Gardening your web sitesHow the ongoing success of any web site is like

gardening...

Barry O’Kane@barryokane

www.happyporch.com

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the plane is no longer the problem"

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the plane is no longer the problem"

Technology is not the problem

Plan

I’ll talk about:

Why gardening is a good analogy for successful web sites

The 3 ‘layers’ required for ongoing success

Realistical ways to cover everything

Opportunities for web professionals

then:

Open discussion about the challenges of ongoing support, maintenance and generally improving web site success in the long term.

Do web projects really have a start & finish?

Ongoing success is more than updating your plugins(although that’s important too!)

Great things happen when you view your website project as a “living thing”

...not static or a project that is “done”.

Everyone needs to understand this...

The question is not

“how do I maintain my web site?”

but rather

“how do we continue to enjoy the benefits of this garden?”

Maintenance Reactive Proactive

Technical

Business

Content

Security scans, backups, DNS, plugin updates ...

Bug fixes, small changes, disaster recovery ...

Technology changes that increase business success of the website.

Monitoring ... Editor help, “how do I” questions ...

Does the web site fit with the wider marketing goals?

Broken links, automated social media sharing ...

Monitoring & webmaster tools alerts ...

New content and data driven marketing changes.

Keeping the weeds down

Coping with the weather

Growing a better garden

Examples

of what

is involve

d:

Which brings us back to working together!

Yeah, but how do we do all that?

Everything is relative...

Structure and process matter … a lot.

Use tools for repetitive tasks e.g.

ManageWP for plugin updates across multiple sites

WP CLI for scripting

WP Pusher for automated deployment

PingDom for uptime and performance monitoring

Structured communication

Use support software to manage requests (eg SupportBee)

Be clear on responsibilities and expectations

Best practice development e.g.

Use source control and child themes

Test changes on a staging site

Be consistent

Same process for one site or many

Maintenance Reactive Proactive

Technical

Business

Content

Security scans, backups, DNS, plugin updates ...

Bug fixes, small changes, disaster recovery ...

Technology changes that increase business success of the website.

Monitoring ... Editor help, “how do I” questions ...

Does the web site fit with the wider marketing goals?

Broken links, automated social media sharing ...

Monitoring & webmaster tools alerts ...

New content and data driven marketing changes.

Automate!Hosting, plugins, 3rd party tools

Productised services!

Good strategic advice = most

effective projectsHow we m

ight

tackle

these

;

effici

ently!

Plugins and tools to help with the maintenance and reactive layers of ongoing web site success.

This list is just a tiny sample of the huge array of tools and services, our challenge is not that the tools do not exist, rather it is how to use them and have everyone involved work together for success.

Wordpress hosts (that include updates & related services)

WPEngine

SiteGround

GoDaddy!

Managing multiple websites

ManageWP

InfiniteWP

WPRemote

Managing support communications

SupportBee

FreshDesk

Trello

Training & editor help

WhiteLabel CMS

Video User Manuals

User Switching

Security

JetPack (BruteProtect)

Akismet

WPEngine

Monitoring & automated testing

Pingdom

GhostInspector

Content

Broken Link Checker

Yoast

Simple 301 Redirects

Code & Deployment

GitHub

WP CLI

WPPusher

Reactive support

WPCurve

GoWP

WP.org forums

Backups

VaultPress

BackupBuddy

ManageWP

What are the opportunities

for web professionals

in all this?

Specialisation for success

Recurring income

Resources to help you provide retainers to your clients

Marie Poulin’s very practicle advice on creating retainers: http://freelancetofreedomproject.com/implement-retainer-based-payment-model/

Brennan Dunn’s excellent article with advice for freelancers: https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/freelancers-guide-client-retainer-agreements/

My own guide describing how you can use “value add” retainers to compliment your core service(s) (suitable for agencies as well as freelancers): http://www.happyporch.com/value-add-guide/