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Selling Static Sites
Table of Contents
Charge for the build and pass-off; hosting is a clear line item, not a mystery bundle.
Key Concept
- My margin is labor, not hosting markup.
- Level 1: I make money from building the site, not from marking up cheap hosting and reselling it.
- Level 2: I make money from the work I do building the site, not from marking up cheap hosting and reselling it.
- Level 3: Margin lives in labor - design, content, setup - not hosting markup.
- Level 4: Because static hosting is commodity cheap, the sale is craftsmanship and transfer, not inflated infra bills.
- Level 5: My margin is labor, not hosting markup - static sites stay profitable when delivery and care are the product, not reseller spread.
- What I quote: discovery and Static Site Client Scope yes/no before I touch a theme repo.
- Cloudflare setup with
HUGO_VERSIONandNODE_VERSIONpinned. - Theme and layout, content migration, and contact form pass-off priced separately from retainer updates.
- Domain (~$12/year) and hosting priced as their own lines - no bundled fog that hides labor behind server rent.
- I already run jorap.com on Hugo, GitHub, and Cloudflare Pages for about the cost of a domain.
- Not the $12/month PHP plan I used to share with a client.
- Client work uses the same lane: markdown content, a theme, git push, live in about ninety seconds.
- I quote work that moves the needle; I do not resell “hosting” as a monthly mystery fee.
- Pass-off models (pick one with Plain Commitments at Work clarity): see Client Site Pass-Off - Git lesson, retainer, showroom branch, or Git-Based CMS.
- Bad pass-off: promise WordPress-style daily edits to five non-technical staff without training.
Examples
- Neighbor asked for a portfolio - quoted build, domain, and a modest hosting line; no mystery monthly package.
- Pastor wanted a sermon archive - static fit; said no to member login and scoped brochure plus archive pages only.
Note Relationships
| Relationship | Wikilink | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| contradicts | Building a Personal API | when the client needs a live database or authenticated app, not a static brochure |
| extends | Client Site Pass-Off | One publish path named and priced before deposit |
| extends | Creative Output | Client sites are shipped output, not notes hoarded in the garden |
| extends | Free Tier Hosting Stack | GitHub plus Cloudflare Pages is the default pipeline until limits bite |
| extends | Git-Based CMS | Client pass-off lane - git-based CMS keeps them editing without you |
| extends | Lean Startup | Pilot site, measure what breaks, then package the offer |
| extends | Minimum Viable Product | One paid pilot before I over-build the service menu |
| extends | Plain Commitments at Work | Clear pass-off model - Git lesson, retainer, or scope no |
| extends | Ship It | Ship the first client site before polishing the sales brochure |
| extends | Static Site Client Scope | Say no early to jobs the stack cannot carry |
