Teaching Your Clients How to Use WordPress
You’ve probably seen it happen- someone complains because they just got a website, but they don’t know how to use it. Their designer or developer or project manager just left them high and dry without some type of direction or documentation. Let’s face it, as a designer or developer or project manager, you’re definitely going to run into someone who isn’t really that familiar with WordPress. In fact, you’ll encounter all sorts of user levels when it comes to working with clients. How do you teach your client how to use their WordPress website? How do you figure it into your project’s scope? If you don’t like teaching them, what can you do to make sure your relationship with your client ends on a good note because you were diligent to give them the tools they need to continue on their own? I’ll be going over strategies to help you put together a plan on teaching your clients how to use WordPress. Let’s decrease the frustration together and allow your clients to become enthusiastic WordPress users that are making money.
Teaching Your Clients How to Use WordPress
- 1. Teaching Your Clients How to Use WordPress By Nile Flores @blondishnet http://blondish.net
- 2. Objective ❏ Helping you understand where your client is coming from when you work with them ❏ How to improve your client relations and still remain in your own comfort zone ❏ Training solutions for your client, if you happen to be an introvert or for freelancers on a budget
- 3. Let’s make happy clients, and not ones who are left confused and/or mad.
- 4. WordPress is easy to use... Not all people learn at the same speed as you.
- 5. WordPress Client Training: ❏ You’d rather be designing or developing. ❏ You really don’t have the time. ❏ You might hate people, either sometimes or all of the time. ❏ WordPress is always evolving and changing, so it’s hard to keep up.
- 6. Due Diligence = Happier Client For you, it also means more future business, and less stress.
- 7. To Hold Hands, or Not to Hold hands? If you haven’t even thought of this for your WordPress freelance business, now’s the time. Hand holding will happen. It depends on who is going to do it. Add training to your scope in your project proposal.
- 8. Yes… I even thought of my introvert friends Because no one wants to feel like this → Don’t make your client feel like they’re bothering you.
- 9. Approach training from 2 angles 1. Preparing WordPress for the client’s needs to cut out the confusion. 2. Preparing the client for WordPress.
- 10. Preparing WordPress for the Client ❏ Set them up with a Backup and Security plan. ❏ De-clutter the WordPress admin
- 11. Customize backend for the client ❏ Re-arrange or create a simpler navigation ❏ Simplify the WordPress dashboard (less widgets) ❏ Cut down on features that the client may not needs when editing a post or page
- 12. Tools & Resources to help de-clutter the admin ❏ Creating Admin Themes - http://codex.wordpress. org/Creating_Admin_Themes ❏ White Label CMS - https://wordpress.org/plugins/white-label-cms/ ❏ TinyMCE Advanced - https://wordpress.org/plugins/tinymce- advanced/
- 13. Video Screencasts If you’ve customized and de-cluttered the WordPress admin: No need to team view or video chat on Skype or Google Hangouts. Make a couple short 3-5 minute video screencast of the areas that the client needs to know how to use.
- 14. Video Screencasting for Cheap? Screencast-o-matic http://screencast-o-matic.com/
- 15. Video Training Series? If you enjoy teaching and have the time, make a video training series and allow your clients access to this training. You will need to take in account that you will need to update your videos to keep up with the changes WordPress goes through. BONUS: You can pop in extra videos or even resource lists to help give your client a leg up on trying to succeed in using WordPress and making money with it.
- 16. For the rest of WordPress training: You can either create your own WordPress training series that all clients can have access too, or find a business that already does this. https://wp101.com
- 17. How to charge (Training them yourself?) Training them yourself? - Estimate the hours and multiply it by your hourly rate. Add it to your scope as part of a ongoing maintenance plan
- 18. How to charge (Outsourcing training?) ❏ Charge as a concierge service in your scope ❏ Sign client up with their email to training. (WP101 has a lifetime subscription. )
- 19. I’m Nile Flores. http://blondish.net Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me. Twitter: @blondishnet https://slideshare.net/blondishnet Join 7500 WordPressers on Facebook & Get Help! All About WordPress - http://on.fb.me/11s03Ks