how much to charge?

[sharifsucks]

hi,
i'm starting to design some websites for people. i just want to know about you guys, how much do you charge, and what do you base your charge on? on the working hours, or on the amount of pages? what make you make people pay more or less? please i need some details, so i can figure out my price...

 

[SPYDERIX]

I charge $100/page (basic page, basic buttons and simple banners)
For updating (once) $25/hour
Website maintaning $20/hour
Graphic Design $30/hour
Flash movies $40/hour (depending on how easy or complicated the movie)

These are pretty competitive with a few local designers in my area.

Hope this helps.
Nate
"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!"

 

[Wullie]

Hi mate,

I am not going to post prices here as that would be very bad business sense.. A competitor could read it..

What it would all come down to is a combination of the following:

1) Whether you are trying to make a living from this (LOL. good luck!!) or whether you are doing this in your spare time.

2) How complicated is the site going to be? (How much skill is involved.)

3) Are you going to need any external factors to complete the site? (Things that you need to pay for)

4) Approx what are your competitors charging?


There are other factors to take into account as well but I would say that those are the basics..

Also, if you have no current clients then you may be better dropping your prices to start with until you have a few clients sites behind you. This SHOULD make it easier to get other clients in the future.. (Think of the long term as well as short..)

Hope this helps Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[cian]

And i'm sure there are other factors such as degree of complexity, is it just a series of templates? etc
Also depends who your customer is, if its a big company they probably need quite a professional looking site, and you can screw them a bit )
But if its a community football club or a local DJ then i'm sure you'd drop your prices.
As Wullie said you're not going to make a living from it so why not just charge enough to make a basic profit until you can build up to doing "money sites". Just a thought.

btw, i dont design sites (for obvious reasons) so this is just MHO. But I have a lot of experience creating other "products" for customers.



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[SPYDERIX]

I don't really care about posting my prices, I'm not trying to make a living from this. And no-one reading my post knows where I'm from, unless you read that post about where everyone was from in the Javascript forum, which has since been removed.
Nate
&quot;If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!&quot;

 

[Wullie]

DellComputerUser,

I was not having a go at you, I was simply saying that as a lot of people on these forums know where I come from..

BTW. I did read that post!!
Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[CliveC]

As Wullie said, this is a tough way to make a living. It is impossible to compete on price as there will always be someone who would do it for less. Making a sale is the key. For instance if you have a prospect in mind, check if their name is available as a dotcom, dotnet etc. and make a simple page for them on your website not linked to from index.htm. Visit them, show them the page and tell them that you can obtain their name for them and have them hosted within a couple of days for $x.xx, as it is important to grab the dotcom name as a first step. Now they are more likely to use you to develop their page. PS, Keep out of my area.

 

[SPYDERIX]

Wullie,

Did sound like that, but nevermind, it's ok. I wish that post was still around, it was nice to know where everyone is from (at least what Country, and time zone). I thought you were Australian until I read that post, b/c you start every post with &quot;Hi mate&quot;, but I was wrong.
Nate
&quot;If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!&quot;

 

[Wullie]

Hi mate, LOL

There is nothing wrong with being friendly.. That is the way we speak here..

BTW. If I was having a go, you would know!! Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[SPYDERIX]

LOL
Nate
&quot;If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!&quot;

 

[xutopia]

If you plan to make a living out of it charge per project according to work, investment and other factors you think are important to you.

To give you an idea I have a project right now and I charge roughly 170$USD a day for very long term projects and up to 800$USD a day for single day projects. This is in Paris France. If I was in other places in the world it could be more or less. Just to give you an idea a little studio here is rented at 500$USD a month.

The per page or hour way of dealing with sites doesn't show very much professionalism to the client. Doing a few changes in the way you charge can :

1. make you more organised,
2. get more money if you are a fast worker,
3. make the client give you what you need when you need it.
4. look more professional towards potential clients.

I only work with contracts (a project in other terms).

Mainly what a contract looks like is this :

What I offer to the client,
What the client needs to provide for me to do my work,
What are the steps towards realisation of the goal (finished product),
How much I get paid for each step of the way (clients if they are in a hurry are sometimes ready to pay more if you do something fast, and actually sometimes penalise you monetarly if you don't give the work in time),
How much I get paid for each day the client does not give me the content or stuff I need to do the work with (yes you can do that).

I don't do all the work myself and usually had to deal with a couple friends (one a designer in the photoshop sense, another with databases). I sometimes hire my friends and make a profit for being the middle man (my friend don't mind since they make money and I can find work for them). I usually write a contract for my friends too so that they get what they want. If they fail to deliver because I charge enough I can always hire someone else to get the work delivered on time.

If you want to look serious you need a few things. References, a portfolio and charge so you make a considerable profit. You also have to be good at what you do.

If you are just starting out don't be scared to use that as your advantage. I started by making web sites for people I knew and did it for 20$/hr and often charged for less hours then I did actually worked. Now however my mother doesn't feed me anymore and I need to make money to live so I charge for every expense I can.

Hope this helps you out. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[Wullie]

If they fail to deliver because I charge enough I can always hire someone else to get the work delivered on time.

What a great friend you are!!


Wullie

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

http://www.survivorhelp.co.uk

 

[SPYDERIX]

800$USD a day for single day projects.
WOW. That's a lot.
Nate
&quot;If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!&quot;

 

[xutopia]

My friends love me! Once in college one of my friends made 70$ for reading a book in front of a phone and a computer and typed a total of two lines of code. I had hired him to be an on site helper for a project.

This is what happened. I got asked if I could fix something. I said sure I could (I had not idea if I could). Told them that if I can fix it I would take one day, if I couldn't I would not continue on the project. So I hired people in Prince Edward Island online to do the work via internet and paid my friend 70$ to stay on the site and assist in any way he could. I paid the people in PEI 300$ for their work, my friend 70$ for assisting (well studying exams really), and I charged the company for whom we did the work 400$. I did two phone calls to get this set up. Do the math. It's nice isn't it to be able to connect people with the right people.

DellComputerUser, I am showing you the extremes but yes indeed I did charge that much a few times. Mind you I am not a rich person just because I can make 800$ in one day in rare occasions. Sometimes if you depend solely on contracts there are dead periods that you must survive in. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[balance]

xutopia,

Good for you! You are protecting the industry and ensuring professionalism stays with it. I don't know how many times I have gone to a clients site to see they are disappointed in their web product. What I am seeing is the WYSIWYG site designers building sites without even knowing the basics of web design. They are creative and their pages look good but there is no refrence to meta tags, the title tags don't match, etc. We are talking poor designers/professionals here. But do clients see that difference? No they look at price, and then design.

I am glad you have a sense of maintaining an industry all while staying totally professional.

Good job,

AJ

 

[xutopia]

thank you balance. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran