It’s no secret that WordPress is the fastest growing content management system (CMS) platform on the web. WordPress has a 54% market share of all websites that use a CMS. As users continue to flock to WordPress, there is a massive demand for WordPress’ products and services and potential or Armenian developers. In this slidedeck we would like to present the reasons of how and why Wordpress can be used as an economic development tool for Armenia. Various business models that have proved successful around the world and hold great potential for the Armenian tech sector. We’ll look at the mechanics of each model and how they differ in terms of craft, operation and benefits.

1. WordPress
as an
Economic Development Tool
for
Armenia

2. Who Uses Wordpress?
The World’s largest companies!

3. How popular is WP?
The World’s #1 CMS by a HUGE margin!

4. Where is WP used most?
Most popular in the developing world
Wordpress.com is ranked as one of
the top web sites in many countries
8th in Romania 11th in India, Singapore
12th in Greece, Bangladesh,
10th in Indonesia, Philippines Mexico, Thailand and Belgium

5. Why Use Wordpress?
Open, Free and Community Support
Being free and open source along with
millions of developers around the world,
Worpress is a perfect solution for web
development in Armenian.

6. What is the
Current
Situation in
Armenia?

7. Current situation in Armenia?
First, Armenia is a land locked country, with little trade
‣ Fragile cease fire with
Azerbaijan
‣ Border with Turkey
closed
‣ Iran is to the south
‣ Expensive to Export

8. Current situation in Armenia?
Second, it was ranked #2 Worst Econmoy by Forbes
‣ Per capita GDP $3,032
‣ $282 Avg. Monthly Salary
‣ Business is dominated
by oligarchs
‣ 31.2% of the population
lives below the poverty line

9. Current situation in Armenia?
Third, the heart of the country is in villages
‣ They are educated,
with 98% literacy but...
‣ 40% of men leave
villages for work
‣ Agriculture is 90% of
the village economy

10. Current situation in Armenia?
Fourth, major gaps in Women Equality exist *
* all statistics according to the 2012 World Economic Forum “Global Gender Gap Report”
‣ Armenia ranked 92nd
out of 135
‣ 25th in educational attainment
‣ 76th in economic participation
‣ 114th in political empowerment
Demonstrators taking part in a protest on the International Day
for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

11. What can
Armenians
do in
Wordpress?

12. #1 Design & Development
Offer web design services specializing in WordPress
$6,926,477 Wordpress Services sold on Freelancer.com
Most common way for a web
designer/developer to build a
business around WordPress.
Job Finding Resources for Web Designers

13. #2 Theme Sales
Sell WordPress Themes on the Global Marketplace
16,414 Number of people who sell over $20,000 per year on
Themeforest.net
Theme Forest, Mojo Themes, and
Theme Garden, are all thriving and
reputable WordPress theme
marketplaces worth consideration.

14. #3 Plugin Development
Wordpress Plugin Development
$27,000 Average Yearly Income for Plugin developers on codecanyon.net
Plugin development offers higher
income with less competition. Online
markets already exist - CodeCanyon
and WP Plugins

15. How to begin to
make a change?

16. Focus
on
People

17. Where to focus
on Wordpress?

18. Online Education
There must be FREE
online education in
Armenia to EVERYONE
to learn Wordpress.

19. Tech Education
There needs to be
more practical tech
education like the
Gyumri Information
Technologies Center

20. Foster Ideas
There needs to be
places where people
can share and learn
ideas from like
iTechnology.am

21. Marketing
There must be
greater focus on
marketing to help
Armenia reach
world markets.

22. Network
Getting tech people
to network with
each other and
potential clients
around the world

23. Acknowledgement
Continue to encourage
and develop Awards
like armnet

24. Visit
iTechnology.am
to learn more