Here at Red Bridge Internet we’ve been debating lately both a possible rebrand and our services concentration. A recent blog post by Tom McFarlin, entitled, “How Others Find You (As a Developer)” was timely.
He discuss the dilemma you’ll face working within the WordPress ecosystem; does one enter the product space or the services space as development professional.
For what it’s worth, I think it’s a false dilemma because you could enter both. Regardless, I think that the majority of us would say that entering into the product space would help generate more business because it would help us generate a reputation more quickly than if we got into the custom development space.
Think about the number of theme and plugin shops that you’re aware of. Or perhaps think about the number of hosting companies that exist solely for WordPress.
Now try to name the same number of custom development shops.
Another excerpt:
Building products and providing services or custom solutions are two completely different beasts. I don’t think anyone would argue that. As such, each one requires a completely different methodology for bringing awareness to themselves.
He starts be outlining both positions and then goes onto discussing options if you decide to go the services/developer route. Regarding blogging, one takeaway was to concentrate on deep and specific knowledge area that you can write about knowledgeably.
This was a highly shared blog post that looks like it will be added to at a later date. The business of WordPress services and development has been rapidly changing, hyper-change it seems, in the last year or so. Posts like these are well worth the read for anyone in the WordPress Development business.
Here’s the URL again, “How Others Find You (As a Developer)“, go check it out. It’s a good post.
