Using wordpress for my business clients.

14 replies
I used to make sites without CMS and I have tried using Joomla, Drupal, etc. My preference is Wordpress.

My questions are.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't be using Wordpress to build sites for my small business clients?

Im about to land a big deal and my first instinct is to go all Wordpress for 30+ sites. I wanted to bounce this off of people who are in this industry so hopefully you can chime in.

Also I have a hosting account with unlimited addon domains where I could literally host all these sites for only $99 a year. Ive seen hosting offered for business class hosting but your limited to to 5 add on sites.

Am I wrong to think the unlimited bargain basement hosting is sufficient? Ive never had problems with my bargain hosting in the past. Could it handle 60+ more add on domains with hosting?

This is my first post and I look forward to a long relationship with this great forum. Thanks for you time.
#business #clients #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author RyanLester
    I see no reason why you should not be using WP for building websites for your clients. Whether you code it yourself or use a content management system, all your clients cares about is the end result: more business for his/her business.

    What matters is an effective website that converts visitors into customers.
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  • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
    Hi Chasmix. I use WP for all my clients' sites. I shouldn't be a problem and has the advantage that they can log-in and do minor edits themselves, if they want to.

    Please, under no circumstances, host your clients' websites on your own hosting account, unless you have a reseller account and can set your clients up with their own cpanel.

    I make all my clients purchase their own hosting accounts. Bargain basement doesn't sound good. What are you going to do the first time your bargain basement host's server crashes and you wake up and find all your clients' sites have disappeared?

    It happened to me once. I wasn't using bargain basement, quite the opposite, and the host did a miracle job of rescuing almost everything. I reckon they are now one of the safest hosts on the planet.

    If your client is willing to pay for that number of websites, they should be willing to pay for decent hosting. Make sure it offers backup facilities.

    Edit: Not only do I make all my clients buy their hosting account, I also set them up with their own accounts at the domain registrar. This way:
    a) they are responsible for the bills, not me
    b) if they leave me, they have full access. I can't tell you how many times I've had problems with clients coming to me from previous web people who have control over their web hosting or who have registered domains in their own names not the client's.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leveragist
    I've switched from Joomla to Wordpress a long time ago.

    For a basic business site, it's more than sufficient.

    Just make sure you have a reliable host. I've had bad hosting that caused my site to regularly go down.

    After I switched to VPN hosting, 100% uptime.

    Jeanne
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  • Profile picture of the author hebsgaard
    As a web developer for the past 10 years I have to say the bargain basement hosting is a concern. You need to be absolutely certain the hosting account is configured to handle the load the site will get. That may or may not be an issue depending on the requirements you are facing.

    WordPress in itself isn't an issue. If you do some research you will find that some pretty big companies are using WordPress. If it's good enough for Mashable, the New York Times, CNN, GM and Sony I see no reason why it wouldn't be good enough for you. Once again, it depends on the requirements.
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  • Profile picture of the author jficarro
    I use wordpress exclusively for my clients (unless they specify different). You can do so much with it that nobody would even know it's a WP if you wanted. You can even change the log in page and customize the admin panel.

    There's a few really complex situation where you need some complex asp.net or something, but if they aren't willing to pay a fortune, I'll turn them down. I'd rather stick to WP and tear it apart and add to it until it's exactly what we want.

    Then consider all the plug in functionality.

    For hosting. I have a resellers account and an "unlimited" shared account (among others)... so, if the client is the type that wants a cpanel, then give them an account on the reseller hosting, and if they are the type that want you to handle everything, put them on the shared account.

    You don't want to skimp on hosting. I've had clients that had an enormous amount of bandwidth and if you aren't checking your email alerts every 5 minutes - ouch!
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  • Profile picture of the author Chasmix
    Great innformation guys Wordpress is the way to go but you got me worried hosting now lol.

    Is it ok to name drop hosting? I dont want to burn any bridges and it would clarify things with you guys.

    I also contacted my hosting provider and this is part of the conversation.

    Chasmix:
    Do you forsee problems with me adding a large amount of add on domains with hosting
    Chasmix:
    I just want to make sure my hosting could handle that
    Jonathan P:
    No Not unless they all have a ton of traffic
    Chasmix:
    Whats considered a ton
    Jonathan P:
    like more than 1000 visits per day per site.

    Ive had nothing but good experiences with the hosting provider and the customer doesn't want access to cpanel just a CMS.

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author jficarro
      Originally Posted by Chasmix View Post

      Great innformation guys Wordpress is the way to go but you got me worried hosting now lol.

      Is it ok to name drop hosting? I dont want to burn any bridges and it would clarify things with you guys.

      I also contacted my hosting provider and this is part of the conversation.

      Chasmix:
      Do you forsee problems with me adding a large amount of add on domains with hosting
      Chasmix:
      I just want to make sure my hosting could handle that
      Jonathan P:
      No Not unless they all have a ton of traffic
      Chasmix:
      Whats considered a ton
      Jonathan P:
      like more than 1000 visits per day per site.

      Thanks
      1000 visits? LOL ... I guess for a local plumber that is way more than he'll get, but I would never chance it.

      There's a ton of great host companies. It depends on your clients intentions. i.e. do they want to log into their own cpanel? or are you handling everything.

      If you are handling everything. Just get Hostgator. they are like 24/ every 3 months (I think - it's all auto pay with me and I have several hosting systems). It's unlimited bandwidth (as if that were possible ahhaha) but you can certainly handle whatever is thrown your way.
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  • Profile picture of the author janzco
    WP is Easy to customize and Loved by google i think
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  • Profile picture of the author DMCAPROS
    I use Wordpress for all of my clients, it's just a matter of making custom designs from the theme you pick, never ever just go with a base theme unedited and unchanged.
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Wordpress does great for small business sites and clients love the backend...it impresses them for some reason.

    Go with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author vgvetter
    About 7 years ago, started out sponsoring a site for a local nonprofit group of which I'm a member. Upgraded to a hosting account that allowed unlimited domain name hosting for $99/year... Not good.

    Presently have six client sites on this account and am working at changing things out.. The points made by rosetrees and hebsgaard are very valid. Sooner or later one of those clients is going to want to own his URL and it's smart to get him on that path up front. Haven't had a site crash problem, but you probably have a data base limit with the low cost spread, and that could prevent "unlimited sites".

    As far as the basic system, we've been through the mill with Frontpage, Expressions, XARA, and WYSIWYG... In today's world, WordPress is the only way. The flexibility offered by plugins to accommodate, Client DIY, Membership, Newsletters, Tables, Forms, and anything else you can think of covers all bases.

    The net is different than it was in 2005, and we're presently working at getting all clients on WP. The bottom line is how well the site works for the client in terms of his sales (don't confuse traffic with sales), and WP opens the doors for lots of client options.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim Franklin
    I have setup over 200 clients with wordpress they love the fact that they can handle a lot of the small stuff without having to hire someone to do it for them.

    There is a right way and a wrong way to go about doing this, it is something that involves learning about the way wordpress actually works, I would encourage anyone to learn as much as possible, it may sound a little insane but there are several self professed wordpress developers that know little or nothing about how wordpress actually works.

    Just a word to the wise, a few hours spent in the codex can reap a lot of rewards that the average user never even considers.

    Main Page « WordPress Codex

    the more you know the better off you are.
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    Bitcoin | Crypto | Blockchain Secrets |
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  • Profile picture of the author JayParker
    Wordpress is the standard blog platform on the internet, there is ton of support and it's professional. It also makes your clients content administration much easier, you can modify and add content on the fly.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chasmix
      I use webhostinghub for my current work.

      Do you guys have recommendations for shared unlimited hosting?
      Client does not want cpanel access.
      Client already has domains registered through godaddy.

      Hostgater was one any others?
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