103 – A Website Developer’s Nightmare: Passwords

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A Website Developer’s Nightmare: Passwords

(Jeff @readtree)
I have a question about building WordPress sites for other people. I find it very difficult to manage all of the user names and passwords they need to provide me to set up a site. For example let’s say my client is very new to the online world and does not have any accounts (hostgator, twitter, WordPress, mailchimp, etc.). What is the best way to coordinate this with the client. Should I set up everything for them and then turn over the user names and passwords when the job is complete? Should I have them set up the accounts and provide me the info? Or is there a service I am missing to accomplish this task?

If they are using Gmail / Google Apps

• Ask if you can have their password for setting up their accounts
• Sign up for twitter, Google+, Facebook, MailChimp, wordpress.com, analytics / any other account that doesn’t need credit card information
• Write down all of the passwords you create in one area
• When you get the confirmation emails, verify your clients email address and delete the email messages promptly (to not confuse the client)
• If you plan on billing your clients monthly, then you can create a new account for Hostgator / Bluehost with your credit card and charge them monthly

If they are not using email with a web interface

• You could:
• Sign up for their accounts with their email address and let them know they will be getting notifications to confirm their new accounts
• Sign up for their accounts with a generic email address you own (WebsiteName@YourWebsiteEngineer.com) then once all of the profiles are set up and running, you can change the email address. This will probably generate another notification email message.
• Or you can create a short how to document to highlight the different methods of signing up
• If they create the accounts themselves, then you have to get all of the usernames / passwords before you can start working

Create a new Gmail account

• Choose Gmail because it easily connects with analytics
• Web interface that out of the box can forward to multiple email accounts
• Thanks Dustin, you do a great job keeping us informed. Can you let me know when this is addressed on the show (if you decide to cover it 🙂 )

How do you do it?

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