How much to charge for a site?
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atlbraves3
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How much to charge for a site?
Hello. I was wondering if anyone could give me some idea about how much I should charge for a website that I have been working on for my brother. I am not actually charging him (he keeps my car going
), but I would like to get an idea what others think so I might be able to go from there for possible future sites. The site is mostly complete. I am going to make a few small tweaks here and there. I have used PHP to build several forms for him to enter information into. The forms include: a page to add a new vehicle's information, a page to upload vehicle images, page for deleting vehicles, edit screen for existing vehicles, page to change main photo for listings page, page to delete specific photos for vehicles, another for adding photos, and screens to add, delete, and edit data for all drop-down boxes used in data entry. If you visit the site you will see pages for inventory, parts, financing info, service info, team members, hours, directions (the map needs some work), contact us. I would appreciate any input. Thanks!
Last edited by atlbraves3 on Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
- social_experiment
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
How much time are you going to spend doing the modifations (as you mention the site is mostly complete)?
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
- greyhoundcode
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
The basic approach I take is asking myself, "How much do I want to earn this year?" And then I convert this back into an hourly rate. IMO this works well as your rates should then be comparable with those of your local competitors, whereas if you bill £5k because that is what someone in the UK does you could be way off the mark if you actually live and work in Turkmenistan (just as an example - Turkmenistani developers may bill more or less, I don't know
).
You may then want to tweak this to take account of slack periods etc, or indeed reduce it in order to make yourself as competitive as possible. From there on in it comes down to assessing how long a project will take, or agreeing budgets and milestones with your client and billing them per hour straight up.
You may then want to tweak this to take account of slack periods etc, or indeed reduce it in order to make yourself as competitive as possible. From there on in it comes down to assessing how long a project will take, or agreeing budgets and milestones with your client and billing them per hour straight up.
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atlbraves3
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
I will not spend much more time. Just trying to think of a graphic to add. I may make slight changes to the way data is displayed on the listings page and vehicle details page. I think that is about it. Let's just say that it is complete as it is.social_experiment wrote:How much time are you going to spend doing the modifations (as you mention the site is mostly complete)?
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atlbraves3
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
greyhoundcode: I was thinking about doing as you say with "how much to earn this year". That is a good way to look at it. I am basically just wanting to make some extra money and I enjoy the challenge. There is actually not anyone in this area that does web design so I do not know where to start with rates. That has been my biggest problem. I basically just don't want to overcharge. I don't mind to undercharge as long as I don't go too far under. I feel like I would definitely have to charge less in this area than I might if I did the same work elsewhere.
Thanks
Thanks
- social_experiment
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
This is a pretty good point.greyhoundcode wrote:You may then want to tweak this to take account of slack periods etc, or indeed reduce it in order to make yourself as competitive as possible. From there on in it comes down to assessing how long a project will take, or agreeing budgets and milestones with your client and billing them per hour straight up.
@atlbraves3 : Also factor in a bit more time than you actually need, not to bill the client extra, to make sure you don't come up against a self-imposed deadline for whatever reason.
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
- greyhoundcode
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
Sure, but don't undercharge either! A danger of being too cheap is ending up with the least interesting projects and the most demanding clients. There is no magic formula, and I don't think anyone starting out by themselves gets it right first time.atlbraves3 wrote:I am basically just wanting to make some extra money and I enjoy the challenge. There is actually not anyone in this area that does web design so I do not know where to start with rates. That has been my biggest problem. I basically just don't want to overcharge.
- greyhoundcode
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
Each to his own, but personally I think a lot of the freelancer websites create marketplaces in which the developers are working pretty hard for not a great deal of money.
- social_experiment
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
True words. And the problem is that it's often exploited if you are making an entrance into the market because you don't have a portfolio and maybe not enough experience in the field.greyhoundcode wrote:I think a lot of the freelancer websites create marketplaces in which the developers are working pretty hard for not a great deal of money
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
Re: How much to charge for a site?
Calculate your LOE, working capital and operating cost required for the project you work on. Sum it up and you will be able to charge for the website or application you work on.
Re: How much to charge for a site?
Charge as much as you think your time is worth. And as much as possible. And make sure you're honest with yourself. It's very easy to think "this website will take about 25 hours to build", charge for 22 to be friendly to the client while in reality you spend 40.
The difficulty is that in the end it's all about providing perceived value to someone. If something's not worth much for them, you can't charge much. So if a family member or friend or neighbor comes to you to build something, the chances are big they came to you expecting not having to pay much. So you can't charge much. If, on the other hand, some rich guy comes to you and you provide him with a good service/experience building his website, you can charge a lot because it is of great value to him.
So in the end it's impossible for me to say how much to charge. You can start by making sure you charge enough per hour. On top of that you can see how far you can go with higher prices.
The difficulty is that in the end it's all about providing perceived value to someone. If something's not worth much for them, you can't charge much. So if a family member or friend or neighbor comes to you to build something, the chances are big they came to you expecting not having to pay much. So you can't charge much. If, on the other hand, some rich guy comes to you and you provide him with a good service/experience building his website, you can charge a lot because it is of great value to him.
So in the end it's impossible for me to say how much to charge. You can start by making sure you charge enough per hour. On top of that you can see how far you can go with higher prices.
- CrowderSoup
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
I always start by deciding how much my time is worth. At work I get paid x amount per hour, so I think my time is worth about that much. Then from there I figure out how long the project will take. This part takes experience is usually a lot of guesswork. Generally I quote higher than I think and then when I finish in less time I'm a godsend, and when it takes the full quoted time I don't have to eat the difference.
Once I know how much my time is worth, and how long it will take, I multiply the time by the amount I want per hour.
Once I know how much my time is worth, and how long it will take, I multiply the time by the amount I want per hour.
Re: How much to charge for a site?
All these answers don't answer how much making a website costs, U r only saying how much you want to get.
a bottom line of ur saying is a more skillful web developer is supposed to get less money 'cause he spend apparently less time on doing the same job.
a bottom line of ur saying is a more skillful web developer is supposed to get less money 'cause he spend apparently less time on doing the same job.
- superdezign
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Re: How much to charge for a site?
No, not at all. Firstly, this thread isn't about telling people how much they should pay for a website. It's telling developer's how much they should charge. Secondly, if a developer is faster than most developers, they know that their time is more valuable and will charge more per hour. Time is a limited resource and if you are going to use any of it, it's your job to make sure you are getting what you deserve for it.
Re: How much to charge for a site?
The cost of a website doesn't rely on how fast someone can do this. Or how someone is good at it.
An Html website will be cheaper than php one, though u might spend more time on doing an html. IMHO
I'm asking about market.
If it's not too personal, show me several websites and tell me how much u have charged for it.
An Html website will be cheaper than php one, though u might spend more time on doing an html. IMHO
I'm asking about market.
If it's not too personal, show me several websites and tell me how much u have charged for it.