[consulting] Drupal web design as hobby - shall I start consulting?

[Alexei Malinovski]

2010/8/14 Sami Khan <sami at etopian.net>

> >
> > Q3: Site maintenance
> >
> > What are the components of site maintenance(hosting&support)? At least I
> > see
> > following
> > - End user training how to use CMS
> >
> > - Hosting cost
> > - Regular drupal and modules upgrade
> > - End user support if they have questions or messed up something
> > - Doing regular site backup (automatically)
> > - Recovering site from hacker attacks/spam etc
>
> Most of this work is not very profitable, avoid if possible... If you have
> to do it, make sure it's in the contract.
>

So we have here:
- I expect Customers to require hosting to be included since they are non
technical people.
- I do not want to mess with hosting being responsible for uptime etc. since
it is not profitable for me.

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.

Advantages:
1. Customer doesn't need to mess up with hosting company
2. This might bring me some work later on when Customer needs to do
something with site.
3. I'm not responsible if hosting is down.

Disadvantages:
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?

Has anyone tried this approach?
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