Maintenance business plan advice

[DarkwaveSurfer]

Hi everyone. And thanks in advance for help.
I'm considering switching to Processwire from Wordpress for small to medium websites. But I need your advice on business strategy.
I already did 1 website on Processwire and I like the CMS. I'm not professional dev (Product design and frontend background) but it wasn't hard to make small website.

I'm wondering what is your business strategy for maintenance of PW sites? What does maintenance plans include?
For WP sites I have Basic plan which includes WP and plugin updates, security and backups. For Advanced plans I add ongoing SEO, performance optimization and content updates.

Since I read that PW and modules don't need updates very often and there are no security issues, does that mean my basic plan is not needed for PW? Because, if it is obsolete that would be less monthly recurring revenue for my business.

I’d really appreciate your advice.

[ErikMH]

I, for one, dislike updating software, applying security patches, and making backups. Especially for other people. Reducing those chores means I get to spend more time building creative web sites and tailoring sites to my client’s needs, which I enjoy very much. And if maximizing your revenue is a priority, well, good creative work is generally more lucrative, too.

[DarkwaveSurfer]

Thanks for reply. I also dislike doing maintenance work.
After all, my main job is Product designer. So, creative work is my passion.

But, I am thinking of going full freelance and monthly recurring revenue is important to me. And clients need those basic updates so it is easy to sell. It doesn't take that much time to do maintenance work (it can be automated), majority of time is still creative work.
I guess, I'll have to focus my plans more on SEO, Analytics and Content updates.

It would be nicer to decrease some of those maintenance work if it is possible.

Edited February 13 by DarkwaveSurfer

[ErikMH]

I apologize if I sounded rude in my first reply. It had been some years since I’d last worked with WordPress, when an academic friend asked me to help her migrate (and upgrade) her WP site last month to a new provider. This should have been a very straightforward job, but every single one of the plug-in authors had built in limitations that kept me from doing very simple things unless I upgraded to their pro-level versions — and in most cases this would have involved minimum one-year subscriptions. And since my client’s site had been hosted with a provider that allowed no command-line access and only limited SFTP, I was at the plug-in authors’ mercy.

Your situation is quite different, of course, but the whole experience reminded me strongly of what I dislike about what WP has become.

In my case, I can attest that PW is about 50% of my income, and that I devote about 50% of my work-time towards it, so it’s certainly a viable means of income. But it’s true that creative work, even in IT, is a less predictable income stream than maintenance.

Best of luck with ProcessWire, and with going freelance! I hope we’ll continue to see you here in the forum!

[DarkwaveSurfer]

10 minutes ago, ErikMH said:

Your situation is quite different, of course, but the whole experience reminded me strongly of what I dislike about what WP has become.

I completely understand your dislike for WP. There is lots of to dislike 🙂 That is reason I am considering PW.

Thanks!

[bkno]

Bit late to this topic but it is an interesting subject. I work a lot with WordPress and hoping to do more ProcessWire.

I'd suggest the maintenance covers a client's general web needs. For example, content support, troubleshooting, on-going improvements such as new features, performance monitoring, site reviews etc. Updates can still happen and I'm sure they'd want re-assurance this is covered, but it isn't always the top priority like it is with WordPress.

I'm sure clients would rather have their developer work on improvements than installing updates.

Even if a client does not need that, it will free up more time for new builds. With WordPress I do so much maintenance I have less capacity for new projects.

[DarkwaveSurfer]

1 hour ago, bkno said:

I'm sure clients would rather have their developer work on improvements than installing updates.

I like your suggestions for maintance plans. I could create plans based on that and add some things. 

When it comes to improvments, my e-commerce projects almost always require regular updates and new features. In contrast, simple marketing websites usually need far fewer changes.

I am working on 2 smaller websites in Processwire right now. 

Ecommerce is something I am stll not sure which platform to use. But that is separate discussion.