Hi there,
I would like to sell a website to a client…
I would like it to be able to update its texts, its images BUT keep the structure, the general layout (font, colors, tree structure, navigation, etc.)
In short, lock the essentials to maintain the consistency of the site:
How to do that?
Thank you all!
Philippe / Paris-France
Last ones:
Once you sell your house, you can’t prevent the new owners from painting it purple, or even tearing it down and building a new house. We have a saying about this: “You can never go home again.”
We sold our house with a lovely rose garden near the street. Later, we drove past it and were horrified to see their truck parked on top of - crushing - the roses!
When you move, you must “move on” emotionally.
In your case, you could duplicate your Sparkle file before releasing it to your client. If they later call you to admit that they mixed up the site and need help restoring it, then you would be better able to assist. But that’s not likely to happen.
Dave
PS: We were in Paris in May on a bateau mouche and got this photo.
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Thanks for your response, Duncan!
I saw that Sparkle doesn’t have a way to do this yet… but do you think about it?
Until today we have sold many websites under our own IT design, but I would like to offer an alternative to our clients (with Sparkle of course:) as Sparkle did for us!
Maybe it’s time to drop Wordpress?
Thanks for your message 
Hope you had a nice stay in Paris!
Good day macmancape
of course this is a fact - we have to let go - but I assume, what Philippe wanted to achieve is like GIVING A BACK-END to the customer, where they can change fotos and texts, but still having the web in order.
I was thinking about the same when I delivered webs to two clients. As they are friends of mine, we will ever find a way to adjust the web at their future desires, I offered a fair hourly rate for these works. Anyway, a new client, who seems capable, maybe the best would be THE CLIENT TO BUY A SPRKLE LICENSE
greetings
Manuel
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I could suggest businesses really don’t have time in most cases to sit and look after a website. To get around that we offer the service to maintain and update their website for a monthly fee.
The one or two clients that really want to do it all themselves I suggest they purchase Sparkle and I train them to use it, but I always keep a copy of the original file because I know the’ll be bugging me for help down the track!
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Thank you so much, Manuel to translate so well my thinking!
BTW : nice architectural work!
(And sorry for my approximative english IT vocabulary 
You are right, the clients can of course buy a Sparkle license.
I thought about offering a fair hourly rate to update their website but, this way, they will have to continue to depend on me with each new update, which for some may be very often!
My goal is to free them because my plus-value is not to make topical updates but to help them on their global communication.
I guess we can talk to Sir @duncan about this topic!
Thanks a lot, Hendrik, to take time to answer my question!
You’re right : sometimes, clients don’t have time to manage their website but they have to because of a lot of news. And they don’t want to externalise it (confidentials, cost, dependance, etc) what ever the cost.
Anyway, I need to check your offer on your website! :))
To be fair, websites are the main hubs of any company in the web, as you as a professional should know how to qualify and prepare for the maintenance of it.
If the website is going to have a lot of updates or news, find a service that your client can manage and integrate it with the website - there are a lot of options around for a variety of situations, being ecommerces, blogs, videos, etc.
The thing is, you must prepare the website for escalability. If your client is doing a lot of blog posts for example, then its better to embbed a blog posting service within the Sparkle website, and the client manages (and pay for the service directly) on their own. I wouldn’t even recommend Sparkle for this (a client updating blog posts) since there are simpler services that only do this and its made for this, via browser.
You (or the client) should only touch the website for major updates. That’s why prototyping and designing the information architecture of the website beforehand is important so you can prepare these extra services for the client.
Also: thats why Wordpress is so popular and used everywhere, since it serves as a CMS platform for the client as well. It is an okay-ish kind of service, but only because digital acessibility have been in a high for some years now (and in some way, it helps to marginalize the effort and study of web design just because “it’s one click away”). Since Sparkle doens’t have everything, you have to compensate here and there.
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Hi Matheus!
Thanks a lot for your message. Super pro
What do you mean by “simpler services that only do this and its made for this, via browser.”?
Any exemple?
Best
Philippe -Paris 12°C Cloudy
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Well it really depends on what service you want your client to be able to handle on their own. I’ll use Ecwid as an example for ecommerce: with Ecwid, you can embed a store within the Sparkle website. You set up where the embbed widget will go and voi-lá!
The client doesn’t need to mess with the Sparkle file, he access his Ecwid dashboard and manages the store himself, and the website can still be handled as you wishes with all the pages and whatnot, since the store is just another widget. There are a multitude of services that work in a similar way as Ecwid, you just have to figure the one out for what your client want, like blogs, videos, bookings, etc.
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Thanks a lot, Matheus!
Got it and really appreciate.
Thanks for your help.
Et voilà :))
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