The Most Valuable Skill for Success Online

I’m frequently asked some form of this question: I want to make a living online, but I’m just starting out.  What’s the number one skill I should develop?

There are many skills that you can make a living online with — there’s no magic combination — so I think I’ve answered most often that you should just try out several different things and see which you like and are the best at.

However, I have realized that there is indeed one skill that I would recommend over all others — all other things being equal — because it’s both enormously valuable and more difficult to outsource than anything else.  So let me go through the skills that I’ve needed in my own path to making a living online and discuss each in terms of how valuable I think it is.  I’ve listed them in order of increasing value.

Valuable Skills

Pay-Per-Click

This is a really great skill that you can make some very real cash with — both directly and indirectly — but as adept as I was with AdWords, it hasn’t contributed directly to my ability to live online at all.  If you’re good at it and you like it, by all means pursue it, but it’s just not a skill that I personally would rate above these others.

Web Design

Until recently, this was hands-down the one skill I don’t have that I wish I did.  I’m really good at just about everything else I’ve needed, so if I could design my own stuff I’d be wholly self-sufficient and not have to rely on anyone else.

In terms of picking just one skill to have, though, I’d go with something else simply because there are so many really good designers out there who will work very cheaply.  And with the advent of sites like 99designs that give us access to quality designers all over the world, the cost for good design has dropped like a rock over the past few years.

True, the cost for great design hasn’t changed — the upper echelon of designers can still command a premium price — but how many of us really need great design?  In almost all cases, good design is plenty good enough.

Web Server Configuration/Database Management

These are definitely skills that are useful to have, but the bar is pretty low.  Good web hosts make these functions easy, so if you can just handle the basics that may be all you really need.  Being an Apache or MySQL expert isn’t going to provide much direct value, especially when viewed in light of how long it takes to become an expert.

Programming

Being conversant in a particular web language is definitely useful, and it definitely opens up opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise have.  However, it’s definitely not necessary, and many simple programming tasks can be accomplished by just copying and pasting code, without any knowledge of exactly what’s going on.  True, you would struggle getting software like Pligg up and running without a good knowledge of PHP, but how many of us have to use something like that?

Copywriting

An ability to write great copy can make the difference between a great site and one that never takes off at all.  There are several reasons why I don’t rank it any higher than I do, though.

First, my feeling is while it’s definitely a skill you can work on, you’re largely either born with it or you’re not.  I also don’t think you could achieve wild success with nothing else but the ability to write great copy.  Add in the fact that great writers are more and more in abundance and available for hire for a very reasonable price, and this is one of those skills that’s great to have and can definitely be leveraged but one that I wouldn’t choose if I could only choose one.

HTML/CSS

If you’re wanting to find success on the web, you’re almost certainly going to have to have some level of HTML & CSS knowledge.  You need to know your way around.  Definitely get a good book and learn the basics, but you don’t have to be an expert.

Having this as your only skill isn’t going to take you far.  You’ll always be working for someone else.

SEO

SEO has factored into my success in a huge way — more than was healthy, in fact.  While it’s not the end-all-be-all, you could definitely be quite successful with nothing more than this skill because there are still so few people who are truly good at it.  (On the other hand, you can’t swing a stick without hitting someone who thinks they’re really good.)

Still, it’s possible to find someone to get your site optimized — for a fair price — and spend your time focusing on other things.  Plus, search engines are still only a small fraction of the available traffic out there.  Many sites do great without ever even seeing any meaningful search engine traffic.

If this is something you want to explore, I would definitely recommend Aaron’s training program.

Revenue Generation

You can have the best site on the best topic with 10 times the traffic of your closest competitor and still fail miserably if you have no idea how to generate revenue.  Nobody gets rich by just making change.

But trying to generate revenue with a site that gets great traffic is like Tom Brady trying to get a date — it’s just not that hard to do.

Link Building

I’ve decided now that this is the one skill that I would choose over any other, because traffic is the lifeblood of any site.  Without it, a site dies.  And links not only send traffic directly, but they are also far and away the number one determinant of search engine rankings — which bring even more traffic.  Links make the world go round.

As long as I’m passable at the skills above and contract out to fill holes where I’m not, the ability to build links is like rocket fuel for my efforts.  The better I am at building links, the faster and higher I can go.  It, more than anything else, can be the differentiator between two otherwise similar sites.  It’s the publicity that is so vital to the success of any venture, and it can be far more efficient (and easier, and more long-lasting) than traditional offline PR.

And because it’s one of the rarest skills online, great link builders are both hard to find and expensive to hire — if they’re even available to be hired.  Most would much rather be contributing to their own success than being paid to contribute to someone else’s.  If you’re that valuable, why work on anything where you don’t have an equity stake?

All Other Things Being Equal…

I say “all other things being equal,” but the truth is they never are.  You’ll almost certainly find that you have propensities and desires for some of these skills over others, and you’ll find that success comes much easier if you focus on those.  Plus, this is based almost solely on my own personal experience, which by nature is limited, so it’s likely that you’d have a completely different list — both in terms of skills and in how you’d rank them.

So what do you think?  Do you agree with this list?  How would you change it?