I was inspired recently by my colleague Jennifer Bourn to get specific about what I do for people, when, and how–Bourn Creative has the most amazing set of processes. I haven’t had time to develop such a detailed playbook yet, though, so I’m not consistent enough about doing things exactly the same way with each client.
I have started to compile a mind map of all the different elements of a WordPress site development project. Not every project will include all of these elements, but I don’t want to leave any of them out when quoting a new job. (I use mind maps quite a bit for both brainstorming site structure and organizing content strategically.)
Since I’ve made a point of using an accessible theme, I’ll follow the image with a text outline.
The Elements of a WordPress Project
- Discovery
- Strategy Session
- Project Management
- Content
- Content Audit
- Content Analysis
- Content Development
- Content Entry
- Infrastructure
- Domain/Hosting Setup
- Dev Server Setup
- Deployment
- 301 Redirects
- Migration
- Function
- Functional Requirements Analysis
- Plugin Research
- Plugin Installation & Configuration
- Plugin Customization
- Custom (“Back-End”) Development
- Form Creation/Processing
- Site Structure & Navigation
- Menus
- Widgets
- Page Tree
- Post Categories
- Custom Taxonomies
- Custom Post Types
- Wireframing
- Design (“Front-End Development”)
- Theme Selection
- Theme Configuration
- Theme Customization
- Plugin-related CSS
- Editor Style CSS
- Documentation & Training
- Illustrated Documents
- Videos
- Live training
- SEO
- Analytics Setup
- SEO Research
- SEO Guide
- Content Optimization
- Materials Costs
- Plugins
- Theme
- SSL Certificate
- Third-Party Services
What It’s Like to Work With Me
I’m going to question your decisions. I’ll ask why you want a certain feature, and how it serves your business and your customers. I’ll tell you when what you want will be bad for your rankings in the search engines or make it hard for visitors to find their way around the site. I’ll also try to find less expensive alternatives to things you want but can’t afford when you’re on a tight budget. And I’ll bludgeon you with the need to take backups and upgrades and decent hosting seriously if you value your website.
I’ll also make sure you have every password you need from the beginning. I believe that the client owns the website and should never be hostage to a designer. (I also believe in getting deposits up front so that I don’t do thousands of dollars’ worth of work without getting paid for it.) One of the reasons I love WordPress is the way it empowers people who are not web designers to manage their own websites.
Rates & Payment Schedules
For larger projects, I prefer to create a detailed scope of work (that’s what the discovery process is for) and then quote the project. The normal payment schedule is 25% in advance, 50% after 30 days, and 25% at completion, though if I expect the project to last more than 3 months I will spread out the payments.
Smaller projects I bill hourly at $160, $130 for non-profits.
