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

[Alexei Malinovski]

2010/8/18 Sam Plett <sam.plett at gmail.com>

> 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.
>
>
Glad to hear that I'not alone with such ideas :)


> 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.
>

for example Customer wants to add more e-mail addresses and to make a backup
at some point. He/she will request me to configure hosting account and I
will charge the hours spent doing this.


>
> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 6:36 AM, Alexei Malinovski <alexei at malinovski.org>wrote:
>
>> 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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>>
>
>
> --
> Sam
>
> www.twitter.com/samplett
> www.samplett.com
>
>
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