Pricing for a web designer

RichyX

I'm in need of a little advice.

I've been offered a job doing web design on behalf of a company. All of the design work and coding will be my responsibility.
I'll be paid per job, not a wage.

I was wondering how much a web designer should charge per website and what a reasonable completion time would be for an
average static site.

This is the first design work I've ever been employed to do so it's all a bit new to me!

Seth Brundle

here we go again - how long is a piece of string?
How good are your skills? What is your time worth? How professional will it have to look? Are you sorting out hosting and the domain? Will you pay for these?
etc.
There are many threads on this topic but for a 10 page site you caould price anywhere from €300 upwards

forbairt

My usual response to questions like this ...

What do you want to earn a year ? example you want to earn € 10,000 a year.

For €10,000 you'll work 50 weeks of the year
per week you need to earn €200

If a website takes you 1.5 days to make lets say plus 1 day project management / talking to customers thats 2.5 days to fix up a basic website.

so you should be charging €100 for a website

Factor in things like ... will you have to buy software / hardware / licences and so on ??

Are you guaranteed to have constant work ? ....

How good is your work ... are you just starting out .. or doing this VERY professionally ? ...

dahamsta

kbannon wrote:

here we go again - how long is a piece of string?

Eight inches. FACT!

jjmax

whatever the market will bear

Rollo Tamasi

Ken Shabby wrote:

Eight inches. FACT!

i've heard of longer than 8 inches, but i think i might be confussing a string with a rope.

charge them a grand! see what they say, muppets are amongest us everwhere!

RichyX

I was looking for a general bit of advice for a basic static website as i said above.
I only wanted to know how long a company would expect you to have something average like that completed in, not a bunch of hilarious comments relating to string.

I'm doing this on a part time basis as I'm off college for the summer. My skills are farely basic but sufficient to produce a reasonable website without any online sales features.
They didn't mention any prices as they said we'll discuss that when the new project comes along next week.
They seemed to be hinting that it wouldn't pay a great deal so I don't want to waste my time working for sh*t money.

Rollo Tamasi

RichyX wrote:

They didn't mention any prices as they said we'll discuss that when the new project comes along next week.
They seemed to be hinting that it wouldn't pay a great deal so I don't want to waste my time working for sh*t money.

the expierence will out weigh the payment imo if you're still in college. This gives you a chance to beef up your portfolio, many people in the same situation as you have done websites pro bono, any cash is a bonus.

Seth Brundle

Ken Shabby wrote:

Eight inches. FACT!

inches? are they still in use?:D

RichyX wrote:

I was looking for a general bit of advice for a basic static website as i said above.
I only wanted to know how long a company would expect you to have something average like that completed in, not a bunch of hilarious comments relating to string.

I'm doing this on a part time basis as I'm off college for the summer. My skills are farely basic but sufficient to produce a reasonable website without any online sales features.
They didn't mention any prices as they said we'll discuss that when the new project comes along next week.
They seemed to be hinting that it wouldn't pay a great deal so I don't want to waste my time working for sh*t money.

You are wondering what to charge but as we had no idea as to your skill level (this could take you a day or a month) and to what level of quality, etc. so we can't really answer it accurately.
Comparing what you may charge (as a newbie individual) to what a company with overheads, insurance, advertising, etc. is not realistic.
If you want to build up a portfolio before insisting on higher rates then maybe take the sh*t money.
However, make sure you have some form of contract between yourselves stating what work will be involved and what work will cost, etc. after sign off.

Gordon

Ken Shabby wrote:

Eight inches. FACT!

Folded in half.

heggie

whatever you do, do this: charge by the hour

DO NOT

Charge per job, as they'll have 30,000 different *unpaid* changes to the site, you'll be doing it forever, trust me.

forbairt

I do websites as my job ...
I do websites in my spare time ..
I do pro bono websites ... when I feel like it ...


And similar to what Rollo said ...

Getting a chance to work in a company doing their site is pretty cool ...
Don't think of it as a job ... think of it as experience ... whats that worth to you... a lot more than a couple of quid ... (that said if you're looking for a lot of money ... you've got no experience so can't expect to be paid the same as the big players)

Getting your foot in the door is important not getting it slammed extremely hard against your foot is good as well

jjmax

As it's a summer job, figure out what you'd be happy getting paid and work it from there.
For example if you worked in a bar what would you get?
Then weigh it all up - portfolio/stress/etc... and come up with a figure you're happy with, hopefully it'll be under theirs
Good luck

DonkeyStyle \o/

heggie wrote:

DO NOT

Charge per job, as they'll have 30,000 different *unpaid* changes to the site, you'll be doing it forever, trust me.

Mmm, I've had this aswell before... if you give them a fixed figure without tight conditions they'll probably try to get more than their moneys worth of your time.
If you are going for a fixed fee, I'd say figure out something like you'll give them two weeks tweaking time after you've got the site uploaded for little changes/issues... then they either pay you again or they're on their own.
Really, for your own sake make your conditions clear before you lift a finger.

AngryAnderson

I said it before and I'll say it again - if you need to ask then you probably shouldn't be charging at all.

dahamsta

AngryAnderson wrote:

I said it before and I'll say it again

Nobody listening, eh? Surprise, surprise.

RichyX

AngryAnderson wrote:

I said it before and I'll say it again - if you need to ask then you probably shouldn't be charging at all.

So you were born with all the knowledge in the world were you?
Pardon me for needing to ask questions.
Unlike you many of the folk on here have been very helpful I'm pleased to say.

Thanks for the advice. I'll take the job on for experience sake anyway.
They seem to be quite resonable so I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement.

heggie

if you're having trouble coming up with an hourly fee based estimate, then quote them a fee, with say 1 major and 2 minor changes, anything else to be billed seperately. No matter how decent someone may seem, they WILL take advantage if you dont set conditions from the start.

dbnavan

I have done a couple of sites i charge 100 euro for setup, .com, email addresses, 2 basic pages, 50 Euro per page after that, and 50 for 1 hour photography.

Haven't done anything with flash etc yet, commercially

AngryAnderson

Ken Shabby wrote:

Nobody listening, eh? Surprise, surprise.

M'eh. Couldn't care whether anyone listens or not. The talentless bandwagon jumpers that make up the newmedia industry in this country could do worse than to take a little advice TBH.