When you’re a web developer, a lot, if not all, of your income is one-off projects. Maybe you get some small maintenance retainers or have a hosting reseller account for a few extra bucks. But building a steady income can be tough. And when you do, it’s usually going to be associated with extra work.
Below are 3 ways that ecommerce developers can earn more income off of projects they are already getting. That’s right, not a “hunt, kill, repeat” sales process of earning more money. Strictly increasing your revenue off of the projects that you already have coming to you.
1. Maintenance Retainers
Keep a retainer with your clients for regular maintenance and upkeep.
With great Content Management Systems available, some clients don’t need to keep a developer around for regular work. But a lot of business owners don’t even want to learn how to manage their website because that’s just one more thing they need to do. Getting clients to pay you a monthly retainer to be available for basic maintenance and product updating can be a nice, reliable cash stream. Things that might take a regular business owner an hour are only going to take you a few minutes. You don’t need to charge for your time of working, but the value you provide by saving them the time it would take out of their day.
2. Complimentary Services Partner
Partner with a marketer/marketing agency for connecting your clients and getting referral commission.
Despite popular belief, just having a website online does not mean you’re going to automatically start getting customers. Most business owners think that, which leads to great disappointment if they’re expectations aren’t managed. And if you’re the one who built their site that they expected magic out of, you’re gonna be to blame.
If you can educate your clients and set their expectations, you should easily be able to refer them to a marketing agency that will help them start getting customers. Especially if you’re main focus is dev work, you can add in some commission from the right marketing partner without having to do any work at all.
3. Passive, Residual Income From Processing Commissions
Become a referral partner with a processing company to earn residual income on all sales made through the site.
This may be the best of all three because it is residual, takes literally NO extra work at all, AND it saves your clients money.
If you’re building ecommerce sites already, then you are certainly setting up merchant accounts and payment gateways so your client can accept credit cards.
What if you had a processing partner that offered wholesale processing so that your clients paid the lowest possible cost? And since you’re a partner, you would actually earn a small percentage of every sale processed on the site.
That’s right, you’re making money for doing nothing at all. And your helping your client by getting them the best processing rates legally available.
Because you’re the expert in ecommerce development, you are the one who suggests the gateways and merchant accounts already, so there’s no change at all to your process.
Learn more about becoming an ecommerce merchant processing partner >>
How Do You Maintain Reliable Income As An Ecommerce Developer?
What other suggestions do you have for building a more steady flow of cash into a one-off project type of service like ecommerce development?