Mark Jaquith

I’m not just one of the Lead Developers of WordPress (a volunteer position) — I’m also a freelance WordPress developer and consultant. WordPress consulting quite literally puts food on my table. With a wife, a mortgage, and a kid on the way, I can’t afford to treat WordPress as a hobby. If you are an aspiring WordPress consultant, someone who is doing WordPress work “on the side” and is considering going full time, or if you are earning your living working with WordPress but want to improve your standing in the marketplace, you can’t miss my Saturday morning session on “Feeding your family with WordPress development.”

I’ll be sharing my story — from high school and college dropout to WordPress Ninja — my tips, a few tricks, and some pitfalls to avoid.

Some of the topics I’ll address:

• How to get started
• Setting your rates
• Hourly, or by-the-project?
• Picking your clients
• Keeping your skills sharp
• Improving your standing in the community and the marketplace
• How to keep your sanity

Come with questions. I’ll see you there at 10:15am, and I look forwarding to competing with you in the WordPress marketplace!