Just a couple of weeks ago, we launched the new Contractors System and it already lists more than 80 excellent developers who can take a variety of projects at any size.
The idea behind our contractors system is to connect between people who need work done and developers who can implement these projects. We’re very happy to see that so many of our clients applied as contractors. Right now, there are already over 80 approved applications and there are still dozens in all stages of review process.
What kind of work you can get from WPML contractors
The most popular queries that are being sent to contractors are:
- To adjust a theme or another plugin to work correctly with WPML for multilingual sites
- To start or take over custom development, related to multilingual sites
So, if you’re developing a site and you’re running into technical problems which are outside of the scope of WPML support (mainly related to 3rd party code or to your own custom functionality), you should know that help is available. You can find a contractor who speaks your language, from your country and is experienced in the theme/plugin you’re looking for.
What WPML team is doing to drive more projects to our contractors
You might have noticed that there are almost no inquiries about building multilingual websites from scratch (yet). We want our contractors to get projects from business owners and not only from other developers who need technical help.
For that, we’ve started a number of marketing projects, which I hope you’ll feel in the coming weeks.
Cooperation with theme authors about developer for multilingual sites and their themes
We’re now working with several leading theme developers to introduce our contractors to their clients. We’ve created individual landing pages for leading themes, which list contractors who are experienced in these themes. Our goal in this project is to promote contractors who specialize in leading themes, to the communities of these themes. This is already “in progress” and we’re expecting results very soon.
Promotion for multilingual sites with WPML for business owners
Our marketing team is working with bloggers from outside of the WordPress ecosystem to spread the word about multilingual websites. We want business owners to know that when they need a site for outside of their region, they should look for WordPress and WPML. For all of us here, it’s obvious, but a lot of business owners think that a multilingual site is something that’s reserved for huge companies only. When we show them how affordable it is, we hope that more clients will turn to WordPress and WPML. Then, they will post projects for our contractors.
We’re setting up a qualifications program for contractors
Honestly, we were a bit surprised by the number of developers who applied as contractors (surprised in a good way). We realize that many applications also open the door for less accurate listings (a.k.a. abuse). To make sure that our contractors system only includes top-notch developers, we’ll be starting a qualifications program very soon. This program will allow contractors to pass exams that demonstrate skills in various areas. Then, we’ll add badges for these skills to contractor profiles and add them to the search.
Hopefully, this will help maintain very high quality inside our contractors club, which will increase client confidence and increase the number of projects that run through the system.
Feedback?
First, I have to apologize that we still haven’t completed reviewing all applications. There are some applications from two weeks ago that we didn’t respond to. For every application, we carefully review the showcase sites, look at the contractor’s profile and support history and get back to almost everyone with some requests for improvements. This takes a bit of time and we want to make sure that it’s done right. If your application didn’t get any feedback yet, it’s not because we’re ignoring it.
What do you think about the contractors system? Do you have any ideas, suggestions or questions?
Hello Amir,
thanks a lot for the work you’ve put into the new contractors system! I already was able help the first client that found me on the system and a second company contacted me yesterday, thanks a lot!!
Really looking forward to take part in the qualification programs!
All the best!
Gregor
I’m very glad to hear this. Thanks for letting us know.
Not really happy with that as I am a specialized Woocommerce developer and not in your list. I am a skilled professional (N°1 on WooCommerce and WordPress tagged questions on StackOverflow for example).
This is really unfair competition like…
My clients buy WPML license when multilingual webshops are involved, because I recommend and use WPML. In StackOverFlow coding forums, I also recommend WPML when multilingual is required. So you should maybe rethink this, because I am going o change my position radically…
Like I said, we still have a backlog of applications to review and we’re going through them as best we can. If we didn’t get to your application yet, we will soon.
It’s great to know that you’re an expert in WooCommerce development. This is one of the categories that we’re going to emphasize and give “certifications” on. This way, your profile will stand out when clients look for developers for multilingual e-commerce sites. This is coming very soon.
I hope it helps. If you think that we should do something else, please let us know.
So the question then is: How to be listed as a developer.
Our system sends the invitations to join to clients who have been using WPML for over 6 months and have at least 3 registered sites. You will receive an email and see the invitation inside your account in wpml.org.
I have a life account since a long time with more than 3 registered web sites.
I didn’t received any invitation and just seen now that I am Eligible in “My account” section (where I never go).
The invitations are sent out in daily batches because we need to review and process each submission. You can speed up the process by opting directly from My account section.
How to join in program as developer as i worked more than 10 project which using wpml with less 6 different languages
Our system sends the invitations to join to clients who have been using WPML for over 6 months and have at least 3 registered sites. You will receive an email and see the invitation inside your account in wpml.org.
Thanks, where find this invitation in my account 🙂
Log in and navigate to My account section. There you will see an invitation message at the top. If you want a bit more details please visit this post.
Hi Ayman, please contact me, I have a project I need major help in. You can also reach me at support@volunteerteacher.org
If you are interested, please let me know.
Hi,
I’ve been registered on contractor system but I don’t appear on site. What I’ve to do?
Hi Joan, We are reviewing each contractor profile and submitted showcase sites to make sure those are of high quality and meet the criteria. There is still a backlog of application which we are processing as fast as possible.
Will there be support and/or contractors to convert our WPML site to Gutenberg editor?
Yes. We are working right now on full support for Gutenberg. We’ll have it ready in a few weeks, certainly before Gutenberg gets integrated into WordPress.
Hi, I’ve sent out invitations to several contractors regarding a project. Is there a dashboard or something that keeps track of all the invitations I sent? The replies I get from contractors??
We don’t store these invitations, so there’s no dashboard to track them. Each invitation generates an email to a contractor. We double checked and all contractor emails are working. If someone isn’t replying to you, it’s not a communication problem. There are many contractors in our search now so if you haven’t received responses, I recommend sending to more. We already got feedback from a number of contractors that they’re getting inquiries and doing projects for clients.
Hi there!
That is very awesome! I would like to offer my WordPress Multisite & Multi Network Implementation Services. I couldn’t find any way to offer, how could I do it?
Cheers, and thanks for this awesome New Feature!
If you already got the invitation to join as a contractor, you can detail your offering on your contractor profile (which is searchable and visible). If you haven’t received it yet, you will. Because we need time to review applications, we’ve queues new invitations. We’re clearing the current list of applications and are sending new invitations in batches.
Hi there,
Where do I fill the Application?
Thanks, cheers!
Hello Fabio,
You should be able to see a link to apply from your account after logging in. Have you tried?
Let me know please.
Thanks!
Thanks a lot Amir
Great news to know You are putting this out so we can get better audience for our requirements
I like the makeover of the WPML site! Am I the only one noticing it?
I have hesitated to leave a comment as I am (and should be) very grateful for the WPML Contractors page to begin with. I have been on the list since the very beginning in January 2011 and as you can imagine in those more than 7 years I have helped hundreds upon hundreds of people and companies with their WPML related issues.
The rollout of the new list has been quite sudden without any announcement on beforehand and has caught me by surprise as I can imagine the few others that were on the previous page too!
A bit of my feedback for the first weeks these new Contractors pages have been online:
I am not sure how helpful it is for people looking for assistance to see 11 pages (at time of writing) of 8 contractors each.
Furthermore I think that “favourite themes” should be replaced with “themes you have worked on while solving WPML issues”.
To illustrate, in the more than 7 years I have been a WPML Contractor, I have worked with a massive amount of different themes. Are any of those my favourite(s)? Highly unlikely! I think for a potential client it is far more interesting to know that I have worked with the theme that is installed, than anything else.
And then there is of course the ordering of all the Contractors, or dare I say complete lack of any order that makes sense.
Good for me is that I am the first on the list, from the bottom that is, and fortunately that is for some how they select a Contractor as I am currently working on a project that I landed for that exact reason 🙂
A qualifications program sounds okay I guess, but what I don’t understand is why this new list of Contractors was rolled out before putting such a program in place? That basically means that the current criteria are how long you have been using WPML (> 6 months) and to be able to show a few sites that use WPML.
To be honest I think the new list was rolled out much too hasty and I think it is strange that for 6 years there have been a maximum of 10 Contractors and now all of a sudden there are over a hundred (including the ones that are still on the waiting list). I have always operated on a quality over quantity basis, it is a pity to see that WPML seems to go the other way, but only the future will be able to tell us that for sure.