When you’re just starting out as a Web developer or site maintenance freelancer, it may not be a bother to manage your client list.
Especially if it’s just one or two clients.
But when that list grows to five, then 10, then more, the management of all those accounts for all those clients gets harder and harder.
That’s where GoDaddy hopes its new GoDaddy Pro services can help. In fact, making the jobs of Web pros easier was the driving force behind these new GoDaddy Pro offerings.
(GoDaddy Pro was first launched last year in beta. The company says after thousands gave feedback, the service is now ready for its official launch.)
GoDaddy Pro is available free to any GoDaddy customer. It does require users to sign up for the services.
In an interview with Small Business Trends, ahead of today’s product launch, Jeff King, senior vice president and general manager of hosting at GoDaddy, explained:
“More than half of small businesses get someone to do the work for them. These professionals have an enormous influence. They have very specific needs and pain points.”
So what are the “pain points” that GoDaddy is addressing with this new offering?
The first, and probably foremost, is security. Take Web service providers with multiple clients and thus a considerable amount of sensitive client in formation to store, King explains.
This information might include things like login credentials for multiple online accounts and client credit card information.
While Web management professionals might currently keep this information in a private spreadsheet or some other type of file, the fact is such files are not always as secure as one might think.
GoDaddy Pro’s new services address this issue specifically with the creation of a one-time login “client card” containing all the necessary information. Thus potentially vulnerable outside files and spreadsheets for storing the information become unnecessary, King says.
Web managers can even manage purchases related to their clients’ sites through the GoDaddy Pro platform. And King said those Web pros who’ve been hired to manage another company’s site needn’t even be aware of their clients’ financial information to make those purchases.
GoDaddy Pro’s new services also include shared digital shopping carts that can be sent to clients easing the checkout process.
The new services also include site monitoring for performance and uptime. And if anything ever goes wrong with a site being managed by a Web Pro user, it will be the user not their client that is notified of the problem first. GoDaddy is also giving its GoDaddy Pro users access to ’round-the-clock technical support.
“The intent is to make these pros look more successful. The more heroes we can make out of these freelancers, the more we’ll be able to attract these professionals to our platform,” King explained.
WordPress Managed Hosting
In addition to the launch of GoDaddy Pro, the company also unveiled its first WordPress Managed Hosting service.
There are four subscription tiers available with GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress Hosting service.
At the top is the Developer Plan, which is available for $15 per month. This allows users to host up to five WordPress sites through GoDaddy and includes a host (pardon the pun) of add-on services that Web pros can offer their clients.
The less expensive Ultimate plan for Managed WordPress Hosting includes services like malware detection removal from Sitelock, as well as SSL to keep sites secure and safe from hackers, GoDaddy notes in a press release.
A basic Managed WordPress Hosting account through GoDaddy starts at $4 per month.
King says that both of GoDaddy’s new offerings are catering to those professionals who manage a client list of websites for other companies.
These tools, he says, allows them to look more professional and make the tedious parts of their job less so.
Images: GoDaddy
Aira Bongco
That’s a good market to target for there are not a lot of services that cater to their needs. I also think that they are a huge enough market to generate some good sales. Good for Godaddy.