Making a living with
WordPress in 2009
Peter Flaschner (@flashlight)
Lucia Mancuso (@lulula)
The Blog Studio (@theblogstudio)
design & development for the social web
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

#WCT09
#WPbucks
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Introductions
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Lucia Mancuso
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Peter Flaschner
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Blog Studio
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Founded in April
2004
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Observed an
opportunity to reach
a global market
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Grew from just me to
5 full time people in
6 months with no
funding, no debt (but
also no profit)
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Worked in-house
(literally) for about a
year.
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Went virtual for a
couple of years
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Moved into our
current office a year
ago
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Clients include
Turner Broadcasting
Unicef
The US political right
+ over 100 more
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Positioned ourselves
as a high end shop
and concentrated our
expertise on project
management and
service.
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Specialize WordPress
and Expression
Engine
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Team
• project manager
• creative director
• senior developer
• front-end developer
• regular freelance designers
• regular freelance developers
• p/t book-keeper/finance guy
• p/t PR
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Market History
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Couple of things to
consider:
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1. Growth of supply
side
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2004 there were
about 10 companies
IN THE WORLD
doing business
oriented blog design
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SXSW 06
“How to make
money with your
blog design skills”
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

2. Growth of demand
side
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Growth of
blogosphere
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2M blogs in April 2004
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State of the Blogosphere / 2008
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3. Growth of our
capabilities
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Increased
sophistication of blog
CMSs
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+
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Move towards
standards-based
websites (away from
flash)
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=
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Blog designers were
really well positioned
to do general web
design
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In other words:
bigger projects
&
more opportunities
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4. Introduction of
viable “off the shelf”
site solutions
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Good looking, well
designed and put
together, easy to
customize via back-
end
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5. Fall 2008 market
crash
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Clients looking to cut
costs
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So:
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What does the
market look like
now?
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Shaky AND
Promising
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While $$ is tight,
smart companies are
investing on online
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Clients KNOW they
need to be in this
space
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Clients are less
willing to take risks
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There are lots of
ways for clients to
get a site
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Off the shelf
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Premium off the shelf
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Semi custom
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Full custom
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Local designer/
developer
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“Off-shore”
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Job board (elance)
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Given all of the
above, how can we
blog designers make
a living?
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We’re going to take
a look at 10
strategies:
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1. Full service
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• Strategy • project
management
• IA
• training
• UI design
• documentation
• development
• maintenance
• CMS integration
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Pro:
Can land larger
projects
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Pro:
Work on fewer
projects at a time
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Pro:
Can exercise passion
for social media,
marketing,
communications,
design,
development, etc etc
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Pro:
Can charge a
premium for single
point of contact
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Con:
Overhead
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Con:
Requires dedicated
project management
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Con:
Risk that a single
large client doesn’t
pay
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Con:
Give up some
flexibility
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2. Develop premium
themes
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Pro:
Work once, get paid
while you sleep
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Pro:
No clients!
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Pro:
Did I say get paid
while you sleep?
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Con:
Support
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Con:
Legality
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Con:
Prices are coming
WAYYYYY down.
Competition is global
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3. Develop premium
plugins
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There’s a lot of room
in the marketplace
for supported
plugins .
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Pro: the whole
getting paid while
you sleep thing
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Con: support &
legality
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Con: upgrades and
updates
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4. Streamline your
operations
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Create base themes
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Organize your code
library. Snippets are
your friend.
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Pro: efficiency &
margins
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Con: takes time to
actually organize
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5. Specialize in
customizing existing
themes
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Pro: MASSIVE market
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Pro: Incredibly easy
to get work
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Con: clients don’t
want to pay very
much
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Con: Client
expectations remain
very high, despite
low cost
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6. Do quick and dirty
design/development
(high volume)
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Pro: lots of work out
there
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Pro AND Con: very
low touch/low service
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Pro AND Con: Very
form-based client
communication
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Con: Low satisfaction
client/supplier
relationship
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Con: Client
expectations need to
be aggressively
managed.
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7. Offer specialized
service
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Just developer
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Just designer
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Just plugin
developer
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Just project manager
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Just sales
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Pro: specialists can
usually charge a
premium
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Con: you’d better
like what you do
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Con: really
dependent on your
partners
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8. Go super niche
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Just build sites for
basket weaving tulip
farmers
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Consider if you can
reach your super-
niche
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Trade journals, trade
sites, conferences,
etc
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Pro: captive market
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Pro: reuse hard-won
knowledge
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Pro: reuse strategy/
components/etc
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Con: limited niche
size
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Con: sensitive to
competition
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9. Offer additional
services
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Hosting
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Email marketing
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Social Media strategy
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Training
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Server maintenance
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SEO
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Pro: can generate
ongoing revenue
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Con: You have to
know what you’re
doing
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10. Explore other
platforms (less
competition)
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Expression Engine
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Joomla
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Drupal
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Yadda yadda yadda
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Pro: less competition
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Con: learning curve
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Our hard won advice
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Think beta
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Trust your instinct
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Learn which projects
to avoid
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Good, Cheap, Quick:
pick two
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Charge for your time
(all of it)
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Get your link on the
footer of the sites
you launch.
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Consider your
qualifications, your
time, your safety-net,
and most
importantly, what are
you passionate
about?
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Be willing to work
your ass off
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In conclusion
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

There’s a place for
everyone in the
market
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Figure out what
you’re passionate
about and do it
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Consider your client’s
needs, and be
respectful of their
time and money
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Let’s raise the caliber
for everyone
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thanks!
Peter Flaschner (@flashlight)
Lucia Mancuso (@lulula)
The Blog Studio (@theblogstudio)
www.theblogstudio.com
Tuesday, May 12, 2009