Government Website Opportunity - Am I in Over my head!?!

[Jav100]

hey everyone... i have a acquaintance who is involved in my local town... he called me today and offered me to take on building and managing a website for our county. the website already exists so I am unsure yet if it actually requires a rebuild but that may be a possibility given the below.

I reviewed the website and it has many pages (about 90-100) but they are mostly static (simple pages with text information, maybe a few links), nothing dynamic or too technical, except for a calendar which I imagine is powered via a module of sorts. I am confident I could rebuild the website if needed easily...

I've been wanting to start my own side hustle for some time. right now I've been focused in affiliate marketing websites given I can work at my own pace, I've not made much doing that as I only have 5-15 hours a week free while I maintain my fulltime job and look after our 2.5 year child with my wife. my job is remote and fairly flexible so I can be offline more if needed. my lack of success imo is my lack of discipline in putting the hours in... I have all the skills necessary to excel but procrastinate too much.

my questions to all of you is what do you think of opportunity, am i getting in over my head in even thinking about entertaining the idea of managing, and possibly rebuilding it? I do not exactly have my days wide open, just a few hours each day. my experience level is decent with websites and online marketing, I have about 15 years experience, with high comfort in HTML/CSS, i'm not much of a coder though in PHP or JS but can figure things out or know where to look.

the current web design company i was told will not be happy about this so I expect I may need to rebuild it but I can always download all the text and images for the site before they let the existing designer know.

are there any special considerations for government websites? what would someone charge to maintain it or rebuild it? I imagine security is an important consideration - I live in a fairly large county and many people use its services... I own several websites already that I run and haven't had many issues keeping things up to date and changing passwords...

I feel these opportunities don't come often so don't want to pass it up, especially if I can get paid a nice retainer to just maintain site, or a high 5 figure or six figure to rebuild it. and it might help me transition out of my job to reduce my dependence on it.

thoughts?

 

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[AmppaDamppa]

hey everyone... i have a acquaintance who is involved in my local town... he called me today and offered me to take on building and managing a website for our county. the website already exists so I am unsure yet if it actually requires a rebuild but that may be a possibility given the below.

I reviewed the website and it has many pages (about 90-100) but they are mostly static (simple pages with text information, maybe a few links), nothing dynamic or too technical, except for a calendar which I imagine is powered via a module of sorts. I am confident I could rebuild the website if needed easily...

I've been wanting to start my own side hustle for some time. right now I've been focused in affiliate marketing websites given I can work at my own pace, I've not made much doing that as I only have 5-15 hours a week free while I maintain my fulltime job and look after our 2.5 year child with my wife. my job is remote and fairly flexible so I can be offline more if needed. my lack of success imo is my lack of discipline in putting the hours in... I have all the skills necessary to excel but procrastinate too much.

my questions to all of you is what do you think of opportunity, am i getting in over my head in even thinking about entertaining the idea of managing, and possibly rebuilding it? I do not exactly have my days wide open, just a few hours each day. my experience level is decent with websites and online marketing, I have about 15 years experience, with high comfort in HTML/CSS, i'm not much of a coder though in PHP or JS but can figure things out or know where to look.

the current web design company i was told will not be happy about this so I expect I may need to rebuild it but I can always download all the text and images for the site before they let the existing designer know.

are there any special considerations for government websites? what would someone charge to maintain it or rebuild it? I imagine security is an important consideration - I live in a fairly large county and many people use its services... I own several websites already that I run and haven't had many issues keeping things up to date and changing passwords...

I feel these opportunities don't come often so don't want to pass it up, especially if I can get paid a nice retainer to just maintain site, or a high 5 figure or six figure to rebuild it. and it might help me transition out of my job to reduce my dependence on it.

thoughts?

With your experience, website size, and opportunity value considered, I'd say definitely do it! 90-100 pages doesen't sound like an unachievable task, especially if most of them are simple static pages.

If this is a government site, would everything from the front-end site modification to the site security land on you and you alone? That seems weird.

I don't have any experience with government websites, but don't be intimidated by the name and image. Websites are websites, some harder to manage and some easier. Take it!

 

[Jav100]

thanks for the encouragement... it seems like a rebuild may be necessary as the existing designer is not being friendly to the current managers...

as for security that is a concern, I imagine I will be responsibe for the website end-to-end, managing the domain, the site (updates, content)... my concern is a hacker trying to take down the site... with my own websites it has only happened when i failed to update the modules in time, but there are no database or interactive pages so I think the chance is low...

I have yet to ask about budget and that things so hope to have more details soon...

 

[Jav100]

thanks for the encouragement... it seems like a rebuild may be necessary as the existing designer is not being friendly to the current managers...

as for security that is a concern, I imagine I will be responsibe for the website end-to-end, managing the domain, the site (updates, content)... my concern is a hacker trying to take down the site... with my own websites it has only happened when i failed to update the modules in time, but there are no database or interactive pages so I think the chance is low...

I have yet to ask about budget and that things so hope to have more details soon...

@Fox I know you teach a class on web design, so curious for your insights on government websites, if you have supported them before? I would appreciate it - thanks

 

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[MexicanCreator48]

hey everyone... i have a acquaintance who is involved in my local town... he called me today and offered me to take on building and managing a website for our county. the website already exists so I am unsure yet if it actually requires a rebuild but that may be a possibility given the below.

I reviewed the website and it has many pages (about 90-100) but they are mostly static (simple pages with text information, maybe a few links), nothing dynamic or too technical, except for a calendar which I imagine is powered via a module of sorts. I am confident I could rebuild the website if needed easily...

I've been wanting to start my own side hustle for some time. right now I've been focused in affiliate marketing websites given I can work at my own pace, I've not made much doing that as I only have 5-15 hours a week free while I maintain my fulltime job and look after our 2.5 year child with my wife. my job is remote and fairly flexible so I can be offline more if needed. my lack of success imo is my lack of discipline in putting the hours in... I have all the skills necessary to excel but procrastinate too much.

my questions to all of you is what do you think of opportunity, am i getting in over my head in even thinking about entertaining the idea of managing, and possibly rebuilding it? I do not exactly have my days wide open, just a few hours each day. my experience level is decent with websites and online marketing, I have about 15 years experience, with high comfort in HTML/CSS, i'm not much of a coder though in PHP or JS but can figure things out or know where to look.

the current web design company i was told will not be happy about this so I expect I may need to rebuild it but I can always download all the text and images for the site before they let the existing designer know.

are there any special considerations for government websites? what would someone charge to maintain it or rebuild it? I imagine security is an important consideration - I live in a fairly large county and many people use its services... I own several websites already that I run and haven't had many issues keeping things up to date and changing passwords...

I feel these opportunities don't come often so don't want to pass it up, especially if I can get paid a nice retainer to just maintain site, or a high 5 figure or six figure to rebuild it. and it might help me transition out of my job to reduce my dependence on it.

thoughts?

You can do it! It is a big change for you to learn new skills and getting paid for it, you can acquire a lot of experience while building this website.