Working solo is one of the benefits of being a freelance web designer. You don’t have a boss breathing down your neck or tracking every mouse click. That’s one reason why many of us choose this career path.

On the other hand, no one has your back when things go wrong. There are no team members to ensure that you’re treated fairly or paid for your work. Raise your hand if a client ever skipped town without paying their bill. Yes, we see you!

This also extends to mundane tasks, such as onboarding to your client’s workflow. For example, working with an agency client and being dropped in the middle of an unfamiliar website. You don’t always get the benefit of a guided tour on how everything works.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed, and remaining silent only exacerbates the situation. The result is more stress and less money in your bank account. That’s not what freelancing is supposed to be about.

The reality is that freelancers are mostly on their own when it comes to advocacy. Here are some tips for standing up for yourself when the going gets tough.

Be Clear About Your Policies From the Beginning

The best way to avoid being taken advantage of is by being assertive from the start of your client relationships. Setting the appropriate boundaries lets clients know what’s important to you. The desired result is a mutual understanding of what is expected.

What sorts of boundaries should you outline? You’ll find plenty of small (and not-so-small) items to communicate, including:

• Payment policies: This includes when and how you want to be paid for projects. Also, be transparent about any transaction or late fees that you charge.
• Lead time for project assets: Some clients have a habit of providing project assets the day before launch. One way to avoid such chaos is to communicate the amount of lead time you require. You may also want to note that the project could be delayed if materials aren’t delivered on time.
• Business hours: Do you enjoy working 24/7? No, we don’t either. Share your business hours with clients and only respond to messages during this time. Not everything is an emergency.
• Things that cost extra: Each project has a scope to stay within. Ensure that clients understand that items outside the scope will incur additional costs.
• Your responsibilities: Modern web projects often require working with third-party providers. Think web hosting, content delivery networks, and plugin developers. Inform clients of what you can and can’t do when there’s a problem.

These items can be placed in contracts or even “welcome” guides. Clear documentation can make a difference. The more clients know ahead of time, the better the chance they’ll work within your policies.

Speak up When Necessary

Even the most detailed contracts can’t cover every possible problem. The truth is that various issues can arise when working with clients.

Perhaps you don’t have the necessary resources to perform your job. Or you’re receiving conflicting instructions from stakeholders. You could also be asked to perform tasks outside of your expertise or service offerings.

Such situations can be uncomfortable and unproductive. However, the more timid among us may try to simply “get along” and move on. This is a recipe for disaster. You’ll eventually need to get things off your chest.

Why wait until then? Nip these issues in the bud by speaking up. Bring any concerns to your client’s attention. Explain what’s wrong and/or what you need. Offer them actionable advice to resolve the issue.

The mere act of sharing your feelings will benefit your mental health. You’ll feel like the world has been lifted off your shoulders. It also keeps your focus on the task at hand, rather than the stress and anxiety.

We’d like to believe that most clients will take your concerns seriously. We’re all human and don’t always realize the nature of what’s happening. Most will want to make things right.

If they don’t listen, it’s a sign they’re not the right fit. All information is helpful.

Freelancers Must Look Out for Themselves

Freelance web designers face a special set of challenges, and there’s no one to help us. If you’re not careful, you could find yourself in a series of bad client relationships. From there, it’s an uphill climb to keeping your sanity.

Seriously, it can take years to untangle yourself from such messes. Meanwhile, you’ll struggle to get by and miss out on better gigs.

That’s why self-advocacy is so important. We must set our own boundaries to prevent a rogue client from making life miserable. We must also maintain an open line of communication. That helps to prevent small problems from becoming big ones.

Sure, it sounds like a heavy burden. On the bright side, it’s all in our hands. The key is finding the courage and resolve to look out for ourselves.

The post How Freelance Designers & Developers Can Be Their Own Advocate appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The WordPress Block Editor enables browser-based design. That’s leaps and bounds from where the old Classic Editor fell short. It may eliminate the need for a page builder plugin in some cases.

That’s all good news. However, it’s also tricky for web developers hoping to prevent their clients from accidentally breaking a layout. It’s all too easy to delete a component or drag one to a different spot. Oh, the horror!

Keeping your designs looking good and safe is essential. Fortunately, WordPress offers several built-in methods for doing just that. They could save you from a headache or two.

Let’s learn how to protect your WordPress block layouts the easy way!

Step 1: Create WordPress Block Patterns

You spent all that time creating a custom block layout. Preserve your work by saving it as a block pattern. It only takes a few seconds and allows you to reuse custom layouts at any time.

This means you can easily restore a layout if something goes wrong. That’s simpler than trying to piece things back together or clean up a royal mess.

Even better, you can export block patterns and save them locally. This keeps your original layout intact, no matter what happens on the live site. You can then re-import the pattern should the worst happen. The other benefit is that the pattern can be imported to other sites or included in a custom plugin.

To create a block pattern, click on a block’s Options menu (⋮) and select Create pattern. Give the pattern a name and optionally assign it a category.

Once your pattern is saved, you can access it in the Appearance > Design menu within WordPress.

Helpful Resources:

• Exploring the WordPress Block Pattern Directory (Speckyboy)
• How to Create & Manage Block Patterns in WordPress (Speckyboy)
• Synced Patterns (Reusable blocks) (WordPress Documentation)
• Using Block Patterns (Learn WordPress)

Step 2: Lock Your Blocks

Block layouts can be easily edited and rearranged by default. For example, you might use the Block Editor’s List View to drag items to different areas of your page. It’s great for flexibility, but it can also result in some unintended consequences.

The Lock feature allows you to prevent blocks from being modified or removed from your layout. Users can still change the contents of a block. However, they must use the same type of content. For instance, you can only replace an image with another image, and so on.

If you’re locking a Group block, you can also choose to lock all blocks within the group. This step protects the entire custom layout. It’s another reason why the Group block is great for housing layouts.

To lock a block, click on its Options menu (⋮) and select Lock.

Note that there’s also an option to unlock a block if you need to make further edits. If you want more control over who has permission to unlock a block, there’s a code snippet that can help.

Helpful Resources:

• Block Locking API (WordPress Documentation)
• How to Lock Blocks and Templates (Full Site Editing)
• The Key to Locking Blocks (Learn WordPress)

Keep Your Block Layouts Safe and Beautiful

In days past, web developers had various tricks to client-proof custom layouts in WordPress. We hardcoded them into PHP-based theme templates and implemented custom fields to allow content changes. This approach doesn’t work as well in the world of blocks, though.

No, using the WordPress Block Editor to build layouts is about more than just aesthetics. You also need a plan to ensure that what you create is protected against breakage – block patterns and locking offer quick, built-in solutions for doing so.

Combined, these features add some resiliency to your custom layouts. And, even if something goes wrong, you can still restore the original version. That provides some peace of mind for you and your clients.

The post How to Protect WordPress Block Layouts From Accidental Changes appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

There’s a school of thought among web developers that clients don’t care about how you build something. They only care that things work as expected.

There’s some truth to that logic. Most of our clients aren’t WordPress experts. They don’t know Yoast SEO from Jetpack. They’re unlikely to know what separates a good theme from a poor one. They depend on us to build their website responsibly.

However, our choices will matter to them at some point in the future. For example, when an abandoned plugin includes an unpatched security issue. Or when an outdated theme isn’t compatible with the latest version of PHP.

Making the wrong choice can be costly for you and your clients. At the very least, it means additional maintenance. At worst, it could mean cleaning up a hacked website and dealing with a data breach.

So, how do you know if you’re choosing the best options for your clients? We have some tips for picking themes and plugins that have the best chance of future success.

Choose WordPress Products With a Good Reputation

The WordPress.org plugin repository hosts tens of thousands of items. However, not all of them are fit for use in a production environment. Consider that some plugins haven’t been updated in years, while others have existed for only a short time. The same scenario applies to themes.

That’s why choosing reputable products is so important. Even if something goes wrong, it’s likely to be fixed. Additionally, the best theme and plugin authors are proactive in implementing security measures.

Finding a reputable product isn’t difficult; it involves a little bit of research. Here are a few clues that a theme or plugin is trustworthy:

• An updated changelog: A regular pattern of updates indicates that the product is actively developed. New features are great. However, also look for bug fixes and security patches.
• Resolved support tickets: The WordPress.org forums are a great place to see how well a product is supported. Some commercial products may have their own support forums. Regardless, look for resolved tickets and frequent responses from their support team.
• A steady active install count: The theme and plugin repositories include active install counts. A high number doesn’t always correlate to quality, but it’s an indicator of a trusted product. Even a relatively low number is acceptable, provided the items above are addressed.

None of us can guarantee the long-term outlook for a theme or plugin. But choosing one with a good reputation should increase your confidence. It’s something your clients will also appreciate.

Consider the Pros & Cons of an Ecosystem

Some WordPress themes and plugins come with their own ecosystems. WooCommerce is a prime example, as the e-commerce platform offers extensions you can use to add functionality. Other examples include Gravity Forms, Kadence, and GeneratePress.

Buying into such an ecosystem has advantages. Compatibility should be top-notch, for one. It’s better than a piecemeal approach, where you add unrelated software from all over the web. Each piece fits together to create something bigger.

Theoretically, this should mean easier maintenance, particularly if each item comes from the same author. Product upgrades arrive in lock-step and avoid major issues.

There are some potential downsides to this approach. An ecosystem must be sustainable, for one. Imagine investing in a family of theme products that goes out of existence. That means your clients are using software that is no longer actively developed. It’s only a matter of time until there are problems.

Plus, a singular part of an ecosystem could fall into a black hole. Many WooCommerce extensions are built by third-party developers, for example. That’s great for innovation. Yet, there’s also a risk that the product won’t keep up with changes to the parent plugin.

Once again, this is where reputation comes into play. Scrutinize an ecosystem and its related products as you would any other theme or plugin. Don’t assume every item is of equal quality or strength.

Think About the Bigger Picture

It’s easy to fall into short-term thinking when working on client projects. We’re trying to meet client expectations within a tight timeline and budget. That can lead to installing a theme or plugin simply because it’s the fastest solution.

We may not realize the long-term consequences of those decisions. Using what’s most convenient in the moment doesn’t guarantee quality or reliability. Make the wrong choice, and suddenly, your client will care about how you built their website.

Keep that in mind as you plan for a project. Consider the future needs of the website and how things will look in a few years. Do you see a WordPress theme or plugin that’s still humming along? Or might you be in a panic to replace a key component?

No decision is without risk. However, you can reduce it by doing your homework. Doing so will lead to easier maintenance and more peace of mind.

The post Why the Themes and Plugins You Choose Matter to Your Clients appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The web may be an omnipresent part of our lives. However, it’s also more fragile than we’re willing to admit.

How fragile? Try to get things done when the likes of Amazon, Cloudflare, Akamai, or Microsoft have an outage. These behemoths can take out large swaths of the internet, including time-wasters like social media.

Web hosts can also run into problems, albeit on a smaller scale. Servers are bombarded with bot traffic and are always a target for hackers. A website can go down at any time.

Taken together, perhaps we should feel fortunate to get any work done at all. Still, outages put web designers in an awkward position. We’re stuck between a failed service provider and our clients.

What should we do? Here are a few tips for handling the inevitable service outages that plague the interwebs.

Something Went Wrong, Now What?

Perhaps you noticed a client’s website wasn’t loading during your morning routine. A downtime monitoring service might have pinged you. Or, maybe your client sent you a panicked message about it. Regardless, you’ve found yourself in a stressful situation.

The first thing you need (beyond a pot of coffee) is an answer. Look for clues regarding what’s happening and who’s responsible.

Sometimes, the answer is obvious. For example, a Cloudflare outage is often accompanied by an error page. Other issues aren’t so easy to diagnose.

When that happens, check the provider’s status page. That will provide details on any ongoing problems and often includes an archive of past issues. The caveat is that there can be a lag between when you notice an issue and when a provider acknowledges it.

What if a provider doesn’t have a status page? Some web hosts still don’t keep a public log of outages or maintenance. In that case, the best course of action is to contact their support staff.

Communicating With Your Clients

Effective client communication is crucial to running a successful web design business. It takes on even more importance when there’s a problem.

We often serve as the link between our clients and third-party service providers. In many cases, clients aren’t fully aware of what these providers do for their website. Thus, it’s up to us to fill them in.

Start by sharing what you know about the situation. Try to avoid technical jargon unless your client is comfortable with the terminology.

You’ll also want to make clients aware of who’s responsible for fixing it. Clients may assume we have some say in the process, but provider outages are beyond our control. That needs to be clear.

It’s also unlikely that you’ll have all the details. So, attempt to answer their questions with the information you have. Offer to contact technical support if necessary, but note that you may not receive an immediate response.

Unless the provider offers an estimate, it’s impossible to predict when the service will be back online. As such, avoid making a guess. It will only lead to disappointment if things don’t get resolved in time.

The better approach is to provide status updates as you receive them. This demonstrates your commitment to helping your clients and keeps them informed.

Is It Time To Change Providers?

Repeated issues, or a prolonged one, will lead clients to ask if it’s time for a change. The answer isn’t always easy, as much depends on the situation.

First, there’s a danger in rushing to judgment. An impatient client may call for a change after a few minutes of downtime. It might lead to a hurried migration that puts you in the same boat when the new place inevitably has problems.

You might empathize with your client’s feelings. Downtime can cost sales and conversions, while also hurting their reputation. However, jumping from service to service may increase their risk.

On the other hand, there may be times when the best option is to change. For example, a web host that has frequent problems will cost everyone time, undue stress, and money. There are only so many chances for a provider to prove itself worthy.

Patience is still advisable when making a switch. Identifying the right option requires research. Review historical data to see past incidents a provider had and how they responded.

Clients should also be aware of any risks involved. Downtime isn’t limited to a single provider. Plus, there could be technical hurdles when migrating elsewhere.

Remain Steady During Technical Difficulties

Try as we might, downtime is a part of life. Think of it this way: If the world’s biggest companies can’t prevent every issue, what chance do the rest of us have?

Our clients may not see it that way. However, communicating what we know can help them better understand these situations. This provides comfort and confidence that someone is looking out for them.

Good or not, you’ll have many opportunities to practice these skills. The web will continue to experience technical difficulties. Remaining calm and steady will help you and your clients get through it.

The post How Should Web Designers Deal With Service Outages? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.