12 Ways to Build Recurring Revenue for Your WordPress Business 

For businesses rooted in WordPress, a recurring revenue strategy can help create stability and growth. Unlike the unpredictable nature of project-based work, recurring services offer a consistent stream of revenue, empowering you to focus on delivering quality without the constant hustle for new projects.

You can establish lasting relationships with clients by embracing subscription-based services or retainer packages. It’s crucial to choose recurring revenue models that align with your workload and areas of expertise. 

You don’t have to offer all of these services, but there are many to choose from. Let’s look at 12 ways to build recurring revenue for your WordPress business. 

1. Hosting

Everyone with a website needs hosting. This is an easy-to-manage recurring revenue option for most WordPress-based businesses. Plus, it’s a win-win.

Clients will love the fact that they don’t have to look somewhere else for this service, deal with an additional bill, or manage another vendor. Meanwhile, you can control the environment, making site management easier in the long term. 

How to offer it: 

• Maximize a hosting service offering by picking a single, proactive provider that you can use for all of the websites you manage. 
• A hosting option with excellent support is a must. Liquid Web offers premium website hosting that’s fast, secure, and has 24/7 human support. 

2. Site updates

A WordPress site is only as good as its updates in the long term. Regular site updates ensure that a client has a website that’s functional, performs well, and includes the latest security features. 

A site update package coincides well with website hosting, so you can keep client sites working flawlessly over time. Plus, this service usually doesn’t take much time.  

How to offer it: 

• Set a schedule to regularly provide site updates, such as weekly or bi-weekly. 
• Provide a report of these updates to clients so they understand the value of having a current website. 
• Try a plugin like Solid Central to manage updates with ease and make this task a worry-free part of your recurring revenue strategy. 

3. Security

The beauty of offering security services is that they don’t require a lot of time from you, making them ideal for recurring revenue. If you offer security on every site and use a set of security solutions like virtual patching, you won’t lose sleep over malware or brute force attacks. 

Common and helpful security services include brute force protection, vulnerability scans, and user protections like requiring two-factor authentication (2FA) and limiting login attempts. 

How to offer it: 

• Get a powerful plugin like Solid Security Pro. With it, you can offer many ways to secure websites. 
• To demonstrate the value of this service to your client, provide monthly reports detailing active security measures.  

4. Backups

Clients want to protect their investment – their website – so they’ll need a backup solution. However, there isn’t a built-in backup solution for WordPress, so offering this service should be a given. 

Site backups should be done on a frequent basis. To save time, you can schedule them and streamline the process. You can also make it easy to restore by storing backups offsite with controlled cloud storage. 

With automated site backups, you’ll save time, protect client sites, and build recurring revenue. 

How to offer it:  

• A backup service makes this task a breeze, so try Solid Backups. Schedule and send backups, protect sites with secure offsite backups, and use one-click restore. 
• Provide monthly reports to clients so they know their site is safe from site hacks, user errors, and other risks. 

5. WordPress care plans

If you want to offer all the recurring revenue options we’ve covered so far, you can bundle them into a single WordPress care plan that offers everything for clients.

This is a solid add-on that can include security, backups, and updates for one price. While it should be priced lower than purchasing each service individually, a WordPress care plan is one of the best ways to maximize recurring revenue. 

How to offer it: 

• Package the foundational WordPress website maintenance services into one plan. 
• To help you get started with pricing and selling WordPress care plans, check out our free guide to care plans. 

6. Content creation and updates

For some businesses, recurring revenue is less technical and more content-oriented. Content creation services can take time but can be especially valuable for clients who don’t want to manage this on their own. 

Common content creation packages may include creating images, videos, and text for activities such as digital advertising, email marketing, and social media. (You may find yourself offering any combination of these services and activities.)

How to offer it: 

• Tools such as Kadence AI can help you craft on-brand content on WordPress websites more efficiently. 
• Extend the capacity of your team with contractors and freelancers. 
• Provide clients with a monthly report on new content and performance. 

7. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Most clients are unfamiliar with SEO, and if they do know it, they don’t want to do it. Search engine optimization can take a lot of work and time, but once you start, it’s easier to maintain and offer as a recurring revenue service. 

Offer it during and after a website launch, along with a strategy for clients and a solid explanation of why it matters. If you’re handling their foundational website needs, technical SEO will be much easier. Plus, SEO can go hand-in-hand with content creation and updates. 

How to offer it: 

• Install a WordPress plugin like Yoast SEO to simplify ongoing search optimization. 
• Stay up-to-date on SEO trends. 
• Try packaging SEO services with content services. 

8. Digital advertising

If SEO takes too long to get the results a client wants, digital advertising might be the answer. A growing number of clients are unfamiliar with paid advertising or don’t want to do it themselves. 

If digital advertising is in your wheelhouse, it can be a great way to build recurring revenue. 

How to offer it: 

• Set up ads through Google, social media, or other online channels relevant to the client.  
• Try creating a framework to apply for all or most clients. 
• Monitor results and use data across the board to adjust and optimize as needed. 
• Provide monthly reports about ad performance. 

9. Email marketing

For clients who are looking for a high return on investment, email marketing might be the answer. As a direct response platform, a client with a solid email list and something to offer online can see strong results.

From regular newsletters to automation, email marketing can take some time initially to set up but will get more efficient for you over time. Once you have mastered this service, it’s easy to sell and build recurring revenue from it. 

How to offer it: 

• Build out a template and set a weekly or monthly cadence for sending. 
• Consider tools like Canva for graphics and Mailchimp as an email service provider. 
• Provide monthly reports to keep clients informed about progress and engagement.

10. Social media management

Clients who are strapped for time will appreciate social media management services. Create campaigns from website content and repurposed content to make the most of elements you already have. 

For new content, consider AI or templates to make the captions to help maximize your time during social media content creation. This service can also be paired with the client’s website content creation and updates to maximize recurring revenue. 

How to offer it: 

• Plan a calendar in advance. 
• Social media scheduling tools like Buffer or Loomly allow you to create in bulk and schedule posts so you don’t have to work in real time. 
• Create monthly reports to show account growth, engagement, and popular posts. 

11. Performance and optimization audits

Performance is a key element of long-term website success. Google even notes that strong website performance, usability, and speed contribute to search. 

If you are already doing foundational services, content updates, or SEO for clients, this service shouldn’t take too long and works well for recurring revenue. 

How to offer it: 

• Make sure uploads, such as photos and videos, don’t exceed recommended sizes.
• Make sure all pages and posts are optimized for mobile devices.  
• Use Google’s page speed tools to regularly check load times on desktop and mobile devices. 
• Keep clients informed about site performance and what you are doing on a monthly basis. 

12. Training

Finally, if clients want to do some of their own website management or learn more about WordPress, you can offer a training package. 

Training can be an in-person or virtual service. You can charge clients by the training element – WordPress management, content updates, SEO – or create an annual package with a different training element each month. Either way you do it, training is a great way to build recurring revenue for your WordPress business. 

How to offer it: 

• Schedule training once a month and come up with different topics. 
• Prepare materials in advance and use the same set of training materials for all clients to save time. 
• Create tutorial videos with a live Q&A for sessions that aren’t unique to a specific client. 

Build recurring revenue with SolidWP

Now that you have some options for building recurring revenue, choose the services best suited to your business and clients. Be sure to choose services that are manageable and don’t add too much time commitment. 

To make earning recurring revenue as easy as possible, invest in tools that streamline processes for you. SolidWP offers valuable security, backups, and multi-site management tools for WordPress businesses. 

Get Solid Suite and start building recurring revenue now!