How to safely deliver a web site?
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- ctcliff
Any tips for delivering a web site/app for a client without getting burned?
For example, avoiding a situation where you move everything to a production environment where the client has administrative rights, and they take your work and disappear.
- ukit0
Wear protective clothing
- TheBlueOne0
snipers?
- utopian0
hire a hit man
- slappy0
get paid before you do handover?
- ukit0
Tell the mother to push when the baby's head arrives at the vaginal opening during contractions.
- moldero0
- btw, that image replaced his site for a week.moldero
- that is a great idea.epete22
- holy shit that is the best.refunktion
- colab0
I used to program something into flash files that would cause them to self destruct if the payment was 30 days past due.
- univers0
Usually I bill two installments. One to begin working. And one on completion.
- TResudek0
Get paid 75% before launching or giving any rights to the server. If you were really concerned, you could do something like adding a condition $_GET where if you type ?project=fail into the URL, it will delete all records from the database or it will change all instances of the companies name to "cheapskate". That'd be pretty easy and pretty fun.
Getting paid upfront saves all of the hassle though and would probably make everyone happier.
- akrok0
make sure they sign off. you got a contract, right?.
- univers0
Just a quick question, doesn't this kind of question tell you that you don't trust your client? Have they been acting in a way that makes you not trust them?
- ctcliff0
Some good tips, thanks.
It's not that I don't trust the client, I just don't do much freelance and I don't have time to chase after deadbeats. I thought there might be some tactful ways to approach this problem without offending anybody.
- heavyt0
agree with TResudek - When working with a suspect client in the past, I add a little code somewhere in the files that looks for a really long hash in the $_GET. I usually set up 3 different ones. The first will change permissions oh the files so they arent readable. The second one chnages them back. The last will delete all the files.
I have had to use this once before. Basically, you just enter that long hash into the url string and wait for the email saying the site is down.
If they pay, you use the 2nd string and fix it.
TO be good though, make sure the hash is really long so no one accidentally enters it later on.
- akrok0
use the "phone ninja". lol.
- formed0
50% before you start, 50% on completion. I use 'completion' instead of 'on delivery', although I have never sent an invoice before uploading the site.
If it is a large project, got the 30/30/30/10. That way, you'll have 90% before you ever deliver the final site.
FYI - be very, very careful about putting taking someone's site down. Imho, this is a very dangerous tactic and is generally bad business. You've got to protect yourself, but be tactful in how you do it.
- yeah, full payed before site is all up sounds pretty safe.akrok