Selling Websites …Where to start? How to furnish the client?

  • Having thoughts about getting more involved in selling website services but I’m a little unsure how it would work with wordpress?

    I’m self taught so there’s a steep learning curve ahead and I’m planning to educate myself further but for a start I’m curious to know how do you use wordpress to furnish the needs of the client?

    Once you have built the site for a client is it simply a matter of giving them access as administrator and leaving the rest up to them (except when they need your help of course)? …OR is there some way of exporting the finished site so they can use it as they like?

    I’m very new to WP but from what I can tell it seems that for every client, you would pretty much have to set them up with the website installed on a server (unless they have their own or want it built with WP hosting). Also, unless of course you provide the hosting one way or another yourself then the websites stay with you and they simply have admin access to their site.

    What’s the standard way to do this? Is there one?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

  • There’s no “standard” way of doing this. The only constant is that you need hosting when you’re devleoping the site (so the client can see what it’s like and approve it when it’s all done), and you need hosting for when the final site goes live.

    After that, everything is different. You can start off with local devleopment, or devleop on your own staging server, or devleop straigt into the customers hosting (I wouldn’t recommend this last one as it makes it a whole lot harder to keep contorl of your code until the customer pays in full). You can provide hositng if you wish to adminsiter that, or you can point your customer towards preferred hosting companies, but you will also find a lot of people that have their own hosting set up so you’ll have to work with that as well.

    The way that I work it myself is to devleop on our own development server, which is an identical set up to our live hosting server so that I know everything that I do in development will also work live. Once the site is devleoped, approved and signed off, I will either transfer the site to the clients hosting account where ever it’s set up, or I can send them the files and database dump and leave it for them. Not many customers want to do the last option though as it takes a bit of technical knowledge to set it up again.

    OR is there some way of exporting the finished site so they can use it as they like?

    What do you mean by this?

    Thread Starter cheekyface

    (@cheekyface)

    Thanks so much!
    That’s pretty much what I wanted to know.

    Thread Starter cheekyface

    (@cheekyface)

    OR is there some way of exporting the finished site so they can use it as they like?

    What do you mean by this?

    …Just wasn’t sure if a website created in WP has to stay on WP. For example, if a client were to request that I just give them the website as a zip file (like a theme template I guess), is that possible or must they also use wordpress to log in and maintain the website.

    Yes, a website created in WP has to stay in WP — the question catacaustic answered is where the files that serve up the site end up living.

    You can’t use WordPress to generate straight HTML files that will work as a website outside of WordPress. That’s what programs like Dreamweaver are for.

    It does stay as WordPress, but that WordPress installation can be installed on any compatible web server. It doesn’t have to stay where you develop it. I’ve got around 15 client sites hosted with us, as well as 25 that are hosted externally. Some are easy to set up and some have been a bit more troublesome, but when nothing major goes wrong all you need to do is move the files and export/import the database to the new server.

    That’s what programs like Dreamweaver are for..

    yeah and there are plugins that you can remove all branding and keep it to yourself – not sure if that practice is looked down on by the wordpress community, but i think its okay, although ive never done that.

    Thread Starter cheekyface

    (@cheekyface)

    OK.
    So is there a premium wordpress option you can take up as a professional web designer which doesn’t have branding on the client’s admin panel? (assuming the branding is just on the admin panel and not on the actual website?)

    No, there is not. There’s a few plugins around that can remove the standard WordPress branding, but I don’t see the point in doing that. Anyone that’s even partly technicly competent can easily see that the site is built on WordPress, and if you keep the admin area with WordPress style your clients will know that they are working with WordPress, and they can find support for whatever problems they have on forums just like this.

    I’d also personally think that trying to re-brand or remove the branding from the site isn’t the most ethical thing that you can do. You’re trying to fool people into believing that you did everything yourself, when the entire core system (plus plugins, themes, etc) was done by a whole lot of other people. That may or may not be a concern to you personally.

    Thread Starter cheekyface

    (@cheekyface)

    Didn’t thinks so.
    The only issue with branding that would be of any concern would be if it were on the finished website as that would be the option of the client.

    I think letting people know you’re working with WP would be an advantage actually.

    Thanks for your help guys!!

    You don’t have to have anything on the public-facing site that mentions WordPress. I don’t at all on any site that I’ve made. my argument was for the admin area. ?? I hope that didn’t confuse anyone.

    The plugins that remove the WP branding concentrate on the back-end admin area. To remove the references to WP on your public site, you just need to edit your themes template files.

    Hi,

    I have been googling a similar issue for hours now, and I’m still confused. I know how to build a simple wordpress website. Now people I know want me to build them a wordpress site too. Also, I am planning on traveling and thought that offering hostels and small hotels my services to build a wordpress site for their businesses would give me some extra travel cash.
    How do I do this for others without asking for their personally financial information? You need a credit card number to get started with hosting right? I’m just not sure how to go about this…
    Thanks for any advice you can give!

    – Misti

    Have them set up hosting and give you access.

    Hi thanks!
    Sorry this may sound dumb – So they would just give you the username and password that the hoster emails you for wordpress?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)
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