Last week I wrote about 7 plugins that could be used to create a customer or technical support site with WordPress.
Here are 9 plugins that can be added to a client’s site to facilitate your support of it. They will turn off upgrade notifications, add documentation, and provide a way for the client to easily contact you.
- Disable WordPress Version Update – This plugin will remove the new WordPress version update notification. Of course, WordPress should always be updated to the most current version for security reasons but you may want to update your client’s sites on your schedule rather than having them press the update button before doing backups and making sure plugins are compatible.
- Disable WordPress Plugin Updates – Like the WordPress version plugin, this plugin will remove the plugin update notifications. Again, this will allow you to update them for your client on your schedule rather than having them update without making sure the new version doesn’t have any issues.
- Disable WordPress Theme Updates – This plugin will remove update notifications for WordPress themes. Again, you many want this on your client sites for the same reason as the WordPress and plugin ones.
- Disable WordPress Updates This plugin is a three-in-one. It does what the three previous plugins do; disables WordPress updates, disables plugin updates, and disables theme updates. You may not need all three, which is why I included the single versions, but if you do, this is the plugin to use.
- Technical Support – This plugin sets up a widget on the WordPress dashboard that allows the client to send support tickets directly to you. I recommend using this one with caution ;-)
- WP Guides – This plugin allows you to add documentation, in a variety of formats, to WordPress and a menu is created in the admin area. If the project is well documented and the documentation is readily available, it may reduce the amount of support requests that you get.
- WP Video Tutor – Adds video tutorials to the WordPress admin to provide video documentation for you clients.
- System Information – This plugin adds a system information page that provides details about the WordPress configuration. This could be useful in troubleshooting problems that crop up.
- WP-DB-Backup – I highly recommend this plugin for everyone who uses WordPress. It makes it super easy to backup your WordPress database. You can also set it to backup and email you on a scheduled basis. I have mine emailed to me daily.
photo credit: xcode
I do use the backup plugin. It’s great!
.-= vered – blogger for hire´s last blog ..The Wow Factor: Is It Ruining Our Culture? =-.
Hi Vered – That’s a great plugin – I use it on all the sites I work on.
“Technical Support – This plugin sets up a widget on the WordPress dashboard that allows the client to send support tickets directly to you. I recommend using this one with caution ;-)”
Bwahaha!
This list is unique, Kim. I’ve only heard of a couple of these, for which my response was “Why would anyone want that?”
Gonna Amplify this one.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How To Publish The **** Out Of Your Blog Post =-.
Hi Dave – Glad you appreciated that one ;-) I could get you into a lot of trouble.
There are a number of plugins that, by the description, I’m unsure what they really do.
I just sent this to my designer. :-)
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Will DEDC Comments Remain Do-Follow? It’s Up To YOU! =-.
Make sure the tech support one is installed so you can easily email him at 3 am ;-)
Great ideas, Kim! Don’t know if you have done that for my site yet but when you put the new resume samples up, you can just do that too because updating things I don’t understand isn’t fun for me. I don’t want to break things… I love my new site and I can do so much myself but I am so glad you are there as my back up!
.-= Julie Walraven | Resume Services´s last blog ..I love my clients #2 =-.
Hi Julie – Thanks! I think you already have the ones that you need but I’ll double-check.
Great list – I will start adding the support ticket one to my client websites I think.
What I need for many clients is a plugin that hides the ENTIRE admin interface from them except for the write-a-post page and presents a massively simplified version of that with only title and a text box for post content – maybe the media uploader too. Most of the people I do stuff for can NOT handle techy stuff at all!!!
Another plugin which compliments wp-db-backup is WP Backup – I don’t think it’s at wordpress.org but a google search should find it. It’ll zip and mail theme and plugin and upload directories to you. I don’t leave it running on client sites except the upload directory bit, but when I’ve upgraded stuff I fire it off once to make sure I have a full up to date copy of everything. With that and the SQL from the database backup you can redo the entire site in about 10 minutes at a pinch!
.-= Ricky Buchanan´s last blog ..Weekend Wrap-Up: Errors, iPhone OS 4, and iPads =-.
Hi Ricky – I don’t know if this plugin has everything that you would want but you might find Hide Admin Panels helpful
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/hide-admin-panels/
Sometimes when I person can’t even handle the Edit Post screen I question whether he should even have a website ;-)
I’ve used WP Backup before – I ran into trouble with it when my uploads folder started getting too big but for many users it should work fine.
Thanks — couple of good ones there I’d never have thought of. Of course nothing helps much when the numbnutz forget how to log in. *snerk*
I love WP for setting up hopefully self-maintaining sites. There’s just this one client that makes me dread the phone. lol
Hi Matera – Yeah, if they can’t remember the login there isn’t much that the plugins can do to help ;-)
I don’t mind if people are confused about tech stuff though – there are a lot of things I don’t know anything about. But, it is imperative that they learn how to keep track of their logins.
Hi Kim
I’ve never actually set up a WordPress site for a client.
When I started with WordPress I thought that it would make a great CMS that a client could use and update but I’m not sure that many would master the Dashboard.
The idea of supporting a client’s website may be the way to go.
I really must install “WP-DB-Backup” everyone recommends it.
Time to bite the bullet.
Thanks for the prod.
.-= Keith Davis´s last blog ..Flying in formation =-.
Hi Keith – It really depends on the person. If they can’t manage writing a post in WordPress, then they probably won’t be able to use it. Sometimes some training helps – I’ve worked with a number of people who were fine once they had some guidance – it helped them get over their fear of technology. They still leave the maintenance to me but otherwise are fine using it,
Backing up the database is, in my opinion, one of the most important things to do.
I use “WP-DB-Backup” on all my client’s sites, and set it up to send the email updates weekly (daily during the building phase) to a gmail account set up specifically for this purpose. Great to have those backups stored off-site (both the client’s office & mine). Every 3 months or so, I log in and delete all but the last few backups. Saves me having to do something with the backups coming in the mail every week.
Hi Bet – That sounds like a good system.
Hi, good post. I was actually looking for a plugin where I can store client information like monthly reports, invoices etc like an interface where they can log in and conveniently see everything in one spot rather than having to scroll through their emails. Is something like this available? Cheers, Kat
Hi Kat – I’m not aware of any plugins, which doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There are themes, however, and you might want to take a look at The Client Machine.
http://freelancefolder.com/get-the-client-machine/
Thanks Kim, much appreciated, I’ll have a look at that.