Matt Mullenweg posted on the WordPress Development blog that 19,932 people make their living using WordPress. The stat comes from users’ WordPress.org support forum profiles.
There are two options at the end of the profile fields that ask users to check whether they use WordPress at work, or make a living with WordPress.
20,000 is an impressive number. I’m sure the majority of people that make their living with WordPress design and develop WordPess websites, but of course many of you may also develop themes, plugins, or do other types of WordPress work.
We certainly know WordPress developers are in high demand, but it’s interesting to me to have a more tangible number that represents just how much food the platform puts on the table.
Will you help me test this little stat out a bit? Personally, I had forgotten that check box was in support profiles, and maybe you did too. Or maybe you created your profile long before you started making your living with WordPress.
So if you feel so inclined, fill out my little poll after the jump and we can find out if there are any WPCandy readers that make their living with WordPress that didn’t include it in their dot org support profile.
I have to say – I was genuinely surprised at the number; considering how many people use WordPress, I suspect that the number who are actually making a living out of it must be much, much higher.
Consider this: all linux-based webhosting Cpanels have a WordPress 1-click install, so it’s possible that you might be a WordPress developer without ever having visited WordPress.org
Just a thought!
Dez Futak.
As Dez mentions above, the number is probably much much higher. In most communities the percentage of active members offering support in online forums is only a fraction of the total.
Also, there’s a definite difference between “make MY living” and “make A living”. The former implies WordPress is your main income source, the latter implies it is only a part of your income source.
Your link to “support forum profiles” is broken. Missing a colon.
http://wordpress.org/support/profile is the correct link.
I suspect the number is low simply because most people don’t know those fields are there or never bothered to fill them out.
Thanks Otto, fixed the link.
Not only that, but the link between what’s filled in at http://wordpress.org/support/profile and what’s filled in at http://profiles.wordpress.org/users/interconnectit/profile/edit/group/2 is a bit broken, and not all the fields in the first are on the second.
It’s a little confusing, and I can understand why it’s happened, but I’d never seen the first link and had only used the second – so I wondered how on Earth anybody knew if we did or did not make money with WordPress. We do, and we employ five people and a contractor – as a business which ONLY works with WordPress that’s six people making a living out of WP that are probably not known about.
The Profiles system is somewhat newer, the questions on the support forum profiles have been there much longer.
I would guess the number is actually much higher, my WordPress.org profile mentions that I make a living with WordPress but I know at least a half dozen other’s in my local community who use WP everyday but don’t even have a WordPress.org profile.
I think it’s secret is that it’s a fantastic tool.
I think we need to make it less of a secret.
You’re right Andrea, and I think it’s growing. What did they say at WordCamp Montreal? 18% of websites run WordPress now? That’s an amazing idea.
Wow.20000 people is a lot.Fingers crossed to everyone
That’s a lot of people. No wonder every time I check my RSS feeds I see a theme shop hiring.
That’s really amazing numbers
I am glad to be one of them..
I do not think 20,000 is a huge number when one considers the number of WordPress blogs.
Are there more than 19 million active wordpress blogs hostet at WordPress, and it is probably just as many blogs that are not hosted by WordPress.
So I actually thought that there were a lot more people who were making aliving from blogging.
At least 70% of my business is WordPress related. I install wordpress on 95% of new websites even if the client hasn’t yet expressed an interest in blogging or managing their own content. Add me to the number!
I love my WordPress.
I think part of the reason behind this good figure, and the probably much higher real number of people, is the fact that WordPress is becoming TOTALLY mainstream.
Could it be possible to tell that “x” people make a living with internet ?
Let’s narrow the terms : that “x” people make a living with a website ?
For a growing number of people, having a website MEANS using wordpress, without asking oneself more questions. Because it works. Because it’s simple.
I remember old persons in my family saying “I click to launch internet”, meaning they were clicking the IE6 icon. They were making a complete confusion but were satisfied with it as it was.
I think wordpress is becoming a bit like that for a majority of the webmasters, some of them who’re going to make a living eventually, the “no worries, no complications, it’s the way to go” solution.
Voted
“I make my living with WordPress and it’s on my profile”.
Big thanks to Matt and WordPress and TF (i guess everybody knows what this means :)) for allowing me to do what i like and earn money while doing it.
Sorry for double post, just wanted to say that by “WordPress” i mean everyone who was ever involved in making it.
Speaking of surveys, when are the results of the WP Candy survey going to be published (or did I miss them?)
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… and 100.000 like me, never seen that hidden check box ?
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I honestly don’t understand how you could make enough to support just yourself just doing WordPress sites. I mean you’d have to pump out quite a bit in order for it to work. Is it actually possible to design a site from the ground up, chop it up in photoshop, and customize it in WordPress within a week? Maybe I’m just not fast enough myself who knows. And what about things like health insurance, dental, 401k…You don’t get any benefits making a living doing websites. I just don’t understand how people do it…
Well it would take hell of lot of work, but I think i can be done.!
My site had 81k visitors last month and I “only” made 600£, so the site would have huge in order to clear those earnings.
But as you write you don´t have health insurance, dental and so on, so I would never put myself in a situation where I depend on the earnings that my blog/websites makes.!
If you track number of searches in google for WordPress related keywords you can see that the WordPress universe has grown significantly over the past 6 months.