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Okay so you’re either in business already or you’re looking at becoming a freelance web designer. This experience that I’ve gained since I began back in 2010 has been one of the key areas that I’ve had to address to get my business running smoothly. Essentially I’ve had to harden up a little and demand that my work as a freelance web designer only begins when I first draft up a contract and get it signed off by the client. Ideally I need to find myself a good contract lawyer to go over all the contracts that I get my clients to sign off on but at least now, I can immediately implement a contract for the benefit of the client and me.

Watch the Video I’ve added here if you feel you’re not too sure about dishing out contracts to your clients. Believe me, it’s incredibly frustrating to finish a website for a client and then when it comes time for them to pay, they give excuses for why there’s a delay. There are rare occassions when something unforeseen happens and there are genuine delays, but most people will stretch out the payment time-frame as much as they can. That’s been my experience with many of my client up until I finally decided that the only way forward for my business success was to implement a business contract that clearly stipulated the terms of payment.

The other issue that may crop up is that a client may choose to radically change the scope of the project or the design changes completely. If the design changes early on in the creative process it’s much better. If on the other hand it all happen when I’m about to take the website live, then all of a sudden I’m up for much more time building all the new changes into the project. Here’s some tips that I’ve can offer to avoid the scope and size of the project remaining within the budget of the project agreed upon at the start. I’ve sometimes missed out on specifying things clearly and that means that I run the risk of having to do a heap more web design work than originally agreed upon.

Specifying clearly in the invoice what exactly the client is getting.

This is something that I never worried about at the beginning. I’ll give you an easy example of how to be more specific with your initial start up phase of the web design process. I always offer photography services as part of a website package and offer to go out and take photos. But without agreeing on how many photos, I can end up taking who knows how many! If the budget is tight and there’s not much dollars available for photography, then I must clearly specify the number of photos that I’m able to take and how many will be edited for their photo gallery or general design. Without this specifically agreed upon from the beginning, I can end up receiving endless emails from the client. They will expect me to spend hours editing their photos and I’ve now added non-billable hours to the project. This is no way for me or anyone to run a successful freelance business. The way I should set myself up is with clear invoicing that states the specifics. In this case, I could add in the details for the invoice: Photography Service – 15 photos to be taken and edited. That way I’m covered and the client knows what to expect. If you’d like to know what type of invoice software I use, check out my other article where I go into detail about which invoicing software I use and the reasons why.

Need some more guidance on putting together your freelancer Contract?

I came across this excellent resource from Andy Clarke’s web blog that specifically details the contract the he personally uses with his own clients. You can download the original contract from his own web blog, Andy Clarke’s contract, or you can take a look at it here.

Here’s the complete instructions on how to manually upgrade to the new version of WordPress 3.3.1. Here’s a general overview of the WordPress upgrade process:

Step One: Backup your WordPress database

If your working on a client website it’s a good idea to begin by backing up the database. The way I’ve gone ahead and done this without going to great efforts is to use the WP Security Scan WordPress plugin. It does two things that really help you out, especially if you want to keep your WordPress website from being hacked! This WP Defender plugin will allow to monitor your security levels while at the same time, you can go ahead and backup the database too. I’ve included all the details in the video for the steps to take to install the plugin and then go ahead and backup your database.
Download WP Security Scan

Step Two: Backup the WordPress files

The second recommended step is to go ahead and backup ALL your WordPress files in your WordPress directory. This includes your .htaccess file located in the root directory of your WordPress files. Most likely, your WordPress website is located in the /public_html/ file directory on your hosting. Watching the video, you’ll see that’s where the WordPress files are all located too. For me, this step requires you to highlight all the files on the hosting and then use your preferred FTP program, I use FireFTP found in the FireFox browser, and then bring the hosted files back over to a file folder on your hard drive. Do this step if it’s your clients website to avoid anything getting lost if things go astray. Also, you may want to use the WordPress Importer plugin to backup all the posts, pages and content. This will definitely cover off all the safety precautions for you. I usually save these backups into a file folder located in the clients main folder and place their backups together there for easy locating down the track if their needed. If anything ever goes wrong, such as a website getting hacked, then you can restore the clients website. It does happen so be prepared to have these backups.

Step Three: Deactivate all the plugins

Very simple step here which is to deactivate ALL your Plugins. Do this step before going in and deleting anything off the server hosting. Remember that once you begin to delete the old WordPress files, you’ll have no way to go back in until you have re-uploaded the new WordPress files. The video shows how to go ahead and deactivate all the plugins and it’s easy to do. Login to the WordPress website and go to the installed plugins area to deactivate them.

Definitely take the time to carry out the first four steps if your working on a large WordPress website and you can’t have any data go missing. It may seem like a chore but just be patient, especially if this is your first attempt at updating WordPress over to 3.3.1 or any other future WordPress versions.

Step Four: Download the latest version of WordPress

Now you’re ready to download and extract the latest version of the WordPress installation. Go to http://wordpress.org/download/ and click on the Download button to grab the latest version. Just be mindful that it’s better to wait for WordPress versions that are 3.3.1 or 3.3.2 rather than the newest 3.3 for example. The .1 or .2 versions are the ones which have any slight bugs fixed up. Also, any key plugins will have been updated by the plugin creator to be up to date with the latest version of WordPress.

Step Five: Manually delete all the old WordPress files

Next you’ll prepare to delete the WordPress files but if this is your first ever manual upgrade take the time to look over your files on your server side, either via FTP using Firefox’s FireFTP or Filezilla etc, to make sure you’re familiar with what’s on the /public_html/ folder area. You won’t be deleting each and every file or folder. Some of the stuff you’ll need to leave up there on the hosting. The files which you’ll be leaving alone include the following:
Leave the following files on your hosting and Do Not Delete
wp-config.php file; Definitely leave this file on your hosting and take care while highlighting the other files and folders around it that you leave this file in place!
wp-content folder; Special Exception: the wp-content/cache and the wp-content/plugins/widgets folders should be deleted. Otherwise, leave this folder alone and watch my video to see how to deal with this folder and its file contents.
wp-images folder; if it’s there.
wp-includes/languages/ leave this folder alone –if you are using a language file do not delete that folder;
.htaccess files–if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it or any other .htaccess files located around your web server; Make certain you leave this file alone as it contains all your URL rewrites instructions and possible some other key settings too.
php.ini files– Leave any of these files alone as they contain scripts that have been put together by your webmaster or guys over at the server side of things.
robots.txt file–if your blog lives in the root of your site (ie. the blog is the site) and you have created such a file, do not delete it.
You may have some other files and folders too which need to be left on there. Unless you see me specifically taking down and deleting files in the video here, if you’re not sure what a file or folder is, leave it alone until you know exactly what it is before deleting it off the server. Double check everything.

Step Six: Upload your new WordPress version

Upload the new files from your computer’s hard drive to the appropriate WordPress folder area for your new WordPress website. Usually your WordPress website is located at /public_html/ area of your hosting. This step is completely covered in my video so watch that to get the complete idea of how to upload the new WordPress files across to your hosting.

Step Seven: Run the WordPress upgrade program

Run the WordPress upgrade program by navigating to your websites /wp-admin/ administration area and follow the instructions on the screen.
Once you have clicked through the upgrade program, just look to see if you need to update Permalinks or re-upload your .htaccess file to the root directory where your WordPress installation is. This is normally the /public_html/ folder. You should now be able to login to your admin area. First thing to do is double check your Permalink Structure is correct and then merge the custom rules, if necessary, into your .htaccess file.
Install updated Plugins and Themes. Please review the list of Plugins that work in Version 3.3.1. Check for Theme Compatibility with 3.3.1 and ask your Theme author for any new version.
Reactivate all your Plugins again.
Add security key definitions to the wp-config.php file if required, otherwise the existing wp-config.php file should be fine if you left it alone on your hosting.
That’s the overview of the upgrade process. Please continue reading the Detailed Upgrade Instructions.

Follow my video closely on how to upgrade your WordPress to the new version 3.3.1 and you should be okay. Just watch the video from start to finish and take your time if this is your first attempt.

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