What is a fair price for web site development 11

[dlscott]

Several friends with small businesses have asked me to create websites for them. I have done websites for employers and have done well. I am one of those techie genearalists who have done a Lot of everything.

I know I can create some great sites but I want to charge a fair price. I don't want to cheat myself (something I am guilty of), but I don't want to charge some amount that would be a big expense for a small business.

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[onpnt]

search for web designers / web programmers etc.. and compare the prices in your area from your results.


I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.
admin@onpntwebdesigns.com

 

[mThomas]

*g* This is my first post in this forum. I usually post in the Paint Shop Pro forum.

I'm into my fourth year designing web sites. I started out charging by the page. My first fees for a one page web advertisement was $50. This included a logo and several graphics. Today I get $175 for a web ad. Here is an example

http://www.htvmarketing.com/AmeriWest/

Most of my work is done by the hour. I charge $90 a billing hour for my script (perl, javascript, ssi etc...) work. I charge $60 an hour for graphic work and $25 an hour for general coding like html. I also bill my clients for tech phone support. I keep a log for each client and bill them monthly.

Here is a link to a site I built using perl and ssi to dynamically generate almost every page.

http://www.around-the-world-ski-packages.com

I charged over $2000 for this site. Of course this includes data management scripts along with the web documents.

Here is an example of a two page "site" I built for $200 dollars.

http://www.iserv.net/~art/

I gave this client a break.

I've been lucky and have also paid some dues. I have spent 3 years doing some teaching assist (the ta part was pro bono) and instructor work at

http://www.smartplanet

and

http://www.elementk.com

I write some columns for newsletters like

http://www.psppower.com

. I'm also proud to say that

http://www.jasc.com

has included ten of my tutorials in the anniversary edition of Paint Shop Pro

hth...mike

http://www.udraw2.com

 

[cian]

Mike, good information. Nice work.

dlscott, I would guess (cos I dont actually design for amyone!) that it will depend pretty much on what your abilities are and on what you are able to provide for your customers. What type of graphic work will you provide and to what standard? Will you provide custom made scripts or can you use ready-to-go scripts? how about marketing or maintaining the sites etc etc etc

Starting off you would need to be competitive with your prices and as you gain more experience and learn more about what customers want, time involved for various stages of the process then you can get a better feel for what you should be charging for the tasks.
Why not get quotations from other companies and see what they would charge you for a project?

The fact that they are friends you should probably go easy and just charge enough to cover time etc IMHO.


É

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa

 

[SPYDERIX]

Hi,

Search around for competitive prices in your area and charge based on the amount of work, and how much time it will take you overall. I was charging by the page but have learned that this doesn't accomplish much b.c what if someone wants a simple page that only has a few lines on it? Will I charge $100 for that page. What about the page that has tons of content, lots of pictures, and lots of extras. Am I going to charge $100 for that page too.

Look at your overall time, look at what is needed, look to see if you have to outsource, look to see if you need stock photography from a site that charges. If it's a friend then charge less same goes with family. If your client doesn't know his hand from a hole in the ground about webpages, then chances are they will want you to update the page when needed. If you suspect this or they tell you that is the case then charge less too. You will get referrals from that and you will be making money on an on-going basis for the maintanence and updating.

Hope this helps! NATE

design@spyderix-designz.com

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[xutopia]

I charge 240EUR a day for my skills in long term one year contracts and up to 650EUR/day for 1-3 days contract.

I don't charge per hour. I don't find it look professional.

Do like me charge on a per project basis. What I usually do is charge for the graphic designer and hire someone else (making a profit in between). I do the html and the server and client programming plugging in the psd's I got from the graphic designer (that is what I do best).

When someone asks for a web site don't tell them you will charge them 70$ an hour but instead tell them you are ready to discuss the project and see how long it will take. Don't be scared to charge a lot and at least charge on a per day basis or per project basis. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Hi. For my clients I charge them per page, not including major graphics (like logo, background, etc) and major scripting (like navigation-menu, roll-overs, applets, etc)...per page can be whatever price you feel deemable. Lets say you charge them $50.00 per page. This is a good way because you don't want your clients to go overboard. If they pay per page, then the client will act responsibly and won't overbear with you ridiculous amount of pages.
As for the image and scripting that can be also be categorized. If the scripting can be done easily then charge them $20.00, if it takes a long time and has browser compatibility issues then charge them a little more. And the same goes for imags.
I realized that marketing is the key. If you can market your skills/talent in a sleek, effective way then you can make top dollar. Otherwise, well...lets just leave it there...
I don't think I have to mention that it helps if your talented and qualified. LOL... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[xutopia]

from what I hear around here I think people should charge more. way more. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[GUJUm0deL]

LOL, its not that easy. Its verry competitive out there in the web designing market, and thanks to sites like:

http://www.templatemonster.com/,

its even more competitive now...
You should charge what you think your client can afford...i'm willing to reduce my chared if my client can give me something else in return, like FREE ad space and etc... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[Wullie]

xutopia,

I totally agree that they should be charging more..

GUJUm0deL,

It IS that easy!! If you keep your prices low, then your competitors may also do that to compete with you. If you charge higher, then they don't need to offer cheap prices and are likely to increase theirs.

As long as there are designers willing to work for pennies, prices will stay low. Web design is a skillled job and prices should reflect that. People charging tiny amounts for the services are actually hurting the proffesion rather than doing good.

I would not get out of bed in the morning for some of the prices mentioned here.

Hope this helps Wullie

sales@freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

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

 

[GUJUm0deL]

wullie, I agree that some ppl. charge to low (not to say that I do or don't)...but you also have to take into consideration that if you charge slighlty higher then your competition then your competition takes the account...
I charge depending on what the client can pay. If its a company then I charge more...if not then resonable... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[onpnt]

I agree with GUJUm0deL here
I charge depending on what the client can pay. If its a company then I charge more
if I didn't do this then at least three of my clients would still be without web sites.

However the point that needs to be said in that instance is others may expect cheap prices from you also.

Once you've built references (completed sites) and the work is good and well maintained, I feel the price is not the most important issue if the client see's your work and likes it they will usually pay the asking price.

I haven't seen to many people going shopping for web designers that are more worried about the price vs a designer with some really bad examples
I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.
admin@onpntwebdesigns.com

 

[Wullie]

Hi guys,

but you also have to take into consideration that if you charge slighlty higher then your competition then your competition takes the account...

I disagree. As the age old saying goes, "You get what you pay for!"

If you charge more than competitors then you will still get business, you need to justify the price to the end user. Web design is a skilled profession, if people start charging low prices, then others follow.

Take a look at any other skilled business. When one company drops prices, the others follow suit. When one starts to charge more, then the others follow again and also raise theirs.

When designers start charging decent money for the work that they are doing, they will earn more than unskilled jobs. The price of $20 that you mentioned above is not far off of what I used to earn per hour working in an unskilled job. How can you possibly justify that?

If a user wants a website and sees that your standards are higher then the competition, then they are likely to come to you even though you charge more.

I agree that the price should partly depend on the client but it should still be higher than what some of you guys are charging.

And before someone says that it is up to each designer what they charge, I know that. The point I am trying to make is that the people who charge pennies are dragging the profession down and they may as well be working in a factory somewhere getting more money than they are now..

Hope this helps Wullie

sales@freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

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

 

[xutopia]

reasonably speaking when I started out I charged too low and often found myself doing 4 times the amount of hours I charged for. I even had a client tell me I wasn't charging him enougn and he trippled the amount I invoiced him and told me to send him a new invoice reflecting the changed.

CHARGING LESS :

- looks like you are not confident of getting the job done
- you will only get the projects that business people find not that important (often these projects are the least fun)
- you will make some competition lower their price (not the ones that get the really fun projects that pay)
- you will make it look as though you are a beginner that is willing to do anything at all (and often some people will take advantage of that)
- if you are stuck in a rut and don't know something you need to know to get the project done you have no choice but to learn it the hard way (books, online forums, google, last minute stress, clock ticking away)

CHARGING MORE :

- you will turn away potential clients
- you will get some people contact you for bigger better projects that might be out of your league (but hey you could also contact people to join you if you get a big project and get a team together that you would oversee)
- you will give off the impression that you are in that business knowing what the heck you are doing
- if you are stuck in a rut and don't have the technical knowledge to finish something you can always hire someone else to finish the job because after all you charged enough to give yourself a little insurance.

EITHER WAY :

if you are starting out do charge less. But if you are really looking to just learn and make a spare buck in the process don't try to compete with big businesses. There is a niche for begginers in the web arena. Imagine if you want that latest book on PHP4 from Wrox publishing. Ask your friend's father if he wants you to build a web site. Tell him that you are looking for something that could bring yourself more knowledge and a little bit of pocket money. Then spell it out for him. You want that book to start with and you want him to give you content for the web site (information regarding the company). You meet on week ends to see how things are going. Do read the Yale web style guide to figure out who the audience is etc... It will help you out.

if you are a veteran of the web charge more. Your act is straight and you can get some of those real deals. Seek your competition and attempt to match their offers or do partnerships with them. For example a design firm that does logos and stuff woulnd't mind stricking a deal with you if you want to subcontract any graphic design to them and they can probably help you out a lot with that. Let's say they charge 600$ a day (common in the area where I did most of my web design) you can ask them if you can get as good as 500$ a day from them. Once you do charge 600$ a day for graphic design to the companies you deal with. Assemble the projects, make sure everything fits together and you could be making a living soon.

I hope this helps. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[cian]

Hi,

A couple of people raised a point this I think is important, its client dependant!
If its a corporation ride em, if its a local artist or sports club you may need to go easy on them.
I think it also depends on where your clients are. For example if you mainly market locally you may not be able to charge the same as if your clients are all international, to further the example I worked in a different but highly skilled business in a small town, we were one of only 3 such businesses in this town and offered by far the best quality but had to keep prices low because of where we were and who our clients were. Similar businesses in Dublin were offering inferior quality but at, on average, 3-4 TIMES the price! If we charged that we'd lose all clients without doubt! They'd settle for competitors poorer quality!

I always believe in paying for quality but the size of your wallet decides in the end! IMHO

I was browsing through

http://www.templatemonster.com

and I see they charge up to $1200 for custom templates!!!!!!!
I eventually want to get into web design on a part time basis but i could never charge that much for a flippin template, its a mortal sin!

Having said that I hope you guys get paid well for it, you do great work from what I have seen!

Just a few random thoughts...



É

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa

 

[cian]

I just came across this on one particular web design site:

Site refine/minor changes/improvements
$7,500 1-3 months

Site redesign, complete redesign of a site
$10,000 2-4 months

Site Design, total new site
$15,000 2-6 months


Damn, i'm in the wrong job! LOL


É

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa

 

[xutopia]

I find those prices normal. think about it. if you do a living out of it you need to charge that much.

Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[cian]

I find that incredible! I create sites for fun, sure they're not even near the standard of you guys but I have seen a lot of corporate sites that are nothing special but probably cost a small fortune!

I understand people have to make a living, but is it not from quantity of clients? not just a small number of big paychecks?
Just a question...


É

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa

 

[xutopia]

I personally prefer very few clients. It usually means I concentrate on larger, longer projects that I find more interesting and more fun too.

A small web site does not interest me anymore.

Mind you I did quite a few smaller web sites before having the skills to do bigger projects or the willingness to invest in one. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[cian]

Curious, how do you differentiate between small and large projects, simply the number of pages, amount of server side scripting, complexity of design, amount of graphical design needed ???

The timeline that I posted above 2-6 months for a full design, is that normal? I would have assumed a turn-around rate of just a few weeks.

Thx for the info!


É

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa