On wednesday i should be finished my first client site and handing it off to them. I’m planning on preparing a publishing/style guide in both pdf/html. Is there anything else that is recommended?

How do you feel about giving or not giving clients superadmin permissions. It is their site, but I also don’t want them to screw anything up.

Thanks for your advice.

How about a ‘congrats on your new site launch’ goodie bag, always goes down pretty well! Also some documentation on how they use the CMS would be nice, you could make it generic enough to give with every project.

We never give clients superadmin access and no objections to that thus far. FAR too much can (will) go wrong.

just out of interest, what sort of stuff goes into your goody bags…

soap, flowers, round-the-world tickets, colouring pencils, chocolate, books on EE, tee-shirts, coffee beans, ipods ??

and - who do you give them to??

Not free but very likely worth the $10, Prepping an EE Site for Client Access.

Back in my web developer days I only gave a client Super Admin access if I was transferring control of the site over to them and was not involved in ongoing maintenance. In other words, in my business model there was a difference between teaching a client how to work on the live site (taking a site live) and giving them control over the site. In the former, I had a maintenance contract of some sort, in the latter it was completely handed over to the client and my contractual obligations were over (more work meant a new contract).

Thanks for the responses. I’m going to buy that screencast.

I hadn’t thought about a maintenance contract. I like the idea, but am not too sure what to include in duties/responsiblities and then billing - monthly, per instance what? Definitely something to consider.

Sean, you could have a monthly maintenance fee with a hour limit. Things I would include are:

* security updates
* small feature additions
* additional training/help requests
* anything else you can do within the hour limit

Let us know how it went then Sean, I just happened on to your site at:
http://createsean.com/blog and saw you were handing off your first site.
Give us the skinny here, if you can find the time.
A correction of errors is something interesting, if there was something different or a sticky or weak point that could of been handled better.
A goodie bag, wouldn’t that of been good-ee, great idea though.
You just can’t go wrong promoting goodwill amongst clients.

Ryan, T.Gee,

Thanks for the ideas. Will post here when it’s finalized, but had a couple of things crop up with client and need a little more time.

On a related note, I have created an ExpressionEngine client guide that is editable, and rebrandable. It takes clients through the basic steps of managing the content on their website with EE. Provided are InDesign files.

http://headspacedesign.ca/blog/entry/expressionengine-client-guide/

kyleracki - 27 December 2009 11:43 PM

On a related note, I have created an ExpressionEngine client guide that is editable, and rebrandable. It takes clients through the basic steps of managing the content on their website with EE. Provided are InDesign files.

http://headspacedesign.ca/blog/entry/expressionengine-client-guide/

THANK YOU so much for sharing this.

Leslie Camacho - 29 September 2008 08:06 AM

...in my business model there was a difference between teaching a client how to work on the live site (taking a site live) and giving them control over the site. In the former, I had a maintenance contract of some sort, in the latter it was completely handed over to the client and my contractual obligations were over (more work meant a new contract).

That’s my typical process, too. For some sites, I handle everything from the ground up, including content, and the client simply directs what they want accomplished (I love recurring revenue). For other clients, I build it from the ground up and turn it over to them and I’m out of the picture until needed again. For others, it’s a combination, usually with ongoing support, and steady engagement with their staff (acting as an extension of their staff).

All three methods require clear rules of engagement and a contract.