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A Career In WordPress?

Have you ever considered becoming a Freelance WordPress Professional?

Maybe you’ve been thinking about a change of pace, wanting to work hours outside of ‘the norm’, with the intent of creating a better work/ life balance?

A few years ago, one could be forgiven for thinking that the likes of SquareSpace would be the end of WordPress, but like me, you’d be wrong.

There was a period, after a massive push on YouTube [ sponsoring creators ] to try and grow their market share, and one could argue it hasn’t worked how they hoped.

Depending upon a few factors, you can enter a certain niche [ within WordPress ] and if you’re good, and if you can build up your Brand Reputation, you can do extremely well – remember, your Brand, is YOU.

For some, working from home is a non-starter, they just cannot handle working from the same place they eat and sleep, or because of children running around etc. But, if you have an old shed, make it your space – convert it into your work office and ONLY enter it DURING your work hours. I mean, even cleaning – that’s work, so incorporate that into your work cycle. Don’t think to yourself that for every minute on the computer, is a paying minute. You need to stay ahead of updates, learn new things and generally stay on top of trends.

I’ve set myself a target of 25% of my working day into performing everything else that isn’t work, but work related. For example, 40 hours of a working week consist of 10 hours of non-billing work. Thirty hours at my hourly rate, isn’t bad, but the tax…..in a nutshell, set up a Trust. Make YOUR money work for you. I’m quite content only pulling $18K PA in a salary.

At my current pace, now, remembering that I really only wanted to come back as a ‘casual’, if I currently wanted to, I could be working 70 hours per week, the work is there. I’m turning away quite a lot of work, for several reasons, but mainly because I want a life. I’m at that age where balance is more important, and we don’t need anything.

Your Reputation Is Key To Your Brand

If you’re interested in becoming a Freelancer, do your research and be sure it’s what you really want. I have friends that own ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses where they employ people, have huge debt, but take home less than me. They have massive burdens and stress in their lives, whereby I don’t – and I earn more than them.

Options are there, it’s a matter of whether or not you prefer to be a slave and live week to week, or decide to make your own way, at your pace.

My biggest decision today, is whether I want pasta or grilled fish for lunch. What’s yours?

Your future is yours to make. Decide well.

Feel free to give this post a share or seven, it would be appreciated :)

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Here we go again – What I charge.

A lot can be said about pandemics.

Some people lose their jobs, others excel. That’s just how it is.

I’ve been questioned, it seems, a million times, about why I charge so much – per hour.

Let’s get this out of the way – again.

For about 15 years now, I’ve specialised in WordPress. I’ve built up my Brand, with theme developers and customers over many years.

The reality is, I could have employed other developers and built a big business, but chose to protect my work and name by doing everything myself. It has worked – Brilliantly. The downside, is that my income is limited to what ‘I’ can do myself.

Just like any business, there is a supply and demand issue that needs to be addressed. I addressed it my way – by increasing my rate, so that ‘demand’ drops to a steady supply. Do my clients wish they’d pay less? Obviously, they would. But, they know they can go elsewhere and pay less, or they can continue paying what I charge, and know their website is in safe hands – because I work when people are sleeping, so their website has no ‘real’ downtime.

I cannot understand why people, after seeing how much I charge (I don’t hide it), they seem to have the time to contact me, complaining about what I charge!

Isn’t it a life goal to get paid what you believe you’re worth? I say it is. People say in their complaints, that they can go elsewhere and pay $25 per hour. Well, do it. Go….it’s simple right? Not so, apparently.

I do provide FREE advice and assistance in some forums, and will continue.

Cheap isn’t always value. Value isn’t always cheap

Some clients that had websites built have told me the timeframe and cost of their ‘old’ website – prior to coming to me, and I’ve almost fallen back off my chair. Some clients have spent $60 per hour for two developers to build them a website, that were billed for about 3 times as many hours as what it would have taken me to build. They paid more, for less.

At the end of the day, if you aren’t happy with my rate – $100 per hour, you are free to go elsewhere. Like I’ve said many times in my blogs, I can get a lot done in an hour – more than most.

I turn 50 this year. and am currently looking at my options, one of which I may decide to give this away, but I’m not sure just yet. I have reduced my hours to around 12 per week, and I am still turning away work.

Demand for my work is not in short supply and I may even increase my hourly rate, if I decide to continue past my 50th.

I am worth what I charge. You may not think so, and that is fine, you don’t have to. To me, I am value for money, and I’m not cheap.

This whole discussion makes me uncomfortable, and will be the last time I write about it. Simply, if you don’t want to pay what I charge, go elsewhere. I really can’t make that any clearer.

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Don’t Worry, Just Don’t.

You’re website ranking has dropped? And?

Rankings are not the Be-All-And-End-All when it comes to business. Does it ‘really’ matter that you cannot be found on Googles’ first results page?

I’ve discussed elsewhere on this website, and have spoken with many people over the years, the ‘importance’ of ranking. I’ve also written about that other ‘thing’ – Brand.

Yes, it’s nice to rank highly in the search results, but in reality, think about the number of websites out there. The live counter (currently) says there are more than 1.7 Billion websites, but of those, apparently less than 200 Million are active.

I’ve always been of the thought that your website is NOT your business, it’s a tool, it works ‘for’ your business. If you’ve established a good brand and you have repeat customers, they’ll talk to people. Don’t think of your website as ‘the’ business.

Yes, I know – there are businesses out there that are purely web-based, but still, the business in NOT the website – the business is the brand. Branding is everything. Even the best looking website on the planet won’t draw you sales, good customer relations and great products sell, not the ‘bells and whistles’ on a website – think Amazon.com, now THAT is a brand.

Functionality and appearance is important when designing a website. Blend your website into your business, just think of your website as a tool – nothing more.

You will have developers out there that WILL tell you that your website is your most important asset, but they are wrong. Imagine, you sell shitty products that break, your staff tell people to ‘piss off’ over the phone, and sometimes, items aren’t even shipped at all – BUT, your website cost you $20,000 and it’s the most pleasing website on the planet. How long do you think it will be before there is NO business?

Over the years, I’ve had to explain this to quite a few people that just ‘thought’ that if you built a great website, and had it ranked high, sales will follow. It doesn’t work that way.

A few months ago, Crain.com.au ranked at position 5 out of a billion pages on Google.com, for the term ‘WordPress Professional’. Today, I am ranked at 86 from 727 million pages.

How has this affected my ‘sales’ – well, it hasn’t. In fact, I’m still telling people that I can’t help them, due to my current load. You see, my work comes from theme developers, community forums and referrals from existing customers. I benefit from my brand, and the level of quality I provide in my service.

When I think about it, I’ve only taken on maybe 3 or 4 jobs over the past 12 months that came to me via this website, and I’ve had to turn away or refer more than 100 jobs in the same period. I could have employed  a couple of people to help me, or passed the work onto other WordPress Professionals, but I’m more concerned with maintaining my brand – it’s worked well for me so far. Also, I can be more selective of the work I do, allowing me to do as much or as little as I like.

For the search term ‘WordPress Professional Australia’, as seen below, I’m ranking at number 3, down from number 1. I can live with that.

At the end of the day, build your brand and don’t worry too much about your ranking – times have changed. Today, your Brand is King.

** I’m going to be missing for a little while, and won’t be posting anything here until after we move to our new home, or after Christmas, whichever is sooner.

Until next time, get busy building your brand and forget about your ranking. Just imagine ranking doesn’t exist, and focus on providing the best service possible, selling the best products you can source / produce. The rest will look after itself.

Don’t forget to share this post, like all my other ones – it helps me with my Brand ;)

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