dgow13 Posted August 16, 2010 Report Share Posted August 16, 2010 I have been building websites for clients and then maintaining their sites monthly for a fee. I now have one client who wants admin privileges to make changes to text, calendar and a few photos. I have never done this so can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newseed Posted August 16, 2010 Report Share Posted August 16, 2010 I would set the client up with a CMS (Content Management System). Open Source CMS Some are simple and some are complex. I've used Wordpress, CMS Made Simple and Express Engine. The latter is not a freebie. Some of them will have modules/plugins that you can add such as calendar or gallery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted August 16, 2010 Report Share Posted August 16, 2010 Like Newseed said, you need some sort of CMS. Here are a couple simple options you might look into: Unify (http://unify.unitinteractive.com/) MojoMotor(http://mojomotor.com/) CushyCMS (http://www.cushycms.com/) These are smaller CMS's that aren't quite as complicated as CMS Made Simple, Wordpress, etc. but shouldn't be that complicated to integrate into your existing site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgow13 Posted August 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 Thanks for your suggestions. I looked at the sites you provided. I really liked CushyCMS but couldn't get it to read my ftp server info for some reason. I googled to find other options and found PageLime CMS. It is very easy for my client to understand and use. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reedyseth Posted August 17, 2010 Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 Wow I'm really impress with this PageLime CMS. As a Web developer I like to create administration panels for the users but this is THE tool for the user you described Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted August 17, 2010 Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 Wow I'm really impress with this PageLime CMS. As a Web developer I like to create administration panels for the users but this is THE tool for the user you described The only thing that concerns me about services like PageLime is that they aren't self hosted and the functionality is out of my control. If they ever close down, or decide to start charging for services that were formerly free, I'd be stuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reedyseth Posted August 17, 2010 Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 The only thing that concerns me about services like PageLime is that they aren't self hosted and the functionality is out of my control. If they ever close down, or decide to start charging for services that were formerly free, I'd be stuck. I'm totally agree with you, this is why I stick to my idea to create an Admin panel for the user to make changes and to have persistance data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgow13 Posted August 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 I'm totally agree with you, this is why I stick to my idea to create an Admin panel for the user to make changes and to have persistance data. I would prefer to as you are doing and have complete control but, I am not sure how to go about it. I am more of a web & graphic designer. I would welcome any suggestions. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted August 17, 2010 Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 I would prefer to as you are doing and have complete control but, I am not sure how to go about it. I am more of a web & graphic designer. I would welcome any suggestions. Thanks Ultimately it depends on what you are most comfortable with. Most likely, PageLime will work fine for you. I probably would suggest Unify though -- same basic idea, except you can host it on your own server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgow13 Posted August 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 Ultimately it depends on what you are most comfortable with. Most likely, PageLime will work fine for you. I probably would suggest Unify though -- same basic idea, except you can host it on your own server. I looked at Unify but it cost about $25.00 for one license / one website. Each time I want to do this with a client I have to buy another license. Not cost effective for myself or my clients. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newseed Posted August 17, 2010 Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 (edited) I looked at Unify but it cost about $25.00 for one license / one website. Each time I want to do this with a client I have to buy another license. Not cost effective for myself or my clients. Why not? Anytime you are required to purchase a software for a client you sould apply that to the bill. I mean, $25 is not much for the client to pay when it will be saving them on maintenance cost. Edited August 17, 2010 by newseed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted August 17, 2010 Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 I looked at Unify but it cost about $25.00 for one license / one website. Each time I want to do this with a client I have to buy another license. Not cost effective for myself or my clients. As I said, whatever you are comfortable with. In my case, I'd figure that $25 is worth knowing that my method of editing the site wasn't going anywhere (and I could probably remove the Unity branding and put my own branding in place), and if I was to offer that to clients, I'd include that $25 when estimating the cost of a project. Depends on your clients too. If you have a client who will complain over a $25 charge for the ability to edit the website easily, then it isn't a good fit. Besides, it saves me the time of doing maintenance, which isn't my favorite job, and saves the client money, since they don't have to pay for me to do maintenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgow13 Posted August 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2010 As I said, whatever you are comfortable with. In my case, I'd figure that $25 is worth knowing that my method of editing the site wasn't going anywhere (and I could probably remove the Unity branding and put my own branding in place), and if I was to offer that to clients, I'd include that $25 when estimating the cost of a project. Depends on your clients too. If you have a client who will complain over a $25 charge for the ability to edit the website easily, then it isn't a good fit. Besides, it saves me the time of doing maintenance, which isn't my favorite job, and saves the client money, since they don't have to pay for me to do maintenance. Most of my clients don't have a lot of money or choose not to want to spend it. I charge them $25.00 per month for hosting and maintenance. I have no problem spending money as long as I can get a return but, most of them are going to have admin privileges and still want me to help them upload and fix what they mess up. Just a matter of time. I have already prepared for that. Also, with PageLime they have an option where I can self host, brand everything with my logo and colors and upload it to my server, with unlimited websites. They are going to email me the price. That would be more the direction I would like to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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