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Learning a new skill is one of the best ways to turn your spare time into something productive.
Have you ever noticed how successful people don’t waste their time doing things that aren’t productive? They spend the majority of their time managing their business and, when they have free time, they try to learn new skills.
They believe that learning is a never-ending habit, and that we should always try to learn something new that will help us in our lives.
As a result, I’ve compiled a list of 18 cool and useful skills to learn that will undoubtedly improve your life both professionally and personally.
Along with each skill, I’ve recommended a best-selling Udemy course that will teach you everything you need to know.
Most of the skills can also be used to make money online, and you could even turn them into a full-time business.
Why I Prefer Udemy For Beginners?
Many websites offer online courses on a variety of topics. I’ve used a lot of them, and I’d say Udemy is one of the best for great courses at low prices.
This isn’t to say they don’t have low-quality courses; they do. However, you can easily filter them out by looking at the ratings, user reviews, and content table.
Even if you purchase a course that you are dissatisfied with, Udemy provides a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you will not feel cheated.
Another thing is – Udemy also occasionally offers course discounts. As a result, if you have a little patience, you can find better deals than the standard price.
This means that during Udemy discount sales, you can purchase courses for as little as $5, whereas on normal days, they can cost up to $200.
Overall, I believe it is a fantastic platform for beginners looking to learn skills at a low cost.
What To Do After Learning A Skill?
Learning new skills can be both rewarding and enjoyable. You can do a lot of things once you’ve mastered any skill.
- You can start your own YouTube channel to demonstrate your expertise and earn money by monetizing it.
- Second, you can sell your services on Fiverr and Upwork, where customers will pay you.
- Third, you can provide your service by launching a website. Though it is a bit difficult, it is extremely rewarding.
18 Best Skills to Learn this Year
1. Learn Adobe After Effects For Visual Effects
After effects is a digital visual motion graphic application that is used in the post-production of filmmaking, video games, and television production.
Learning After Effects allows you to create VFX effects, add scripts to animations, and do a variety of other things.
If you enjoy seeing visual graphics on the internet or in movies, you can make your own with this software.
Course Name:
After Effects – Motion Graphics & Data Visualization
What You’ll Learn:
- Learn to animate spreadsheets.
- How to create voice-over infographics?
- How to make animated pie charts, line charts & bar graphs.
- How to animate icons making beautiful infographics.
- All the animation techniques are needed to bring your data to life.
2. Learn Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a powerful editing program that allows you to edit photos, create graphics, and do a variety of other things. Photoshop is such a valuable skill that it can even land you a job in a graphic or web design firm.
If you’re a social media addict who enjoys uploading photos, Photoshop can transform your poorly captured images into well-edited ones.
You can not only edit your own photos, but you can also design flyers, brochures, and other graphics that are in high demand in digital marketing agencies.
Course Name:
Adobe Photoshop CC: Your Complete Beginner to Advanced Class.
What You’ll Learn:
- Learn the necessary tools for editing and manipulating images.
- How to edit photos with a variety of tools.
- How to retouch photos to remove blemishes, fix red-eye, whiten teeth, and more.
- How to use blending modes.
- Learn how to use the shape tool and pen tool to design custom shapes.
3. Travel Photography
Travel photography involves taking photographs of the landscape, people, cultures, customs, and history while traveling. It is an art to see beauty in the most unexpected places and transform it into photographs.
If you travel frequently and want to capture your best moments for social media or a photo album, you’ll need photography skills.
To begin, you should be familiar with how to operate a camera and its basic settings. Along with it, you should have creativity and imagination to be able to interpret what you’re seeing in a variety of ways.
Course Name:
Travel Photography: Take Beautiful Photos on Your Adventures.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to take Amazing photos on your next trip?
- The right equipment for photography.
- How to edit and share your photos like a pro!
4. Copywriting
Copywriting is a skill that is used to write advertising and promotional material. Its sole purpose is to persuade the audience to take action, such as purchasing a product/service or signing up for something.
Convincing people to act through writing is an art, and it is not for everyone. Copywriters are well-versed in the various strategies and tricks that are used to elicit people’s emotions. They understand how to use powerful words and psychology to persuade people to act.
When you have acquired such skills, you can earn money by offering your services to digital marketing agencies and individual bloggers.
Course Name:
The Complete Copywriting Course: Write to Sell Like a Pro.
What You’ll Learn:
- Learn how to sell more products and services.
- Hacks and secrets from the world’s most successful copywriters.
- The sales psychology you NEED to grow a profitable business.
- Ethical persuasion methods.
- Compel your readers using timeless sales psychology.
5. Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping is the process of managing and recording all business transactions.
Every business requires the services of a bookkeeper in order to evaluate success and failure. If you have bookkeeping skills, you can apply for a job as a bookkeeper and get paid.
An average Bookkeeper earns at least $16-$17 per hour and $34k per year, which is not bad for the job.
To begin, you should have data entry skills, knowledge of bookkeeping principles, attention to detail, accounting skills, and many other skills.
Course Name:
Xero – How to become a successful Xero Bookkeeper
What You’ll Learn:
- Benefit from joining the Xero Partner Program.
- How to manage your own business finances from the beginning?
- Create your brand identity.
- Learn how and where to market your business & much more.
6. Microsoft Excel
Excel is one of the tools used in businesses for data analysis and storage. They’re used to make data more structured and presentable.
The best thing about Excel is that it has a plethora of formulas and shortcuts to help you complete your tasks more quickly and easily.
If you own a business and need to store numerical data in a more organized manner, learning Excel will be extremely beneficial.
Course Name:
Microsoft Excel – Excel from Beginner to Advanced
What You’ll Learn:
- Common Excel functions used in the Office.
- How to maintain large sets of Excel data in a list or table.
- Create dynamic reports by mastering one of the most popular tools.
- Learn dynamic formulas with IF, VLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH functions & much more.
7. Stock Trading
A stock trader is someone who frequently buys and sells shares in various companies in order to profit from daily price fluctuations.
If you understand stock trading strategies and how the stock market works, you can profit every day, week, and month.
The following course will teach you the fundamentals of stock trading. Whether you want to make money on the side or full-time, the stock trading course is all you need.
Course Name:
The Complete Foundation Stock Trading Course
What You’ll Learn:
- Understand how the stock market works.
- Get an insight into a traders mind.
- Different Exchanges: NYSE, NASDAQ & AMEX.
- Money management & much more.
8. Freelance Business
Consider doing your favorite thing and earning a full-time living from it. Whether it’s drawing, writing, or design, each of these activities can be transformed into a self-employed business.
You can make your own schedule, work with amazing people, make your own rules, and enjoy a relaxed work environment. That’s what the freelance business is all about.
However, starting a freelance business requires the proper guidance and strategies. To run a successful freelance business, you will need a variety of skills, including organizational abilities, business strategic planning abilities, marketing abilities, and many others.
Fortunately, you can enroll in the following course, which will teach you everything and does not require a degree.
Course Name:
Start a Freelance Business: Take Back Your Freedom Now!
What You’ll Learn:
- Become a highly paid freelancer even if you have no degree, no experience, and no portfolio.
- Best platforms for freelancing and how to get started.
- Freelance interview techniques that help you earn more sales.
- The secret to creating full-time income from home or anywhere & much more.
9. Mobile App Development
If you’ve ever wondered how smartphone apps and games are created, learning to code in modern programming languages is the answer.
A few websites, such as Codecademy and FreeCodeCamp, offer free courses; however, if you need full-fledged courses to learn mobile app development, enrolling in a paid course is the best option.
You can either offer your services to businesses or create your own apps once you’ve learned how to develop mobile apps.
Having your own apps allows you to monetize them with ads and even offer subscriptions to generate income on autopilot.
Course Name:
iOS 13 & Swift 5 – The Complete iOS App Development Bootcamp
What You’ll Learn
- Build any app you want
- Work with Apple’s latest UI Framework – SwiftUI
- Start your own app-based business
- Master creating Augmented Reality apps using Apple’s new ARKit & much more
10. Blogging
One of the most profitable skills on this list is blogging. It can not only completely transform your life, but it can also provide you with a great deal of freedom.
You will be your own boss, and you will be able to work from anywhere in the world as long as you have internet access.
Through blogging, you can earn money in a variety of ways, including advertising, affiliate marketing, offering courses, and providing services.
If you’re looking for shortcuts or don’t want to put in the effort, blogging isn’t for you. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and you will need to wait at least six months to see any results.
As a blogger, I know how hard I worked to get to the point where I am earning more than my previous 9-5 job. If you’re serious about starting your own blog, enroll in an online course or read my blogging guide.
Course Name:
Blogging Masterclass: How To Build A Successful Blog In 2021
What You’ll Learn
- Discover a profitable blogging niche
- Develop a system to plan new content, and generate lots of ideas
- Optimize your website for search engines
- Develop the mindset of a successful blogger
- Build a profitable business around your content and turn your blog into a revenue-generating asset & much more
11. Save Money
Unless you are extremely wealthy, it is not a good idea to overspend your money. Many people do not know how to control their spending and end up in debt as a result.
So, what happens if an emergency arises? They end up borrowing money from friends and family, adding to their debt.
Saving money is not as simple as it sounds because it requires effort, practice, and knowledge of money-saving techniques.
These skills enable you to keep track of your finances, save more, and spend less. If you want to be able to control your spending, learning this skill will be a lifesaver.
Course Name:
Budgeting: How To Save Money by Eliminating Spending Leaks
What You’ll Learn
- Save money by learning to control your spending
- Finding and eliminating the excess spending
12. Dog Training
Dog training is a skill that combines animal behavior knowledge with practical teaching abilities. To train a dog, you must have patience, consistency, and excellent communication skills.
Learning this skill is essential if you love dogs and want to teach them good behavior and companionship.
Course Name:
DOG BEHAVIOR & DOG TRAINING: Fix Problems & Animal Behavior
What You’ll Learn
- Most important dog obedience commands – SIT, DOWN, STAY, COME, INSIDE, LEAVE IT, HEEL
- Basics when you train your puppy or an adult dog
- Socializing your dog & much more
13. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a highly profitable online business that requires little initial investment. It is a business model in which you buy and sell products without owning them.
All you have to do to get started is set up the retail website, find customers, and handle customer support. When you receive an order from your online store, you need to procure the items from a third party and ship it directly to the customer.
You don’t have to worry about any inventory or shipping because it’s handled by a third party. As a result, when compared to the traditional retail model, it eliminates a lot of headaches.
Course Name:
The Complete Shopify Aliexpress Dropship course
What You’ll Learn
- Skills you need to build a PROFITABLE eCommerce store
- Decide what to sell
- Understanding the target audience & much more
14. Travel Writing
Travel writing is the process of writing about your travel experiences. You can write about places, people, things, how to travel, when to travel, and other travel-related topics.
If you enjoy traveling and want to share your knowledge and experiences with people all over the world, travel writing is one of the best options.
To get started, you can create your blog and share your experiences with others through content and images. If that’s not your thing, you can also write content for popular travel websites.
Course Name:
Travel Writing: Explore the World & Publish Your Stories!
What You’ll Learn
- How to write professional-quality travel tales that readers will love
- Master writing techniques that will hook readers right away
- Write dialogue that sounds natural and believable
- Learn the two big mistakes that keep beginning freelance writers from getting published & much more
15. Hip Hop Dancing
Hip Hop dancing requires no introduction because everyone is familiar with it. It is a dance style that evolved from hip-hop culture and is usually performed in hip-hop music.
If you enjoy dancing or want to learn how to dance, Hip Hop is one of the best dance styles to learn. Though it takes a lot of practice to perfect your moves, it is worth your time. Additionally, having a strong sense of rhythm can help you learn them much more quickly.
Once you’ve mastered it, you can start your own YouTube channel to show off your dancing abilities to millions of people, or teach others to make money.
Course Name:
What You’ll Learn
- How to perform without a boring facial expression
- Understand basic hip hop grooves, movement, and footwork
- Understand basic 8 counts & much more
16. Pencil Portrait
A pencil Portrait is a drawing done on a sheet of paper with graphite and charcoal. It doesn’t need any color because shading is used to create the tones and shapes of each feature.
It is a basic skill that some people are born with and others are not. If you fall into the latter category, you can learn to draw like a pro by enrolling in an online course.
Course Name:
Portrait Drawing: How to Draw a Beauty Portrait with Pencils
What You’ll Learn:
- How to draw a beautiful portrait with pencils and brushes?
- How to draw hair, hand, and dress?
- Draw facial components like eyes, nose, eyebrows, lips.
- How to shade the skin?
17. Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the art and craft of visual storytelling. You can use this skill to show a story rather than tell it by using moving images. Elements for filmmaking include theme, rhythm, shape, color, space, and a few others.
Whether you’re a YouTuber or an independent filmmaker, you’ll need this skill to create captivating videos to tell your stories.
Course Name:
Complete Filmmaker Guide: Become an Incredible Video Creator.
What You’ll Learn:
- Learn about lenses, lighting, sound recording, cinematography, and editing!
- Turning an idea into your own unique style of video.
- How to produce amazing content without expensive equipment.
- Gain a film school level understanding of filmmaking & much more.
18. Music-Production
Previously, learning to play a musical instrument was required in order to produce music. However, music production software such as FL Studio is now all you need.
With a few mouse clicks, you can compose, arrange, record, edit, mix, and master professional quality music. If you enjoy making your own music or want to make instrumentals, learning FL Studio will not disappoint.
Course Name:
FL Studio 20 – Music Production In FL Studio for Mac & PC.
What You’ll Learn:
- Learn The Basics of FL Studio.
- How To Manage FL Studio Fast.
- Create Professional Music Productions.
- How To Create Mastering on a Mixed Project.
- Create Mixdowns
Final Thought
So, there you have it: some cool and useful skills to learn that will add value to your life. All you have to do is pick a skill and work on it for the next month. Spend at least 30-60 minutes per day learning and practicing.
You will eventually develop those skills over time, and you will be able to use them to generate passive income or as a hobby.
So, “Which skill will you try first?” Please leave a comment to let me know.
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- 16 Awesome YouTube channels that will teach you something new
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