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Website Design (off topic) (8 posts)

  1. andrewbillits
    Member
    Posted 17 years ago #

    I realize this is off topic but I figured you guys might know a bit about this.

    A month or so ago I designed a site for a friends printing business. Apparantly people saw it and liked it because i'm now getting two or three calls a week from his clients and other local businesses.

    The thing is I have no idea what to charge. Friends and the like usually just pay me in beer and pizza while i'm working on it. I'm not looking to charge an obscene amount or anything, I just literally have no clue what to charge at all.

    Does anyone know of a site that has any information or is there a general guideline? Any help at all would be appreciated. This would be in US Dollars btw.

  2. mrball
    Member
    Posted 17 years ago #

    Divide the job into tasks and assign a length of time for each task (e.g. do header image - 6 hours). Dream up an hourly rate and charge accordingly :)

    not sure what hourly rate? since your business seems to be coming from local callers, find out what your local accountants/solicitors charge per hour and knock maybe 30% off that.

    I'm just guessing. haha

  3. andrea_r
    Moderator
    Posted 17 years ago #

    You could charge by the project or by the hour. I would start at $20/hour and up, or for the "get my site up and running" requests, $100-$250 and up, depending on complexity.

    According to the Writer's Market I have (2002 edition) they say for webpage design, $50/hr low to $125/hr and higher, but since then rates are falling. I know I wouldn't charge that much, even in Canadian dollars. ;)

    As always in business, charge what the market will bear. :)

  4. ergate
    Member
    Posted 17 years ago #

    I would figure out how many hours it will take me to do the project, the figure out how much beer and pizza I can consume during that amount of time. You might need to throw some expenses in there like video rentals, ice cream, how many friends need to come over and offer advice and will also need above mentioned beer and pizza.
    Probably will not result in a very well designed site, but it should be a fun party.
    Seriously, dont take my advice.

  5. andrea_r
    Moderator
    Posted 17 years ago #

    (was that imported beer?)

    Also, if you Google "web design rates" or "blog design rates", the numbers actually vary greatly.

    How long did you spend on the first site you did (not counting mistakes ;) )? How complex was it? Did you have to do graphic work or write content? That adds to the price.

    Recently I did work for a client who wanted to move servers, switch from MT to WP, have a template tweaked with a custom header I did, editing a photo she provided, plus fixing the non-English words that were hardcoded in the theme, hunted down plugins and added functionality she wanted, plus instructions on use.

    That was about $200-250. I don't have an exact figure, becuase I got some things off my Amazon wishlist as well as cold hard cash. We both felt we got a good deal.

  6. andrewbillits
    Member
    Posted 17 years ago #

    Thanks for input guys. I've done maybe 15 - 20 large sites but they have mostly been paid for in favors, etc. For instance last year I designed a site for a local pizza chain. They needed a complete online ordering and management system. They was no cash but I haven't had to pay for a pizza since (which has probably added up to way more than what the site would have cost).

    I'll just start at $125 for the simple "Here's my business site" and go up from there depending on complexity, etc.

    Thanks guys :)

  7. jhonsmith
    Member
    Posted 17 years ago #

    US$125 is too few, I live in a third world country and for the complete job the fee is no less than US$600, in US is of course a lot more. It would be 10 times US$125 if it is form scracht. andrea_r cost 200 because the design was already made and it was just a modification of a template and move the server.

    Just an opinion though..

  8. jeanvallery
    Member
    Posted 17 years ago #

    andrewbillits would you please contact me?
    jeanvallery@bicyclemessenger.com
    website bicyclejournals.net
    I'm looking for a person to do some fine tuning of a wordpress mu installation

    Jean Andre Vallery
    Sarasota Florida

About this Topic

  • Started 17 years ago by andrewbillits
  • Latest reply from jeanvallery