13 Of The Best Freelance Jobs That Pay Highly

With every passing year, the number of people choosing to work as freelancers has just kept increasing. 

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The global Covid pandemic acted as a catalyst, so much so that as of 2022, there are an estimated 70.4 million freelance resources working in the USA alone!

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These numbers are sure to grow, and that makes now a great time for people looking to explore freelance earning opportunities. 

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To that end, we’ve put together a list of 13 of the highest-paying freelance jobs. This will give you a peek into what the best freelance jobs currently being sought after are, and what top dollar is being paid for these top freelance jobs. 

Top freelance jobs that pay well

The ideal freelance job ought to have the capacity to ensure you earn at least as well as you would as a salaried employee, if not more while affording you the freedom of choice that is synonymous with freelancing. 

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Of course, if the job is also in demand all year round, that would mean a consistent revenue flow, which is something every freelancer hopes for. 

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Let’s take a closer look at what the top-paying freelance jobs are.

Programmers and software developers

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Top-shelf IT skills such as programming, app development, and software testing are among the most in-demand and highly-paid freelance jobs currently in the market. 

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Programming in languages like XML, Java, PHP, Python, SQL, and NoSQL are some of the most sought-after currently in the market. 

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Metaverse developers seem to be gaining popularity as well, commanding as much as $200 an hour. On average, programmers and software developers could earn anywhere between $42 an hour to $1000 an hour, depending on the level of expertise and nature of the project. 

Accountant

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Accountants have always been in demand, considering there’s always a need for people to balance sheets, handle ledger accounts, create financial reports and make P&L statements. 

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If you are a graduate and have a CPA certification as well, you could be earning between $12 and $38 an hour by working as a freelance accountant. 

Account executive

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Freelance account executives are responsible for nurturing their client’s relationships with new business partners or customers, and for bringing in new sources of revenue as well. 

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This role requires someone with sales and marketing experience, with the ability to create strong proposals for their clients. 

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If you bring these skills to the table and have a track record to back it up, you could command as much as $43 an hour.

Editor

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Irrespective of business verticals, quality content remains one of the most sought-after assets for any organization. Therefore, it is no wonder that freelance content editors are in such high demand. 

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An experienced content editor is responsible for maintaining syntax, checking punctuations, ensuring the piece adheres to the required style, holding a consistent flow, and guaranteeing that it is factually accurate. 

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If you have a track record of being able to deliver on all of these parameters, you could earn between $30 to $45 an hour for proofreading. 

Social media manager

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Social media platforms have evolved from spaces for people to connect to active marketplaces where brands and their customers interact. 

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This has created lucrative openings for social media managers capable of managing marketing campaigns and implementing marketing strategies for their clients on these platforms for these brands.

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As a freelance social media manager, you could simultaneously work with multiple brands, charging each of them between $15 and $35 an hour.

Web designers and developers

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Web design and development ranks among the most favored skills in 2022, and for a good reason. Business websites, landing pages, and e-commerce websites are all the rage for all types of businesses. 

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While you could earn anywhere from $15 to $30 an hour doing freelance web development work, you could earn a lot more if you added niche customizations, such as WordPress websites, or custom themes.

Tutor

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The pandemic also saw growth in the fields of e-learning and online education. As a result, tutors and professors now find themselves being in-demand freelancers. 

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You will need to have the educational qualifications required for the job, including a master’s degree if you’re a freelance professor. 

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The responsibilities that come with these roles include curriculum planning and development, providing students with online support, assessing progress periodically, and more. 

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The earning potential of these opportunities is between $15 and $80 an hour, depending on what you teach.

Content writing and marketing

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With online marketplaces and digital marketing being at the forefront of how businesses operate today, content writing and content marketing are now an important part of any business’s marketing strategy.

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That puts the spotlight on talented content writers and content marketers. 

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A lot of freelance content professionals claim to easily make around $5000 a month by writing and marketing content. The average payscale for a freelance content writer and marketer is anywhere between $75 and $200 for a piece of marketing content. 

Graphic designer

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Graphic design has been ranked among the top 10 highly paid freelance skills year after year for a good reason. While the industry average is around $36 an hour, experienced freelance graphic designers have been known to charge as much as $85 an hour.

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Infographic design, which deals with visually representing information and data, as well as things like logo creation and illustrations are among the easy-to-land graphic design projects.

Copywriter

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Whether it is for writing advertising copy, composing newsletters, content for email campaigns, or long-form content for e-books and blogs, copywriting is a skill that all industries use extensively. 

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In fact, the BLS has predicted that the demand for copywriters will grow by 9% by 2030.

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As a freelance copywriter, you have the freedom to work with clients from all over the world, and you can charge them between $19 and $45 an hour for your services.

Video Editor

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The popularity of short video content on platforms like Tik Tok, Facebook, and Instagram has made freelance video editing a hugely popular and well-paid profession. 

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If you know how to use editing tools like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, or Lightworks, and have a flair for intelligent video content, you could earn anywhere between $80,000 and $105,000 a year.

Photographer/Videographer

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Freelance photographers and videographers are needed for all sorts of events, from weddings and birthday parties to corporate product launches and conferences. 

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Depending on what type of events you cover and the type of photography you specialize in, you could earn between $40 and $100 an hour easily. 

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Freelance videographers get paid between $15 and $30 an hour on average, although you could charge more if you have some video editing skills as well. 

Virtual Assistant

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Freelance virtual assistants are hired mainly for doing administrative tasks for their clients, such as sorting out emails, organizing their client’s calendars, scheduling meetings, doing data entry work, and more. They may even do mundane things like schedule dental appointments and make dinner reservations.

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By handling these tasks, virtual assistants allow their clients to concentrate on handling the more productive aspects of running their business. 

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Freelance virtual assistants earn between $12 and $20 an hour on average. 

A final word of advice

Now that you know what some of the highest-paying freelance jobs are, choosing what you want to offer as a freelance service should be easier. 

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Keep in mind that it’s always best to choose a skill that you’re really good at and enjoy doing if you want to strike out by yourself as a freelancer.

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However, if you’re walking away from your full-time job to become a freelancer because you believe it will get you loaded quickly, or because you think it’s easier than working for someone else, you may want to reconsider your choices. 

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The fact of the matter is that it may take you as long as a year to even start landing freelance jobs consistently. And while working for yourself as a freelancer may bring with it the freedom to choose when you work, with whom you work, and how much work you take on, it would be prudent to remember that these choices will have a direct impact on how much you earn. 

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In fact, without discipline, a strong work ethic, and proper time management skills, you may soon find yourself with no projects or clients at all.

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You will also need to do a lot of things for yourself that got taken care of automatically when you were an employee - things like paying taxes, paying for your Medicare, following up to make sure that you get paid on time, and saving money for a rainy day.

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This makes it important for you to create and stick to a daily work routine, build a good rapport with your clients, and always ask for feedback as well as referrals from your clients, so you have a pipeline of potential projects to rely on. 

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You also need to make sure that whenever you get paid, you put money away for lean periods when you may not have much work.

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Prio has an easy-to-use invoice generator that can help you automate the creation of invoices at the end of your projects for your clients, making it easier for you to follow up with them about payments. 

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By automatically creating invoices as per your pre-programmed schedule for your approval, the tool also gives you more time to concentrate on being productive.

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Try Prio’s free invoice generator today!

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