Hi everyone, I'm new here! I'm no great expert but have started getting into web design and designing a few sites for people I know or friends of friends etc, really enjoying it ... I have a hosting package with 1&1 (just a beginner one), and have all my sites in the same package at the moment, so I just have to pay the hosting fee once a year and the domain fees every 2 years or whatever it is. This way seemed best as it's cheaper for people and also the sites are quite small sites with only a few pages, so I didn't think I needed to get a separate hosting package for them.

 

I've been wondering though, what if in the future I don't do web design anymore for what ever reason, what do I do then? Now I'm thinking maybe it would be better in future to get a separate hosting package for each site? And do you usually do that in the name if the client or in yours? If it's in the client's name, do they have the payment set up in their name?

 

A bit confused, what do you guys all do?

 

Thanks for any advice!

Welcome toWDF!

 

Unless you want to be fully responsible for your customers sites then it's best to have each site on it's own account, and each account owned and paid for by the site owner - they are then 100% responsibe for it.

 

In the world of hosting you generally get what you pay for, but it pays do do your homework before choosing any host to trust your sites with, especially of a site is critical to a business. What seems cheap now may cost a company dearly if their site is unavailable a lot of the time.

Brill, thanks. That's what I thought. So the client would have it in their name and pay for it, (and the domain name?), but you would still need access to it to make changes / updates etc? So you would both have the username / password?

And you would tell them which hosting package and domain to buy and then let them do it all themself? Sorry, still a bit confused as never done it that way before!

Thanks again!

Yes you've got the idea. The client should pay for hosting and domain themselves and be responsible for renewal fees. You can set up multiple logins if you want so they would hold the master logins and you could create one for yourself to make updates etc.

 

Advising clients about what package to go for would probably be down to you as most clients won't know what they're looking at! Of course you will need to ensure you have all the right facilities available like databases, .htaccess and whatever else you may need. There's also the issue of helping clients with setting up email accounts and the like which you will almost definately get asked.

 

And while they're at it a lot of customers will ask you about PC problems as well - they seem to think web designers are computer experts as well

Hi guys, thanks for your replies. I have advised a few potential clients about getting their own hosting package and emailed them simple instructions about how to do this, but it seems to put them off and although very keen at first, as soon as I mention getting their own hosting & domain name sorted I don't hear from them again!

Is there a way with 1&1 for me to set it up for them and then transfer it to them for them to enter their payment details etc, or another hosting company that does this?

Thanks for any advice

You could always register the domain and hosting package for them in their name and add the cost to the customers invoice, on completion of the site you hand over all the documentation to them.

 

Pat

Thanks, yes I thought about that, but (with 1&1 anyway) you have to enter your payment details for the yearly fee ... I'd rather get them to enter theirs than me pay and then have to chase them every year for the money!

 

 

You could always register the domain and hosting package for them in their name and add the cost to the customers invoice, on completion of the site you hand over all the documentation to them.

 

Pat

It's worth remembering for the future that it might help to spread your sites across multiple hosts / countries depending on your SEO needs. It's not going to do you many favours if your link farm is all hosted on one IP address