3 Ways WordPress Makes You a More Profitable Web Designer

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A lot of web designers – both beginning and advanced – ask me how they can increase their hourly rate.

They want to work fewer hours and make more money so they can have the things they want without sacrificing time with their family and friends.

Some web designers know this is possible, they just don’t know how to do it. Other web designers think it’s a “pie in the sky” kind of dream.

I’m here to tell you, making $125 (or more) per hour as a web designer is not unheard of. In fact, it’s the average rate my students are able to make after completing our training programs at LearnWebDevelopment.com.

For the past 8 years, I have worked with tens of thousands of beginning web designers and, as a result, I’ve developed the best way to start and run a web design business.

For both beginning and advanced web designers, one piece of advice comes up frequently: To increase your hourly income, build your websites in WordPress.

Over the past few years, since I started recommending WordPress, it’s only increased in popularity and demand. It’s gone from a simple blogging platform to the most popular content management system around. It’s so popular that clients are now asking for WordPress websites.

If you’re still not using WordPress to increase your web design income, what are you waiting for? Here are three ways WordPress will make you a more profitable web designer:

1. WordPress is open-source (that means it’s free!)

For beginning web designers, money is tight. Several thousand dollars, up front, for typical web design software means you’re working for weeks – and doing multiple projects – without pay just to buy your business tools.

For some, this route might not be an option. Luckily, there’s a better way.

With WordPress, your websites will look just as good (if not, better) and you won’t have to invest a dime to use WordPress. You can get started today with almost no investment.

This will make you more profitable because you’re saving money up front – and you’re saving money over the life of your business because you don’t have to buy the latest upgrades every year.

Then, you can keep more of your profit for other things – like advertising to bring in even more clients.

2. WordPress websites can be built in a fraction of the time

If you’ve ever built a website from scratch, then you know how much time it takes. A typical HTML website can take weeks. But, the great thing about WordPress is you can charge just as much as an HTML site, but you can build it in a fraction of the time.

And, with WordPress plugins, you can increase your project fee while barely increasing the hours you spend on it. For example, your site can include functionality that clients would spend a lot more for (like e-commerce or a slider) with just a few clicks.

As an example, when students come into my training program they’re used to building HTML websites in about a week. If they charge $1,000 for the website, they are making about $25 per hour.

After they finish my training program, they can make a custom WordPress website in less than 8 hours.

I also teach them how to increase their income, but for this example, let’s say their project fee stays the same. At $1,000 per website, they just increased their income to $125 per hour.

At only 8 hours per website, you might think I’m talking about cookie-cutter, boring websites. I’m not. I’m talking about creative, custom WordPress websites that include functionality like shopping carts, sliders, social media integration and more.

3. WordPress is easy to update

One of the best things about WordPress is how often they update their technology. These updates give you a few options, as a web designer, to make even more money.

First, you can charge your clients a monthly fee to keep their websites up-to-date. Then, you might spend an hour or two per month updating their WordPress installation, theme and plugins.

With a few clicks, you can have a WordPress website updated, without having to take a big bite out of your busy schedule. I have some students who use this model to build up recurring income. Then, they can take on fewer one-time projects and spend more time away from the computer.

As you can see, using WordPress is one of the smartest ways web designers can build quality websites quickly and increase their web design profits.

Plus, the more you work with WordPress, the faster you’ll get and the more money per hour you’ll make.

Sign up below to learn the fastest ways to build WordPress websites, how to find clients who will pay you what you’re worth and how you can make $125+ per hour, even if you’re just getting started.