so i know lots of you guys do WP projects nowadays but i have not signed up yet
a very important client i have had for 10 years has just asked if i can help them move to WP
and they have already purchased a WP template for a couple of bucks http://neighborhood.swiftideas.com/
and need help to customize itâŚ
so now i have grapple with all that WP shite for a couple of dimes?
or how have you guys managed to keep making a living in this ever-changing multi-disciplinary world of ours?
do i have any chance at all of convincing them to let me do it from scratch?
i appreciate your advice and experience!
I think that would depend on your clients needs.You could ask them why they believe WP will be important to their business need and what they want to achieve.
Also can you provided them a full cm system from scratch? Updated for the future and keep up w/it? You might not even want to do that.
And just how much customization do they want?
Your rates to do the transfer are your own. They shouldnât set your rates, you should. If itâll take longer dealing with WordPress, let them know it will. If they donât want to pay you for your time, then theyâll go elsewhere?
To be honest, if you mean âfrom scratchâ as in, all your own custom code, then I guess my answer is that would be a disservice to your client. As @pdxSherpa has asked, do you plan to update it, keep it secure for them, forever? What if you get hit by a truck?
Not sure WordPress is any better than anything else, but I tend to use something that isnât proprietary to myself, unless itâs a very long term, very involved project.
providing an alternative CM system is impossible i think, i always ask clients how much content they really need to manage and most end up going for a blog or facebook posts which avoids using a CM system all together, allowing me to focus on custom coding and SEO with super results! but i do appreciate how nice it would be for them to be able to add new pages or change pages whenever they wanted, some clients currently edit content with CushyCMS but i realize thats a minimalistic solution.
my main concern is that they are very likely to request a substantial amount of customization to the theme, so i am trying to figure out how to sell them the idea of a custom WP template or theme being a better choice from the outset.
i dont see how i can make any worthwhile money out of doing transfers or helping them mess around with a prefabricated theme. yes they will go elsewhere and end up with some student geek coding for cheap, which i dont think is the same as having a digital marketing and web programming expert.
Thatâs the same as anything else in the web programming and design industry, though. For small to medium sized websites (not complex applications, maybe) itâs really common to see people without experience or training lowballing really cheap estimates out there. Your clients are either wanting cheap, or reliable. If the ones youâ[re talking to are wanting the cheapest thing they can find - itâs unlikely that youâll ever be it, whether thatâs in WP transfers or in custom apps, or basic HTML pages, or anything.
That all said - if you find the experience unsatisfying or you canât find people that will pay your rate for it, donât do that specific type of work!
am basically trying to figure out how to keep this client on board, but how can i compete with a US$60 theme? yes i do small updates for all my clients and so far have avoided moving over to WP, but my maybe the time has come? i still see no viable business model in fcukin around with themes at the whim of non-technical clients who used to pay full price for custom web development.
Iâd say rather than going at it by being angry w/the situation and w/your clients itemize to them the time and work youâd be spending customizing their theme. How the time spent still translates to custom web dev.
And try to align their needs to your business model.
Why do they want a CMS? If you make it more about what and why they need thisâŚ
You may be able to retain the client and align them to your financial need.
You also never mention if your idea of âcustom web developmentâ is an old fashion static site, if it is responsive. Which a growing business would most likely ditch.
yes of course we do responsive, mainly static, sometimes with backend functionality when required, but i fail to see how tweaking a WP theme is ever going to yield anywhere near the same income as a normal web dev project, so how does one align them to our financial need? Yes, they want a CMS to be able to self-manage, add, delete, etc. and i fully agree WP is the best solution for that, and sorry if i sound angry, its not anger just slight concern about our future thats all!
I think Yoda said from fear comes angerâŚdonât knowâŚnot a star wars person.
More like Aliens. And anger can come from a lot of things. And changes will almost always bring up anxiety.
But you have very reasonable concerns.
As for âtweakingâ depending on what they ask you can expect to spend as much time on it as a regular site. So if they buy a cheap them and then want you to build it up to their idea of a super oneâŚmake a list of what they want and charge accordingly, explain to them why.
I think once you get more familiar with wordpress it will hopefully open you to more clients as it is one more thing you could offer.You could actually get more clients and get more money.
But I wish the best of luck. I can see why youâd be stressed out.
so right now they have a theme that they like, BUT they want to customize it, so i need to ask them how much tweaking they expect they will be asking for so as i can help them choose wisely (as a professional always does) whether 1) using this theme is the best way forward OR 2) suggesting we do a custom theme, which would mean at least i stand a chance of actually making some money out of the whole dealâŚ
yep, or three. if they require enough customization explain to them why & charge them for it.
Out of curiosity, what is the theme? If you donât mind sharing of course.
And As @Mittineague said maybe they wonât even need it.
D
This might actually cause (even) more trouble than it seems. Either you write a child theme and hope that future updates wonât break it/accept banging your head against the desk on a regular basis*, or you fork your own custom theme and disregard any theme updates and support your customer possibly paid for. Youâll have to provide support yourself either way. So I concur with your assessment of the situation⌠customising an existing theme is probably not the best option here.
(* Iâm exaggerating, it depends on how well the theme is written and how profound the customisation is supposed to be of course⌠but thereâs always that sword of DamoclesâŚ)
haâŚthought it was your client, & it gives me a warning if I try to access it from my current ip.
You know it wonât hurt you to familiarize yourself w/CMS like workdpress and drupal. They are quite popular and powerful. And you might well run into that client that you just want to set up on wp & never see again.
and @m3g4p0p brings up a good point. By customizing do you mean build a child theme off what they chose? Was kinda assuming that since you donât seem to have much experience w/wp.
Youâll have to provide support yourself either way. So I concur with your assessment of the situation⌠customising an existing theme is probably not the best option here.