How much do I charge for work?

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  • TristaSD
    #1

    How much do I charge for work?

    Hi,

    I've done a bunch of small-scale web projects for folks in the area,
    and they all seem to be very impressed with the interactivity and
    ease-of-use of their new websites/web apps. PHP is truly amazing when
    it comes to quickly and reliably whipping up a site/app.

    However, thanks to the word-of-mouth, a bigger job has plopped onto my
    lap and I don't know how much to charge the client. I've never charged
    more than $400-500 for a custom site or app (insert, delete, update
    capabilities, CSS, 2-3 database-driven lists, some pdf polygraphic
    materials, etc, a couple of months of hosting on my server).

    I don't feel like charging per hour because sometimes I can blow
    through the entire backend in a couple hours, but sometimes a CSS kink
    gives sends me working into the night. I'm looking for a quote PER
    PROJECT.

    Here's the requirements for this new project:

    - A website for a one-person small company (local musical artist,
    decently successful, able to make a living from gigs, American Midwest)
    - All pages COMPLETELY data-driven (updateable with forms, not with
    phpMyAdmin :)
    - A couple of 150+ item interactive data lists on two separate pages
    (songs and covers)
    - Contact form that emails queries to a given email address
    - Some sort of a mailing list (manage fan accounts, create mass emails
    about future gigs)
    - Small blog - owner WILL NOT put in any raw html tags, so there needs
    to be a WordPress-like WYSIWYG text editor
    - Interactive calendar (insert, delete, update events, bulk
    edit/delete, dates with events uniquely highlighted, clickable dates)
    - Front page is an aggregate of newest blog entries, newest song
    additions, newly added gigs, etc.
    - Ease-of-use is an absolute MUST
    - Transfer of hosting/domain from her Frontpage-building "friend" who
    did her site for free
    - 3-5 email accounts

    Though I have a good idea of how everything should be done, I don't
    know what I should charge this person!

    Thanks!

    Tags: None
    • maaxiim
      #2
      Re: How much do I charge for work?

      TristaSD wrote:[color=blue]
      >
      > I don't feel like charging per hour because sometimes I can blow
      > through the entire backend in a couple hours, but sometimes a CSS kink
      > gives sends me working into the night. I'm looking for a quote PER
      > PROJECT.
      >
      > Here's the requirements for this new project:
      >[/color]

      Hi TristaSD,

      Sounds like a nice project to have drop in your lap!

      My wife operates a similar business, she started locally and through
      word of mouth has been able to get some pretty decent accounts going.

      I noticed, also, that you mentioned hosting on your own server. My wife
      takes a Managed or ASP model approach to her corporate/small business
      clients. She will charge them a fairly nominal up front 'design' fee
      which goes towards the creation of a corporate identity plus the
      graphical assets for the site. This is tends to run around $500 per
      project.
      She then hosts the entire dynamic site (generally with shopping cart,
      event management, document management, admin backend, WYSIWYG editor,
      file & image manager, etc for a reasonable monthly fee. Clients that
      pay a year or 6 months in advance get a proportionally larger discount.

      I don't know if that really answered your question, but hopefully gave
      you some food for thought.

      regards
      maaxiim

        Comment

        • TristaSD
          #3
          Re: How much do I charge for work?

          So it's $500 upfront, and how much per month? What the content
          managment system she's using?

            Comment

            • maaxiim
              #4
              Re: How much do I charge for work?

              TristaSD wrote:
              [color=blue]
              > So it's $500 upfront, and how much per month? What the content
              > managment system she's using?[/color]

              Your mileage may vary on the upfront cost, since it depends whether
              they want a corporate logo designed, etc.

              The CMS is one I wrote for her. Nothing too fancy, has everything she
              needs and is
              fairly flexible.

              The monthly charge varies according to the type of services they have
              enabled on the managed account. Shopping cart, SSL cert, payment
              gateway and credit card merchant services, etc is extra. I think her
              current going rate is $10 base price per month and then a modest charge
              for each extra service. I can take a look at her schedule and give you
              more specifics if you need them. She also offers an hourly rate service
              for general site maintenance and administration.

              regards
              maaxiim

                Comment

                • TristaSD
                  #5
                  Re: How much do I charge for work?

                  Cool. Thanks. Waiting impatiently ...

                    Comment

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