What do you charge for website design and maintenence services?

[sunzt]

I recently met a small business owner who wanted me to look at his website. I told him that it needed a makeover and I will be meeting him to talk face to face about his website. There is potential that he would ask me to redesign his site, maintain it, and look into direct marketing by email blasts.

I have never been paid to do other people's websites before, only ones for my dad's business and my personal site. How much should I charge to create a small business website that would be no more than 20 pages and with maybe a couple simple flash items? There probably wont be any databases involved. Should I get a % down payment and what %? Anything else I should know? Constructive input would be much appreciated.

 

[Safeway]

I'd ask for at least 80% up front, 20% at completion. In terms of price, it depends greatly on the content, execution, maintenance tasks, et al.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

One jiggadollar.

 

[Kalmah]

I recently had to do this. I charged by the hour. And since it was my first website I charged $40/hour.

I first made an estimate sheet and printed it out and filled in the blanks with a pen. It looked kind of like this:

Template ___ Hrs
setting up each page ____#pages x ____hr/page
creating graphics ___ hrs
adding content to each page _____#pages x ____ hr/page
testing and validation ____hrs


total hours _______ x $40/hour = $____________



It looked alot nicer obviously. And made it very clear that it was an estimate. I made about $1400 from my first website doing it this way. It ended up taking about 10 hours longer than I estimated.

I also made myself a time sheet and wrote down start and finish time for everything I did. Then signed it before I gave everything to him.

It worked out pretty well. I honestly have no idea as to the standard pricing for this. I was kind of going on the assumption that studios charge about $75/hour. So told him he was getting about half price.

 

[Ksyder]

http://www.gomediazine.com/ind...cly-advertise-pricing/

This doesn't exactly answer your question but should provide some insights into what other designers are doing regarding pricing issues

I'd suggest charging by the hr. if you can't easily estimate how long it will take, or decide on a flat rate if you think you can. Depending on how professional you are, you could charge anywhere between $15 and $40 an hr. I'd think.

 

[sunzt]

I appreciate the responses so far. Does anyone else have any constructive input?

 

[ViviTheMage]

50% upfront, if you have references, to show he can at least trust you.

Honestly, that sounds like a lot of time...charge around 1,000$ or so for EVERYTHING, minus marketing costs, and maybe allow room in your contract for any larger changes he wants done. I usually do small changes for free, but larger ones that take a lot of time I charge for.

 

[rh71]

Generally speaking, there will always be someone who will beat your price, so unless you're a professional with a good portfolio, you have to be very competitive. It depends on the skills used... straight HTML / graphics, I used to freelance for $35/hr and I felt that was fair because these people were referred to me - I have experience so do quick work and never really went crazy with charged hours. Database / web app languages / simple Flash would be $45/hr. Professionals are upwards of $75/hr so I would work off those numbers. With a stated hourly rate, that takes care of requests for updating as well so nobody would be surprised and balk at your charge at the end. To start off though, I would show him what I could do for him (quick mock-up) and ask for some payment when you feel you are about 25% done with the site and so on. More established clients you could wait till the end to tally the hours.

I actually got out of doing freelance work because I never felt the time was worth it because of the competitive rates... you can't really charge much unless you're well established and doing it pretty much full-time.

 

[yllus]

If you do not get 50% up front, you do not work on the contract. This is the first and foremost rule of contract work. No matter how nice and honourable the client seems to be today, when it comes time to pay, they will try to screw you out of every cent they can. That's even if you have the terms of payment down in writing - they'll still wager that you won't go through the trouble of going to court. Mitigate this risk by getting this idea in their heads: "Well, I've already paid for half, I might as well get exactly what I want and pay the other half when it's in my hands."

Write out a list of every page you'll have to create, and every function you'll have to develop for it. Attach a time estimate (hours) to each page. When you're done this list, go back and multiply each time estimate by 1.5.

Take your total number of estimated hours for the project and multiply it by your hourly rate - please try to never go below $60/hour, it devalues all of our work.

Present this figure to the client. Say that on top of that, when the inevitable request for changes come in, you'll additionally work for a maximum of 10 extra hours for free, because you want to ensure the client's happiness. This incentivizes the client to get their initial request for the site perfect, and still leaves you some buffer space to do touch up work. And, of course, you look like you want the client to be happy with what they get.

 

[alkemyst]

pricing per page is a bit whacky.

I'd do it hourly or a flat rate. If you aren't a pro you are bound to be way off on the estimate.

I'd definitely get cash up front, too many times I have ended up nearly done with a project only to find out they want to cut me in to the ownership or simply the guy asking for the work had no authority to do so.

I did a huge website for the 'Internet Manager' of a large dealership. When it finally came time to show it I knew something was odd. He had me sneak in my PC setup and put me in some odd backroom. Next thing I know is no one is there and he's trying to get all the officers of the dealership together. He kept telling me he booked them for 'tomorrow' by mistake.

When it came down to it he was told he was not the Internet Manager nor did they intend to make him one if they did go that route. They felt bad I had done this work and they didn't have it in their budget to pay for something like that. Later the asshat asked if I could just mail him the disks with the site on it since it was of no use to me.

I was able to get a good deal on an Acura out of it though from one of the owners.

 

[ViviTheMage]

wow alkemeyst, that really blows...at least you got something out of it.