Is WordPress Developer a good career?

Kevin,

There's a big difference between setting up a WP website with themes, plugins and fixing the occasional setup bugs you'll encounter......and developing custom plugins.

Personally I'd forget the plugin development part for now and just get yourself fully conversant with WP, installation, a bit of custom theme work and installing/configuring standard plugins. You'll learn a lot quickly and at some point you can decide if you want to get into programming or not. If in the meantime someone asks you for a custom module you can always farm the job out to someone else and add 20% for your involvement.

On the idea in general, I find that there are so many people willing to work for next to nothing, doing WP setups, joomla etc, that it isn't a line of business I'd want to pursue. As a customer looking for a new WP website, you can list the job on elance and get bids starting as low as $50 for the entire project.
It makes it hard to make a living particularly if you're based in the US or Europe.
Now if you can find work locally, where you can build a face to face relationship with a client, then that's a different matter. There's always companies willing to pay a premium for people who are local. So craigslist might be a good place to start.

Just my two cents FWIW.

Rooze

If you plan on making website for sale it is good money for you. But the hard point is finding customers that really can't do wordpress.

You can have about 1000$ for eCommerce with some pages. My friends bough that before and I think wtf expensive but he really too lazy to make it.

Hi,

Wordpress is a great platform to learn, but you will want to either create very custom, specific and valuable plugins or go after local businesses that want a fast, easy solution to get their business online and/or improve their online presence. Finding clients who can't use Wordpress is not hard, just don't focus online. Setup a few packages and go to businesses in your town offering them a turnkey service that's easy for them to understand and therefore value.

I would aim to understand how the PHP, CSS, and HTML interact within a WP install. You'll be much more valuable to potential clients. I have roughly a year of WP experience and find myself ahead of most people using it. That's just me though

Thanks everyone for your replies and information!

I agree with Kyle . I'm a web developer and found I get a good number of clients who want a completely custom look but still use WP for the backend. Being able to make themes myself rather than just customise existing ones gives me an edge.

every thing has its own plus and negative points, however if you chose to be a wordpress developer then you should be perfect in it, try to create plugins and be very competent and fast..if you achieve all this then u can do good in future

I would use your skills to develop your own sites that produce $. Site leasing is a great place to start. Thousands of niches! Example: You want to start selling leads to computer repair guys. You develop one and make sure it works. Then start duplicating your stuff to more areas. Make sure you own the address, phone and site. If one guy stops paying you call his competition and sell him the leads. This way you won't have to constantly find new customers. One last point. The address is a UPS store, the phone is forwarded to the lessee and the site is yours. Depending on the value of each call you could get as low as $400 and as high as $1500 a month for each site.

Website development can help you make good money, but you need to build reputation and trust. WordPress being the most popular CMS, you should learn how to create websites with it. I charge $250-1000 for custom websites. I have my own customer base who keep coming back to me with new projects. Make sure that you build trust with your customers. You can start by offering your service through Warrior Forum classifieds or just through your signature link. I get new customers from Warrior Forum and through free WordPress themes that I offer.

I do the same as Beltane and Jason. I would love to learn how to do a theme from the ground up, but for now it seems easy to just take Twentyten and strip it down, then rebuild the html/css the way I want it. Once you earn the core of a theme, you can use the skeleton of the theme for functionality and user backend, and make it look however you want. I love creating custom widget areas for clients. With that in mind, you can do whatever you want.

Wordpress developer is good carrier it boost to SEO which is mostly used.

I myself designed 5-10 sites on Wordpress and uploaded many themes and edited.

I have been doing wordpress development full-time for a couple of years and I have personally gathered a huge database of clients.

I personally feel that being a wordpress developer cum internet marketer is an extremely profitable and promising career online.

I don't call this a "career" but rather Internet Entrepreneurship.

At the end of the day, we will need to have passion, determination and perseverance in order to succeed in any industry.

Cheers!

Warmest Regards,
Anson

Thanks for all the input!

Can you recommend some good resources (books, videos, websites, etc.) that really teach the ins and outs of WP?

Thanks!

Definitively good for learning and developing skills. You will always learn something important knowledge here. Also you will earn something but hardly some big money, depends where are you from and what is enough for you. Generally agree with Rooze.

Wordpress custom web design (making your OWN themes), Wordpress development (PHP, Plugins, Custom Theme functionality) is a FANTASTIC wide-open opportunity for both technical and creative expression. I built my 1st commercial website in 1993. Over the years have specialized in HTML/CSS/SEO/Wordpress, and social media. I wouldn't change a thing! We work all around the planet. Very satisfying work. GO FOR IT! Be the very best that you can be at it! We like to say that we're not the Walmart of Web Design. You can make plentymoney in this field. Become a PRO. Differentiate yourself. Get an experienced, proven business coach. I could go on forever!