Freelancing what way do I go?

Hey my goal is to make $1000 per month with freelancing.

What path should I choose to reach this goal easiest? (currently I know HTML and CSS and a bit of JS)

  1. Learn a bit of php in order to really understand and specialize in wordpress. This seem to be pretty unsexy but that might also be the reason it could potentially be the easiest to make money in?

  2. Focus on becoming really good at javascript and learning a framework such as React or something like that. Maybe going this path is overkill for my goal? I want to get started quickly and the freelancing job posts I see in this area require sooo many different stuff it looks crazy.

Open to more options also ofc :slight_smile:

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I can tell you right now, don’t focus on what’s easiest for you, focus on what’s more fun for you. Because if you’re doing something you enjoy it becomes easy.

I myself went with your Option 1. Mainly because I really liked what WP had to offer in terms of how complex or simple I could get when making a theme and just what that CMS can do in general. I can tell you too, while WP is built on PHP, it almost feels like it’s own version of it. There’s a lot of different ways to go about the same thing. Personally I strive to make a WP site automated/easy to update enough that a client won’t need me when it comes to running their site…unless they want to hire me for that :wink:

That being said, throwing a simple WP theme is technically easy, once you learn the meat and potatoes of coding for the CMS. Which is kind of the greatest thing about WP, you don’t just have to build a “blog” you can do pretty much whatever you want with it as long as you know how to.There’s also a HUGE amount of documentation for it and a big community to bounce questions off of. Granted, depending on the type of project, you might be better off with a different CMS.

Heck, you could even just focus on building WP plugins if you wanted to.

I’d say, try doing both options, see which one you like more (or maybe you’ll enjoy them equally). And the more you work with them, the easier it’ll become. I’m coincidentally working on learning JS too, because I’m looking to be more well rounded in what I can do with a bit of code.

There’s no fast track really, BUT I suppose the closest you could get with Option 1, is building WP themes and then maybe selling them. You can branch out then into several types of themes. Ones for articles, shopping, brochure sites, video sharing, etc. And you can utilize JS in there too for functionality. Best of both options there. I’ve never tried this myself, all the themes I’ve built or modded were for specific client projects. But check out sites that sell WP themes. See what different themes are going for, how complex they are, and you can get a better idea of what’s needed/popular.

You can always offer web mastering/site maintenance services to clients either on an hourly rate or a monthly retainer depending on their needs. Some folk would just rather have someone else handle their sites.

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First off, thank you!

I guess I need to shift my focus then to what I enjoy the most. Trying a bit of both sounds like a good idea.
I just want to make sure that I specialize in some kind of niche so that it is easier to market myself, for example “Wordpress theme expert” rather than “freelance frontend developer”.

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No problem! You know what too, if you end up digging working with WP themes, you add helping people out with theme issues to your bag of tricks. I’ve seen plenty of quick job postings for people either looking to just change a few things with a given theme, add functionality, or the simple case where xyz just went wrong when they tried to change something. If you can get the job done and done right, it could be a nice bit of change in your pocket. A lot of times people just want to get something fixed and move on and they’ll be willing to pay to have that done.

I think the thing to keep in mind, is working with WP is pretty specific, while doing HTML/CSS/JS on its own is more broad. Let’s say you end up working for a development company, they might really love the fact that you’re great at JS and not so much that you know how to code a WP theme. On the other hand, another company that works primarily with WP would love that you know the CMS inside and out and the fact that you know JS too is a bonus.

BTW, might I suggest going with “Wordpress Developer” instead of theme expert? Sounds a bit more robust to me. Plus if you dabble in building plugins, you can encompass that too with a title like that. Or…come to think of it you can start out with “Wordpress Theme Developer”. Right there in the title someone knows exactly what it is you do.

Then again, there’s nothing out there that says you can’t be a “Freelance Frontend and Wordpress Developer” you know?