How to Create Recurring Revenue from Your WordPress Site

Recurring revenue is the latest craze as the guru himself, Dean Patino will tell you. Both online and offline with all the big whales taking the lead from Google and Amazon  to Netflix and Minibar. You could do the same for your WordPress business as well.

Many times people go into business because they are passionate about something and they wouldn’t mind earning a dollar or twenty from it. Every business has a slow season and this can really take its toll on a business and especially if there are employees that need to be paid.

A WordPress design or development business can be a little tricky and most people think that getting more clients would make their lives better. This is not really a solution because one, more clients means more work.

You keep working on multiple single projects for different clients and it seems stable until they don’t pay or the payment is delayed. Not every client keeps their word and not all of them are easy to work with, you know. And then you have to look for more work again and the cycle continues.

What if you could have a recurring revenue whether every month or every fortnight? And that without the extreme workload that comes with having many different clients? If you don’t mind having money regularly coming your way then this is the way to go. How do you do it from your WordPress business angle?

1. Maintenance and support

You developed a WordPress site for a client and handed it over to them with instructions on what to do and when. You are confident that that work is done only for the client to call you a few weeks or even days later with questions and additions.

You will of course agree to it because you like to offer great customer service for your clients. But often, they call again a few weeks later asking you to make a few changes on their site. This is a good sign that your client trusts and likes your work and you could use it to your advantage.

If you have a monthly retainer, they would not have to stop coming back to you for help and would help you get value for offering your services. This will turn out to be good recurring revenue for you especially if you have several clients in need of your service.

You need to be clear about what the retainer covers so as to avoid any misunderstandings with task allocation.

2. Search Optimization

Many people say that SEO isn’t viable anymore but that is not true. You will agree with me that ranking on search engines is very important for businesses but the things that influence this are usually not adhered to by many small business websites.

Browse through and you will find no image optimization, poor internal linking, name address and phone numbers that do not match, title tags not properly used, proper keyword use not applied, default WordPress permalink structure and many more that you will be able to pick out after spending a few moments.

Sorting this for a small business may mean a temporary revenue source for you but bigger websites with more content translates to a long term engagement and of course, a lucrative source of recurring revenue for you.

3. Advertising

Every business is looking to get more clients constantly streaming in. Many small businesses look at traditional advertising methods like print as their first option. Such methods usually don’t offer verifiable results and you coming in with online advertising means that you are helping them advertise their business efficiently.

Your charges will be determined by what returns your service is bringing in. The more they make the more you can make off them as well so make sure that your input counts for a lot.

4. Content and Social Media Management

Many businesses have seen the impact that social media can have on their bottom line and are therefore open to its use. Most are however not willing to put in the work required to realize results and it remains low on their list of priorities. Take this burden off their shoulders and offer your services.

Creating content is another way to make money from a WordPress business but many business owners don’t have the skills or time required. Some have no idea how much time it actually takes to come up with the size of article they would prefer to see on their site. Let them know how long it takes so that you can agree on how much to charge for such a service.

If it seems like extra workload on your side, talk to an experienced writer so that you get a steady income and create employment at the same time.

5. Conversion Optimization

Conversation rate is basically the number or percentage of website visitors that turn into clients for a business. Conversion optimization therefore entails getting the website to a place where more visitors become clients.

This will require trust between you and the website owner because you may need to make a number of structural changes to the website whenever you see fit. You have to test the changes to see whether they indeed improve conversion. If it works, how much would your client be willing to pay for the improvement?

As you decide on what your avenue for recurring revenue will be, remember to focus. You can’t do it all without offering something so choose what you are really good at and can deliver with the most minimum effort to ensure efficiency and to build your brand name in that niche. There are several recurring revenue ideas you can adopt on your WordPress site and boost your earnings.