The Ten Most Demanded Skills For WordPress Developers

Today's article on the most demanded skills for WordPress Developers is from Josh Wardini, together with a superb infographic of 51 amazing facts you didn't know about WordPress.

As most of my readers work with WordPress, this is a very relevant topic.

About Josh Wardini

Josh is Editorial Contributor and Community Manager at websitebuilder.org.

With a preliminary background in communication and expertise in community development, Josh works day-to-day to reshape the human resource management of digitally based companies.

When his focus trails outside of community engagement, Josh enjoys the indulgences of writing amidst the nature conservations of Portland, Oregon.

Over to Josh….

Ten Most Demanded Skills For WordPress Developers

If you are seriously considering a career in the tech world, WordPress is a great place to start. With the ever-rising number of brands choosing WordPress to power their websites, the demand for the developers is also expected to rise. WordPress Hosting is quite popular as currently 28% of all websites are powered by WordPress .

Upwork, in 2017, listed WordPress developers as one of the most sought after freelancers on their site. If you are currently a WordPress developer or you are a beginner looking for extra pointers to boost your career, you came to the right page. Below are the most demanded skills that will build the career of any WordPress Developer:

Technical Competence

It goes without saying that everyone, in whichever job or career path, should be able to own their art. Photographers should be masters of pictures, writers should be able to combine words into captivating articles, a chef should also be able to do more than fry an egg.

As a developer, to own your art means to be conversant with all the technical skills necessary in creating websites as they build the foundation of your work. Whether your preferred acronym is HTML, CSS or MYSQL, mastering your art is key. Know your stuff and keep upgrading your skills through trainings and courses.

Learning Mindset

Stagnation is without a doubt not an option for any developer. The field of developing is constantly changing and any WordPress developer is expected to be an eternal learner. WordPress keeps on creating updates and several other plugins are being released every other day. It is up to the developer to keep up to date and to continuously upgrade their skills. Develop an urge and eagerness to learn if you want to be successful in this field.

Solid Planning Skills

One needs to have the right plans and strategies to achieve the targets and milestones accordingly. Your client not only wants the job done, they need you to create relevant plans and steps that will be taken during the process of developing their websites.

They will require an insight into exactly what will be done matched well with timelines. Create a habit of having schedules and plans once you begin a project these simple steps will ensure you meet deadlines and submit work in time.

Basic Marketing Skills

Marketing is often shunned as the process of false advertising one’s goods or services so as to trick potential customers into spending, ripping them off their hard earnings. However, marketing in the real sense is the process of presenting one’s value in an attractive way that not only promises delivery before purchase but satisfaction after.

Get to know where your customers are, find out exactly what they need, what communication means is preferred and present your skills in a way they will understand. If you don’t have the marketing skills at the moment, have no worries, specialisation in this field is acquired with time.

Focus and Self-Motivation

WordPress developers are required to continuously push their abilities. Understand that you will not be able to fully know everything. From the plugins, to designs and layout, to the hundreds of themes, which require different strains of specialised skills and knowledge.

Developers are thus advised to narrow their skills and prowess so as to be specialised in particular fields in the large industry.  Focus on specific skills and perfect them. Most developers probably don’t work a regular supervised 9 – 5 job, thus it is important to be self-driven, avoid procrastination, and be your own boss.

Customer Service

How you communicate with your customers will make or break you as a WordPress developer. Ensure you offer exceptional customer service which may include simple sites such as, answering queries in a timely manner, providing relevant information when requested, providing the needed solutions to problems and including a great refund policy within your services.

Have an accessible means through which clients can contact you either through your direct line, email or any preferred channel. Bad service reviews are listed as one of the main reason brands miss out on potential customers. Plus we all know how word spreads as fast as bushfire. On the internet one dissatisfied customer may tarnish your whole business.

Testing and Receiving Feedback

In order to ensure your clients are satisfied, you will have to include their opinions in the building of their websites. Create samples, ask for feedback, improve on your creations then redo the listed steps until you have a master final layout. Steve Jobs the Apple legend, created prototypes for each design, went round even asking neighbours for feedback before he could create the final product. This is called product testing, a key component in developing.

As a developer you need to code websites that work across all browsers and the different operating systems. Get feedback, run trials to get a better insight as you develop and install themes and plugins. Look forward to negative feedback as it is the only way you will be able to identify errors and mistakes.

Delegation

This is one of the hardest, mostly when it comes to solepreneurs. The truth is you can’t do it all. We may often want to control and coordinate everything by ourselves, not realising we fall short in some skills.

A WordPress developer can’t code, be the marketer, the customer service representative, admin assistant, accountant and perform all the other tasks required in a business. As your workload grows, it may reach a point where operating this way may not be possible and you could become the bottleneck that hinders your business from growing.

Know When to Move On

Just like a relationship, if the project is not working out you need to leave it. Don’t let it suck all your attention, or plough all your time and energy into projects that are dead. I have had issues with this so I understand why sometimes it may be hard to move on.

Get up and move on, to avoid wasting resources in jobs that will not increase growth. Being aware of when to move on is a crucial skill all WordPress developers should have. You know that little voice at the back of your head that we often ignore – listen to it!

Love What You Do

Re-examine the reasons why you became a WordPress developer. If none is based on passion and love of the job move on to something you love. I am a strong believer that you must be passionate about what you are doing so as to be successful.