How to Make Money with WordPress

From my WordCamp Detroit 2011 presentation, which can be viewed online at http://wordpress.tv/2012/06/14/christopher-ross-how-to-make-a-living-giving-it-away-for-free/

Transcript

1. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com @thisismyurl
2. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Analytical Analysis of Cross Platform API Integration for Multilingual Automation WordCamp Detroit, 2011
3. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Free is not a business model.
4. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Make Money by Giving it Away for Free How to make a living with WordPress WordCamp Detroit, 2011
5. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com About Christopher WordPress developer since 2006 Web developer since 1996 Software developer since 1986
6. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com About Christopher No formal training in software development WordPress developer for Canada’s largest news company 25 plugins in the WordPress repository
7. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com “I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. Lloyd Dobler, Say Anything
8. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com What are we going to cover? How to make a living with WordPress WordCamp Detroit, 2011
9. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Today’s talk is about ... Money and what’s really important to get from WordPress How to make a living from WordPress How to profit from WordPress Learning from (and giving to) the community
10. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com What are you doing wrong? The misunderstanding of most WordPress developers.
11. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com You are your own brand. Build your knowledge base, build your community Build your community, build your authority Build your authority, increase your opportunities Build your opportunities, achieve your goals
12. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Money isn’t enough. There’s more to building a living than money alone.
13. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Let’s talk about sex. Indulgence is about things you want, not things you need Travel opportunities, eating in nice restaurants, etc. Good WordPress developers can indulge in life
14. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com “Two years ago, I spent two months in Europe and my income didn’t suffer” Bill Ericson @billericson http://billericson.com
15. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Let’s talk about money. Security is about having the things you need in life Knowing your mortgage is paid, food is on the table Good WordPress developers can count on a pay cheque
16. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com “I tell my wife, we live in a home that WordPress built.” Chris Bavota @bavotasan http://bavotasan.com
17. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Let’s talk about power. Authority is about influence and the respect of your peers Being confident isn’t being arrogant Good WordPress developers can work from anywhere
18. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com “I had 3,000 views a day. I was shocked.” Samuel Wood @otto42 http://ottopress.com
19. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com “There’s always more to learn, even as a core developer.” Andrea Rennick @andrea_r http:/ronandandrea.com
20. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com How to Make a Living with WordPress Five ways to make a living with WordPress
21. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com “20,000 people make a living from WordPress” Matt Mullenweg @photomatt http:/ma.tt
22. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com 19% of Alexa’s top 100,000 sites are on WordPress.
23. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Work for the man. Full time work as a WordPress developer Startups, media and small firms often use WordPress Offers steady income and security
24. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Consulting is cool. Consultants work as hired guns, not employees Often work remotely from their own location Bill 2x or 3x standard rate, but give up security
25. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com 65,000,000 websites run on WordPress.org
26. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com 32,500,000 websites run WordPress 3.2
27. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Consulting is maintenance. Monthly consulting helps make clients happy Passive income is passive profits Solve small business pains, to create a profit
28. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com 32.5 million websites at $50/upgrade? $1,625,000,000
29. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Publish your expertise. Write free tutorials to create authority and drive traffic Build an audience, help them learn to use WordPress Offer free support in the WordPress.org forums Publish paid PDF or video content to generate revenue
30. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Sell your solutions. Build free themes and plugins for WordPress.org 50% of traffic to my site directly from WordPress.org Create custom plugins as a consultant Sell commercial themes and plugins as residual revenue
31. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Create content for a living Write tutorials on your blog, sell paid tutorials Contribute to the Codex to raise your authority Sell your technical writing to online magazines and papers Design icons, themes and artwork for other bloggers
32. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Advertise on your website. Advertising with CPC or CPM models Use affiliate links to promote suitable content Advertise yourself Know your market
33. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com “Know well what holds you back, and what moves you forward” The Buddha
34. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com AdSense Makes no sense. Google pays me approximately $1.25 per click. Generating $1.25 in ad sales per 1,000 visits Affiliate company pays me $65 per signup $21.67 in affiliate sales per 1,000 visits
35. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Work Directly for WordPress Become a core developer on WordPress Work for WordPress.com and Automattic Work for Matt Mullenweg, Audrey Capital etc.
36. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com The Community How to make a living with WordPress WordCamp Detroit, 2011
37. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com The Secret to Success Help edit the Codex, write great content for users Volunteer in the forums, build strong relationships Write free plugins and submit them to WordPress.org Create themes for WordPress.org
38. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com The Secret to Success Fix other developers plugins, it’s not a contest Subscribe and follow great developers Innovate. Your time is valuable, contribute it
39. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Three Easy Ways to Fail Focus on selling yourself instead of helping others Create conflict instead of creating great websites Forget that WordPress is about the GPL license
40. @thisismyurl / thisismyurl.com Thank you, any questions?