This is the most common question asked by the WordPress developers who are just starting with their WordPress shop. Yes, growing your web development business with just WordPress may seem like a difficult task. But with the right strategy, you can expand it like anything.
Let’s look at the challenges first.
Challenges:
1. Cost per website is lower in India
When it comes to websites developed in WordPress, particularly in India, the price per website is quite low. When I started in 2012, I used to build a small 5-pager website for Rs. 7000.
Although Since then, I have moved on to high-cost projects in WordPress itself; the cost of websites developed by new web developers still hovers around Rs. 10000 for a 5-pager website.
The absolute inflation in India between 2012 and today has been 67.83%. If we go by that logic, then the cost of the site which was Rs. 7000 in 2012 should be 11690. But it is around Rs. 10000 only.
Unfortunately, the increase in the cost of a website is not even beating the inflation rate.
In my opinion, even a beginner should get Rs. 15000 for a 5-pager website.
2. Cost of the dollar has gone up.
For your web development business, you need to buy multiple things. It can be a stock images subscriptions, themes, page builders, videos, icons, plugins and whatnot.
And all these things are available for sale only in USD. So, your input cost is entirely dependant on what is the rate of the dollar.
For example, most of the good themes on ThemeForest are available for USD 59 for a long time. The only difference was when I started my business in 2012, the rate of dollar was Rs. 53 and not it is almost 74. That is an absolute growth 40%
So, if you paid Rs. 3127 for a theme in 2012, now you are paying 4366.
And this is just a single purchase we are talking about. Add other plugins and images, and your costs have skyrocketed.
3. Building a website with WordPress is considered a low-rung job
People think anyone can build a website using WordPress. And hence it is a low-rung job and deserves lesser pay. But they forget one thing. Anyone can create a website using WordPress is wrong. But the right sentence is anyone with skill can build a website using WordPress.
Even though WordPress does provide a more straightforward interface to build a website. It is in no-way a quick and straightforward job. We, as WordPress developers need to hone our skills both on technical and design front.
While these are some of the challenges, we face as an agency providing WordPress services. We still can grow our agency significantly. All you need is the right strategy.
So, let’s now talk about the plan.
Strategy
1. Reuse
As you know, buying a theme or a plugin for every website is just going to raise your costs. Therefore we need something using which we can make reusable components.
Also, I am not fond of some of the popular themes that are available on marketplaces, and I have written in details about it here.
What I do in my WordPress services business is I have purchased a yearly subscription of Astra theme, which I can use for unlimited websites. And along with that, I have an annual subscription of Elementor page builder which again I can use for 1000 websites.
Therefore my yearly cost of page builder and plugin is just $49 + $149, which is $198 (equivalent to Rs. 15000 per year).
Now imagine you build as little as 20 websites per year, still cost of a theme and plugin and page builder would be just Rs. 750.
That’s how powerful reusing becomes. And this cost will also significantly drop as we build several sites.
2. Provide value-added products
You should not just depend on web development as a source of revenue, but like telecom companies, you should provide value-added services to increase your income.
So, what are the different value-added products that you can provide
I. Web Hosting:
You can give web hosting as a part of your services, of course, it will cost extra to the customer, but then you can earn some profit over it. You can purchase a large shared hosting and keep 10-12 low traffic sites on it.
Or you can become an affiliate for hosting companies like Bluehost, Siteground; once you are an affiliate, you can suggest these hostings to the client and with each sale, you will earn some commission.
II. Domain Name:
Similar to web hosting, you can also sell domain names. You can become a reseller of GoDaddy and start selling domain names. With each sale, you will earn some commission.
III. Affiliate:
Become an affiliate of multiple allied service providers related to WordPress services or otherwise and start promoting their service. You will build additional revenue with this. We will speak about affiliate marketing in the next article.
3. Provide top-notch quality
Always remember you cannot compromise on the quality of the service. If you are unable to provide the customer with web development at Rs. 10000, then respectfully decline the customer. But once you take up the project, you cannot do a half-assed job.
Either don’t accept the project or do it with full dedication. This is binary; there is no other way.
So, these are my thought regarding growing your WordPress services agency. Do comment and share your thoughts.
