Wordpress Careers

CMS & WordPress
1

Hi there,

My background is that I trained and worked (many years ago) as a graphic (print) designer, but I’m not working in a design orientated job right now. However, I have spent the past year or two cramming as many HTML and CSS books and vids a possible. I soon came to realise, that although HTML and CSS give me both incredible visual and semantic control over sites, without introducing other technologies those sites remain essentially static. I also realised that most small business clients would require fora, blogs, shopping baskets and other interactive elements. It also seemed unlikely to me that they would want to call (and pay) me every time that they wanted to add and new item of stock or add a new article.

This led me to the obvious conclusion that my best option would be to employ a CMS, and use HTML and CSS to help customise its appearance and functionality. After looking into the tree big hitters, I settled (for several reasons) on Wordpress. Now I’m just at the point where I’m preparing to dedicate every spare moment to mastering WP, but first I have a question:

Is it really possible to earn a living designing WP websites for clients? I don’t mean just the odd one or two for friends and family, but enough to pay the mortgage, bills etc. One of the things that worries me is that (at least in the UK) there has recently been a lot of advertising for companies that provide free business websites which are customisable by the client through an online dashboard. Has this had an impact on the WP market.

Is there anyone out there who is actually earning their living (or knows someone who is earning their living) through WP?

Thanks in advance,
simon

2

If the goal is to start from scratch as a self-employed developer, it will take quite a bit of time to build up some steam and acquire clients. As a self-employed developer, you will have to wear a number of hats–accounting, marketing, advertising, business relationships, plus a few other things. It’s not just graphics and code.

However, if you join a development shop with established clients, things would probably go a little easier as you would have a steady source of income from a salary of some sort.

3

If you want to test the waters, you could try putting a free ad on Craigslist or someplace and see how many nibbles you get. Maybe you can get some nibbles from design shops looking for someone to translate their designs into finished Wordpress sites.

You might also consider emailing some people who work in other markets than you do (so they won’t have to worry about competition) and ask them if they are able to make a living doing it.