I won a bid on Elance and was had a request to fix some css and html issues with a WordPress site.
How do I make changes to the document without working on the live site? Do you set up a development environment for every job you get? This would be time consuming on a job that pays very little. I was offered access to the wp-admin and the cpanel but any changes would affect the live site immediately.
What is the best practice for changing and updating sites for clients?
Any advice on how to develop on a site that you do not have the full install on is helpful.
4
Depends on the scope
If the changes are simple enough you could just test them live using chrome developer tools or firefox firebug plugin and then apply the changes in wp-admin when you are confident enough.
You could retrieve the static source, test and make changes offline and then apply in wp-admin.
Also wp-admin offers mechanisms for previewing most changes before making them live.
Depends on the customer
This increases the risk of issues occurring in production. You should have a conversation with the customer about this and gauge their acceptance of this risk.
When should I have a dedicated development environment?
Most of the time you want a development environment that closely matches the specifications and infrastructure found in the live environment. Whenever possible you should strive for this.
Virtualization technologies and cloud services have made setup and management of multiple environments so easy now. If you do many wordpress contracts you will want to explore ways of quick setup and teardown.