Top 10 Skills to Make Money Online in 2025

If you want to grow your income and build a successful online business, all you really need to do is learn a few high-income skills. Robert Greene said the future belongs to those who learn new skills and combine them in creative ways. Today I'm sharing with you 10 essential skills to create a highly successful online business, how to learn them, and actions you can take to develop them. Make sure you stay till the end of this video because each one of these skills builds off of each other and each one is going to be incredibly valuable for any entrepreneurs looking to grow their business and grow their income. Kicking off our list is copywriting, otherwise known as salesmanship in print. Copywriting isn't just regular writing, it's persuasive writing that drives an action and a conversion of some kind. And if you could focus on only one skill in this entire list, this one would be it. There's a lot of nuance when it comes to copywriting, and I made a whole separate video about 20 copywriting tips in just 6 minutes, and that's a great place for you just to get started with upping your game when it comes to copywriting. But some things that I would recommend for you to do in order to master copywriting is to first study copy that is really good. Start by creating a swipe file where you find good headlines, good bullet points, and good copy that just pulls you in. You can find this from reading magazines, looking at billboards, or studying other entrepreneurs in the space. And a swipe file isn't for you just to copy exactly what they're saying. It's more for you to think about the idea behind what makes their bullet points or their headline really work. And what great copywriters are able to do is spot formulas. For example, if you see a title that says, "The Only 3 Ab Exercises You Need for a Six Pack," it's pretty intriguing. But think about the formula behind that. It would be, "The only 3 blank you need for blank." Now, if you're teaching people how to play guitar, you could say, "The Only 3 Chords You Need to Play Any Song." Another way to get better at writing copy is just to write more copy. The way I like to do this is to practice writing by blogging or doing email marketing. I started to email my email list an extra day per week where I would sit down and just write, and I would try and just get better at writing and add something valuable, make something more enticing, and just giving yourself more opportunity to write. And on top of that, pay attention to the feedback you're getting from people. If you're part of a community where you guys talk about your own copy and if it was good copy or not, that's amazing. but even just getting feedback from your email list or your social media following or the people who read your blog is great feedback. See how people respond to your copy. If you write an email and people are sending you messages back saying, that was so helpful, that was amazing, thank you, then you know that it was good copy. Or if you create a sales page and people end up buying your product, that's how you know it's good copy. Next up on the list is content creation, specifically video content creation. Video marketing is the way of the future. Think TikToks, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, YouTube videos. This is the content that people enjoy consuming because it's more human. And when it comes to you marketing your business, you being able to show up and show your face is going to separate you from the pack because a lot of people don't know how to do it or they're not willing to put in the time and the effort to get good at looking and talking to a camera because it's awkward. Content creation is all about your ability to create valuable, engaging, and relevant material for your audience on a consistent basis. And as long as you're in business, you should be creating content. Even if you are a brick and mortar business, the way you build this skill is by first researching your audience and their pain points and finding the questions that people are asking and typing into Google or into YouTube. For example, using the People Also Ask in Google is going to show you common questions that people are regularly searching inside of Google. That's all content that you can create because again, content marketing is just about answering your target audience's questions. And if you could do that in the form of video, like YouTube videos, you're gonna crush it. But pick a content schedule that you can stick with realistically for the next 10 years and just stick with it. Next up on the list is digital marketing. This is how you connect with your perfect customers online and promote whatever it is that you're offering. So like that last point with video marketing, that is an amazing way for you to connect with your audience by answering their questions that they're searching on Google or YouTube. But it goes so much deeper than that because it's the way that you answer these questions, the the way that you rewrite the story inside of people's minds, and that is what makes digital marketing really work. Otherwise, you're just adding noise to the online space. An amazing starting point to really master digital marketing is to read this book right back here, Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson. This book is a game changer, and I highly recommend that you pick it up. You can go to expertsecrets.com. I don't have an affiliation with them, but you'll be able to get the book for free and just pay for shipping. And then obviously you're going to go through his whole funnel system, which will be helpful because if you're studying good copywriting, Russell Brunson's a really good copywriter and he has teams of copywriters that help him with his copy as well. So when you pick up this book, you'll be able to go through his marketing funnel and look at the headlines, the way that he's articulating the message, and think about that copywriting stuff that I mentioned earlier— the formulas, the bullet points, What's making you really want to take action? And then you can add that stuff to your swipe file as well. With digital marketing, you want to learn how to leverage SEO, social media, email marketing, your content marketing, all this stuff that goes into getting your message in front of the right people. That way they can get the right message at the right time and ultimately join your email list or checking out the different offerings that you have. And if you're serious about starting or growing your online business, I created a 5-step action guide that walks you through how to earn your first $500 per month or more of passive income. This guide will give you the step-by-step system that I've used and still use to this day to grow my online business and the same system that I teach my clients to create passive income style businesses. It's my gift to you. It's totally free. To get the guide, just go to ProfitYourKnowledge.com/guide, or there's also a link in the description. The next skill is persuasion and sales. This is your ability to influence others' beliefs and actions through the way you communicate with them. To get good at this skill and really learn and develop it, again, Russell Brunson's Expert Secrets. That is what the book is about. It's going to teach you persuasive techniques and the psychology behind what gets people to take action. It's also going to teach you how to master storytelling, which is the number one skill that's going to separate you from every other person out there online. If you want to teach relationships and you see all these other people teaching relationships and you think, how am I going to stand out? The way that you do it is by storytelling. It's an incredibly powerful tool for persuasion, and that book will teach you how to do it. But even more than that, when you're on an actual sales call or you're directly talking with your audience, it's really a matter of actively listening to them. In fact, persuasion is less about you talking and more about them talking and you being silent and listening. If you think about an iceberg, the tip of the iceberg is just the small amount that we see. When you're doing sales calls, That's what people reveal. They tell you, "Oh, I'm kind of struggling with this, I'm dealing with this, I want to achieve this." It's your job to ask questions that reveal the big bottom part of that iceberg. You do this by asking why and getting curious and listening to what they really truly want and why it's so important to them. And that is how you're gonna master persuasion. Talk less, listen more. The next skill is speaking. This is your ability to articulate ideas effectively for your audience. Whether you're speaking on stages or you're creating content, you want to be able to get a message across to your audience in the most efficient way possible that's easy to understand, but most importantly, that makes them feel like they can really do the thing that you're telling them to do. To build this skill, join a public speaking group. Something like Toastmasters is a great start. This will give you a chance to present to a small audience and get feedback on what you did well, what you could work on. Also, practice regularly. Record and review your presentations, and then you can listen to that and see what you want to add or change to improve on it. A way that I like to do this was actually starting a podcast and forcing myself not to rely on editing. Instead, I would do a long take and just talk and practice talking, and it forced me to slow down because if I spoke too fast, I'd start to trip on my words, or I would do a lot of different ums and ahs and, uh, I don't know what to say next. And that's something that really helped me develop my skills as a speaker. And just like persuasion, if you want to be a great speaker and presenter, you want to master the art of storytelling, which again is going to be inside of Expert Secrets. That's going to be a great book for you to get good at storytelling. Next, we have research and planning. This is probably the most important skill out of any of these, even more than copywriting. As much as I love copywriting, this is your ability to understand your audience's needs and to spot market trends so you can strategize your message effectively. A total cheat code to get good at market research is to create a simple 3-part document. This could be a Google Doc or Word doc or even a pen and paper, but I would recommend to keep it digital because with Google Docs I can access this at any moment on my phone. The first section is what are the pains, challenges, and frustrations that your audience facing. The second piece is what are the hopes, dreams, and desires that they want to achieve related to what you talk about? And then the third piece are the obstacles, barriers, and uncertainties that are getting in their way like a brick wall when it comes to achieving what they want. And as you have more conversations, you do sales calls, you read YouTube comments, anything where you are listening to your target audience, find the gold of the real emotion of what they're saying, of why this thing is so frustrating, what it is that they want to achieve, etc., what's getting in the way. Copy exactly what they're saying and put that into your document. So when it comes to you actually writing copy or creating content, you can refer back to this document and have an absolute goldmine of content that you know is exactly what people are struggling with. That way your message can hit the right points at the right time every time. Next up is leadership. This is your ability to guide and inspire other people, which is your audience, toward a shared vision. Your audience follows you because you have a shared vision, and it's your job to lead that audience toward that vision. And the best way to master this skill is to lead by example. People want to follow a real leader. So when they can see that you are taking the steps, that you are investing in yourself and making the moves that they may be afraid to make, and then you're encouraging them to make those moves that you've been making, they're going to be more likely to actually follow you and take action. Plus, you'll be able to relate with them by sharing your own stories of you going toward this shared vision. And that applies to whether you're talking about cooking classes, knitting socks, relationships, business building, anything. Next up is design. I'm not saying you have to be an absolute creative genius here, but you do want to have a good foundational knowledge of what makes good design work. Design is the visual communication of your messaging. And when it comes to writing a sales page or your website and creating these things, Design is what pulls people in and gets them interested and keeps them hooked, but the copy is what makes those people take the action. So design and copy really go hand in hand. Start noticing where great design is. If you look at YouTube thumbnails or if you look at somebody else's website, the design just really pulls you in. Think about what makes it work. And what I would even recommend is to look at other people's thumbnails on YouTube or other people's design and use a free tool like Canva. You can always upgrade to the pro plan, which may help you, but you can do a ton of stuff with just the free plan and try and replicate the design that you're seeing. This is going to train your brain to start designing on your own in the future. Next skill is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is about earning commissions by promoting other people's products and services. Now, in the world of entrepreneurship and the online space, collaboration is key, and that's where affiliate marketing comes in. Chances are you're using a lot of different products or services that are benefiting you on your journey, and most of these businesses have affiliate programs where you get a commission for referring people over to sign up or use that product or service. For example, I like to use Kajabi. It makes sense in my business, and I'm a part of their partner program because when I work with people, I love Kajabi. My entire business is built inside of Kajabi, so it only makes sense that I recommend Kajabi. And I was doing this before I was even part of the affiliate program. So eventually I started to get a lot more people signing up for it, and I decided I'm going to just start actually leveraging this part of my business. And then it turned into a $100 per month, $500 per month, $1,000, $2,000 per month of extra passive income just by me promoting this, which I already was doing, but I just signed up for the affiliate program. And by me referring more people into Kajabi, I actually got a message from Kajabi that I won an award for being a top referrer for the month, and I ended up getting a $400 check from Kajabi for referring more people to use their program. Again, collaboration is key, and that's where affiliate marketing can be an amazing tool to help you grow your income. The next skill is time management. This is your ability to effectively use your time to achieve your goals and tasks. And if you're looking to work fewer hours and grow your income, you don't need to go to the extreme. All you need to do is make a few small changes and stick with them over a long period of time to dramatically change your life, which is why you should watch this video where I show you 8 small changes you can do to work less and earn more money. If this video is helpful for you, let me know by giving me a thumbs up on the like button, and then let me know any questions you have down in comment below. Other than that, take what you learned here, get out there, make something happen, and I'll see you in the next one.