Website Costs

[Bleed S & G]

I've had several people ask me to build webpages for their buisness', I havn't built one for money since 5th grade.. whats the going rate and how is pricing done now? Does anybody here know?

 

[OCBucksFan]

This might help you, I had it bookmarked for some reason.

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_much_should_i_charge_to_build_a_web_site.html

 

[Dryden]

I've had several people ask me to build webpages for their buisness', I havn't built one for money since 5th grade.. whats the going rate and how is pricing done now? Does anybody here know?

Depends on the scale. IMHO, if you're not pulling in at least $1500 - $2000 to do the site, it isn't worth your time.

Do a Web site for $300 - $500, and before you know it you'll have a dozen clients all expecting that same rate. Sure, it's a good way to build a portfolio, but when they all start calling back expecting updates and additional pages and such nonsense, it'll turn into a nightmare quick.

I'd recommend pricing high and promise light duty maintenance for a nominal fee, or even free for one or two years if it's a deal clincher. Otherwise, if it's a per/hour thing that amounts to a few hundred bucks, draft a contract up front that explicitly states maintenance charges, and I'd price the maintenance fee high to discourage the client from bothering you every time they get a whim to simply add a paragraph here or just remove a graphic there.

 

[Dryden]

To give you perspective, I was charging between $495 - $795 to do Web sites several years ago. A single site might take a week or more of my time. I thought I was making good coin doing something I enjoyed though; fulfilling a hobby -- until I actually scored a contract where I was getting paid $400 per speaking date to teach Web design seminars, or what broke down to $80 per hour.

Once I got into that biz, I realized how much money was in it. Companies will drop $2,000 to send Joe Average Employee to a do-it-yourself, learn-everything-in-5-hours seminar and wind up with crap results anyway. Come on, how much do you think I could really teach to a n00b in 5 hours?! Tell a company it'll cost them $2000 to learn to do it themselves, and they'll pony up $3G to you to do it for them without batting an eyelash.

Just don't compete with the 5th graders on pricing.

You're selling yourself and your professionalism. Do that right and you can charge virtually anything you want.

 

[sandgk]

If Dryden keeps posting in this thread web site prices may just go through the roof.

BTW, Dryden, does that 3G benchmark include simple scripting? Presumably it goes up for cgi or other more involved programming.

 

[Dryden]

If Dryden keeps posting in this thread web site prices may just go through the roof.

BTW, Dryden, does that 3G benchmark include simple scripting? Presumably it goes up for cgi or other more involved programming.

Everything written in PHP with CSS designed themes (or skins, or whatever you want to call them) and drop-in PERL/CGI if necessary for mailto: forms. Again, though, it's a time management thing. When I was doing it full time, I wouldn't even take on a client that wanted a "simple home page." I'd come right out and tell them up front they'd be overpaying me and I'd offer to refer them to someone cheaper.

I think a lot of Web designers sell themselves and their skills short. You're both an artist and a programmer (at least the good ones are) and deserve to be compensated accordingly.

 

[Bleed S & G]

Everything written in PHP with CSS designed themes (or skins, or whatever you want to call them) and drop-in PERL/CGI if necessary for mailto: forms. Again, though, it's a time management thing. When I was doing it full time, I wouldn't even take on a client that wanted a "simple home page." I'd come right out and tell them up front they'd be overpaying me and I'd offer to refer them to someone cheaper.

I think a lot of Web designers sell themselves and their skills short. You're both an artist and a programmer (at least the good ones are) and deserve to be compensated accordingly.

agree, i dont know php, which i would love to get some time and learn.. it'll be built in css and using perl to write some programs for the page. in terms of graphics, IMO, i do some of the better work.. thanks for your help dryden