Early days of design
When I started designing websites a few years ago, I purchased Dreamweaver and used it to create html pages. I added styling to these pages via CSS, a navigation bar linking all of the pages together and moved the pages to a web server using FTP. Thus, my first client websites came to be. The process worked for the initial project and the clients were happy.

The ongoing relationship
For me though, ongoing relationships with clients was difficult as the more clients I added to my portfolio, the more difficult it became to project my workload due to client requested changes to web pages and requests for new pages. Since I typically moved from one site design to the next, when a change request came in, jumping back in to what I considered a “finished” project was not easy to do. In addition to reviewing the change request and doing the actual work, there were often questions for the website owner and the work often took more time than I projected.

It wasn’t long before I started to react to these maintenance requests somewhat warily and realized why some peers did not offer website maintenance at all. That did not seem like a good solution though as it left a client unfamiliar with web page design without a service provider.

A good website is never finished…
It was then I realized that I was fighting a losing battle and that a good website should never be finished. How then could I continue to design and still make money?

The answer lies in the death of the static website and turning publishing power over to the content provider. Of course not every client wants to update their own content but I made a decision then, that I would only accept work from those who wish to manage this portion of the process. If I am able to provide the site structure, design, initial content load and training, then it seems realistic to expect that the client would be able to update web copy and add pages using the guidelines that were established in the initial design.

The way out
This solution, a content management system, which can be as simple as a wordpress blog or one of the many open source or commercial options available, when properly implemented can give the website owner control of their website while still reaping the benefit of a professionally managed project, design and content structure. From this point forward, I will only offer this type of solution to prospects.