You wordpress/CMS 'web designers' out there

CitizenSmif

CitizenSmif

New member
Jan 26, 2009
756
9
0
Scotland
So I know a ton of you have at one point have claimed to be a proper web developer/designer to local businesses/etc and charged them up the ass for a wordpress install with a nice template. I need to build some money quickly over the next few months and if I can get the orders this should be pretty damn helpful.

I know how to build websites manually but I want to make the whole process as little work for me as possible so I'm just going to use wordpress + nice templates and probably charge something like base fee £xxx for domain/website + £xx for additional pages + £xx/xxx for a gallery or w/e and make it clear to them what they can and cant have.

What I want to know is, what is the best way to approach clients? It will probably be mainly local businesses targeted (unless anyone can suggest ways to get business in other cities?), do they respond better if I phone/email/go in person?

Does anyone think offering a package like I explained above (base fee + extras) is a good way to offer this or can anyone suggest better? What about extra services? i.e ~£25/mo for hosting thats hosted on a basic VPS with all the other clients?

What do you do when customers want to update the content? Offer to do the updates for a price? Give them the WP login? How do you handle a client that logs into WP and figures out they just paid a few hundred for a CMS + a template? What if they fuck up the website trying using WP?

Do I have to watch how I work my advertisements/emails/calls for legality (i.e claiming to be a web designer but not really designing anything)?

Sorry for the barrage of questions but this business model has been in my head for years but never acted upon it. Now that I'm really needing some extra money I definitely want to try this out, these are the most of the questions I've wondered about if offering this type of service.

If you've had experience with this or can offer advice I'd love to hear it
 


my advice CitizenSmif do not bother... you sound like a tosser that clients will not part money with.... if you feel that you must rip someone off, show them something you cannot do, claim it as your own and then charge top dollar for it.... Hell that is what most people in your situation do when they badly need money...
 
I just did a wordpress powered CMS for a local dance studio.

She knows it was free software, as she's used it before.
What she paid for is:
- Me setting it up on her hosting account
- Me coding her a custom template (based off ToolBox)
- Getting all of her content ported over from the old site, etc.

Didn't charge her an arm and a leg, but she was very satisfied and I made some decent money.
She has the login details, edits everything herself now. She thinks it's the shit, and she knew from the start what I was using. I did, however, send her periodic updates of the development so she didn't think I was using some generic, shitty template.
Don't fuck 'em over and they'll be happy.
 
SEXYdesign said:
Yup. No one needs another wordpress template guy. Original, legit websites is what people pay out the ass for.
Click to expand...

Why? Pay a subscription to a wordpress theme company that have a large catalogue of themes. Install wordpress, install the theme, put their content on their pages as they want it and boom, a small business now has an attractive website and nothing illegal has been done.

The website is what the client wants, how is doing that in HTML + CSS going to be any more attractive to them?
 
If you plan on doing this long-term, your existing clients will likely be your main source for new clients, so you want to make sure they are happy with what you do.

Site design should be done a case-by-case basis. If you have your prices set before you meet a prospective client, you will come off as amateur. You might as well slap some pictures on a Word doc and save it as HTML.

If you don't take some time to understand what the client wants for the site, you will eventually get yourself in a situation where you're dumping hours into a $50 sale because you realize your idea of what needs to be done was completely different from the client's original intentions.

There are times when it's OK to use a CMS, like when the client wants to update the site frequently, and/or has staff onboard to manage the growth of the site- and they want this done in the simplest means available. You'd have to spend your time showing them how to use and maintain it, and during the process, make whatever modifications need to be made.

If you are selling a freely-available CMS and even if you present it in such a way that is technically legal but the client does not fully understand what you have done, you should take some time out of each day to prepare yourself for the day when someone calls you on your bullshit, because this is really what you are getting yourself paid to do.

Also, you don't have to and shouldn't, take every job offered. This is another reason to spend time with prospective clients, so you can pre-qualify them. There will always be someone out there who expects more than is realistically possible.
 
hard part is clients. SET EXPECTATIONS APPROPRIATELY AND CLEARLY. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

Just be clear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom