This post will give you an overview of the WordPress consulting rates and what level of service you might expect to see for those rates.
There are three types of WordPress consulting services people pay for:
- WordPress consulting for set up and installation – Set up a database and install WordPress to a point the user can just start blogging.
- WordPress consulting for SEO – This is about helping users get greater visibility for their blog by optimizing the settings, installing plugins and other on-site and off site ideas.
- WordPress customization – This is the cosmetic aspect of WordPress. It is usually theme customization and design.
I have listed the services in the order of priority. However, I believe the second, that is WP consulting for search engine optimization and marketing is the best value.
From the other two services one is important and one is what people think is important. The installation most people can do if they have the time and patience, but this is important. The customization is the least value to your business, however, oddly enough people think it is the most important. However, what good is a website, if few people come? I think people are assuming they will get thousands of visits if they just have a good idea and a nice design.
WordPress consulting rates
The following are ball park fees a consultant might charge. Professionals have spent year developing the knowledge even if it can be crystallized into efficient advice even if to you it seems like small tips and simple idea. They have separated the signal from the noise and if others could do it they would, but it takes years.
Rates for WordPress installation consulting
People charge from 50 dollars to 1500 dollars. I think a fair rate is about 100 dollars for flat fee consulting. I think from A to Z a good set up will take a consultant about an hour. I can do an installation in 15 minutes really, however, to tweaking it could take an hour or more. If the server is strange then it will take 3 hours. So I think 100 dollars is a cheap but reasonable rate. There are guys in India that might do it for 50 dollars.
WordPress SEO consulting rate
Again the cheapest you will find is 50 dollars an hour. Anything below that is really not worth it as they do not do a great job. However, professionals will charge about 200 dollars an hour and have a minimum of 5 hours. I think this is too much, but this is the way they make money. Everyone including yourself needs to get paid.
Why do I think this is too much? WordPress is pretty much ready to use out of the box.
My fee for WordPress consulting is 100 dollars for two hours. The reason I can be cheap is I do not do this full time. It is a hobby. The reason I can back up my results is my main site (not this one as it is a hobby blog) gets over 5,000 unique visits a day.
Actually closer to 10,000 and about a half a million page views a month. I think few WordPress consultants get traffic, except for the ones that charge 300 dollars an hour. So if you are looking for someone to guide you, why not write me at markbiernat@yahoo.com with what you are thinking in terms of for your website.
WordPress customization rate
Theme and website customization all depends on what you want done. I think a reasonable rate (cheap) for a theme that is very personal is 300 dollars but many firms charge 3000 dollars. However, I would highly recommend, unless you have so super special exotic business to use a free theme until you have 1000 unique visits a day.
Why spend a penny on design if there are so many free themes out there? My advice is fine a free WordPress theme and work with the theme and the sidebar widgets. Do your own small customization.
Why less customization is more? When I worked in business in IT every time we did a customization, we regretted it. Why? Someone has to support that customization for continued work. Every upgrade puts the old work in jeopardy. If you are talking about just theme customization or having a unique page that is one thing, then that is more reasonable. However, to build a shopping cart, better you use a plugin or buy one. Why not just use things available for free?
Therefore, if you want a full set up and SEO I think 200 dollars is reasonable. The theme you can choose yourself. There are many guys on the web that do this work as the barriers to entry are low. However if you are going to get a consultant shop around for WordPress consulting rates and someone that can back it up with traffic, like I can.
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