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!

 

[xutopia]

A designer in the user interface sense is someone that organises data for visual display. That is he makes the structure of the data, finds ways to access it and presents it so that it is easy for the end use to use the information.

Organising data can be difficult knowing that "Cognitive psychologists have known for decades that most people can only hold about four to seven discrete chunks of information in short-term memory." (SRC:

http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/sites/site_design.html).

I need to know what information needs to be shown and I need to know exactly how many chunks of information I will have for this information to be easily understood by the end user.

That is why when I want to do a good job I don't charge the client on a per page basis. First of all it requires the client to weigh price/page benefits for the finished data structure. He may as well not ask himself any design questions like that one if he is paying for the job.

Never charge on a per page basis. What happens if he says 6 pages but logically your site should be structure in 7 structural items. What a mess. Should you ask for more, give it away for free? Sucks to ask yourself these questions.

I work on a per project basis. That means I establish the needs for the project and estimate in days, weeks, months the time it will take and before signing a service contract assure myself that I won't starve to death in between nor if I have to go overboard on the time (specification of project change often).

I find that most sites can be done in about 2-3 months maximum. That I consider a big project. A small project to me is something that takes one to two weeks to do (a small web site for a company). I can still charge quite a bit for the smaller projects if you consider per day cost (up to 800$ a day but usually around 400$). But long term projects offer me more personal investement and time to brush up on new technology (between 240$ and 450$ a day). Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[SPYDERIX]

onpnt and GUJUm0deL,

Did you not read my post. Paying per page is not the way to go here. What about simple pages, are you going to charge $50/page what about a huge page, are you still only going to charge $50/page. I would not be your client, $50 for a page with my phone number and mailing address on it and that's it. I think not.

NATE

design@spyderix-designz.com

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[onpnt]

SPYDERIX (got it right)
Where exactly have I referenced charging per page???????

did you mean to reference someone else here
I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.
admin@onpntwebdesigns.com

 

[SPYDERIX]

onpnt,

Extremely sorry! I didn't read the above post correct.

You said: "I agree with GUJUm0deL here" sorry, I didn't really read the rest properly and thought you were talking about charging per page.

You can do this to me 1000 times for that one:

Sorry man! NATE

design@spyderix-designz.com

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[onpnt]

not a problem in the least.

I really don't think charging by the page is a good idea now that we are on the topic either for the exact points you stated.


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

 

[GUJUm0deL]

You guys do have alot of point on not charging them per page...maybe I outta rethink my charging methods...hmmm...
But then how can one determine exactly what to charge?? The amount of graphics it has, the amount to scripts (how complex they are, or how easy they are), the animation involved...??
If someone was doing a community website for a realestate company that lists houses, pictures, and info. on that, how much would u charge there??
I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[onpnt]

OK
If someone was doing a community website for a realestate company that lists houses, pictures, and info. on that, how much would u charge there??

this is what I would charge
for the static only I would charge this client $26.00 per hour to create the pages.
say they had 100 houses they wanted links to on seperate pages then that would probably end up being about a hour a page for the houses only = $2600 for the house listing pages

then if I had to scan the pictures or what not other then getting them on a disk from the client I would add about $15 per pic. total up to = $4100

This was without any scripting to make the site more interactive and such and without the index page etc..
***********************************************************
now for what I usually do "ASP Database work" I would charge them $50.00 a hour to set the DB up which would only take around 2 to 3 hours = $150.00
the price would be for a asp site at $45.00 a hour about 2 hours per page minimum to offset my price if it takes less time to create the pages = $9000 for the 100 pages and + the graphic work and DB = $10,650 give or take a penny

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

 

[SPYDERIX]

GUJUm0deL,

"But then how can one determine exactly what to charge?? The amount of graphics it has, the amount to scripts (how complex they are, or how easy they are), the animation involved...??"

You have answered your own question. But you need to be looking at projects on a wide scale basis, and determine if you are going to be doing maintaining too.

Hope this helps! NATE

design@spyderix-designz.com

http://www.spyderix-designz.com

 

[mThomas]

I stopped doing work by the page because it just wasn't profitable. However back in 97 when I got started learning how to program and design websites, I took any web work I could get. When you are hungry, you are hungry and will work for less. I'm fond of saying that if you can get more, you probably didn't get enough.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I charge by the hour based on what I'm doing. I give my clients a general idea of the potential cost. I usually guess a third or so more hours than I really think it will take. Most clients will want to make some kind of change, and things rarely go like they should. So by charging by the hour I get paid for what I do no matter how long it takes. One thing though, it helps to be able to do script and database work, rather quickly. If you are still learning, say Perl, charging by the hour for Perl work, might not be a good idea. When I come accross something I need to learn how to do, I only bill my client for the time it takes me to do what I had to learn how to do. So if I'm working with a new module and it takes me an hour to learn the in's and out's of the module, then I don't charge my client for that hour.

Charging by the "page" really breaks down when you build a dymanic site that uses several scripts to dynamically generate hundreds of pages. Do you charge by the number of potential pages the scripts can generate? Charging by the hour is really the only way to go in such situations or arrange a project price. I don't like doing projects based on a bid. There are just to many things that can come into play.

On the same token, I also charge by the script. I have some SendMail scripts that I sell. I also sell some data managment scripts.

Being a web design and graphics instructor, I can attest to the thousands and thousands and more thousands of people who want to be web designers. If you are staying busy, making some money, then you are way ahead of crowd, and as you get better and faster at what you do, *g* you get to charge and get more for what you do.

Someone once said, "You can't start at the top".

mike

http://www.udraw2.com

 

[onpnt]

A star for all!
If these aren't helpful posts then I'm not sure there is a helpful post

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

 

[GUJUm0deL]

You had some helpful hints as well, so you get a star also... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[PiscoBandito]

You mentioned these people were your friends. What I have done in these situations is do the site, and keep track of my hours, and come up with what I usually would have charged, say it took 120 hours and I would usually charge $30 an hour, that would be $3600. But these are my friends, so I ask myself what would be fair to both of us, usually in their favor. Depending on what I think they can afford, or what they tell me they can afford, I would charge between $1000 and $1500 for the affore mentioned site.

Remember if you are doing this as a friend, and giving a friendly deal, you are not suppossed to come out on top. You take the cut because it is your friend, and you are doing him/her a favor.

I always mention to them what I would usually charge, and what I am actually charging, so that they understand that I am doing them a favor- because lets admit it we want to feel good about giving our friends a deal, but we also want to feel appreciated for doing it.

One last note, if the site is very small, and it would only take you a couple of hours here and there across a week, do it for dinner or a bottle of wine.

Peace.

 

[Wullie]

PiscoBandito,

You get a star for bringing us back on track, we all got a little distracted there.. LOL

I totally agree that when the site is for a friend, then the price should be much lower. When it's for a freinds business, you should think how much discount would they give you for their product? If they wouldn't give you any, then they are not much of a freind and then you should charge them full price.

I personally have never charged a family member or a good freind for work, I have always completed it for a night in the pub or a few drinks, depending on what was invloved, I know that they would do the same in return.

Hope this helps Wullie

sales@freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.freshlookdesign.co.uk

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

 

[dlscott]

I want to thank everyone who responded to my question. The responses were very good. It gave me a lot to think about and it certainly helped me to determine what a fair amount would be.

Also, I must say that this is the best forum that I have seen. I hope to participate and provide information whenever possible.

Thanks again.

 

[onpnt]

I'd like to redirect all of you over to
thread253-316372

Who wants to put a price tag of web developers?
Are we worth the high price most of us charge?
I think so
If not for us, would we have a WWW?
Does anyone ever wonder what exactly would happen if we all thru up our hands from our keyboards and said strike for a month. Think the web would look so well after that month?

I think the true question we have to all (ALL) answer and agree on
What price is this work worth?
I may not get it the 1st or 2nd time,
but how sweet that 15th time can be.
admin@onpntwebdesigns.com