How do I set up a test environment in a sub-folder?

Congrats on your first client. I’m glad you are looking around to make sure that you start off on the right foot. Like anything that you start in life, your experience will increase over time and the more you practice.

However, we live in a digital age and popular open-source platforms such as WordPress have great tutorials and communities to answer just about every question.

These are some good, but also heavy questions, I want to keep them brief and too the point with you:

I’ve heard that the best way to set up a WordPress site for a client is to set up the site in its own sub-folder on my own hosting. Then, once everything is approved and good to go copy the client’s files and database files and transfer them to the client’s hosting server. I’ve never done anything like this before. How do I do this properly?

Workflows vary depending on how big or small your organization is. For individuals, your resources may be limited and they are simple; corporations would usually have a bigger team of poeple with assigned roles and protocols to follow.

Since you, the developer, have been contracted to rebuild a new website for your clients. It’s definitely an ideal way to build the new WordPress site on your own hosting (example.com/client/name) to have full control and hide your client’s new website from being.

Check out this helpful guide and also look at our related Q&A which people have already posted some step-by-step guides.

How do you guys normally charge for this type of job? By the hour? A certain amount per job?

This will vary per developer because there are a lot of variable to factor in and each scenario is unique. Start off by determining your worth based on your level of experience in web development, the average pricing around your area, and your overall work ethic.

Start at a comfortable price, then work your way up as you become more experienced over time.

Any tips for making sure my first ever WordPress client project goes smoothly?

While everyone wants every web project to go smoothly, you’re guaranteed to run to some issues from time to time. It’s part of the learning experience. However, it’s more important to be able to fix those issues to improve your skills.

I can guarantee you will run into common issues, but when you learn how to rectify them, you’ll know how to prevent them in the future.