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Home brewed CMS

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Foamcow

Foamcow

Programmer
Nov 14, 2002
6,092
GB
I've got my home brewed CMS to a level where I can start using it to do quick, small jobs for clients. It's good enough for basic stuff, and can be modified fairly simply if any special features are required.

Now, this presents me with a problem in as much as how do I charge for sites made with it? I've got a few ideas but I would be interested in hearing how other people charge for sites they build using their own CMS?

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Buy Languedoc wines in the UK
 
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With this tool, if you built a standard site, how long would it still take you to set up verses setting up a site from scratch as I'm guessing you do today? Depending on the change in set up time, you could adjust how much the tool will cost. At least, that's how I'd do it.

- George
 
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Well it's a barebones system that I can modify depending on what the client wants.
For instance, if the client want's news pages then I have a "Page type" for them, if they want Image galleries then there is a "Page type" for those.

So there will still be some work involved in creating the site. The main benefit of using this system is that it empowers the client to be able to update content and rearrange the site's structure themselves.

What I think I am asking then, is how much value does this kind of functionality have for a client based on your (as pro web designers) experience and opinions?

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Buy Languedoc wines in the UK
 
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As the client sees it, the cost of the site to the client is the price that he's prepared to pay, and you're prepared to do it for. It has little to do with your production methods, or your costs. Charge for the site what you've always charged for the site. It's irrelevant to the client what tools you decide to use to make his site, so it shouldn't affect the value that the client sees.

For instance, if you decided to go out and buy a super new version of DW (or any other tool) then your hours of work will decrease, but you will need to amortise the cost of the tool. You are trading your time for increased capital cost. The same applies with your own tool, you will still need to amortise the cost of a period of time.

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I work with a "home brewed" CMS myself Foam Cow, when it comes to developing client sites I generally develop for small business, and their requirements are always pretty standard, Home Page, About Us, Portfolio, News, Contact Us and a few other small items.

With the CMS I’m running (which is pretty new to me, only finished it last week) its built in ColdFusion ... I find that I’ll be able to create a site very quickly, and just modify my CSS and "header" and "footer" include files to give it a unique look and feel.

As far as costing to clients is concerned, I just charge them at the same rate I would do if developing the site from scratch, at the end of the day I’ve put allot of back work into developing the CMS which I haven’t been paid for.

My clients are quite happy paying the fee's they are at the moment, just because I put allot of work into building a system that stream lines my process's they shouldn’t necercarily receive a discount. If anything then I charge them a little more for a dynamic site as I won’t be making money every time they want a content update.

But on the other hand it does allow me to lower my price to compete with a competitor when bidding on the same tender and I don’t eat into my profit margin.

Rob
 
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Yeah most of my customer love the concept of being able to edit thier own content. Whilst there is a limit to what they can do, my customers can create new pages, edit and delete old ones. Because of the way i've structured it they can create as many levels as they like and actualy make a pretty thick site without any real developer knowledge, although it makes like easier if they know some basic HTML.

With regards to the actual design of the site then i dont expect my customers to be able to change that themselves, although it's not to tricky to allow them to change the logo image and little things like that.

Rob
 
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No Problems Cow,

I'm currently finishing off my CMS, but you can have a quick browse around the first project i've been working on with it, keep in mind its still under development, but will give you an idea of how it works.

The basic premis is that most of the pages are driven by 1 template showpage.cfm ... and it draws on an ID from the table to find its content, each page then had a "master id" if the master ID is 0 then its classed as a main page, but otherwise it lists that page under its master.

So if you goto the News Page, it has a master of 0 but its id is 2 ... all the news articles have a master id of two so get listed there.

From an Admin point of view, my customer wants to add a new page then they simply select what will be its "master" from a drop down list ... its very simple but seem to work nicly for small sites like this.

I'd like to share a few ideas with you, and see how yours works.

Rob
 
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Foamcow-

You could also relate this to a mechanic and his tools. When a mechanic buys an air-rachet, his work can go much faster. But he is not going to charge less for the same job. It is a matter of him using the tools that he has in order to do his job the best and fastest, and charging the customer for the completed product they requested. The same applies for a designer/programmer and his tools used to design/create a website.

Although....I would hope that a website customer doesnt feel like he is being shafted every time he writes a check [lol]

Robert Carpenter
Remember....eternity is much longer than this ~80 years we will spend roaming this earth.
ô¿ô
 
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Yep, i'd agree with you there theEclipse,

I've never been a fan of charging on a per hour basis for any of my work.

I always work on a per project set cost basis, sit down with the customer and arive at a figure that seems reasonable and everybody wins.

It also has a few safety benfits, if the project takes longer than estimated it'll wont cost your customer an arm and a leg (if like that sort of thing then become a cowboy plumber lol) and if you work super hard and finish the project early then all the better for you.

Thanks,

Rob
 
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FoamCow -
I'm a big fan of your posts - they have always been excellent. Hope I can give some back... My background has been in running companies and with that comes a great deal of market research. You need to look at the value to customer, as has been mentioned in Robert's, Rob's, John's, etc responses. Part of the value is the comparison with other offerings - how much would the client pay for others to do the work, and what does your efforts bring to the table. The key is comparative value - ease of use, flexibility, long term cost of ownership (sounds like yours provides all of this, and possibly more)immediate service, ...

Keep the pricing simple, build the relationship and focus on the service. Under promise and over deliver and life will be good.

Cheers, and I'd be interested in seeing more...
G2III
 
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Well the CMS is still work in progress, but it was far enough along for me to build these 2 sites.
Neither are particularly groundbreaking... please don't mention the colours on the boat site... not my choice.

Anyway, here goes



Similar templates but one was done for free (I'm involved in the project) and the other was done very cheaply.

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Ham and Jam - British & Commonwealth forces mod for Half Life 2
 
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Yeah thats good stuff Cow ... looks very similar to the one that i've been working on and it works nicly.

The colours on the boat site did make me chuckle, I had a customer a while back that insisted on using his 'Company Colours' which happended to be 'Blue' 'Pink' 'Peach' and 'Grey' lol ... it was truely hidious, i didnt even put my notice on the bottom of the site, i was so embaraced, but the customer was happy at least.

Well done on the CMS stuff.

Rob
 
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