An expert in any field is defined by a set of core know-how. If he or she has to work with other people, then typically some soft skills are required in addition. And the requirements become more complex, for example, when it comes to an external expert who is supposed to help you with the software part of your online store. Such as WooCommerce.
You can move forward a lot with your freelance career just by being super responsive and super friendly. It's a rare commodity. And freelancing is mainly about relationships with your clients. This and your expertise - that's how I currently see the core of freelancing.
I've been on both sides of the barricade. I'm regularly hired for doing specialized WooCommerce and WordPress development and consulting projects for my clients. And I'm hiring other people to do work for me. I'm not delegating my core business because when you work with me, you work with me only (if not explicitly told else) - only this way, I can be sure about delivering the right quality.
Through the years, I've noticed that one of the essential qualities when working remotely is being responsive and keeping the deadlines.
The side effect of this approach is, that your freelance earnings will be maximized in the long run. When someone hires you, he/she has some sort of project to create. And they hope, that at the end of the business transaction, they will end up with more value than they paid to you.
If you do value-based pricing (and I believe you should do it 99% of the time), then you are basically getting a share from the value you deliver to your client. So we can establish a rule: the more value you deliver to your client, the bigger is your share.
Based on the rule, we can formulate an optimal strategy, which is to deliver as much value to your client, as possible.
The performance of your website is directly tied to the revenue you get from it. It’s a multiplication of all the work you’ve put into it. The faster your site, the more money you earn from it.
The good thing is, you have a direct influence over the performance of your WordPress website. You can make it faster by yourself, but it’s a relatively specialist task. So it could make sense to hire someone like me, who specializes in making things fast.
How many resources should you invest? It depends on the type of site. If you are running an e-commerce store, you will naturally invest more than into a one-pager about your local freelance business.
Your WordPress hosting environment is both the foundation and limiting factor of your online presence. You should choose it very, very carefully because your business rises and falls with it
You should be looking for reliable hosting, where you can test all your changes before going live. If something goes wrong, you need to be able to restore your website in one click. It should be fast and offer you all the tools to make it even faster. There also should be skilled support, in case a problem arises (and this happens more often than you would like it to, trust me).