Dealing with clients

  • WARNING I AM A NOOB
    you’re not up for dealing with a newbie I suggest you leave now please, I need help not rude comments saying look somewhere else etc…

    Okay now time for the real question

    I am a 18 year old and I am trying to make wordpress websites for people for alittle extra cash on the side of my education (Not looking to make thousands obviously, just a small amount since I’m really not up for working in a minimum-wage run down fast food joint). I know how to set up a website and have created my own already, that’s besides the point. What I’m wondering is how do people find clients that are willing to pay for your services when you have no portfolio? I’ve been posting local ads on craigslist but that’s about it… Not only that but when you have someone contact you looking for you to create them a website, how do you go about doing it? How do you show them your work so far without them running off with it?(i know how to local host it if that’s what i need to do) I am hosting my website on hostgator, would it be smart to let them have their website under my hosting since i have unlimited domains? And how do you go about payment methods? do they pay before, after? And do I need a contract to do this?

    Sorry for all the noobish questions or if I’m posting this in the wrong area but if someone can shed some light on my questions I will be forever indebted to you. Hope you understand that I am into this kind of stuff and would really like a early head start ?? Thank you!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • I’ll see if I can help a bit…

    Getting clients. That’s the hard part. What you’re doing now is good, but you’ll see that you’re competing against people that are doing the same as you so competition is fierce to say the least. After that comes metworking so you’d need to get out and talk to people that need that sort of service, or talking to others that might kow people like that. If you’re the sort of person that can do it, even cold-calling can be good sometimes, but it is not an easy thing to do.

    Developing a site can be done in a lot of different ways. Every place that I’ve worked for does things slightly differently. I’ve seen everything from a single site on a sub-domain of the main site, to developing in the clients actual hosting (not recommended in case they decide to not pay), all the way through to systems that access multiple source control repositories and have dedicated local, development, staging and production servers. In your case I’d stick with simple, and set up something like dev.yourdomain.com and have each client site as a sub-folder. You should also use your hosting accounts features to password-protect that sub-folder so that the general public (and search engine indexing bots) can’t get into it without a password.

    Payment can also be done many different ways. I doubt that you’d get any sort of internet merchant account, but you can always use something like PayPal, and these days a normal electronic transfer into your back account is probably the quickest, easiest and cheapest option.

    You should also look at contracts. They don’t need to be big or complicated, but do a search for some templates or examples, and see what you can use out of them. Remember that without a contract, there’s no guarantee that you’ll ever get paid. Then again thre’s always a chance to get stiffed, but a decent contract can help with that.

    how do people find clients that are willing to pay for your services when you have no portfolio? how do you go about doing it?

    You could go to craigslist in your city and look at the “webmasters wanted” or whatever your city’s cl uses.
    You could go the local community/non-profit group route, maybe your church needs a website or a local artists with a very low budget.
    You might not get a lot or even anything but it will add to your portfolio.

    How do you show them your work so far without them running off with it?(i know how to local host it if that’s what i need to do) I am hosting my website on hostgator, would it be smart to let them have their website under my hosting since i have unlimited domains? And how do you go about payment methods? do they pay before, after? And do I need a contract to do this?

    The way I do with most of my clients is:

    1) Contract
    2) I order domain/hosting for them.

    Technically speaking I own the domains. I had clients in the past that wanted THEM to order it and use THEIR e-mail accounts. I told them that as long as they gave me the admin passwords then I was happy. Many times I had to wait a day or two for them to give me the admin passwords so I can update themes/plugins. They changed the passwords everytime and then changed it again to give me access, when I finished they would change it again. So I decided that I would suggest to my clients that I order it and use my e-mail (the same one I order all domains) so I can update almost immediately.

    I do weekly backups of most sites and keep it on a disc or usb key. If they want a copy of whatever backup then I will send them one (of course at a cost).

    Even if you do things for free at first to build your portfolio, charge them any and all costs.

    YOU NEED A CONTRACT!!!.

    Here are services that you will need to think if you want to offer:

    1) Domains ordering (and renewal)
    2) Websoting ordering (and renewal)
    3) Website design
    4) Maintenance (updating elements of the site)
    5) Including backups.

    Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    I’m sorry but this whole topic really is not for these forums. This is a WordPress support forum and not a business advice forum. ??

    For advice on clients please take it elsewhere.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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