Can you make money by setting up WordPress sites if you're a beginner?

I’m not a beginner - but when I started working with clients, my experience was very basic (I’d set up a few personal websites, and learned a bit about managing plugins, how to optimize site performance, basic SEO and so on). I’ve learned probably 75% of everything I know about setting up, optimizing, and maintaining WordPress websites - and about 50% of everything I know about online marketing — since I started working with clients, a few years ago.

The key to success is twofold:

You need to know enough to add value for your clients, even if your offerings are basic.

You need to be professional with respect to every facet of your business (even if you’re just one person, setting up WordPress websites).

This means that you need to be prepared. If someone says, “You do websites? I need one! How much do you charge?” - Etc. — you need to be prepared with what you’re going to say, and how you handle the specifics - in the various ways that will result in a happy client.

This includes: Having your preferred hosting company set up, and being familiar with their rates, and how to set up client websites through them.
How to register domains for your client (usually and option through the given web host - for instance, I work with Siteground, and I highly recommend them.)
Have a prepared “menu” of productized offerings, each one specifying exactly what you offer (and, what you don’t) - for instance:

“Basic Website Setup, including Domain Registration and Hosting Setup for $X

Basic Website Setup, not including Domain or Hosting Setup for $Y (for when the client already has their web domain and hosting in place)

Basic Website Setup with Annual Support for $Z (more) - and so on.”

Then, within that Basic Setup - specify exactly what is included, i.e. Installation of Wordpress and Theme, installation and setup of Recommended Plugins, Website content of up to X Pages total, including Home, About, Contact, Etc., linking to client social media accounts, basic SEO (i.e. including applicable keywords via SEO plugins that will improve client search results).

There’s a lot that’s fairly basic, and which takes very minimal extra time (i.e. setting up Google Analytics, and submitting a sitemap - all easy, via free plugins) that can add significant value to your offering, and make for happier clients.

The main points here are:

Being professional by being prepared.

Offering pre-set packages, rather than getting caught up hourly-rate negotiations (better for you and your client).

Adding value with best practices that will improve your client’s overall website experience - i.e. Google Analytics so they can track their website’s performance; caching plugin, so their site performs well, and so on.

Adding value and earning more money by offering additional services such as ongoing support / maintenance, SEO/Marketing packages, and so on.

Once that’s in place, there’s a lot of good information and many good resources on building a WordPress business.

And, of course, the more you personally practice (via online tutorials, etc.) and setup client sites - the less time you’ll spend as a “beginner”.

Finally, of course - have your own dedicated WordPress website that serves as a showcase for your work, and has your portfolio of client websites (which can be built up as you grow). And build your audience and potential clients by offering what you do know about WordPress, websites, etc. online via your own website, Twitter, answering questions on Quora, and so on.

You’ll make the most money, and be able to do the most for your clients if you also code a bit, or learn how to - specifically JavaScript (WordPress is shifting from a PHP core to a JavaScript core over time - and JavaScript is useful for front-end web development, period) and PHP (even basic knowledge of PHP can help you understand WordPress’s structure and code, and help you to make various changes easily).

However, if you don’t code currently, I’d recommend learning to code over time, and adding in new capabilities as you’re able to perform them with full professionalism and confidence. I posted a table on my own website, displaying specific coding courses I’ve completed - which, in conjunction with the content on my website, including my portfolio, gives clients a much more detailed idea of my overall capabilities.

You can still make a very good living setting up WordPress websites without knowing how to code - especially if you understand (or are willing to learn) the fundamentals of online marketing (SEO, online ads, affiliate programs, content marketing and management, and so on).

And, finally, here’s a link to my website, where I offer various services, including WordPress website setup, maintenance and marketing.

Points to note:

One way I find interested potential clients is by offering a free ebook I wrote (via a big, easy-to-notice button on my home page), which serves as a “Small Business Guide to Online Success” (the ebook’s title), as a free download. Offerings like this can make all the difference between building a list of interested prospective clients - and turning them into actual clients - than if they just visit your website, and leave, without providing any contact information.

I describe my total services as “Digital Optimization” - rather than “WordPress websites and marketing” - because that (Digital Optimization) is the value (aka set of benefits) I offer to clients - it’s what they want to achieve by looking at various options for their website, online presence, etc. The “what” is described throughout the website - but the first thing a prospective client sees is the potential benefit they’ll get, by working with me.

I link to my website portfolio near the top of the Home Page - so that prospective clients can see the work I’ve done, and gain a sense of credibility from the outset.

I offer free consultations (up to 30 min.) - an offer stated right at the top of my Services page — making an initial conversation an easy decision for prospective clients.

Yes, you can, although I think your ideal answer goes beyond just a binary question right?

There are many ways to make money by setting up these kinda wordpress sites.

1. Niche authority sites (eg. gardening, clubbing, art and crafts, hobbies mostly.)
2. ECommerce Sites (setting up an online shop.)
3. Portfolio or project sites. (If you’re a freelancer, this would be great.)

In detail, niche authority sites usually requires that you possess

• Great Expertise
• Awareness of trends

The Smart Passive Income Blog is an example of a niche authority site that demonstrates great expertise and awareness of trends. (BTW, The Smart Passive Income Blog will teach you in detail about making money through content marketing/blogging.)

What follows setting up a niche site is usually setting up an autoresponder that emails subscribers of your website on schedule. This is to keep them engaged.

Eventually you’d want to monetize your audience, you can do this by setting up Adsense on your website or selling a product through your email list.

On Ecommerce sites, I do not know much about this but I know it relates to drop shipping which you can find out over here in this guide by Shopify

Portfolio or Project sites are more relevant if you’re a freelance creative professional whereby you need a place to showcase your work and invite people to make use of your services.

The difficulty with this is, how are you going to market your website to reach more eyes; and more specifically, eyes that need your services.

Someone said it before, don’t quite remember who but the quote goes something like this,

“Business is 30% product and 70% marketing.”

This rings true in the world of online business. You need to let people know what you are doing for them to use your services.

You can do this using a couple of methods:

SEO - Search Engine Optimisation, use a tool like webtexttool to create webpages optimised the way google likes it. This would generate organic (free) traffic to your website.

SEM - Search Engine Marketing, use Bing ads, google adwords, yahoo ads to drive traffic to your website via ads that appears when search queries are entered. This is expensive but can produce immediate results if say, you are ready to launch your product or you want to drive targeted traffic to your website.

Guest-posting - this is a common one, if you’re a niche authority site, you could guest post on another niche authority site that backlinks to your site, this makes google really happy as this shows that you have authority, you are relevant and you are reputable.

Social media marketing - you could make use of facebook ads, instagram ads or twitter ads to push traffic to your website.

Hope this helped clarify some of your doubts!