8 Lucrative Ways to Make Money as a WordPress Professional

Hello friend!

As someone skilled with WordPress, you have an exciting opportunity to build a lucrative career online.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share 8 proven methods for you to monetize your WordPress skills and work from anywhere.

Let‘s dive in!

1. Offer WordPress Consulting Services

One of the most lucrative ways to make money with WordPress is by offering consulting services.

As a consultant, clients will pay you handsomely to tap into your WordPress expertise.

According to Valuebound, the global market size for WordPress consulting services is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% from 2022 to 2028.

So what exactly can you offer as a WordPress consultant? Here are some popular services and typical fees:

Service	Typical Fees
Initial site setup and installation	$500 – $1500
Custom theme development	$1000 – $5000
Custom plugin development	$500 – $2000
SEO optimization	$500 – $2000 per month
Performance tuning	$250 – $1000 per month
Security hardening	$250 – $1000 per month
Maintenance & troubleshooting	$50 – $150 per hour
Migrations, backups, restores	$250 – $1000 per project

As you can see, fees can range from $50 per hour for ad hoc troubleshooting services to $5000+ for large custom development projects.

The major benefits of offering WordPress consulting services include:

High Income Potential: You can easily make $50,000+ per year working part-time. Top consultants often bill over $150 per hour.
Flexible Hours: You set your own schedule and choose how many clients to take on. Consulting provides a great work-life balance.
Variety: You get to work on diverse projects and keep expanding your WordPress skills. The work never gets boring.
Control: You choose who to work with and can fire bad clients. You are in complete control of your services and rates.

To get started as a consultant, you should:

Build a portfolio showcasing your WordPress projects and expertise
Create a website detailing your services and consultation process
Network and pitch to potential clients through LinkedIn, Twitter, niche forums etc.
List your services on leading freelancing platforms like Upwork and FlexJobs
Offer free consultation to land your first few clients and build social proof

It takes some hustling initially to establish yourself as an expert consultant. But once you have a few happy clients and reviews, your services will sell themselves through referrals.

2. Sell Custom WordPress Solutions

Another way to monetize your WordPress skills is to offer packaged solutions tailored to clients‘ needs.

Let‘s look at the types of custom solutions you can sell and typical pricing:

Custom WordPress Themes

A custom WordPress theme designed specifically for a client can easily fetch $1000 – $5000.

The client gets a visually stunning, on-brand theme built for their unique needs.

You get to charge a premium rate because of the skill and effort involved.

According to Codeable, the average cost of a custom WordPress theme is $1680. Their top WordPress developers charge upwards of $5000 per theme.

By selling just one custom theme per month, you can make $20,000+ in a year.

Custom WordPress Plugins

Custom plugins are a great way to monetize your WordPress development skills.

Most clients are ready to pay $500 – $2000 for a plugin that adds specific functionality lacking in off-the-shelf plugins.

For example, a plugin that integrates their WordPress site with a unique API or internal system.

Selling just one custom plugin per month at an average of $1500 gives you an annual income of $18,000.

Membership Sites

You can easily charge $3000 – $10,000+ to build a premium membership site on WordPress.

This is because a properly built membership site has multiple complex moving parts:

User registration and login
Members-only paid access
Dripping content
Discussion forums
Multi-level membership tiers
Detailed reporting and analytics
Zapier/API integrations

Given the skill and time required, most professional WordPress developers charge at least $5000 to build and customize membership sites.

At just two membership build projects per month, you can make $120,000+ per year.

WooCommerce Stores

WooCommerce is the most popular ecommerce solution built on WordPress.

There is huge demand from small businesses, online stores and entrepreneurs for customized WooCommerce stores.

Based on the store features, you can easily charge between $2000 – $5000 to build a WooCommerce store from scratch.

Even at just one store build per month, you generate an annual income of $36,000.

High-Converting Landing Pages

Another hugely popular service is building optimized, high-converting landing pages for client offers and promotions.

These landing pages are specifically designed to convert site traffic into leads and sales.

Because you need both design and technical skills to build great landing pages, you can charge anywhere from $300 to $1000 per page based on complexity and features.

With just two landing page projects per month at an average of $600, that‘s an extra $14,400 per year.

In summary, offering custom WordPress solutions can easily bring in $100,000+ in annual income working full-time. Or, $50,000+ working part-time.

This service-based business model allows you to earn premium rates thanks to your specialized WordPress expertise.

3. Sell WordPress Products Online

In addition to client services, you can make passive income by selling your own digital WordPress products.

Let‘s look at 3 hot selling products you can create and sell online:

High-Quality WordPress Themes

WordPress themes are the most popular items bought and sold online.

There is endless demand for modern, professional themes across niches like restaurants, law firms, magazines, ecommerce stores etc.

Well-designed themes that are easy to customize can sell for $40 – $60 each.

Top theme creators like TeslaThemes, StudioPress and Elegant Themes make over $50,000 per year selling WordPress themes.

Popular marketplaces to sell themes include:

ThemeForest
Creative Market
Mojo Marketplace

With two theme releases per month selling 25 copies each at $50, that‘s $2500 in monthly revenue. At this rate, your theme business will generate $30,000 in annual passive earnings.

Valuable WordPress Plugins

There is great money to be made selling plugins that solve common WordPress problems.

For example, plugins that improve security, speed up sites, enable backups, integrate apps etc. are always in demand.

Well-coded plugins that offer something useful stand out and get sales.

By charging $39 for a single site license, you just need 30 sales per month to make $1170. That‘s over $14,000 per year from one plugin.

Top plugin developers like WPMU Dev, SmashBalloon and OptinMonster make well over six figures in revenue with their commercial plugins.

Great places to sell your plugins include CodeCanyon, WooCommerce, Freemius and your own website.

Practical WordPress Courses

Online courses are a booming market, with the elearning industry projected to hit $325 billion globally by 2025 (ResearchAndMarkets).

As a WordPress expert, you can take advantage of this demand by creating your own online courses teaching others how to use WordPress.

Courses related to WordPress development, SEO, security, ecommerce etc. are very popular.

You can easily charge $97 to $197 per course and keep 50-70% of the revenue from each purchase.

Even by selling just 30 course signups per month at an average of $147, that‘s $4410 in monthly income. Or more than $52,000 per year from course sales.

Platforms like Udemy, Teachable, Thinkific and Podia make it easy to create and sell online courses.

The key is providing practical value to students based on your real-world WordPress experiences.

Selling WordPress themes, plugins and courses provides multiple streams of recurring passive income. By reinvesting profits into marketing your products, you can scale your earnings year after year.

4. Offer Managed WordPress Services

Many website owners don‘t have the technical expertise required to properly manage their WordPress sites. This skills gap creates a huge opportunity.

You can capitalize on this by offering managed WordPress services.

Typical managed plans include:

Daily/weekly backups
Security monitoring and fixes
Plugin, theme and core updates
Performance optimization
Uptime monitoring
SEO improvements
Quality content creation
Email/chat support

Most managed WordPress providers charge between $99 – $299 per month. Some even go up to $1000 – $5000 for enterprise-level sites.

The income potential from managed WordPress services is almost unlimited thanks to steady recurring revenue.

For example, let‘s say you charge an average of $150 per month and manage 25 client sites. That‘s $3750 in monthly recurring income. Which totals $45,000 per year.

Now imagine growing your managed WordPress clients to 100 sites. At the same rate, you will earn $180,000 per year.

And the best part is that your income keeps growing as you take on more clients while your incremental costs remain low.

The key is providing exceptional service so clients stick around for the long-term.

5. Become a Freelance WordPress Expert

Freelancing has become hugely popular because of the freedom, flexibility and income potential it offers.

It‘s a great way to leverage your WordPress skills from anywhere and set your own rates.

Some of the most lucrative WordPress freelance services include:

Site builds
Theme customizations
Plugin integration
Performance optimization
Data migrations
Fixing site issues
Adding new features

According to a Content Marketing Institute study, the average hourly rate for a freelancer is $28. But WordPress experts can charge much higher rates.

Experienced WordPress freelancers easily charge $50 – $150 per hour based on their skills and niche.

And top freelancers often bill over $150/hr for highly technical work like REST API integrations, complex customizations etc.

At an average of just $50/hr, if you work 20 hours per week, you will make $50,000 per year as a WordPress freelancer.

By raising your rates and increasing your billable hours, you can easily cross $100,000+ in annual freelance income.

Some great platforms to find WordPress freelance work include:

Upwork
Freelancer
Toptal
FlexJobs
SolidGigs

The key to succeeding on these platforms is building a strong profile, expertise and reviews to rank for high paying projects.

Freelancing gives you earnings potential comparable to a full-time job with complete freedom and flexibility to work when and where you choose.

6. Launch a WordPress Agency

Once you gain sufficient experience with WordPress, you can start your own WordPress design and development agency.

This allows you to earn bigger dollars by providing end-to-end solutions for clients compared to doing freelance projects.

Some of the lucrative services a WordPress agency can offer include:

Complete WordPress site architecture and setup
Custom theme design and development
Complex custom plugin development
SEO optimization
Content strategy and creation
Managed hosting and maintenance

This business model is hugely profitable since clients pay you high fees thanks to the full suite of services you offer.

Average project fees for agencies range from $5000 for simpler websites to $50,000+ for enterprise-grade solutions.

And steady recurring revenue can come through ongoing maintenance plans, content creation retainers, hosting commissions etc.

A 6–12 month website build project can easily net $30,000 to $60,000+ in revenue.

Even with a team and other costs, you can enjoy 50-70% profit margins on most projects.

As you take on more clients and build your team of WordPress experts, your income and profits will scale rapidly.

Six-figure months are very much possible!

To get started, leverage freelancers to keep initial costs low. Have an attractive website, build your portfolio and don’t be afraid to offer services for free or at a discount initially to land clients and build credibility.

Once you have proof of results, getting clients at premium rates becomes much easier.

7. Start a WordPress Blog with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing remains one of the most popular ways to monetize websites.

And starting a blog around WordPress tutorials, reviews and affiliate promotions can be quite lucrative.

As your site grows and attracts more organic traffic, your earnings from display ads, affiliate promotions and sponsorships will keep rising.

Here are some of the most effective ways to monetize a WordPress blog:

Display Ads

Joining Google AdSense allows you to quickly add relevant text and display ads to your site. When visitors click on these ads, you earn money.

The typical CPC rate is $0.5 to $1 for most niches. On a site getting 10,000 visits per month, you can easily earn at least $1000 per month with AdSense.

And as your traffic grows, so do your earnings.

Affiliate Promotions

Promoting WordPress products, services and software through affiliate links can generate impressive commissions:

Web Hosting – $50 to $200 per sign-up
Themes & Plugins – 20% to 70% commissions
Managed WordPress Services – $100 to $250 per sign-up
Web Design Services – 20% to 50% commissions

With an engaged audience, you can easily make $2000 to $5000 per month from affiliate promotions.

Platforms like ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten and Amazon Associates make it easy to find and promote affiliate offers.

8. Resell Web Hosting Services

Here is an easy way to make $1000+ in recurring passive income each month simply by promoting web hosting services.

As you probably know, all WordPress sites require hosting. This creates a steady demand for quality WordPress hosting.

When it comes to managed WordPress hosting, companies like WP Engine, Kinsta and Pagely are popular choices that pay generous affiliate commissions.

Typical commissions you can earn:

Shared Hosting Plans – $50 to $125 per sign-up
VPS Plans – $100 to $200 per sign-up
Dedicated Server Plans – $150 to $400 per sign-up
Managed WP Hosting – $100 to $250 per activation + recurring payouts

This income will be on complete autopilot since web hosting is a set-and-forget type of service.

By referring just 10 new hosting signups per month, you can easily earn an extra $1000 – $2000 per month.

And the lifetime value of each referral is quite high thanks to steady recurring commission payouts.

You can easily promote hosting offers through:

Your blog
Social media posts
Solo emails to your list
Affiliate websites

This hands-off business model lets you earn sizeable passive income each month once it’s setup.

My friend, I hope this detailed guide gives you clarity on the endless money making opportunities available for WordPress experts like yourself.

To summarize, some of the most lucrative skills you should focus on developing as a WordPress professional include:

In-demand skills – Custom theme/plugin development, SEO optimization, speed optimization, security hardening, API integration etc.
Solving problems – Fixing issues quickly, successfully migrating sites, rescuing hacked websites etc. Deliver results when clients need it the most.
Standing out – Go above and beyond to provide WOW experiences for clients. Overdeliver on expectations consistently.

No matter which business model you pursue, the key is delivering immense value to clients and customers with your WordPress expertise.

This will not only maximize your income, but also help build a successful long-term career centered around WordPress.

The demand for skilled WordPress experts continues to boom year after year. With so many ways to monetize your expertise, the possibilities are truly endless!

I hope you found this guide helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions!