How much would you charge for this..

Tekno Monkey · 05-22-2006, 05:51 PM

Right now I'm making a website for a band. How much would you charge for all this?...

Custom Site (obvious)
Phpbb + custom css (takes a while)
Cute news (they suggested it)
Php

I'm charging 45$, but now that I'm doing it I realized it's much harder work, specially since it's 'custom' and I'm pretty much guided by them.

allreal · 05-22-2006, 08:52 PM

$45 will drive us all out of business, even developers in Singapore.

Your time is worth money. All too often people think web developers should work for next to nothing. Remember you have a skill and they want to use it.

Depending on how much work you are putting into making graphics and interactive I would charge $200-400 for the static design alone. If you are using templates and already have graphics, charge a little less. As per the php functions you are including, I would need to know more to make an assessment.

Don't short change yourself. Good luck!

Tekno Monkey · 05-22-2006, 09:11 PM

Well it's my first website that I charge. I did say that it was a promotional price though. But everything is dynamic, the menu, and everything, so I think I charged too little. Thanks for the response, it helped.

Oh and this isn't really a business, just something I do in my free time. But yeah I will charge more, I do need that new guitar.

DaveyBoy · 05-22-2006, 11:21 PM

You wanna be charging over $45 per hour ideally. Fair enough it's your first site but it sounds like you know what you're doing. For scripting and stuff, that's gotta be at least $50 an hour I think, otherwise you're ripping yourself off.

Don't charge by the hour though, simply guesstimate the amount of hours it'll take you, if you think 15 hours work, give yourself a safety net of a few hours when you come to price it up.

cimmeron · 05-23-2006, 07:21 PM

only $45! Wow, they got a DEAL! If you're just starting out and you want to build a portfolio...that's still really really cheap.

Depending on the number of pages on the site, I'd say around 20 hrs..... if you want to give them a deal, quote them the price it WOULD take and then tell them how much you're giving it to them for...that way, they know the value of what they have and the great deal you're giving them

vangogh · 05-24-2006, 12:10 PM

Yep $45 an hour is very low and like David said the rate should probably be more like $45/hr which also might be on the low side. I also agree about not charging per hour in general. I usually estimate how long something will take me and then multiply by my hourly rates, but give the client the price for the whole project.

Now if you want to make this more of a business it's a good idea to build a portfolio and in that case you may want to do a few sites for less than you could get just to ensure you can get the sites. Other than than when building a portfolio (or building a site for mom) it's best to charge what you're worth.

I've found it's a very good idea to keep track of the time it takes to design and build sites. The more you see how long it takes you to put one together the easier it is to estimate the next site.

JuggoPop · 05-24-2006, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveyBoy

You wanna be charging over $45 per hour ideally. Fair enough it's your first site but it sounds like you know what you're doing. For scripting and stuff, that's gotta be at least $50 an hour I think, otherwise you're ripping yourself off.

Don't charge by the hour though, simply guesstimate the amount of hours it'll take you, if you think 15 hours work, give yourself a safety net of a few hours when you come to price it up.

listen to this man. he's wise beyond his years. I would tell you the same thing.

The only thing to watch out for is charging for more hours then the normal person (or less for that matter) Just because you are slow doesn't mean you get paid more, as well as if you are fast, doesn't mean you get paid less.

I can do a custom phpBB skin (new css, new header, new footer, all images replaced) in about 5 hours. But I would charge about 20-25 hours... because that's what it normally takes.

You have to think what amount of time would the business standard be. And hope that if you are slow, that you get faster with time.

vangogh · 05-25-2006, 11:17 AM

Good advice on the hours JuggoPop. It actually took me awhile to learn that I needed to base my hours on what a project should take and not necessarily on how long it takes me.

In some cases that means I end up with a lower hourly rate, but on those projects I get to some experience with things I haven't been able to work on previously. On the other hand with the things I do well I can get a much higher hourly and still offer a discount over what my client may find elsewhere.

The key for me though was tracking my time on everything and in detail so I knew how long projects took me to finish.