Remember as a child how people asked you what you want to be when you are a grown up? A few decades ago it wasn’t too difficult to choose as there weren’t many options available. But today the opportunities are endless.
The World is Changing
The traditional jobs like we know it are all still available but as technology advances, many of those jobs risk becoming extinct. It won’t be the first time in history nor the last. It wasn’t so long ago that a milkman was a regular job. Yet to children today a job like that would make no sense.
Although the thought of jobs becoming extinct might be fearful, it also challenges us to adapt with the times. And those who adapt the best, are the ones that won’t have a problem finding a job in the future.
The landscape of employment has also changed from being dependent on an employer to more and more people opting for self-employment. With the internet and social media apps exploding, the opportunities for self-employment and working from home also exploded.
Online Opportunities Anyone Can Do
Working online usually means you can work from anywhere, whenever it suits you. And this is ideal for the younger generations. They are not interested anymore in having a 5 day 9-5 work week with only a few days of holiday during the year. They want more flexibility and more free time while still earning a sustainable income.
This way of living is now possible and for many online opportunities, no formal qualifications are needed either.
The opportunities are truly endless but let’s explore 5 of the most well-known ones.
Copy Writer/ Content Writer
If you love writing, you can explore with writing online content. You don’t need to be an advanced writer for internet writing. In general the average American reader on the internet has a reading ability of 6/7th grade (12- 14 years old). Simple writing is the way to go.
Copy writing is the writing you do for someone’s website for example their sales pages. There are a few rules and structures to follow to be able to write good copy but this can be learned. There are various online courses to follow.
A content writer writes blogs, emails social media ads etc. You can specialise in one area or all. The structure might look a bit different but the psychology in how to write is similar to copy writing. Almost anyone can learn how to do this.
The biggest risk is that AI writing is becoming very popular. But that just means you need to understand how it works and how to navigate it.
Dropshipping
With dropshipping you are the middle man. You are purchasing products from someone else, add a markup and then sell it on. The difference to a traditional shop is that everything is online and you don’t purchase anything before you receive payment from the buyer.
You will need a website where you showcase all your products and people can place their orders. When their order is placed, you place and pay your order at the supplier and inform them it is a dropshipping order. They will then deliver directly to the customer with your invoice.
The biggest challenge with dropshipping is to market your products. It doesn’t help to only have a website. The competition is huge and you need to stand out for people to find you. There is also a risk with product returns which can affect profitability.
Managing Social Media Accounts
If you have a business, you need social media accounts. But for most people it becomes overwhelming to create and post content on a regular basis. Never mind keeping up with the changes of the various platforms and understanding how to stand out.
A social media manager assists clients to develop and implement social media strategies, generate, share and edit social media content on a daily basis, monitor accounts, communicate with followers etc.
Depending on your experience, you could manage the account for an individual or even be part of a team for a large corporation. Although bigger corporations might need a marketing degree, many people are very successful managing smaller accounts without any formal qualification.
Create an Online Course
If you have anything you are passionate about, you can create an online course and sell it. You do not need to be a professional. As long as you have something for which there is a market, you provide value and you market your product well, you will have sales.
During the pandemic people were forced into the online world and online courses became very popular. Ordinary people create courses about any subject you can think of. You will find courses teaching you how to play a recorder, painting walls and ceilings or more serious stuff.
All you need is to put your course together, create and edit your videos and put them on a platform where people can access the content. The hard work is in the beginning. Thereafter the most important part is to learn how to market your course. Nobody will know about you, until you tell them.
Digital Marketing
It doesn’t matter what online space you are in, you need to know how to market in the online environment. Whether it is your own product, service or someone else’s.
With digital marketing you are promoting products through various online channels. There are different forms of digital marketing including content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click, social media marketing, email marketing and affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is probably the simplest option to start with to learn digital marketing. About 80% of companies in the USA have affiliate programs and the concept is growing in South Africa. This means, you sign up to a company’s affiliate program, promote their products and get paid a commission when there is a sale. There is no limit as to how many companies you can sign up to.
Once you understand the basics of digital marketing, you can move into many other areas.
Become a Creator, Not a Consumer
At Animalia, we promote radical self-responsibility. And this would also mean taking responsibility for how the children engage with social media and use technology.
Companies spend a lot of money to understand the psychology of how to keep people onto social media apps. It makes it almost impossible today to ignore technology. The best we can do is learn how to use it responsibly.
A responsible way of using technology is to become a creator instead of a consumer. It is there, you can’t avoid it so you might as well use it in a positive way. Instead of fearing it, it is possible to use it to learn or create an income from it.
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