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Whenever a client comes to you as a freelancer and says they want a website, how do you handle the hosting? Do you just set it up for the client at the hosting website and tell them how much it costs per month and have the bill sent to them? What other options are there?
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- CommentAuthormegatron5150
- CommentTimeJan 26th 2006
I host the clients myself, I have a reseller account with a local web hosting company. I charge enough to cover my costs and pay for additional expenses. Otherwise, I suppose I'd setup hosting with another company and charge a little extra for my time and services to make the whole thing worth my while. -
For the small clients -- ALWAYS offer hosting. Host it with your hosting provider. This will almost absolutely guarantee repeat business. The ignorant client is the best client for repeat business. Let your clients depend on you and you will have a constant stream of income. Small clients with small sites have little maintenance needed – you can charge the monthly hosting fee and then tack on a slight maintenance fee for you maintaining the website.
If you are a straight designer and want nothing to do with site maintenance – if you like to design, implement and walk away; then definitely don’t host (your ending the relationship though). -
I agree. You should always recommend your hosting company if you are happy with them. The hosting company we use, Webtrix Designs, gives the best customer service I've ever seen from a hosting company. I recommend them to everyone! Their website is www.webtrix.net in case you ever need a great host!
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Heheh looks liks Webtrix could do with a wee bit o' cssBeautification of their site!
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- CommentAuthorNick Presta
- CommentTimeJan 30th 2006
There is more to running a website than typing in the IRI to access the site.
People who own websites should at least know the basics, including how to read bandwidth/storage reading in the control panel as well as being able to pay for their own hosting/managing that.
You aren't going to be with these clients forever and it'll be easier to cut the string holding you two together if they start out strong.
However, if the client needs hosting, I usually set it up for them and gracefully introduce them to it. -
nick -- I disagree. You should have the menality that you will be with these clients forever. Even when you move -- develop the type of relationship where you still serve them long-distance. I am talking about freelancers who do web design for a living, if you are just trying to make a quick buck -- then yes, these are short term clients.
I am sure someone will bring business ethics up, but it is simply good business practice to keep the client depending on you. The more they need you, the longer lasting the relationship, the more potential for repeat business and in turn more $$. If you can aviod it, don't show your client how to code, dont teach them css, and don't show them how to FTP and self-manage.
This is a personal decision though, I know a lot of designers want nothing to do with client relationships and website maintenance -- they simply want to design and nothign more. If that is you, then do as you need. However, if you are a small business and every dollar counts, do what as you need! -
- CommentAuthorNick Presta
- CommentTimeJan 30th 2006
I do a job with quality and care as well as a personal touch.
However, I'm not going to do everything for them regarding their website. I will hold their hand but they need to learn too. -
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CommentAuthoradjustafresh
- CommentTimeJan 30th 2006
Nick said:
However, I'm not going to do everything for them regarding their website. I will hold their hand but they need to learn too.
What are you, their teacher? Why do they need to learn? That's what they pay you for isn't it?
mringlein is correct. Make your clients dependent on your services and you'll make a decent living as a freelancer. -
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I think you have to reach a balance between doing everything for them and helping them learn how to perform the minor operations themselves.
When you're stuck in to a large project for a client it can be very distracting to be given a number of tasks by a previous client that could easily be performed themselves through a control panel.
Many clients will also apprecaite the fact that you show them how to perform common functions themselves rather than forcing them to go to you each time they have a simple query. This can have the add-on effect of building your clients trust in you making them more inclined to offer you more work and, more importantly, recommend you to their associates.
Contrary to mringlein I find that by making your customer more reliant on your services you reduce the chance for repeat business. You also run the risk of creating a larger workload than one person can handle. When you have a number of clients making a number of mundane requests you can easily become bogged under with the trivialities and end up giving your clients a lower level of service which, in turn, makes them less likely to recommend you or use your services again. -
- CommentAuthorNick Presta
- CommentTimeFeb 1st 2006
Yes, Padwah, took the words out of my mouth. -
- CommentAuthorshaun.andrews
- CommentTimeMar 1st 2006
I also think it has a lot to do with your business model. Are you a web designer/developer or are you a web host?
After saying that, I think its a good idea to host the website yourself. It pretty much guarantees repeat business, which is always a good thing for full-time freelancers. -
shaun, I agree with you. for a freelancers, a repeated biz is very important, but they should not feel great about it, as because clients are in their hosting space and domain :) If freelancers got enough time to develop one website and also knowledgable to manage hosting and gives excellent timely SUPPORT, they can confidentally go ahead with it. For a organization though, they can appoint people to dedicatedely look after hosting.
For small scale hosting, we sometime use our reseller account, otherwise if we feel that, it require experince to deal with it, we always refer a reliable hosting providers with excellent on-time-SUPPORT history.
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