WordPress Plugin Development Future
In the last few weeks, I have received a bunch of questions related to the future of WordPress and WordPress plugins in particular. The main question was how I see the future of WordPress plugin development and market, and if there is any specific niche for talented developers to fill up.
First of all, it is important to mention that at the core of WordPress ideology is the creation of a community that works on the improvement of the WordPress platform and possibilities. And this is not related only to core programming, but also such things as WordPress theme design and of course plugins. WordPress itself is developed in a way that was well accepted by the tech community and to this day proven to be a leader among web development platforms. For sure there are many factors that defined the success of WordPress, nevertheless the ability to use the open-source base for creating of your own stuff is one of the key features developers appreciate a lot. Moreover, such an approach allowed WordPress to improve on a daily basis and strive to the top in the shortest possible time.
Over time we can see several types of developers who use WordPress in their everyday work. The first ones are those who use WordPress as a platform for their client projects and solutions. Such developers usually rely on other groups by applying 3rd party solutions and often define trends on what should go next. The second group is working on WordPress themes and offering a premium-quality user interface. This group usually does not provide services to the end client, nevertheless, they have set up a powerful support system for end users and developers who use their products. Moreover in order to raise their theme popularity theme developers like to include premium class plugins in their theme packages in order to offer their clients maximum value. Finally, the third group is plugin developers whose main purpose is to create sustainable and well-maintained solutions for both previous groups plus end users. One of their works from a business perspective is to see upcoming trends defined by others and react to them quickly in order to move their plugin on top of others.
In the last few years, I saw how users usually travel from the first group to the second and third. This is also something that happened to me as I started to use WordPress and saw that there are opportunities for me to dig deeper and implement my ideas in order to succeed. By following the same path I would suggest starting from the top and slowly moving downwards so you can understand all the stages of how the trends are set and learn how to guess them. At the time you will get into plugin development you should be able to define a niche where you can use your expertise and skills.
Do not be afraid to get deep into the WordPress plugin market and start working on a narrow niche, at first it will lower competitiveness and allow you to grow slowly, but steadily. It can be such things as specific add-on development for WPBakery Page Builder, like those we already have on the market – team showcase or parallax backgrounds. Once you will get established you can start to think over where to move next step by step starting from your base. Once you will start to grow your product, clients and global trends will tell you which way to go and what adjustments should be made. In the meantime, keep working hard and believe in your ideas and success.
