Elegant Themes Blog

I know a lot of the Elegant Themes community provides WordPress design, development, and/or maintenance services to others. Which is awesome since a big part of what motivates the team at Elegant Themes is building tools that empower this community to do more. I’ve read countless comments (and community spotlight articles!) testifying to the fact that designs like Divi have helped hundreds if not thousands of WordPress users offer up WordPress related services of one kind or another. That’s why in today’s post I’d like to outline a range of WordPress website prices guidelines that will function both as a reference to the community and a starting place for discussion.

The Race to the Bottom: Part Myth, Part Problem. There are many common narratives which i see pop up every once in awhile in articles that discuss WordPress design and development. “When individuals who are not top notch WordPress designers/designers take on WordPress site building careers they significantly undercut prices to win business and then deliver quick, sloppy solutions. These true points are hard to argue with. They both have a whole great deal of truth to them and overall I have a tendency to concur.

  • Ensure It Works On All Browsers
  • Would you rather be poor and happy or rich and unhappy
  • You will lose your existing saved game. So, support your kept data file from
  • Fiberglass Pools
  • Highlighting the increase in service offering
  • 7 years ago from Northern, California
  • 7 years ago from Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Where I disagree though is with the implied elitism which makes all WordPress projects the domain name of advanced designers and developers-usually those people who have contributed to core or produced a broadly popular theme/plugin. My own opinion regarding WordPress site building services is that no matter what level of knowledge or experience you presently posses, there’s likely a way to profit from it.

And, if you would like to, you should be able to pursue that goal without having to be painted as a blight on the WordPress community by others with more design and development experience. Having said that, I could understand the annoyance from the more advanced crowd. Particularly the developers. I can see how it might be possible for them to see the narratives above as forces propelling their profession to a “race to underneath” both in terms of price and quality.

This is a problem in every industry. One which would be best resolved by creating a skill validation service (like the BBB of WordPress) rather than culture of elitism. The true way I view it, we don’t need to warn every new person to WordPress from anyone who is no advanced builder away.

Ok, so let’s go ahead and jump into the prices part of the post. This section should prove helpful for both clients deciding on whether or not they want to employ help and for individuals who are looking to provide services but don’t know what to charge. While WordPress itself is free, getting a WordPress website and running is not up.

For one, it needs a domain and hosting. Then there is a theme and plugins for custom functionality. Which can begin to add up quickly. As WordPress evolves and advances it has become both harder and simpler to use somehow. Easier in the sense that the fundamentals have become simpler and more accessible to casual users. Harder in the sense that as it grows in power and flexibility a wider range of tools and services have emerged to turn WordPress into almost anything.

Ironically, the mixture of a maturing platform and its growing ecosphere has extended the WordPress learning curve beyond what many people are comfortable or interested in navigating. This difficulty has made WordPress power-users a valuable service provider. I like to think of these as just like Photoshop experts. They might not have the ability to build the program they use however they can do some really impressive things with it.

That’s where I start to see the services of turnkey WordPress set up and maintenance providers to arrive. They’re not offering custom design or development but rather a high degree of expertise with a set amount of WordPress tools that fit a distinct segment. You could also be a website and hosting reseller. You might offer related services such as site maintenance, marketing strategy, content strategy, WordPress training and more.

200, etc. per strategy record, training course, etc. Will this cost more than DIY? But not just as much as getting everything done custom, and let’s face it, that’s not what everyone needs. For the right person this sort of service deal will provide a lot of convenience, peace of mind, and a smoother navigation of the WordPress learning curve.