Aren't I shooting myself in the foot to allow my clients to manage their own site?

One worry that some web developers are concerned about is the "bread and butter" issue -- if your clients can make their own changes to their site, they won't need you to make them. I could just say that someone else is eventually going to offer to database-enable their site, probably within the next two years. Then most likely you will have lost them entirely because the next company to offer cutting-edge website management probably isn't going to be thinking about you, they're going to have a more closed system and want to use their own designers so they will approach your customers directly. The Datasite is set up to be an open system, to support both you and your client - we are committed to helping you and all other small-scale local businesses to stay in business and prosper.

In fact, though, the fear that helping your clients manage their own site will cut down on business is the opposite of our experience. What most web developers find is that many of their clients have a "set it and forget it" attitude about their site, and don't make changes often enough. You know the mentality - "hey, I have a web site, what more do I need?" Fewer changes means less return visitors, and a less effective Web presence.

If your clients are more involved in their site, it becomes more a part of their business and their awareness. Our experience is that the Datasite actually increases our clients' need for our services -- for "real" design and development, rather than content management. We become more a part of their business. And, of course, the best advertising is word of mouth and the best referral source is your satisfied clients. If someone is excited about their website, they are going to talk about it--and you.

A large percentage of your customers are still going to want you to manage their content – which you can do more quickly and easily in the Datasite.

But if the Datasite is so quick to develop on, that means I won't have to put in as many hours per site, which reduces my income per site.

I could say that's sort of like a builder refusing to use power tools because then they can put up a house too fast. Here we have very clear experience - most businesses needing a website are within a fixed budget, or are thinking about spending a certain amount. You probably already know this. Now, if you have the same budget to work with, but don't have to spend all that time with content management, what are you going to spend your time on? Right, you're going to make a better website.

You're also going to be able to offer your services to people who are on a more limited budget - you'll be able to build the same site for less money and with less hassling with content.

Why should I move existing clients over to the Datasite when their site is already in place?

Again, someone else is going to come along and offer to database-enable their site within the next two years. Also, we can offer e-commerce enabled sites quickly, easily, and inexpensively. Most analysts agree that the dot.com crash has caused a temporary lull in Internet development; that by the year 2004 the Web will start to expand rapidly again and enter a new e-commerce phase, where just as most businesses must have a Web presence now, many businesses will need a Web e-commerce presence by then. Datasite clients are ready for that now.

What about security? How do we keep people from making changes to the published site, or the public from viewing the private "staging" site?

As far as viewing the staging site, it is easily accessible from any browser (yoursite.netcera.com) but even if someone knows that you are hosted with Netcera and knows our working site system, viewers would need to know the subdomain to get to it. If you don't want it to be viewable because you are afraid that a competitor will find it or whatever, individual pages or the entire site can easily be set as password-protected. In fact, you can have unlimited "groups" - members can only view pages assigned to their group or groups (a user can be a member of any or all groups), so you have a great deal of control over what pages can be viewed by whom.

In terms of internal security, publishing to the main site or "published site" and other administrative functions (email and domains/subdomains management, site statistics) can be easily password protected.