7 ways you can make Money from WordPress – #WCKE

December 18, 2012deolaBlogging, Skill, Worpress1 comment

The last quarter of the year has been a busy one for me. Pitching, training, consulting, writing and things have been a bit lull on this site. Maybe not really, I have been working behind the scene doing an overhaul of this site and will launch into a full expert website in the new year. One of the events that took my time was my presence at the 2012 Wordcamp Kenya which held in Nairobi, Kenya. I spoke on SOLOMO tactics for brands and bloggers and I had a lot of fun doing so. Met people and saw places and I immediately knew I was coming back again to Kenya. Such a wonderful place – very quiet, no blazing horns and the forest reserves? You need to be there. I met bloggers, developers and enthusiasts who shared their thoughts around areas on blogging, ebook development, startups and lots of other stuff. I noticed the most common and easiest way people make money from WordPress is blogging so I decided to make post on different ways WordPress is making millionaires out of ordinary people with great ideas.

There is no gainsaying that WordPress has been the fastest growing content management system (CMS) platform on the web owning more than half of the industry’s market share where Blogger, Joomla, TypePad, Posterous, Tumblr, Movable Type, Magneto are battling for space. Blogging is the easiest and most common business built around WordPress though there are several business models built and sustained entirely around WordPress everyday.

WordPress is an open source software which started as a tool for blogging and has rapidly graduated into a Content Management System (CMS) used in building complex online platforms and business websites. WordPress allows you to host a site free on WordPress platform or on your own domain (WordPress.org) Several multi-million dollars are being made from this tool every day.

Here are some of the ways successful people and businesses are making money from WordPress.

1. Blogging as a Business

WordPress became popular because of its blogging functionality. Blogging is ability to chronicle content like an online diary and WordPress was initially designed to function this way. Since it is essentially free, WordPress allows you to host on its platfom like lorelle.wordpress.com or independently on a domain of your choice like ( you have to download the wordpress from their site or install from your hosting procider). because of this ease of setting up, people have built businesses by connecting their passion with blogging and have made money from private consulting, sales of products or advertising partnership with Google Adsense, Ad dynamo or other advertising networks. they have perhaps the most common way people use WordPress.

Even TV, Radioa and print organisations and brands have turned fully to WordPress.

You can learn from experts like Problogger, entrepreneurs-journey.com.

2. WordPress Theme Design, Development and Customization

Bacause WordPress is an open source software which is basic, it still needs a bit of tweaking and because people have different interests and preferences as to how they want their website to look, there’s a market for Theme design, development and customisation services with specialisation around WordPress. Themes are customisable add-ons to use in enhancing your basic platform. WordPress has a robust platform that provides wordpress Themes, plug-ins and widgets to use in enhancing your wordpress website.

Some of the companies that do these specialise in helping other people/ businesses in setting up their websites. They sell WordPress as a more user friendly interface, easy updating and customosation options, searh engine optimisation and a lot more advantages. You can do these for businesses, people, celebrities, organisations (governmental and non-governmental) e.t.c. Some of the common businesses;

i. Offer themes developed by themselves and others for sale (Themeforest,WooThemes, Press75, Mojo Themes, Themefuse and StudioPress)
ii. Some other offer to help in setting up and design (Clickwp )
iii. Community of freelance WordPress experts (CodePoet, FreelanceSwitch, DesignCrowd)

3. Plugin Development & Support

A fully fledges website that runs entirely on WordPress has been a major use of WOrdpress as a CMS. Several brands nad businesses are using WordPress to power their businesses. Another powerful way is to therefore build plug-ins and other support technology to support businesses that use WordPress.

For those who do not understand nor like coding, plug-ins are a life saver. Some have built businesses around the development and support of plug-in that simpify complex coding processes. Great examples include Sea Barton’s Woocommerce Interswitch webpay plug-in, Buddypress All-in-oneSEO, Seo by Yoast) with most of them found on the official WordPress plug-ins page. Some others are premium (meaning you pay – e.g. Gravity Forms and others are freemium ( having both paid and free versions – clicky Analytics).

Premium plug-ins are becoming popular because most of them have a support customer system that supports customers through the installation process especially due to variables of compatibility of wordpress version, hosting variations, installation issues and browser compatibility.

4. Web Hosting for WordPress

Especially for those who want to host wordpress on their own domain names. Most hosting platforms are already using WordPress quick install as one of their own platforms. This relieves people intrested in online blogging or platform development the necessary
hassles of installation, uploading and tweaking espacially through fantasic and softalicious. WordPress hosting is attractive because of the annual subscription to domain names and hosting payments are an annual affair.

opular and low-cost web hosts like Godaddy, Dreamhost, Hostgator,MediaTemple and others all offer WordPress compatability and one-click installation.

Other hosting companies have positioned themselves as WordPress hosting specialists, with an extended set of WordPress services attached to their hosting, like theme installation and WordPress support and optimization. A few examples include Page.ly, WP Engine, and ZippyKid.

5. WordPress Content Community

Since WordPress is an open source, there is a knowledge gap – so content is big business.
generating content relating to WordPress and business is a powerful way to position yourself as an authority, provide helpful tips for business and can make money from add-on ocnsultancy services.

You can start a blog or online platform on wordpress deployment, installation, customisation monetisation e.t.c. Some of the popular WordPress content platforms include my favourite Yoast.com, WPCandy, Problogger, WP Beginner, WP Engineer, WordPress Daily.

Content approach to building businesses around wordpress is developing articles, tutorials, videos, podcasts, stream events and even infographs. While advertising and affiliate marketing is a major revenue source for online content websites, some other inesses in terms of partnerships, consulting and other ancilliaty channels to support your business.

These business models are some of the ones I was able to think of just off my heart and I know more innovative approaches will come. Come to think of Infographs are a powerful source and I think they will have a huge relevance on the future. Here is one i found online about WordPress;