiency

AI has evolved so much over the last two years, it’s at a ridiculous pace, and I think this year it’s just only going to keep getting bigger. However, AI, I feel like, is still a tool that needs owning. At the end of the day, it’s a computer that can only do so much with the information that you give it.

So it really is important what information you give it to get the answers that you actually need. Learning how to use AI is like learning how to use Google. Most people will use Google on a basic level when they’re searching for stuff, maybe searching for information, just simply searching for things.

But power users know how powerful Google actually is. Power users know what tips and tricks they can use with Google to get the information that they need, and I feel like AI is exactly the same.

Most people will use AI for basic stuff like formatting a document, formatting an email, but you can use AI for so much more. You can use something like mid journey to create artwork and images, you can use AI to scan a PDF for you. Maybe you have a hundred page PDF with tons of info in it, you can use AI to ask questions about that PDF, get information about that PDF without actually having to read through those 100 pages yourself. You can even install AI on a website. Maybe you have a blog or some sort of website that has a ton of content, maybe thousands of pages of content. You can use AI to find something on that website without actually having to try and search for it yourself.

I’m now trying to figure out myself what I can do with AI.

I want to build an AI tool that I feel like can be useful and actually provide value.

So yeah, AI to me is a very, very interesting market right now, and something that I’m playing close and some, and something that I’m paying close attention to because I feel like AI is still not really at its full potential. There’s still a lot more that it can do.

Web Design

So this is definitely one of the oldest skills when it comes to the Internet, but it’s still so relevant today. This is actually the first skill that I learned in my early twenties.

I didn’t know at the time when I was messing around with websites that I could actually make good money from it using this skill. I’ve gained a lot of clients over the years, all the way from basic work, you know, doing basic websites for small companies, for small businesses, all the way to huge design projects for massive clients. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do work for billion dollar companies as well.

I feel like this skill can also just be useful in everyday web usage. When you know a little bit of design and code, it can really go a long way.

My big break came when I used to build website templates.

I used to build website templates for Tumblr when Tumblr was very popular back in the day and ended up making over $5,000 from website templates, which at the time for me when I was in my early twenties, was an absolutely outrageous amount of money. It still is a crazy amount of money to make in just a couple of years. I also still use this skill today to build my own websites.

Building websites now is so much easier than it used to be five to ten years ago because there are just so many tools out there that can help you build websites quite quickly.

Framer and Webflow are two tools that I always recommend to other people who are looking to make their own websites but don’t really want to mess around with code. These two tools can help you build any type of website you like.

Video Editing

Video really is just taking over the world right now. Everyone is watching video, whether it be on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube.

Everyone can sort of learn. Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere they’re quite easy programs to learn. But the problem is most of these people who are learning these programs don’t actually know how to edit a video well.

And that’s the key bit of info here. Knowing how to edit a video well, they’re just watching random stuff on YouTube or TikTok. Maybe they’re copying sort of the MrBeast style of editing, and MrBeast style of editing works for MrBeast.

However, that doesn’t really work for other creators. So I think that’s the issue. A lot of video editors are sort of going out looking at these huge channels and just copying them and not really thinking about why it works, why someone would want to watch video.

And that is really is just a big issue right now. The market for good video editors is ridiculously small. It’s almost non existent.

I find it difficult myself looking for good video editors. I get probably an email every single day of someone wanting to edit my videos. However, they’re just not really good enough.

And I think there is definitely a gap in the market there for good video editors when it comes to making money as a video editor. Good video editors get paid really, really good money.

There’s no doubt about it.

Sales and Marketing

This is something that unfortunately gets a bad rep.

Salespeople, marketing people, they just seem a bit sleazy and I used to be guilty of this myself. I used to judge sales and marketing people. Now that I’m a bit older, I’m a bit more experienced in the workplace.

The only reason why we see sales and marketing people as sleazy is because we only remember the sleazy ones. What a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that most of the people that you deal with day to day, whenever you’re buying something, whenever you’re dealing with someone, they are sales and marketing people. The only issue is you just don’t realize that they are because they’re treating you like a normal person.

They’re not trying to be sleazy. They may be just trying to be helpful, maybe trying to be friendly. Those are the salespeople.

Those are the marketing people that are actually doing a great job. They’re not the sleazy ones. They’re the ones that we trust.

They’re the ones that we hope can provide us information when it comes to buying a new product or buying a new service or something like that. Trying to teach us, trying to educate us, just trying to give us a good experience. Technically, we all need to be salespeople.

We all need to be sort of selling ourselves. When it comes to making money online, the most important thing I’ve learned from selling is not trying to sell the product. It’s trying to sell what the product can do for the person buying it.

If you want to get a better understanding of marketing, HubSpot have put together a doc titled the State of Marketing for 2024, It shares top marketing trends that are to be expected for 2024.

Content Creation

Content creation, though, isn’t just limited to making your own following, sharing your own content online. You can of course make content for brands and it’s something that I do on a regular basis. I have numerous tech companies and software companies come to me quite regularly, wanting me to make content for their company, and that content will go on their own social media channels and on their own websites.

And the great thing about this is that you can charge very, very good money, especially if you can take a concept and then make it something that can actually look good online.

It’s an interesting skill to have because it’s not necessarily sort of one skill, it’s a blend of a number of different skills, marketing, video, photo sales, communication, etcetera. There are a bunch of skills that come into play when it comes to making content.

I personally do content creation to build my own brand, to build my own following, so that in the future when I launch products or businesses, I already have a following that I can market it to. I don’t then have to spend money on paid marketing. I’ve definitely never shied away from the fact that I’m trying to make money.

It’s why I have this blog site, it’s why I share this stuff because at the end of the day, I want to make money and also share the knowledge of how other people can make money as well. However, when it comes to content creation, it is definitely a slow burner. It’s not something that can happen overnight.

It very rarely happens overnight.

It takes years of work to build trust, just like any relationship.

My Unique Advantage

I want to get into how I personally do it myself.

So web design, video editing, marketing and sales, these are all the things that have helped me earn money online. I’d say that my unique advantage is that I’ve taken a blend of different skills that I’ve learned over the years to then help sort of sell services, sell products, and help me make millions online. I’ve basically become a one man business that can build and sell whatever I feel like building and selling. And it’s what I feel like most people need to recognize in themselves. Most people don’t realize that they do actually have maybe two, three, four different skills that they can blend together to help them make money. It’s what gives them their unfair advantage.

For example, this is something I’ve mentioned earlier. Maybe you’re an expert in woodwork and you can build custom furniture. You can then combine that with making content on TikTok, sharing your process and products to potentially build an audience, and then you could even sell those products to that audience.

Another example is, of course, makeup. We have seen so many creators share their own sort of makeup tutorials online, and then what they end up doing is they end up partnering with brands, including different types of makeup in their videos, and then even going on to sell their own makeup up.

This is incredibly powerful and can even go further by using leverage. Once you feel like the work is too much, you can hire other people to do the work for you. And it’s exactly what I started doing.

I started hiring video editors, designers, marketers, developers. I could do all of these jobs myself. However, it’s just way too much.

It makes so much sense for me to hire other people that can do these jobs for me because they’re focusing on that one specific job, that one specific skill, which means they can do that skill better than I can. Using leverage is a great way to use the skills of other people to help grow businesses further. My aim is to build businesses that don’t rely on me.

I want to use the high income skills of other people in my businesses to help everyone make money. That’s the whole point of it. I want to be able to build businesses that just don’t rely on me, that can make money in the background.

Conclusion

As we’ve explored, the landscape of high-income skills is constantly evolving. By investing in these key abilities, you’re not just preparing for the job market of today, but positioning yourself for success in the years to come.

Remember, the journey to mastering these skills is ongoing. Start small, be consistent, and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Whether you choose to focus on one area or diversify your skill set, the potential for increased earning power is significant.

Take the first step today, and watch as new opportunities unfold in your professional journey.