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The client already has a WordPress site, I need some help adding a few features to said WordPress site. It’s beyond my skillset.
Should I give the freelancer that I’m hiring remote access to my PC and watch his every move? (I know I’ll probably get flamed to hell for asking that)
Or just screen share and take orders from the freelancer on how to do it, step by step.
Is there a way to safely outsource this work?
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Any developer worth their salt will make a copy of the site and do the work there. Once you approve of the changes on the test version of the site, they will copy the changes to the live site.
Or *at the very least* work directly on the live site but take steps not to affect anything publicly accessible until you approve.
If you don’t already have a trusting working relationship with this developer, don’t give them direct access to your site or your computer.
Take a backup of your site. Go to trusted freelance platform, define your scope with the freelancer, agree on the total amount of hours and let him work. In most cases you’ll have to provide admin access to the WP backend.
1- Create test environment
2- Share a backup (latest) with the dev
Once he is done adding new features, he can send you files or if you trust him enough he can upload for you.
If you don’t trust them, don’t get them to work for you.
If it was outsourced to me I would:- Run through your brief fully
– Give you a run down of the work required, how long it will take and the cost
– Outline any extra costs, if necessary
– Agree a start date
– Sign contracts, accept deposit
– Tell you to ensure you have a full back-up
– Make a full back-up, upload it to the cloud and give you access
– Start work
If you haven’t used the freelancer or agency in the past it can be challenging to trust that untested relationship.
Staging access is a great way to avoid getting burned, until you have an established relationship.
Never give anyone access directly to your workstation though – a screen share can work in some instances but depending on your functionality requirements, following instructions isn’t always doable or swift enough from an error resolution standpoint in production sites.
My team often operates with staging and SFTP access for feature requests, but most of the time we also do the work of pushing to production, and won’t do that without full admin and SFTP access. Although also at least half of the portfolio utilize one of our hosting plan offerings and migrate the majority of new clients to our infrastructure which helps up guarantee uptime.