5 Ways To Make Money As A WordPress Developer

Looking to jump start your career as a web designer or developer? Due to the popularity of WordPress, there is a high demand for WordPress products and services. If you love working on WordPress, then you can make some real money out of your passion.

Many WordPress based business has launched and succeeded in recent years. Here we will explore various WordPress business ideas for developers that have been tested and proven to be successful. We’ll discuss in detail the process, mode of operation and challenges of each business idea.

1. WordPress Design and Development

If you are good at something, then you can probably make money by offering your services. In this case, you can make money by offering your skills to set up WordPress websites. Whether you’re a WordPress designer or code developer, you will always find a client willing to pay for your services. The key here is to find the right clients and agencies who are in need of your help. Various freelancing sites like Freelancer.com and Upwork can be a good place for mining clients. Based on your skill level, you can charge an hourly rate or a flat project fee to your clients.

A lot of the work for your clients will be for setting up WordPress sites and installing a premium theme. A good approach to is sign up for a WordPress Theme Package from one of many premium theme developers that gives you developer access to their entire bundle of premium themes, usually at the cost of 1-2 themes. For that you get an unlimited license to access and install these premium themes on as many domains as you want without paying each time, increasing your revenue dramatically.

2. WordPress Themes Sales

Selling WordPress themes is another potentially very profitable route. The good thing about this business is you can resell the same theme again and again and thus generate recurring income. You will need to maintain a very high standard of quality in your theme to compete in the market. You should be able to deliver pixel perfect design, well-written code, full documentation, support and maintenance to your clients.

You can either open your independent theme shop or submit your theme to well-known theme marketplaces like Theme Forest. Owning your own shop comes with the extra responsibility of building an eCommerce site and generating traffic to it. The good thing about it is that you can keep all the money you make with sales.

The upside with selling on popular theme marketplaces is the massive amount of free exposure you’ll automatically get. They do the work of marketing and advertising for you.

A good strategy is to start by selling on theme marketplaces, then transition to your own ecommerce site as you gain traction and brand awareness.

3. Plugin Development and support

Like themes, you can sell plugins too. The competition in the plugin development is lesser and the opportunities are just as big as themes. You can sell your premium plugins independently with your own e-commerce sites like Gravity Forms, Plugin Buddy, and Cart66 and many more do. The other option for selling plugins is to submit your plugin to WordPress plugin marketplaces like CodeCanyon.

A word of caution- developing a successful premium plugin is not as easy as it looks. You need in-depth knowledge of WordPress and you’ll be responsible for updates and maintenance. Solving customer support requests could be challenging too. But with the right team and the right product, you can overcome all the challenges and create a successful premium plugin.

4. WordPress Web Hosting

Every self-hosted WordPress site requires some kind of hosting space. If you have knowledge of server technology and scaling issues then you can generate recurring revenue by providing WordPress Web hosting services. You can offer specialized WordPress hosting with extra WordPress services. Page.ly and WP Engine are few examples of successful WordPress hosting providers.

Like every other business, hosting business is not free from challenges. You need significant investment in infrastructure, customer support staff, and marketing.

Related Resource:

• How to start your business: a 12-step guide

5. WordPress Related Blog

Everyday massive amount of google searches related to WordPress are being made. You can create a WordPress related blog and provide useful contents to a growing audience. If you can provide focus content in a sub-niche within the WordPress field then you can build genuine audience and brand for your blog. The primary source of income is direct advertising and google aids. Referrals and partnership with other companies can be hugely beneficial.

Since WordPress community is already filled with the abundance of helpful information, the initial challenge will be to get viewers to your blog. An enormous amount of time and effort is required to get good traffic. It may take months of posting before you actually get results.

Conclusion

WordPress is the largest and also fastest growing CMS. As such it is the safest platform to place your bets on in terms of learning and honing in your skills using. With innovation you can build a successful WordPress focused business models. The possibilities are endless.