Shawn Gadwa
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I'm working on building an office in town and I'm going to be doing web design and web development mostly using artisteer, joomla, and Adobe photoshop. I have a couple of computers I'm building... one will be my router and the other will be my apache web server.
Anyhow, I have a lot of experience with web design and development but I've never actually got paid for what I've done. I've just worked for friends and they seem to expect that I'll do it for free. I'm thinking that $10/hour ought to be a fair enough price, right? Or should I charge more? I think I can give people a fairly good estimate as to what I can give them, and how long it'll take.
Thanks a lot,
~Shawn
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SVRichard
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Try this for starters; http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/web-work-should-charge
...and do a Google search for; "Web Pricing"
All the best :]
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SVRichard
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This one might also help you out or shed some light; http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/freelance-pricing-1-set-rate
Later :]
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Tom
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Find out what web designers in your area charge for basic static websites, CMS, blogs, etc. Compare your ability and product to theirs and adjust your prices accordingly. There are other factors to consider like the ability to support them when things go wrong and what resources you can bring to the table. But foremost, be honest. Don't misrepresent yourself in any way.
You mention the network. Are you considering hosting as an option? That would open the door to a whole new can of worms. If you are not prepared to knowledgeably administer a hosting server, I would advise not to go down that road. It's easy to click a button and set up a LAMP server, it's another story to fend off the wolves.
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Shawn Gadwa
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Thanks everyone for your comments. I'll check those articles out.
Tom, no I'm not considering hosting as an option. Although you did bring up a very good point. I simply do not want to do it. Partly because although my internet connection is fast, I don't consider it fast enough (doesn't have fast enough upload speeds) to host websites. And then secondly, I've never done it before. Thirdly, I don't want to fend off the wolves.
I don't care for lamp a whole lot. I prefer gentoo linux + Apache + mysql + php + whatever else might be needed. And then this way I can add other things like a squid server, the ability to cache youtube videos, a local dns server, etc. etc. Anyhow, to clarify... the network is only for my benefit. I'm thinking maybe I'll have it online some how, just so that I can access my computers from anywhere in the world. But I don't want to host websites.
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Mark C
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$10 an hour seems awfully cheap, especially if you have to pay for office space (unless you are working in India or somewhere like that).
Try tripling that price.
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Jimmy
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When we did it professionally in the mid 1990's(now retired) we charged $100 per hour.
As the dot com bubble began to burst we went to $50 per hour. Still made good money.
Today $30 per hour sounds fair.
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wiser3
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In my area most places are down to just $20 per hour.
We have been really hit hard by the economic slowdown and a lot of the out of work people took up web design. As the number of people doing web work skyrocketed prices went down. Thankfully the vast majority of these people of no idea what they are doing. Many are quickly getting bad reputations and going out of business. As a result, most of my work is now fixing or redoing other peoples messes. As more of these clueless webmaster wannabees go under i expect prices in my area to start going back up soon.
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Jacob
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It's usually better to do a flat rate package deal. Say $700.00 - $1200 depending on your level of skill and the detail involved.
Don't be afraid to break out photoshop. It's all in the details. You charge more because the level of your work is higher.
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Ian Shere
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I've had my own business for over 20 years in one area or another. If you're not making at least $50/hour go and work for someone else. At $10/hour it's not worth being in business with all the liability, the IRS, etc.
If you're just setting up, first thing to do is get a good contract. Having lost over $10k due to not having had one, I do nothing without one now.
I paid someone to do mine and it was worth every cent.
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Shawn Gadwa
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Yes, I'm definitely thinking that $10/hour is way too cheap. Especially with all the fees and all. Fortunately for me, I'm building an office in my dad's workshop/showroom in town (he rebuilds small instruments and tunes pianos). So, until it gets to the point where I'm making a lot of money, he won't bother to charge me for rent. So, for the next few months or something, as I'm just starting out and building my reputation, my portfolio, and my skill, I won't have too many expenses except for taxes and maybe equipment upgrading if I'll have the money to buy a new laptop and a big lcd monitor.
Anyhow, is it really true that uncle same takes 45% of your income if you are a web developer??
As far as my skill, I've worked with gimp a lot. I'm going to buy photoshop as I like that a lot better. I have a lot of experience working with joomla and I'd prefer to do most of my websites with joomla. I also have updated my dad's html site by hand. I know a decent amount of HTML. I don't like doing it though because it takes A LOT of time to code in a long article by hand. I also have quite a bit of experience working with css, although not as much as I'd like to have. However, whenever I'm puzzled about something, I also find help fast on the web. I do not know anything about java script I really need to study that. I've done a lot of research about making websites load faster and I feel that that is important. Also, I've make a lot of templates with artisteer and then edited the code by hand to make it look the way that I wanted it to look.
For an example, check out this website that I did for a friend of mine: www.effortvision-haitioutreach.org.
Also, based on my previous experience, I feel that I can give people a pretty close estimate as to how long it'd take me to do what they need done.
So, I guess you could say that I have a lot of experience... I don't want to create cheap websites for people and charge them a fortune. However, I've never been to school for this, I'm basically "just starting out" as I've not yet been paid to develop websites. And there is some things I need to learn (like being able to code just about anything with css without having to grab a book or search the web as well as java script and php). Even then, I think that I can give a small business a professional website in a timely manner.
So, based on my skill level and my expenses, would $30/hour be a fair price to start out with?
Thanks a lot,
~Shawn
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SVRichard
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There are lots of great advises given so far Shawn. $30 seems reasonable IMO. and certainly you'll need to be comfortable with it yourself. Nothing worst then mumbling your price or back tracking so to speak.
One thing that has helped on any contacts over the years is to take make time for the estimate. In other words I rarely give a price right away in front of the client. I'll ask the client as much needed info and details first of, get a sens of their needs (and financial budget) Local market value etc etc. Then and only then I tell me client I'll call him the next day (for example) with the estimate or ball park figure etc. This time away from the client helps in getting all my facts in first and double checking off if I missed anything, I'm in my space away from the clients' "we have a small budget" kind of look of statement.
I sit with my price and again double check if I'm ok charging this much or this low depending until I'm comfortable with the price. This may just take a few minutes to a few hours, days depending but as you know the more your know what's involved the best/easier it become (usually) ;]
Confidence behind your price and your work is key and helps a lot IMO. Go the extra mills but fall short of becoming a martyr... Giving is great but if you over extend yourself you'll become frustrated and be taken advantage of most of the time. Giving that extra hour of two may be the Ummph your client will remember you for, next time around or with a friend of his etc.
(my two cents)
Your web is Ok but not strong with design. Perhaps $20/hr would be more fair and closer to your initial pricing... you asked. :]
Hope this helps,
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Tom
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Quote :Anyhow, is it really true that uncle same takes 45% of your income if you are a web developer??
Basically, yes. I have to not only pay income tax and social security tax, but being self employed, I have to pay the other half that an employer would normally pay.
And you consultants out there should be paying your taxes. In this country, prison terms are just as a long for tax evasion as for man slaughter.
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SVRichard
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LOL! in light of what Tom is saying vis-à-vis them taxes in US... $30/hr may be better considering.
All the best Shawn.
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2ninerniner2
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Quote :I don't care for lamp a whole lot. I prefer gentoo linux + Apache + mysql + php + whatever else might be needed.
... just to clarify  ....
I prefer gentoo Linux + Apache + [b[M[/]ysql + P[/]hp
All the best!
Cheers!
James
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Don
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You do realize that this thread is two year old?
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2ninerniner2
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Yep, thought it was time for a bump :)
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