I am in the process of forming my own Web Design business and have a few fundamental questions:
1.
When I design a site for a client and arrange Hosting & Domain Name Reg, can I charge a higher rate for Hosting and pocket a profit between what it actually cost ?
2.
When a site is setup is it the norm to supply the client with all Admin Passwords or should a seperate admin & update page be setup under a password protected directory ?
Thanks,
The Webmistress posted this at 07:16—21st April 2004.
She has: 5,587 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
1. Yes you can if you want to
2. What type of admin/update page are you talking about?
Welcome to TWF by the way
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Dudester posted this at 09:46—21st April 2004.
He has: 43 posts
Joined: Apr 2004
The thing is I am paying somewhere in the order of 1/4 of what appears to be the industry standard Hosting & Domain Reg rates going by what other Web Designers charge.
Im not complaining, Im just concerned that if the client has all passwords and access to their control panel, its not that hard to find out what the hosting costs actually are.
Should I register the domain names in the clients name or mine ?
Thanks.
openmind posted this at 12:22—21st April 2004.
He has: 943 posts
Joined: Aug 2001
Unless you own the hosting company or you are a private branded reseller, if you give them the control panel access, they could find out. You need to amke a decision if you want/need to give them access. If they are all asking for it, you're best off setting up as a reseller with a host that stays in the background or buying your own dedicated server.
Once they have paid you fo the domain name you should register in their details. Saves all sorts of complications both legal and technical, at a later stage if they want to move the domain away from you. The general practice is that it goes in your clients name..
Cheers,
Phil
[b]HelmStore.com
UK Distributor of HELM Licenses
Suppliers of SmarterTools, Backup for Workgroups licenses and much, much more![/b]
The Webmistress posted this at 12:28—21st April 2004.
She has: 5,587 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
None of my clients get access to anything, they don't ask for it and I find it is much easier for them to ask me for things like additional pop3 accounts etc. I always register the domains in the clients name but put my email address & telephone number for the contact details.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Dudester posted this at 22:09—21st April 2004.
He has: 43 posts
Joined: Apr 2004
Thanks for the advice so far..
I wanted to start with a Reseller account, but I only have a couple of clients (who havent expressed the need to have access) and seeing as the Reseller Accounts costs are roughly 10 times what Im paying, it was a no go.
But, now I have had a query from a 3rd potential client who wants to be able to edit their site later, this is my dilemma.
What about setting them up an administration page under my businesses domain which loads their own admin control panel into a frame ??
As it is, if any of my clients want updates, I make them and charge per hour, but Im not sure if I should charge a different rate for Hosting if a client wants to make their own updates...?
Thanks again.
openmind posted this at 08:00—22nd April 2004.
He has: 943 posts
Joined: Aug 2001
At the end of the day you charge them what you think is reasonable for hosting the site. If they want to do updates, fine. Give them FTP access and tell them if they break the site you'll charge double your hourly rate to put things right! That should put off those who "think" but "can't" if you see what I mean!
I used to work for a company that did web design, I actually sold the sites and had a design team working for me, and we used to charge on average, £500-£800 per year :eek: for hosting a low traffic, small site!!! That's one of the biggest reasons I left and started on my own because I felt we were ripping people off who didn't know any better! Mind you saying that, they will in six months time when my non-competitive clause in my contract is up!!!!!
Cheers,
Phil
[b]HelmStore.com
UK Distributor of HELM Licenses
Suppliers of SmarterTools, Backup for Workgroups licenses and much, much more![/b]
taff posted this at 10:40—22nd April 2004.
They have: 956 posts
Joined: Jun 2001
I was faced with this same decision several years ago and also decided that it wasn't worth the investment. Now this is one of my big regrets - I think that I should have bit the bullet and set myself up as a reseller. I would be reaping from that investment nicely by now.
I almost always register the domains in the name of my client. Depending on how the future maintenance and upkeep is planned, I usually set myself as a tech contact but not always. There are instances where I'm just hired to design the site and move on - the client has in-house people (for better or worse) to maintain the site down the road.
There is no cookie-cutter pattern to this, or at least no *one* pattern. You'll find that there are clients who don't want to have anything to do with the tech aspects, some that are fully capable of handling things, and yet others who only *think* they are capable to do so.
I have sites that I maintain every aspect of, others that I only jump in for major revisions and others that I don't touch at all. Unfortunately, in the last case there is often the risk of helplessly watching your creation deteriorate into a see of coding errors and bad design choices.
.....
The Webmistress posted this at 07:04—22nd April 2004.
She has: 5,587 posts
Joined: Feb 2001
How is the client going to make the changes? IME clients 'think' they can make the changes themselves but in reality they have absolutely no idea how to and therefore don't! The control panel associated with the hosting is really only going to be for server related things like stats, email accounts, etc which isn't going to help them make changes to the site - then they'd need ftp access to download their own copy of the site.
Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....
Dudester posted this at 23:38—22nd April 2004.
He has: 43 posts
Joined: Apr 2004
OK,
So what everyone is basically saying is if a client expresses the need to do updates later, I should really only set them up with FTP access....?
By the way, I have spoken with my Hosting company asking if they had a Reseller Account smaller than the standard package which is 1G disk space.
They have offered a really good price on 200M of space with a limit to 5 domain names which suits me perfectly.
Its actually $5 per year more than the price I am currently paying to host the 3 domain names I currently have (which only consume 80M) and is covered by just one clients fee's.
Im happy now, looks like the Reseller Account is a go.
This forum has been a great help.
Thanks.
chachi posted this at 23:41—22nd April 2004.
They have: 9 posts
Joined: Apr 2004
I agree with most of the posts. I would always register the domain in the client's name. You should be the tech contact. As for what you charge, you should charge what you feel comfortable with and what you have deicded is what you want to make. There are people that charge $25/hr and others that fetch $150/hr. I wouldn't give someone access to the site if I was expected to maintain it as well. Sooner or later something will "happen" and then you will have to go in there troubleshoot it, and fix it. Fun. I am sure you don't want to turn away biz at this point, but don't be afraid to say "no" to people either. You can just tell them that you, as a policy, don't give access to websites where you maintain them...and let them know why if you want.
Jason G. Reciprocal Link Manager | San Diego Real Estate | Customer service software
Dave99 posted this at 13:04—24th April 2004.
They have: 4 posts
Joined: Apr 2004
sounds ok