![\"a](\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-multiple-wordpress-sites-organize.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFor storing credentials, consider using a password management tool such as LastPass<\/a> or 1Password<\/a>. Tools like these will keep login information secure while also speeding up your workflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Now that my business is growing and I have more sites to maintain, time I spend on each of them is starting to add up. My method is to race through updates as fast as I can by using 1Password to open multiple dashboards at once (with just one mouseclick each).” – Melissa Zarda, Pixel Lunch LLC<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Instead of shuffling through papers or performing “Command + F” to try to find a password hidden in a document, these tools will allow you to sign in with just the click of a button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for organizing assets for your clients, you’ll want to set up a solid naming system for your folders early on. If all of your files follow roughly the same pattern for each client, you’ll be able to fly through folders to get what you need instead of trying to remember how you named something or where you saved it. This organization could be local on your hard drive, synced with DropBox<\/a>, or even in a Google Drive<\/a> that you share with clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You should also consider creating a list for each client that details the theme, plugins, and any extra functionality you’ve built for their site. Your team will appreciate the ability to see that information all in one place, and then in a few months when that client has questions, you can quickly get caught back up to speed. Plus, you can (and should) provide this document to the client to ensure a successful site handoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “My favorite tool for managing projects is Evernote. I create a client notebook for every project, which helps me keep important information like logins, domain information, code snippets, and past files all in one place. Each time I get a maintenance request, I add a new note to that client\u2019s notebook and create a \u201cto-do\u201d list of items to be completed.” Katie Price, Designer Guide Book<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n As you begin to manage more WordPress sites, you’ll begin to work with more clients. [twitter_link]And, like Spiderman teaches us: with many clients come many responsibilities.[\/twitter_link] You’ll have site updates to perform, new features to roll out, redesigns to complete, and onboarding meetings with new clients to attend. If you’re part of an agency, you personally might not be involved in all of these steps, but you’ll have deadlines to meet nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With an increase in sites and clients, it’ll be easier to lose track of the minor details and let things slip under the cracks. Invest in a good planner or calendar app and then use it every single day<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may also consider some workflow tools for your team, to help keep track of what everyone is doing. Some popular options include Trello<\/a>, Flow<\/a>, Basecamp<\/a>, Invision<\/a>, and Evernote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ve already determined that [twitter_link]time is important when managing multiple WordPress sites.[\/twitter_link] The more you can streamline your process, the better. So while every client will have their own unique requirements for a site, you might want to consider creating a “toolbox” of themes and plugins that you regularly use. For example, are there any plugins you install on every site you create, such as Jetpack<\/a> or Yoast SEO<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Good plugins are quite essential when you\u2019re building sites professionally. We try to always use high-end plugins that won\u2019t easily break a website when they have an update and are generally hassle-free. ” – Bart De Vuyst, Exelmans Graphics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Create a (well-organized) folder and store all of the zip files for these plugins in it. Then, the next time you create a site, you can click, drag, and install your go-to plugins super quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for themes, when you find certain templates that are easy to customize or companies that offer stellar support, add them to the toolbox also. Then when a client comes to you needing an eCommerce site, instead of digging through the thousands of themes out there, you can turn to your curated list to simplify the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The biggest challenge of managing multiple sites comes when you design and develop on lots of different WordPress themes. As my business has grown, I’ve found a few premium WP themes that are highly customizable, and it’s made it so much easier to manage them with on-going updates, changes, and client requests.” –\u00a0Jackie Johnson, Jackie Johnson Coaching<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Once you create your toolbox, don’t forget to update it periodically. If a new version of a plugin is released, make sure you update the zip file in your folder. If you run into problems with a theme, take it out of the toolbox so you don’t repeat the same issues. And as you discover new products that you love, be sure to add them so you can install them for a future site. The toolbox is meant to be a guide, not a limitation. Keep it fluid and allow the tools inside to change over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you currently deal with multiple hosting companies, that’s just one more difference that you have to keep track of for each site. Jon Cattivera, from Sleepless Media<\/a>, says one of the biggest challenges to managing multiple sites was having to access them all separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We love having everything in one place so we can access all of the WordPress sites we\u2019ve built quickly and easily, all in one place. It\u2019s saves a lot of time in that we don\u2019t have to make tweaks to different hosting provider setups in order to get WordPress working properly\u2014it\u2019s just easy.” – Jon Cattivera, Sleepless Media<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Why not simplify your life a little and move all of your sites to one host?<\/p>\n\n\n\n While necessary, updates can be a real hassle. For each site<\/strong>, you have to make a backup copy, install the update(s), and then perform a quality check to make sure everything updated correctly. In other words, if WordPress releases an update and you’re not prepared, you might find your entire workflow thrown off for days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First and foremost, discuss with your clients who is in charge of updates and then include the terms in your contract. Knowing ahead of time if you’ll have to update their site down the road (or not) will help you immensely when creating your maintenance strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, you should decide when you’ll perform updates. Will you update a client’s site any time there’s a major WordPress update? Once a month or once a quarter? Six months after you hand a site over to the client?<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I log in to all of my clients\u2019 sites once a week to spot-check things and make sure everything looks current. I’m paranoid by nature and know that there can be security vulnerabilities related to outdated plugins and themes, so I think it\u2019s important to keep sites maintained. The whole process only takes me about 30 minutes every week, and that’s for updating 50+ sites.”<\/em> – Melissa Zarda, Pixel Lunch LLC<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Whatever the case may be, once you establish a system, immediately mark those “update days” in your calendar. Then you can plan accordingly when scheduling meetings around the same time so you don’t get behind on your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re a one-designer-show, you don’t have many options other than to plug in your headphones and hammer through the updates. If you’re part of a team, however, you can take your strategy one level further. Maybe each developer on your team is responsible for five sites, or one person is in charge of updates while another performs the quality check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more workflow questions you can answer ahead of time, the smoother the update process will be later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s not fun to imagine worst-case-scenario situations, but to successfully manage multiple WordPress sites, you’ll want to be as prepared as possible when something goes wrong. Let’s say a site goes down; who do you call?<\/p>\n\n\n\n For every product that you use to build your client’s sites (themes, plugins, host, etc.) be sure you know how to contact their support teams. You may even want to create a spreadsheet with email addresses, phone numbers, or links to contact forms to help streamline the emergency process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like with updates, you should have a discussion with your client about the level of support you’ll provide. Should the client contact you first, or should the client contact their hosting company directly? If they’ll be contacting the support teams on their own, set them up for success and teach them how to navigate those companies’ sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The biggest challenge that I have with managing multiple WordPress sites is keeping up with site maintenance requests from clients. I have a steady stream of past clients who email asking for small tweaks or improvements to their site that I have to schedule into my existing workflow within a reasonable amount of time.” – Katie Price, Designer Guide Book<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n If the client will be contacting you for support, establish some ground rules and expectations. Explain the difference between a true emergency and just an average problem, and be clear about how quickly you’ll aim to resolve each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As long as you keep communication with your client open and have a clear support strategy in place, you’ll be able to manage multiple sites like a pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Depending on how much support you find yourself offering to clients, an alternative would be teaching your less-technical clients how to use WordPress. The more they know, the less they’ll come to you with questions, which frees up your time to develop more sites and work with more clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We use Advanced Custom Fields Pro <\/a>for every website because it lets us write small explanations next to custom fields. This helps our clients (and us) remember how to use the site more efficiently in the long-run. This results in less phone calls from clients that don\u2019t remember how to use their site, which is a plus for us.” – Bart De Vuyst, Exelmans Graphics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n There are several different ways you can go about teaching your clients WordPress. If you want to be sure they learn it (or at least attempt to learn it), you can schedule some education time into your final site handoff. If you’d rather offer WordPress lessons as an optional course, you could encourage it as something extra they can pay you for once you’re done with their site. Or if you’d rather passively teach your clients how to use WordPress, you can create ebooks or blog posts and leave the learning up to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When I launch a new website for a client, I record our training session using a screen recording software so they can reference it if they forget how to do something. This helps reduce customer service requests for little things!” – Jackie Johnson, Jackie Johnson Coaching<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
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Have a Really Great Planner<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"pink](\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-multiple-wordpress-sites-planner.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDetermine Some Go-To Products<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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![\"desktop](\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-multiple-wordpress-sites-tools.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nStick to One Host<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Be Prepared for Updates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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![\"two](\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-multiple-wordpress-sites-support.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHave a Support Strategy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Teach Your Clients how to Use WordPress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-multiple-wordpress-sites-teach.jpg\")
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Establish a Standard Pricing Guide<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"fanned](\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-multiple-wordpress-sites-price.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"two](\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-multiple-wordpress-sites-grow.jpg\")
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