How does one know the success of an open content management system (CMS)? By the amount of quotes you get on jobs in that realm. Drupal, as many know, is a very stable and flexible content management system used by many firms and a large quantity of web developers.

The trick? Drupal isn’t a walk in the park in terms of PHP development. A new PHP programmer still picking up basic concepts will soon drown in the intensity of Drupal. Although Drupal is very clean (coding wise) and hugely extensible to the experienced PHP programmer, there doesn’t seem to be a large pool of developers.

If you know Drupal and you’re a PHP developer, this is good news for you. If you’re a PHP developer and you don’t know Drupal then here is a project for you: learn Drupal.

Over the last six months, my project at techdiversions.com has many Drupal web designers asking “wow, how can I do that for my customer?” TechDiversions uses the Drupal E-Commerce modules and exists to sell video games, but honestly, the amount of money made by the video games as compared to additional contract work for building such a site just doesn’t compare.

Video game profit margins are not the best in the world of retail but Drupal PHP development does yield better margins (but requires more design, experience and sheer brain power to develop). It’s funny to see a site that’s slowly growing its customer base have higher profit margins in contract jobs just because it shows that E-Commerce and Drupal can provide a working solution for companies around the globe.

Why are we showing off TechDiversions? If you’re a video game player then you should buy stuff from the site, but that’s not the real point. The real point is learn Drupal and develope a first class site to draw in more jobs!

If you’re a drupal developer or want to become one, you should sit down and build a few websites. You don’t have to do a full E-Commerce solution but show off your skills and build some custom modules to do something fantastic to show off your skills to potential clients.

Fortunately, MediaCrumb has an experienced lead web designer and an experienced lead developer to build full solutions for customers. But, many web designers lack the training or patience to learn PHP and tackle a drupal problem. You’ll find, as a Drupal developer, web designers sending you e-mail and asking “hey, my client needs a bit of code in this module to do…” or “can you modify a core Drupal module for my needs…” or “can I keep you in contact for future modules?”

If you want to make some good money as a web programmer/developer I suggest learning the in’s and out’s to Drupal and become a commodity to web designers around the world.