(disclosure: the links in this article are affiliate links. We make a commission if you use these links and choose to make a purchase – it doesn’t change your price, but it does help us create more online resources like this.)
1) Backup Buddy + Stash: The best way to backup and move a wordpress site (Plus 1 GB of Stash storage included!)
Adam’s note: Seriously, you won’t believe how easy and reliable Backup Buddy is with keeping your client’s information stored safely, and moving from production sites to live.
Plus, in our full course on how to setup your residual-income web design business, I’ll show you how we use it to create generic sites, pre-loaded with themes and plugins so that when we start building a new site for a client, we save a lot of time not having to re-install the same plugins every time.
Click here to check out Backup Buddy!
2) Google Analytics: Setup automated weekly reports so your clients can see how much traffic their website is receiving.
Adam’s Note: In our full course, I’ll show you how I use google analytics to sell value to the client. It’s free for us to use, but it still adds value to the services that we’re offering to our clients.
Click here to go to Google Analytics!
Also, as promised, here is the text that we add into the email from Google that goes out to our clients weekly:
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Hi Client,
Please find attached your Google Analytics traffic report from the past week for your website. If you have any questions about the information included, check out this article detailing the information included in your report: https://freshideawebsites.com/online-marketing/google-analytics/
Thanks for choosing Fresh Idea!
Adam McLaughlin
226-272-1504
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3) Elegant Themes: Pixel perfect designs, built with flexibility in mind.
Adam’s Note: I know it’s tempting to look for free themes and save a couple bucks here and there, but once you modify those themes, trouble shoot when wordpress updates and explore plugin conflicts, the money saved is not worth the time invested.
There are plenty of theme libraries. We use Elegant Themes because of their support, wide variety of styles, flexibility in settings and they have some great plugins included in the developer subscription that integrate seamlessly with every theme.
Check out Elegant Themes here!
4) ithemes Sync: Manage all your WP sites from one place.
Adam’s Note: Must have. Imagine having to login to every client’s site individually to run updates, or remove old plugins? What happens if you miss a site on your list? This is a single click to update, backup add or remove a theme or plugin, plus you can try it with 10 sites for free forever!
5) FreshBooks: Accounting made for you, the Non-Accountant!
Adam’s Note: Do it! You’re a website designer, not an accountant. It’s quick and gets this stuff out of the way. (and there is a 30 day free trial.)
What’s Next? You may be asking yourself these questions:
• How do I deal with the sales objections of people who don’t want to pay for a service plan when the industry has been built around a one-time, lump sum model?
• How do I market my business so when people refer me, they refer the services as well as the design?
• How do you approach clients who haven’t paid a service contract since their site was launched and suggest they start paying you a service contract?
• How does offering websites as a service change my sales process and what should I be including in my website services?
Pre-Register for our FULL COURSE answering all of your questions, and showing you how we’ve built a successful model!
(disclosure: the links in this article are affiliate links. We make a commission if you use these links and choose to make a purchase – it doesn’t change your price, but it does help us create more online resources like this.)