I'm continuing to offer Site Studio for budget customers, and I am almost finished with the Site Stuido Instruction Manual - their help screens just don't 'help' many people.
In an effort to reduce the amount of support calls I get, I decided to create the Manual. I also charge an hourly rate for assistance, so I'm sure the manual will help cut down the calls and emails from people who 'just need 5 minutes' ...
I know from experience that each 5 minute call or email turns into 15 minutes and none of us can afford to spend all day on email and phone supporting a product we make very little money on [and which the Support Centre can't troubleshoot on].
So hence the Manual.
I also now offer content management systems [CMS] and I'm writing Instruction Manuals for both of them too, to give to each client who signs up.
I was thinking I might as well make one for the Hosting Control Panel too, something people can print, with simple instructions. So each client will end up with two manuals of step-by-step instructions.
The beauty of using a CMS [like CMSMadeSimple.org or WebsiteBaker.org for example] is that you can easily use the free templates readily available for Open source etc [http://www.oswd.org which has thousands of cool templates]. Download and copy it into the CMS. That's it
All I have to do then is put a tag in where the different blocks of content will be, for example {content} - and set up the menus to be automatic, and voila! a great new website for someone. Many of the CMS now come with photo albums, news, forums etc, which makes it really easy.
In an effort to reduce the amount of support calls I get, I decided to create the Manual. I also charge an hourly rate for assistance, so I'm sure the manual will help cut down the calls and emails from people who 'just need 5 minutes' ...
I know from experience that each 5 minute call or email turns into 15 minutes and none of us can afford to spend all day on email and phone supporting a product we make very little money on [and which the Support Centre can't troubleshoot on].
So hence the Manual.
I also now offer content management systems [CMS] and I'm writing Instruction Manuals for both of them too, to give to each client who signs up.
I was thinking I might as well make one for the Hosting Control Panel too, something people can print, with simple instructions. So each client will end up with two manuals of step-by-step instructions.
The beauty of using a CMS [like CMSMadeSimple.org or WebsiteBaker.org for example] is that you can easily use the free templates readily available for Open source etc [http://www.oswd.org which has thousands of cool templates]. Download and copy it into the CMS. That's it
All I have to do then is put a tag in where the different blocks of content will be, for example {content} - and set up the menus to be automatic, and voila! a great new website for someone. Many of the CMS now come with photo albums, news, forums etc, which makes it really easy.
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