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The Ten Years Linux Journey

A Linux/LEMP discussion on Twitter today reminded me that I've spent about 10 years within a Linux environment now. It's not exclusive per se, there were times where I got back to Windows for a few months (keeping at least one system Linux-driven all the time), but it's been a great time and I'll tell you my experience with the mystic or notorious (depending on where you stand) platform. Note: Most of you know that I'm not an Apple fan but I'll keep it for myself in this post, just reviewing some slides over the years. Therefore please keep the… Continue Reading
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The Salary Factor

Last week Eric Mann posted his 2014 Salary Survey Results covering some rough figures about our industry and the average salaries paid for different levels of experience. I like aggregated data in general, and it would be nice if more people take on that sort of studies in 2015, extending their horizons across the entire world, including web development companies in Asia, Africa, South America as well. Because "distributed" is a popular lifestyle in the WordPress Community, and it's an important factor that we should never forget about. Before I start, Brian Krogsgard posted about the cost of a WordPress website - which is a post… Continue Reading
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14 Common Misconceptions About Email – Gmail’s Toolkit

"Slack is Killing email", "5 reasons Slack will change the workplace", "Slack, the office messaging app that may finally sink e-mail". For some odd reason, the media is eager to bury down the idea of email, and put an end to its usage for the entire world. Whether it's Slack, HipChat, Skype, social network, or some project management tool, media outlets are impatient to sink email as an official method of communication. In the meantime, marketers are celebrating their success with the best ROI results for email: According to GetResponse, email's ROI is $41 per dollar spend: Email remains unbeaten, with ROI… Continue Reading
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The Problem With Investors And Scaling – Uber Examples

Note: I started the post a few months ago, so there may be some slightly outdated facts. I'm a great proponent of bootstrapped companies, and I've always admired successful businesses that managed to grow without taking on seed funding or various types of investment. We're in our fifth year as a team at DevriX and while we're always hesitant to get a hold of more resources and speed up our growth or launch some of our products, we're still relying on a self-growth model instead. Uber [caption id="attachment_11728" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Photo by diginomica.com[/caption] Uber is a great service - an alternative… Continue Reading
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WordPress Salary Requirements Revealed and Company Pricing Breakdown

A known problem in the WordPress industry are the $500 projects and hundreds of thousands of clients looking for free and warez plugins and themes, unwilling to pay a few pennies for a premium solution, and completely baffled by any estimate that is equal to the actual salary of a developer. They often proceed with DIY solutions or site builders, and don't understand the cost of building a professional solution that is scaled for growth, stability, compatibility, speed and security. And some customers simply don't need a professional solution - they're just starting and haven't faced the challenges of a… Continue Reading
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The Risks of Premium Themes for Successful Businesses

I did a review of Envato and ThemeForest last year discussing the race to the bottom and the financial challenges for both business owners, and theme authors. The focus, however, was on the existence of the marketplace in the first place and the lucrative vision of the millionaire theme author in the context of the low-cost offers for $500 WordPress websites. This is a short run of the drawbacks for business owners tempted to spend some cash on a custom WordPress theme and taking a shortcut with a premium WordPress theme within the $30-$150 range. Keep in mind that not all… Continue Reading
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Your WordPress Business is Not There Yet

Given the large number of WordPress-based discussions on pricing, costs, consultant's fees and product licenses, it's no wonder why some people get frustrated about the Community and the understanding of Open Source. Other than the mentality and the usual incompetent statements such as: "But WordPress is free!" or "There should be a free plugin to do that!', there's another reason why some business owners can't grasp the cost of building a WordPress solution. [Tweet "Your WordPress Business is Not There Yet"] Commodities or Needs? There are usually two types of things that you need to do, build, use or have on… Continue Reading
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The Challenges Of Building a Site For a Friend

I often receive referrals or friends asking me to set up a WordPress website for them. It's usually something fairly small - such as a 5-page business website or a simple magazine website. They are close friends of mine or have been recommended through my network. They have received some offers, but are looking for a reliable solution instead of a shady freelancer or a random website building company. [caption id="attachment_12623" align="aligncenter" width="821"] Costs vs. Value[/caption] Generally speaking, I usually price services based on one of these two approaches: Free help for friends and family for trivial tasks and general guidance.… Continue Reading
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Why “WordPress Expert” is Not a Real Title?

While discussing the WordPress industry and the rest of the business world, my friend Ajay reminded me of why "WordPress Expert" is not a real title. His comment made me think about the misconception of "expertism" that seems to be getting popularity around the WordPress experts who offer their services: The issue with the WordPress industry is that anyone can be an expert because more often than not, they are dealing with those who aren’t experts or regular users wanting a blog. Let's take a step back and think about WordPress. What is WordPress? WordPress started as a blogging platform… Continue Reading
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Envato Or Why Race To the Bottom Is Dangerous?

I have a few friends who are pretty good with WordPress development, have a few decent plugins out there and love the community. They started small and began with playing with some themes and plugins, and then learned development by building their own solutions in the evening and over the weekend. For some of them that adventure happened some 6-7 years ago. They still love WordPress, and they also like the community. They maintain their free plugins and such. But they have to do other 9-to-5 jobs in order to make a living. They've tried to sell their services and products, but within… Continue Reading