Inside the fastest-growing career where you can earn six figures as a side hustle

One of the fastest growing careers is one you can do from home with no prior experience and earn a salary as high as six figures.

It’s social media marketing: a profession where you work with influencers and companies to better connect them with potential customers.

Usually, this means helping them create compelling posts with lots of SEO-friendly keywords on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

Job boards such as FlexJobs and Freelancer.com list an increasing number of remote, hybrid and freelance digital marketing positions. CNBC reported.

Fiverr, a platform that connects freelancers with clients, also has many jobs like this, most of which have flexible hours as long as project deadlines are met.

Jennifer Shealey, 46, a social media marketing and graphic design specialist on Fiverr, said she has made more than $600,000 in sales since starting in 2014.

Digital marketing wasn’t always Shealey’s main job. She started doing it on the side while working as a project administrator at a tiling company.

But when she lost that job a few years ago because she was bored and constantly distracting herself with her phone, Shealey decided to try turning her side hustle into a full-time job.

To support herself, she took on three part-time jobs while perfecting her craft.

Over time, she expanded her offerings to clients, which now include website design, Instagram content creation, and SEO copywriting for YouTube videos.

Shealey made over $100,000 freelancing on Fiverr, but in addition to the lucrative pay, she also enjoys the amount of freedom she has in her life and over her work.

“It’s the kind of work you can do at home, from a van or on the road while you travel,” she told CNBC. ‘If you like creativity, analytical work and constantly learning new things, this is a great field to get into. We definitely need more people in digital marketing, even I can’t keep up with the demand.”

There are certainly sacrifices that have to be made to get where it is today, Shealey said.

“I just used the extra free time that I had, which was probably a little bit in the evenings and really on my weekends,” Shealey said. “I sacrificed all that, not going to parties and saying no to a lot of things because I wanted to focus on Fiverr.”

Within four years, she earned more money than from her three part-time jobs combined. That was a sign to her that social media marketing had become her full-time job.

More broadly, demand for jobs in the digital marketing sector – which includes social media marketing – could grow by as much as 8 percent annually, the report said. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By 2030, there could be 200,000 additional jobs for online marketers.

Some of these jobs prefer that applicants have a bachelor’s degree, but formal education is not necessarily required to make it big in this industry.

Toni Frana, FlexJobs’ chief career expert, told CNBC that it’s much more important for people to build their skills.

This means getting good at SEO, or search engine optimization, data analysis, and social media advertising.

Many hiring managers are also looking for people who can create and edit videos, manage online communities, create lasting relationships with influencers and develop successful marketing campaigns, says Sebastián Siseles, vice president of international at Freelancer.com.

Salaries are all dependent on experience, with entry-level positions paying around $50,000 per year.

Social media strategists or managers who have been in the game longer and have a track record of profitable ad campaigns can earn more than $120,000 per year.

To get started in this growing field, you can start by taking online courses to earn certifications for specific skills on platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, HubSpot, or Google.

You can also take advantage of the many free tutorials available on YouTube from social media marketers turned influencers.

Milou Pietersz is that kind of teacher.

Originally from the Netherlands, Pietersz has lived in the United States for 10 years and now has a YouTube channel focusing on how to break into social media marketing.

In several interviews, she has said that she initially had a lot of difficulty setting up her marketing company, Simply Multimedia.

Like Shealey, who worked multiple part-time jobs to keep her side hustle thriving, Pietersz has said she delivered food through Uber Eats to bring in enough income to survive.

Now her agency works with all kinds of brands across industries to increase followers and traffic to their websites.

The most popular videos on her channel are ‘How to Become a Social Media Manager in 2024 (Even If You Have No Experience)‘and’What does a Social Media Manager REALLY do?!‘

In these videos, she explains which websites beginners should visit for job opportunities.

She also explains what a social media manager actually does all day.

“You are responsible for managing and monitoring the social media pages” of your clients, she explained.

This means checking their pages for spam comments or reviews, and making sure that when their business is tagged in other viewers’ posts on social media, it reflects positively on them.

According to Pietersz, you will also have to devise a marketing strategy together with your customers. With a successful strategy, you can put out content that resonates with their customers.

Fiverr data shows that this exact job is becoming more sought after than ever.

Between May and October, searches for “social media content manager” on the platform increased by 493 percent.

Searches for setting up, managing, and editing content for social media accounts also increased.