What WordPress skill is it best to bone up on for Internet Marketing?

Thanks for the input anthon. What you say is...well...a given and something I have deduced myself from various things I have read (I mean with respect to there being many people interested in that). What I am trying to get a feel for is whether or not that is THE best thing to focus on getting good at based on that being either the most in demand or the best paying skill to have with WordPress.

I mean there are all kinds of persons interested in all kinds of things regarding WordPress so just knowing that a lot of people are interested in something doesn't help me a whole lot though I do appreciate your input.

I guess I was hoping to get input from other web developers who have done far more WordPress consulting work than me or anyone else who might have some additional insight to offer on this topic.

Carlos

Thanks Dean but I am not looking to learn how to do anything with WordPress for my own sake or use (as a web developer WordPress just gets in my way...with my own sites I do them manually by hand in CSS, HTML, and PHP).

I am looking to learn what is the most profitable to learn with respect to providing WordPress help to others.

I don't have time to become an absolute WordPress expert and must focus what learning time I have to become very good at some modification to WordPress that is in great demand and that will pay me the most money.

Carlos

Thanks Istvan! That's the kind of insightful input I was looking for.

Hmm...I didn't think of the people on the Warrior Forum as little fish but could be...could be. I mean in the sense that I have seen some WordPress consultants, and successful one's, charging upwards of $750 to add a blog to an existing site.

I am not personally convinced of the value of adding said blog to an existing site for SEO, I think most of that perceived value is hype and is in the perception more than in the reality but hey...if corporations are willing to pay big money to have that done...who am I to stand in the way of their paying me to do it LOL. Though in line with providing excellent service I would at least try and educate them some about the value of adding fresh, valuable content, whether through a blog or not, to their web sites.

It's along the lines of believing that Google loves WordPress which is no less part hype and part just plain baloney. Google loves what Google loves whether it is presented through WordPress or not. Google doesn't see WordPress per se they see HTML and wether the HTML is presented to them through WordPress or not doesn't make a single bit of difference. But the perception that Google loves WordPress persists and can be capitalized on as well if people insist on paying to have WordPress installed.

Who knows...maybe I could hire myself out to said WordPress Consultants and do what they do at half price just for them. They keep half the money and do nothing more than contact the corporations. An interesting possibility I think. A number of the one's I have seen simply can't take on more work than they already have.

Carlos

I agree thaat copywriting is one of the premium qualities of anyone in IM. What I use Wordpress for is to build links to my other 'Money Sites'.

The reason for this is multi-faceted. SE's love Wordpress partly because they come with a sitemap built-in and partly because they are 'usually updated frequently.

Add to that the Social Networking and Bookmarking services that you find a wide selection of plugins for make it super simple for your readers to make your site go Viral.

I like WP because of the automation and flexibilty that it has. I can (and DID) create one site with ultiple blogs on that site and then have them all link to each other and other sites and networks.

I saw someone refer to this type of setup as part of a LinkWheel and I am seeing the results on the blogs I am running now already!

The only thing I could add to what you need to know or focus on is getting familiar with the Wordpress API and having a good understanding of PHP.

Hope that helps a little at least!

Ahem...cough, cough...well...I wouldn't go so far as to say WordPress handles everything else. It most decidedly does not.

It's essentially a blogging platform despite the statements of some who are using it as a simple CMS (Content Management System). If all one has is the creation of pages or blog posts then yeah...it has virtually everthing you need but...if you need capabilities like adding unique login functionality where you offer some free pages to the public and where you protect others, where you are wanting to use Ajax heavily, where you are wanting to use PHP to read real time data coming in from an external USB connected port, and all manner of other things...then no, WordPress is not a good choice.

WordPress is touted as the end all and be all to the end user who doesn't want to get their hands "dirty" making changes to CSS, HTML, and PHP code but it's purported capabilities to allow end users to do what they want without entering code is highly overrated in my experience and opinion. At best it allows you to create a site quickly. At worst it limits your options in that WordPress and it's plugins don't do everything and trying to add capabilities involves writing your own plugin and otherwise working with...well...you know...that dreaded word...the...the...CODE LOL.

That's why there is a whole army of WordPress consultants. WordPress just makes things far more difficult for those who want to dig into the code and add capabilities it doesn't have because now they don't just have to know CSS, HTML, and PHP but now they must write code that will work within the framework of how WordPress does things.

I daresay that WordPress has actually created more work for web developers not less completely out of line with it's purported benefits of given the end user the ability to do it all themselves.

I would never advise a client to put on the straight jacket that WordPress puts them in unless they are only and mainly going to blog or create single, simple web pages. WordPress is a tool and like any other tool it is great at what it was designed to do but it is not a tool that does everthing that can be done nor is it the end all and be all of web site creation.

Unfortunately people buy into the hype, like with most things over the Internet and don't realize the straight jacket they have placed themselves into until it comes to them wanting to do something that WordPress or it's plugins don't do or do well such that they must then pay big money to have someone add said capability to their WordPress. Big money because now the developer must figure out how and where to put the added capability into WordPress's framework. Every plugin is coded different. Every plugin administration screen is coded different. And there may be upwards of 3 or 4 CSS files, depending on the Theme, controlling the presentation of site elements...with all the CSS elements stepping on each other to render the final page appearance. If it wasn't for Firefox's Firebird plugin I would have pulled out the little hair I have left long ago LOL.

I haven't even touched on copyright issues (Themes must be GPL'd), slow rendering of web pages, heavy server resources, security holes introduced through insecure plugins, the need to constantly update the software, and other such things.

I'll say one thing for WordPress. They've done an outstanding job of marketing themselves . And I am grateful for the increased work to web developers like me that they have thrown our way!

Carlos