High-Paying Jobs That Don’t Require a Bachelor’s Degree

Not having a college degree doesn’t mean you are stuck earning a minimum wage. There are many jobs that pay well that don’t require a four-year degree. Here is an overview of some of these jobs.

Blogging

One can earn money by blogging. Starting a blog is very simple, Lifehacker has a very informative article about blogging. There a number of websites that one can use to start a blog. A few of them include

  • WordPress
  • Wix
  • SquareSpace

All a blogger must do is decide on a topic. Once a topic is decided upon, he can start writing, but the money comes when his site begins gaining traffic. Bloggers can post affiliate links or links to their own books or products. When a reader clicks on or makes a purchase from one of those links, the blogger earns a commission or makes a sale. Bloggers earn an average of $19,000 to $79,000 yearly, but there is no limit to how much a blogger can earn because many opportunities come from blogging that include

  • opportunities to guest blog for others
  • requests to guest star on a talk show
  • fame and a wide audience who are willing to buy your products on other platforms

Freelance Work

A person can utilize his skills for his financial advantage. One must simply decide what he does well. After he discovers his skill or skills, he can find quick or even long-term jobs for which he can charge a fee.

Examples would be

  • freelance writing
  • freelance photography
  • virtual assistant
  • tutoring

Each of these jobs requires skills and knowledge that one already possesses. All that’s left to do is to market yourself and set your price. A part-time freelancer earns an average of about $21/hr. That’s about $40,000 per year, more than what many people earn who work full-time 9 to 5 positions.

Massage Therapy

Massage therapy is a high-demand field, and therapists can charge their clients up to $100/hour. This rate is usually earned when one is in business for himself and has a private practice. Certification for this profession usually ranges between $6,000 and $10,000 for about 600 hours of study time.

Become an Entrepreneur

Starting a business doesn’t always have to be pricey. Becoming a business owner can be as simple as using your talent for knitting to make a few scarves. Plenty of people have invested $5 or $10 to start a business selling handmade items. They reinvested the profits back into their business, and eventually, they were able to hire employees to take on some tasks so that they could focus on other things that could grow their businesses. Entrepreneurs often earn five or more figures monthly. Other examples of entrepreneurial work include

  • franchising a restaurant
  • becoming a vendor
  • opening a thrift shop
  • starting a network marketing business
  • opening up a taxi service

Author A Book

There are two ways to write a book:

Many authors hire ghostwriters to write their books. The cool thing about this option is that the person doing the hiring has all the rights to the book. He will be listed as the author and will receive the profits when the book sells. 

With any great work comes great responsibility, however, and the author does have to do some work: aside from paying the ghostwriter, he has to market his book. Authors promote their books on their blogs, social media, and vlogs. They earn an average pay of 50k per year.

Adam Richards

About Adam Richards

Adam Richards is a semi-retired business professional originally from Bangor, Maine. He spent the majority of his career in sales and marketing where he rose to the marketing lead of a Fortune 1000 company. He then moved on to helping people as a career counselor that specifically helped bring families to self-sufficiency through finding them rewarding careers. He has now returned to Bangor for his retirement and spends his free time writing. This blog will be about everything he learned throughout his career. He'll write on career, workplace, education and technology issues as well as on trends, changes, and advice for the Maine job market and its employers.