

Ask HN: How to give a client a website? - hella

I just started doing freelance web design and development.<p>My first client already had a domain and hosting. My question, though, is what do you do when a client doesn't have either? What's the easiest way to do it?<p>For instance, do you just setup a godaddy account for the client, and then buy the domain and hosting there?
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jbhelms
Really depends on how hands on you want to be. For my clients, I keep all of
their domains under our company GoDaddy account. That allows me to make
changes at 2AM if something comes up. It also means that we don't have to get
a password from them. We bill them annually for the domain name and ssl, and
we host them on our servers.

But, if you are only doing the design and development and then not handling
their hosting, i recommend that you let them set up an account on Godaddy and
send you the username and password to upload.

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mrlase
In the past, I've setup Namecheap for them so I could transfer the domain
between accounts if needed. If they knew how to setup the php scripts (back
when I did php freelancing), I'd send them the related archive of files.

If they wanted me to set it up for them, I'd simply setup the hosting based on
their needs and wants which I find to be quicker than putting together the
documentation for them to do it themselves and supporting it if something
breaks when they configure it.

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michaelpinto
From over ten years of experience I can tell you that you don't want to be in
charge of the domain registration and the hosting. Your customer needs to feel
like they own this — otherwise if they don't pay a renewal fee it becomes your
fault. The other problem is if you move on to doing something else you can be
getting dumb calls for years to come.

By the way I'm assuming that this is a small client by the fact that they
haven't already done this....

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msutherl
> For instance, do you just setup a godaddy account for the client, and then
> buy the domain and hosting there?

This how I usually see it done. Another option is to create a domain in your
own personal account. In that case you have more control, but you also have
more responsibility. Sometimes it's good to be done and done.

I recommend against using GoDaddy. Very confusing interface. Check out
Dreamhost.

