Connect with us

WORDPRESS

12 Proven Ways to Make Money with WordPress

Published

on

12 Proven Ways to Make Money with WordPress

Now days many people have found ways to make tons of money with WordPress. There are many different ways by which you can also earn a living online with it.

Have you ever thought of making money using WordPress? If yes, this detailed post is a treat for you! I will be discussing 12 proven ways you can make money with WordPress. The methods listed below require different skill sets, so even if you’re not a developer rest assured WordPress is full of opportunities for you!

  1. Freelance Writing
  2. Create & Monetize a Blog
  3. WordPress Courses
  4. eCommerce & Dropshipping
  5. Blog Setup Service
  6. Website Maintenance
  7. SEO & Marketing Services
  8. Security Consulting & Solutions
  9. WordPress Plugin Development
  10. WordPress Theme Development
  11. Theme Customization
  12. WordPress Design Services

1. Freelance Writing (aka Content Creation)

make-money-writing

Starting off easy – if you have a device to type on and internet connection you can create content for other websites. There are millions of websites and they all need fresh content.

While this list is full of ways you can make money with WordPress, content creation extends to pretty much every niche. Just visit your favorite online blogs. Many have contributor application pages where you can submit your articles and get paid for them. So not only will you get some awesome backlinks from top ranking sites, but you can get paid for your hard work.

You can also find WordPress content writing jobs on job board sites. A couple worth checking out include Upwork and ProBlogger Jobs – both of which have tons of writing jobs available as of this very moment.

Before applying it might be a good idea to have an online portfolio setup to show off your previous work. Specifically you should be sure to include a short bio, active social profiles and links to recently published posts (or if you’re just starting create a few posts on your own blog that you can use as examples). This way potential employers can have a look at your writing style as well as exposure your articles get across blogs and social media.

2. Create & Monetize a Blog

WordPress Website

In the online world, it is always recommended to start a website for your business. So, what are you waiting for? Launch your own WordPress blog and start making money!

Not sure how to get started with your WordPress website? Checkout our easy guide for how to start a blog where we walk you through all the steps of building a website. Key steps are choosing a domain & hosting, installing WordPress, choosing a theme, installing plugins and adding posts & pages.

Advertisement

Having a blog is a great way to generate passive income. You can make money using affiliate marketing, selling ads, sponsored reviews, etc from your blog. This requires no additional effort from you – it’s simply a way to take full advantage of the content and traffic you already have.

Most marketplaces and service providers offer affiliate programs. Some of our personal favorites that are easy to work with include ThemeforestShareasaleCJ Affiliate and Creative Market. Just signup for a FREE account and add links to you posts where it feels natural.

To sell ads you can offer your own ad packages or work through a company like BuySellAds. Or signup for a Google Adsense account and insert your code to let Google’s network handle the ads while you get a nice little check each month.

You can also offer sponsored posts on your blog. Add a page or contact form to your website so brands can get in touch to pay you for reviews, guides, list style posts or something else. Just be sure to stipulate in your sponsored post agreement that all opinions will be honest, and make sure you add a disclaimer to the final published post that it was sponsored.

You can also leverage your website to promote other money generating activities (which we cover below) such as courses, products or premium services.

3. WordPress Courses

The Best WordPress Courses for Beginners

Fairly confident in your abilities? Create a course! There are millions of people using the internet to learn new skills. All you need to do is create (and monetize) courses to help them. Teach people how to garden, share cooking tips, or even share your own guide on how to start a blog. Once you have your subject matter narrowed down, there are a couple options to actually create and monetize your online course.

The first is to use your website simply as a marketing platform with your courses hosted on a third party elearning site. Popular options include sites like Udemy where you can upload your courses and set your own prices, or Lynda where your course is a part of a general membership. Both offer easy ways to get started quickly. Just be aware that with these platforms you don’t keep the full amount paid for your course (Udemy takes a 3-50% cut of your course price, while Lynda pays out based on your views per month).

Advertisement

The second option is to go all in and use WordPress to build your website and host your courses. This way you manage your courses, set your prices and reap all the benefits. And lucky for you – there are a number of plugins that makes creating courses with WordPress easy. Just use our guide to create an online course with WordPress to learn more. Or you can use a membership plugin to create a paid, members only section of your website with exclusive content. This can include courses, blog posts, videos, downloadable tools or assets – really anything you want to offer.

4. eCommerce & Dropshipping

Simple WooCommerce Tips to Increase Sales

In addition to knowledge you can also share downloadable or tangible goods with your readers. It takes a bit of effort to get started, but WordPress is a fantastic platform to build an e-commerce website.

Why e-commerce? Now more than ever people are shopping online. And with WordPress you simply need to install a plugin like WooCommerce to build an online store. Compared to other e-commerce options, WooCommerce is completely free and offers many helpful features you can use to setup your store.

In addition to a regular storefront for your own goods, WordPress can also be used to build a dropshipping store. In this case you sell goods directly to customers but a third party ships them out (similar to how Amazon often handles shipping for smaller sellers using their platform). Whether you use WooCommerce or Shopify, this method typically involves using a plugin or using settings to ensure shipping info is sent to the supplier directly. If this sounds like the right business plan for you there are a number of plugins you can use to create a dropshipping business with WordPress.

5. Blog Setup Service

WordPress Is More Than A Blogging Platform

Are you a beginner or a part time blogger who doesn’t have much development experience even though you want to make money using WordPress? If yes, a blog set up service is the perfect option for you. Even beginners can offer this type of service! But how?

Many people want to use WordPress in their blogs, but they just don’t technical knowledge to actually get started. So they opt for blog setup service. Your task as a blog setup service provider will be to install WordPress, upload a WordPress theme, add the recommended plugins, etc.

To get clients you can start with a simple blog setup service page on your website. To attract leads or dedicated traffic to that page add banners for your service on your own site, try reaching out to other blogs to guest post, leave comments on forums with a link to your site, get on social media, and invest in paid advertising if you’re able. If you’re targeting a smaller or local audience (such as “blog setup service for gardeners” or “blog setup service in Savannah Georgia”) it’s often much more affordable than you’d think. If people are interested in your offer, they’ll contact you.

When you create your service page consider adding multiple price points with increasing levels of service. For example, you could have a basic blog setup service for $100 which includes installing WordPress, uploading a theme and adding the theme’s demo content. Then you can offer SEO plugin setup as a $20 upsell, or as a part of a premium setup service bundled with a few other features (like breadcrumbs, homepage setup, etc).

Advertisement

Alternatively you can provide you blog setup services for free, but you’ll have to rely on affiliate links within your services page. For instance, you could offer free blog setup with the purchase of Bluehost hosting when a customer uses your specific affiliate link. Bluehost offers competitively priced hosting plans that new bloggers can afford, as well as generous affiliate commissions upwards of $65 for every successful sign up. Similarly, you can then suggest themes, plugins, security services and other affiliate products to users when they sign up through your service page. Just remember to only recommend products you have tested and are good.

6. Website Maintenance

Website Maintenance

We mentioned blog setup, but there is a huge opportunity to generate ongoing income with maintenance services. Many website owners don’t want to deal with the day-to-day tasks of running a website – they simply want a way for people to find them on the web. And this is where you come in. Maintenance can entail WordPress updates, security monitoring, theme and plugin updates, hosting management, CDN setup, etc. Pretty much anything you’re already doing for your own website you can get paid a monthly fee to do for others.

It’s important to note that if you go this route you’ll want to use a site management plugin to make your life easier. A few of the top options are:

These plugins all allow you to manage core, theme and plugin updates as well as monitor SEO, site speed, comments and even backups all from one single dashboard. This way you can provide a comprehensive maintenance service to your clients without having to monitor each site individually.

7. SEO & Marketing Services

WordPress SEO Best Practices

If you’ve spent time learning how to optimize your own site you can certainly put those skills to work. SEO is a huge part of building up a website, and it can be very overwhelming for some people. Which is why SEO services typically fetch premium prices. Whether you assist with content optimization, link building, site speed or other site aspects SEO it’s certainly an area many website owners are will to pay for.

Marketing services go hand in hand along with SEO. Managing ads is time consuming, since it requires creating graphics, researching keywords, bidding strategy, placement and more. Plus a good marketing campaign includes multiple formats – Google ads, newsletters, social media, etc. Armed with the knowledge and connections you’ve already built for your own website you can certainly lend clients a helping hand. In most cases marketing services include a based fee plus a percentage based on traffic or increase in conversions.

8. Security Consulting & Solutions

WordPress Security

For those confident in their security abilities, and specifically coding skills, security consulting can be extremely lucrative. Security is of the utmost importance to every site owner. Some areas you might consider include:

  • Security Audit: There are premium auditing software services available, but you can also perform this by hand. Whichever route you choose just be sure to cover key aspects of security such as default WordPress settings, passwords, user role access, file permissions, updates, security plugin settings, backup settings (via plugin or hosting),  server configuration, SSL certificate etc.
  • General Security Hardening: This could be as simple as offering a professional setup service for up a trusted security plugin such as iThemes Security ProWordfence or All in One WP Security & Firewall.
  • SSL Setup: SSL is complicated, so why not help website owners correctly create and install their SSL certificate.
  • Malware Removal: If you know WordPress files like the back of your hand then Malware removal is right up your alley. If you choose to remove suspect code yourself manually or with the aid of a plugin this is certainly something you could add to your overall security services.

Of course there are other aspects to WordPress security but these are great places to start if web security is your passion.

9. WordPress Plugin Development

10 Best Gutenberg Plugins, Addons & Extensions

If you have used WordPress, you must be aware of one thing – you can’t run your blog without using at least a few plugins, right? Everyone uses plugins to add extra features that help run a WordPress blog successfully. There are thousands of plugins available in WordPress – some are absolutely free, others offer paid upgrades and the remaining are premium.

If you find a solution to a problem and create a plugin for it (that your audience might be interested in buying), there’s absolutely nothing that can stop you from making income from it. Analyze a few existing plugins (preferably in a similar niche) that are making decent money. See if they are using a premium (paid plugin) or freemium (free plugin with paid upgrade). Are they utilizing WordPress.org, a marketplace or relying on their own website for promotion? You might also want to check the comments/reviews as well to get an idea of what support might be like for you. Then figure out how you can do the same to create a constant cash flow!

If you are thinking to make money by selling WordPress plugins, make sure to create them by focusing on a specific need. One of the best examples in this category is the Elementor page builder. This mega page building plugin is focused on making creating custom page layouts easy, and has grown to be used by over 4 million WordPress sites. Plus the plugin developer monetized their creation by releasing a premium Elementor Pro with more advanced features.

You can sell your WordPress plugins at CodeCanyon. You may also sell it from your own blog, or by creating a separate site for it. You can also make money by working on custom plugin projects.

Advertisement

10. WordPress Theme Development

develop-wordpress-themes

Are you a web designer or developer? Yes? Then you can make money by developing WordPress Themes. You don’t have to be a top class designer or coder to design a great looking WordPress theme – but you should definitely know what you are designing for your targeted audience. At the end of the day, you should know who you are designing your theme for or else you will end up finding zero audience for your theme.

There are so many companies which are designing fantastic themes for WordPress sites to make passive income streams. For instance, people like Brian Clark founded StudioPress (and later sold it to WP Engine which now includes all of the StudioPress themes for FREE with their hosting plans) and our own AJ Clarke created WPExplorer Themes (including our #1 Total WordPress Theme) to build quality and appealing themes for WordPress websites. They have been doing great over years now just by hiring few designers and selling appealing themes.

If you are just starting out when it comes to creating WordPress themes, and not confident enough to go it alone, you can form a team. Or you can join a venture that is already in the business of making themes for others. This way you won’t have as difficult of a time making money while completing your work.

You may want to sell your WordPress themes at Template MonsterThemeforestCreative Market, or you can sell them from your own website. Just like plugins, you may also work on custom WordPress theme projects for clients to make some extra dollars.

11. Theme Customization

WordPress Theme Customizations

Are you an advanced developer with some extra time on your hands? Try offering customization services. Many developers are making decent side incomes offering website, theme and/or plugin customization services on WordPress job sites.

In any case, there are many WordPress users who can install a theme (or maybe their hosting provider offered this along with the setup of their WordPress install) but they don’t have the technical ability to make changes. For example:

  • Custom page layouts
  • Custom post types
  • Logo/branding creation
  • Social media integration
  • Newsletter setup
  • eCommerce store setup
  • Plugin configuration

This is just a super small example of course, since there are so many aspects to WordPress. You can offer up your services at a set price per task, or make your time available at a variable per hour rate.

12. WordPress Design Services

make-money-consulting

One of the last ways we want to talk about to make money online using WordPress is to offer comprehensive design services. It can be done easily only if you are good at WordPress – creating custom designs for clients, and building a full website from the ground up. Developers working directly with clients on custom sites charge in the thousands for their work. So while this option might require more knowledge and effort it is very much so worthwhile. And you can essentially bundle a few of the other monetization methods  mentioned on this list to create your overall service package (custom theme, blog setup, security setup, ongoing maintenance, etc).

Websites like CodeableUpwork and Toptal are great places to advertise your availability for clients work. You can also offer your services through your own website if you want to skip the middle man. Make sure you have a great portfolio if you are thinking of making a passive income stream by using this method. Specifically, remember to ask clients to give feedback if they are satisfied with your work or to share a review of your services that you can post on your site or share on social media. This can really boost your online sales, as testimonials from top bloggers is great social proof.

End Note

You don’t have to be a WordPress genius to make a living. If you can do any of the above and know how to sell yourself or your product you will have plenty of chances to make really good money using WordPress. Also, figure out what your targeted audience truly wants; this way you will be on the right track.

Advertisement

Do you have any more strategies to earn money online using WordPress? Please share them in the comment section.

Author: Kyla

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

WORDPRESS

5 Hidden Features of WordPress.com – WordPress.com News

Published

on

By

5 Hidden Features of WordPress.com – WordPress.com News

Whether you’re a blogger, a developer, or fall somewhere between, you’re likely to discover something new and useful in this video.

Isn’t it amazing how you can learn new things about someone, even after years of knowing them? That’s how Jamie Marsland has felt in the last few weeks while diving deeper into WordPress.com’s capabilities. In today’s Build and Beyond video, he shares five incredible features built right into the platform that aren’t as well known as they should be. Whether you’re a blogger, a developer, or fall somewhere between, you’re likely to discover something new and useful. 

Ready to build on WordPress.com? Start a free trial today:


Advertisement



Join 4.7M other subscribers

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

WORDPRESS

New WordPress.com Themes for March 2024 – WordPress.com News

Published

on

By

New WordPress.com Themes for March 2024 – WordPress.com News

Five of our favorite new themes.

The WordPress.com team is always working on new design ideas to bring your website to life. Check out the latest themes in our library, including great options for small businesses, sports fan, nostalgic bloggers, and more.


Feelin’ Good is a vibrant (to say the least!) blog theme with a bold vaporwave aesthetic. Its nostalgic atmosphere pays homage to the daring, over-the-top visual art and advertisements of the ’80s and early ’90s. We’ve combined a lot of elements that shouldn’t work together, but do. If you’re looking for a dynamic, attention-grabbing, eye-popping visual feast of a theme, try Feelin’ Good.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


1711610762 938 New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Low Fi is a simple blog theme featuring a narrow column layout that’s optimized for seamless browsing on mobile devices. With six style variations, you’re sure to find a palette you’re drawn to. Taking inspiration from the lo-fi beats music scene, the theme’s design cues, such as the square header image, offer a nod to album artwork.

The overall aesthetic is deliberately understated, with each element—from the muted color schemes to the textured background—crafted to evoke a sense of nostalgia and warmth.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.

Advertisement




1711610763 567 New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Cakely is the ultimate WordPress theme designed specifically for passionate bakers, cake enthusiasts, and dessert lovers. Tailored for small businesses aiming to shine in the world of sweets, Cakely effortlessly combines style and functionality to showcase mouthwatering creations. Its vibrant pink color scheme exudes joy while maintaining a classy, clean layout with easy navigation. This theme ultimately strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and playfulness, making it an ideal choice for showcasing your delicious masterpieces.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Treehouse is a carefree, fun, and friendly theme ideal for Woo stores selling children’s products. With its unlimited customization options, Treehouse enables you to set up an online shop with just a few clicks. Utilizing a soft color palette, playful design details, and simplified layouts, your site will attract a wide range of customers, from young parents to over-the-moon grandparents. This theme is fully responsive and cross-browser compatible.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Major League Baseball’s 2024 season kicks off on Thursday, March 28. What better way to show your home team the love it deserves than with a baseball-themed fan site! With a somewhat old-school layout, this theme evokes some of the classic sports sites of the ’90s, back before fantasy leagues took over. The header and accent colors are customizable, ensuring that your favorite crew is properly saluted.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


To install any of the above themes, click the name of the theme you like, which brings you right to the installation page. Then click the “Activate this design” button. You can also click “Open live demo,” which brings up a clickable, scrollable version of the theme for you to preview.

Premium themes are available to use at no extra charge for customers on the Explorer plan or above. Partner themes are third-party products that can be purchased for $79/year each.

You can explore all of our themes by navigating to the “Themes” page, which is found under “Appearance” in the left-side menu of your WordPress.com dashboard. Or you can click below:

Advertisement




Join 4.7M other subscribers

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

WORDPRESS

How to Get Started: Investigating Payment Gateways Online

Published

on

By

How to Get Started: Investigating Payment Gateways Online

When investigating a website, app, or online shop, one of the key questions you may need to answer is ‘How are they making money?’ 

Investigating the financial transactions of an organisation can reveal details about its connections and funding. Furthermore, if the website or app is engaged in illicit transactions, tracing the payment gateway can help achieve accountability by identifying what sites they are using to earn money.   Bellingcat has looked into the payment processors in previous investigations on far-right merchandise, Britain’s far-right influencers, and non-consensual deepfake pornography.

Credit: Nicolas Guyonnet / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

Payment gateways are a technology that takes a customer’s payment information, checks it with their financial institution, verifies that the transaction is legitimate, and then completes the transaction. As explained by Forbes, online stores need a payment gateway to be able to facilitate payments. Companies including PayPal, Stripe, and Square are commonly used as a payment gateway for online purchases.

Most mainstream payment gateways (like Stripe and PayPal) prohibit their services from being used in illegal transactions including the sale of illegal drugs, the promotion of hate or racial intolerance, and non-consensual adult content. Finding evidence that someone is violating the Terms of Services of these companies – and how they are doing so- can lead to the closure of loopholes and accounts. It can also provide additional information about an organisation’s revenue streams. 

It is nearly impossible to conduct online transactions without a payment gateway. So it should be possible to find the payment gateway of an organisation earning money, even if it is not obvious at first. One resource that is extremely useful is Chrome’s built- in developer tools (other browsers also have similar tools). Below we’ll provide an overview of the tools to use and questions to ask when scrutinising payment systems. 

How are they Taking Payment?

For online transactions, you’ll typically see websites accept traditional forms of payment including credit cards, debit cards and, more recently, cryptocurrency. Since cryptocurrency is not subject to the same regulations as traditional financial systems, cryptocurrency is often used to process payments for illegal services. Since this does not need to be ‘hidden’, websites will usually disclose which currency they accept and how to transfer funds into a crypto wallet. There are other ways you can track funding through cryptocurrency, as discussed in this guide.

Advertisement



If none of the above apply?  Other sites that use a payment gateway will accept money directly via credit card payment,  bank transfer, or through peer-to-peer payment apps (i.e., PayPal, Cash App, Zelle). If this is the case, you should be able to identify the payment gateway being used. In the case of the peer-to-peer apps, these services may be used by businesses and not just individuals’ transactions. They also require a bank account or credit card to use them. It is helpful to view transaction options on both the mobile app and web browser, in case the options differ.  It is also worth checking the currency that payments are being taken in – if it is a US website taking payment in a foreign currency, that can also provide clues. Further, if a website is using different payment gateways depending on the currency, this can lead to additional leads in your investigation. Payment options may also change depending on what IP address you are using. In other words, setting your IP address in the UK and then changing it to the US may result in different payment gateway options.

Where are they Soliciting for Payment?

Organisations may solicit for payment via a website or a messaging app like Telegram. It is important to investigate all avenues where  payment is being requested as each method may provide different clues for your investigation. For example, for some of the AI deep fake services we investigated here we found that companies would accept different payment methods depending on how you tried to pay – via their website, via a web browser or via Telegram. Sellers may want to direct their users away from their website to more private forums such as Telegram to facilitate transactions and avoid detection.

Is the Organisation Trying to Hide How Payment is Taken?

For some sellers, using a mainstream payment gateway may  violate the terms of service of that company. To be able to use their services, these sellers may  try to hide the nature of their goods from the payment gateway company. 

A Walk Through Example

Some sites may not show their payment options without signing up first. 

This was the case with the Nudify.VIP site which offers non-consensual AI Deep Fake pornography.  

Initially, the website states that their services are free. 

Advertisement



“With our service you can undress any person in a photo absolutely FREE!” 

However, this is misdirection, as you are then prompted to log in or sign up. Only once you create an account do you discover that you need to pay to access the service and how much it costs.

After creating an account, we were presented with two options to pay, by card or crypto. 

You are then presented with an option to pay via crypto or via credit card, but it does not yet say what cards they accept or what payment gateway they use. 

Clicking through to ‘Go To Payment’ gives us a new screen that lets the user pay via credit card (ie MasterCard, Visa), a US Bank account (ie Wells Fargo, USAA), or through Cash App. 

There is no indication of the payment gateway they are using, but if we look at the URL on the checkout page, we can see that it no longer says that we are on a Nudify.VIP domain. This is a clue that users are being directed to the checkout page through another website. This method is used to hide the true source of purchases from payment gateway providers. There’s another clue  that the domain has changed- in the fine print at the bottom of the checkout page. Via the Checkout Page using either Cash App or credit card options, it discloses:

“By providing your card information, you allow aiphotos.art to charge your card for future payments in accordance with their terms.”

Advertisement



This is another clue that the payment gateway does not know this belongs to an AI Deep fake service Nudify.VIP.

Three checkout options for Nudify.VIP: credit card, US bank account, and Cash App.

Use Browser Developer Tools to Investigate Further

All modern browsers have some form of built-in developer tools. You can search online for your specific browser (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Safari). If you are in Chrome, you can right-click anywhere on the screen to get a menu and an option to ‘Inspect.’ You can also use keyboard shortcuts which can vary between MacOS or Windows. For Windows, you can click CTRL + SHIFT + I and on MacOS you can click Option + Command + I on your keyboard. Any of these actions will open the developer tools which allows you to  view the code of a webpage (such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript). This should appear on the right-hand side of your screen. While developer tools are designed to check for bugs or errors in a website, you can use them in your investigation.

There should be a list of tabbed options for you to view on the top menu bar. Clicking on ‘Sources’ shows you all the resources that the website is using. 

This is a good place to start to look for any clues about what piece of code is being used in the checkout process.  In the example below, one of the listed sources on the page is titled ‘js.stripe.com.’



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending

Follow by Email
RSS