What you are suggesting is exactly how I do it. I just tell them that they can go ahead and purchase the hosting themselves if they want (I prefer this actually because then they get billed directly and I don't have to send an invoice every year) but many people don't do this as they don't know how to do it. The way I cover it is by saying that I am just facilitating the purchase for them but that I am in no way responsible for the hosting itself. <div>
<br></div><div>That being said if you have a customer that is smart enough to know about uptime then they are probably smart enough to know how to sign up for hosting themselves.</div><div><br></div><div>You talk about charging $X/hour to fix hosting problems. I can't say I have ever come across this because the hosting is not my responsibility but you could definitely include this in your contract.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 6:36 AM, Alexei Malinovski <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:alexei@malinovski.org">alexei@malinovski.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="gmail_quote">2010/8/14 Sami Khan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sami@etopian.net" target="_blank">sami@etopian.net</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
><br>
> Q3: Site maintenance<br>
><br>
> What are the components of site maintenance(hosting&support)? At least I<br>
> see<br>
> following<br>
> - End user training how to use CMS<br>
><br>
> - Hosting cost<br>
> - Regular drupal and modules upgrade<br>
> - End user support if they have questions or messed up something<br>
> - Doing regular site backup (automatically)<br>
> - Recovering site from hacker attacks/spam etc<br>
<br>
</div>Most of this work is not very profitable, avoid if possible... If you have<br>
to do it, make sure it's in the contract.<br>
</blockquote><br>So we have here:<br>- I expect Customers to require hosting to be included since they are non technical people.<br>- I do not want to mess with hosting being responsible for uptime etc. since it is not profitable for me.<br>
<br>What about following idea. I offer to Customer to create hosting account for them and pay for it while they cover the cost. At the same time they should agree that I'm not responsible for up time, possible hosting errors etc. In case they have such problems I will fix them for a price X Euro/Hour. <br>
<br>Advantages:<br>1. Customer doesn't need to mess up with hosting company<br>2. This might bring me some work later on when Customer needs to do something with site.<br>3. I'm not responsible if hosting is down. <br>
<br>Disadvantages:<br>1. If hosting is down Customer will immediately contact me to solve it. So, I play role of a middle man here transferring messages Customer<->Hosting back and forth. But what if I'm not available?<br>
<br>Has anyone tried this approach?<br><br> <br></div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
consulting mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:consulting@drupal.org">consulting@drupal.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting" target="_blank">http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div>Sam</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://www.twitter.com/samplett" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/samplett</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.samplett.com" target="_blank">www.samplett.com</a></div><br>
</div>