How Devesh Sharma Launched His WordPress Career at 15

When I was 15 the internet didn’t exist as far as ordinary members of the public were concerned.

Devesh Sharma, on the other hand, was launching online business at the age of 15. Fast forward several years and Devesh is a full time bloggerr, based out of India, and running a popular WordPress resource site called WPKube.

1) Hi Devesh. How did you get started so young?

I started my first online business at the age of 15, it was a general blogging tips blog, where I mostly wrote about generating traffic and make money online. Later I ended up selling the site, because I had lost interest in the mmo (make money online) niche, and wanted to do something different.

So in the second half of 2010, I launched WPKube, where I started publishing tutorials, how-to guides, and theme roundup posts. Today, it has become a go-to resource for site owners looking to improve their WordPress powered websites.

Apart from WPKube, I am also working on my first premium plugin, CoupineWP. To see the plugin in action, check our coupons page. Though, the design might be a little different in the plugin version, but the code is pretty much the same.

2) You really started when you were 15?

Yes, when I was 15 I realize, I didn’t want to do a 9-5 job, when I grow up. I had seen people around me, who were doing regular jobs, and they never had free time in their hand. So I started looking for ways to make money online, and ended up starting my first blog in blogging tips niche.

It took me a good amount of time to learn (I didn’t had any special skills, I was just another kid trying to make some quick buck online). Overtime I become good with WordPress and thesis theme framework. And within a year and a half, I started making money (around $200-500 bucks per month) by selling WordPress-related services. At that time, there weren’t services like WPCurve and WPSiteCare.

The main struggle was language barrier, since English isn’t my first language, I had to spend a lot time on proofreading and fixing grammatical errors.

3) Many people find it hard to monetize your blog. How do you make it work?

I think it really depends on the type of site you are running, for viral sites or sites that publish a lot of new content on daily basis, adsense might be a better choice.

On the other affiliate marketing is best for niche sites; it allows you to make money from less traffic. For example, our drag-and-drop builder plugins post only gets a handful of visitors per month, but still manages to make around $200. Something that would have been impossible with Adsense.

Go with products that are actually helpful and write honest reviews. Most people try to promote products that pay huge commissions, there’s nothing wrong with doing that, but it has to provide value to your readers. I mean you cannot go around recommending $500 product that does nothing or provides no value.

So that’s the main you need to take into consideration. Another tip would be to finding new WordPress related products that offer affiliate program and aren’t that popular.

Since I am in WordPress niche, I promote WordPress related products including popular WordPress hosts and other related services.

4) What WordPress plugins do you rely on to run your site?

• WordPress SEO – The most complete SEO plugin out there.
• Akismet – It helps keep your site protected from spam comments.
• OptinMonster – I have been using OptinMonster, since its inception. It is one of the best and all-in-one list building solutions available for WordPress. They recently switched to SaaS, meaning it can be used on any website platform (WordPress included).
• Gravity Forms – The most user-friendly contact form plugin for WordPress. It can be used for creating any kind of online form for your site. Though, if you are looking for a simple contact form, go with Contact Form 7.
• BackupBuddy – It is an all in one solution for backup, restoration, and migration. It allows you to backup your entire site to Dropbox every week. It also comes with other automatic backup options.

I use a lot more plugins, so to find a complete list, check out WPKube’s Behind the Scenes page.