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What happens if I die? Multisite clients of a freelancer (7 posts)

  1. brookebot
    Posted 2 years ago #

    Let's say...
    I have 100 clients and 100 domains. I'm using WordPress Multisite to run them all. For their convenience, they pay me for hosting and maintaining the ownership of their domain name (which I do all through one hosting company). I control every aspect of their website. I am killed instantly in a car accident.

    What steps should I take to prepare for an event like this if I have no one to rely on? My friends and family are barely computer literate. Even if they have my hosting name and password, they'd be lost as to how to divvy up everyone's sites and access.
    If you have an answer, PLEASE PLEASE be thorough. I want to provide the best possible solution for my clients.

  2. ...

    What you just asked is 'How do I run my business?'

    You make a company and hire someone else. In most businesses, death like that is covered by insurance.

  3. I've thought about this as well. I host about 50 clients and this year I thought I would start getting rid of them for that one reason. I personally think that hosting client is a pain and considering how cheap hosting is it's easier if they just take care of that. I don't have them on a multisite though... so it's easier for me.

    One option for you would be to have a "In case I die, here's what you need to do" document and leave that in the capable hands of someone you trust.

    It won't be fun and people won't like it, but let's face it, if you die, your clients will have to sort themselves out and will have to either hire someone else or sorted out.

    Hopefully that won't happen for a while.

  4. JHouse
    Posted 2 years ago #

    Don't die on us just yet...

    Maybe you can build a relationship with a suitable and WordPress savvy individual for such a case. They could either A) Just take over your network or B) Export a subsite into a standalone WP site for each client so they can just take over from there, with everything still intact. I believe the latter can be handled through BackupBuddy, just scroll down to where it says "Does BackupBuddy support Multisite?" as it explains it further.

    Side question: How do you manage your clients email? Is it outsourced? If so, could you please explain? I'm about to offer MultiSites, but I don't want to handle email, everything else is okay though.

    Still here?

  5. TCBarrett
    Posted 2 years ago #

    For shizzle!

    Read up on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster_recovery

    Not really a WordPress issue :p

    Most importantly - don't die!!! Noo!!

  6. Philip Jones
    Posted 2 years ago #

    Immortality would definitely be a good solution.

    But this isn't really about your personal wellbeing - even really big companies can and do go bust.

    Back in the days when I worked for a big IT company, developing systems for banks, I believe they paid to have a third party hold copies of all the proprietary code in a vault. I recall the word 'escrow' being used. You might try googling that.

    This arrangement meant that their future didn't depend on ours. In the same way, your clients need to decide whether they are willing to pay for an arrangement which allows their web sites to outlive your business.

  7. zedbiz
    Posted 2 years ago #

    Excellent Topic -
    I see a need.
    I am going to put together a low-cost service that allows for this type of problem.
    If your interested - email me at [email address removed]


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