Clients and security and other updates

Okay, perhaps this is prompted from the recent security updates, but applicable none-the-less.

In regards to that, I wasnt’ really impacted as I have only one live site running MODx at the moment and it is one of my own... but I suspect and have great plans to change that in the near future.

To this point, my client sites have all been static, so for the most part, security updates have not been an issue and updates or maintenance of any kind has basically been content changes.

So moving into the dynamic, script centered world, a whole new focus comes into play.

I’m curious as to how any other designers/developers out there address the handling and especially billing for any feature updates/upgrades as well as the even stickier issue, security updates.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and thoughts on the matter.

Well, any security issue on a client site is likely to affect the rest of my server, so it is as much my problem as theirs, and has to be addressed. Other updates aren’t always necessary and can probably be done next time there’s a major content/structure change to the site.

But yes, you’re faced with time that needs to be spent doing something that may not be noticed.

In my mind, there is only one solution, and that’s to levy a recurring charge for "maintenance". Some periods you’ll not have to do anything and it’s bonus money, some periods you may end up spending more time than the fee would ordinarily cover. I guess it’s like insurance.

Now, when you’ve used MODx to build a site and not actually told the client... if it’s just so that *you* can edit it more easily, then the maintenance fee is harder to justify.

I use the same method as PaulGregory.
I set up a recurring payment to do simple manteinance, updates and so on.
As a bonus I do little changes, an image, a bit of content and so on during manteinance.

And, sharing work methods, I usually give discounts on manteinance if my client spreads my name and I close contracts with his help.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

This was very much along the lines that I was thinking... now I just have to figure out the details.

I’ve offered ongoing maintenance before, but that kind of maintenance is really much more content updating than true site maintenance.

It’s funny that you mentioned the term insurance as my mind had kind of wondered that direction. I’m sure there is probably something already like that, but if not, that will probably the wave of the future.... take out insurance on your site to cover the potentiality of incidents!