Charge for WWW design

Hey,

I have been starting to do more and more web design work on the site. I feel that my skills have slowly been increasing but maybe I should increase my price as well? I have been doing web design for years but the past year or so I have actually been doing some sites for businesses and small companies.

My question is, how much do you charge? I am afraid to ask for to much but then at the same time I don't want to give my services away.

Couple examples:

http://www.thejoshuaprojectmusic.com - Some Christian Rock band website. Just completed it a couple days ago. I did everything (graphics, layout, coding etc). Basically a full package. I only charged them $400 for it. That about right?

http://www.tsfa.org - They needed a new snazzy design because there old one was HORRIBLE (look at the wayback machine if you don't believe me!). So I layed out a new design and chopped it up for them (xhtml) and sent it to them. They then applied it to their site. One the site now, at the top, there is a gap if you view it in FF, but that is from some code alterations that happened when they put in their content. Anyways for this site, which was basically a template, I think I got $150 for everything.

I have done others, but those were just a few examples. So I am just wondering, what is reasonable to charge for webdesign/coding these days ?

Thanks!
Share how much your services are

cheers


- Jared

 

always a good question and one should never be affraid to quote a solid price ...

based on your work - quite nice - how much total time did you actually spend on the projects? Calculate your hourly rate and see if you can live with it ...

I see mechanics charge from $65.00/hr and up ... ask them why and your answer might be similar ... time, experience, tools, training, etc ... No disrespect to mechanics, but some of them do make good money.

My point always is ... show value to your client and the benefits they will receive from the site (i.e., potential business .... etc). Price wisely, once the project is done, then what?

Some are definetly not paying for you medical benefits ...

my 2 bits!

have fun!

 

That Joshua site looks as simple as it can be... you sure got a nice amount for it, I would of offered $200 max for that design.

As long as they are simple designs I guess your prices are ok

 

Jared

I don't know what rates your market will bear, but $400 seems cheap, given the amount of thought, customization, graphics, etc. you obviously put into it over a month.
Nothing wrong with simple, if it works well, as it does here (Joshua) and the client is happy. A nice one to add to your portfolio.

 

Yeah I know what you mean Fryman, that is always what I am affraid the customer will think. Upon first glance $400 seems kinda pricey. But although the design is simple (what they requested) it actually took a good while to do everything. The $400 wasn't just for the design, but rather for everything. (hosting, slicing, content etc).

Either way ,as tradefor mentioned, it will be good to add to my profolio.

Thanks for the comments/suggestions

 

As you build up your portfolio you can charge more as you have a proven experience of being able to deliver the goods. This is almost part of the product itself. I know a guy who has been doing web design for 10 years and charges £950 for a basic 5 page website. He then goes and pays £99 to someone else to do it for him. The only reason people pay that much is because they know he'll do the business for them.

 

$150 if they were friends.

$750 if they had money

I would say somewhere in the middle. You should bill them $200 for design time and $100-$200 for your installation time to integrate the code with layout.

 

web design prices are totally based on the person

if someone in miami calls me , and I meet with them then I can charge like >1500

if someone types "web design" into the SE and gets me its tough to get them to pay $600-700. I have lots of other projects so it behoves me to charge more, but if web design was my only hustle I would be dropping my prices quick.

There was a firm I worked for in ny for a design like yours, actually not even as good, with an events page attached to a db so they can add events , they would charge $3000

Its all relative, I outsource some designs to a guy in poland , who is way better then me, and he will bust out a sick layout for like $150 - $200

But the most work invloved in selling a site , is the "selling" part, find the client, negotiating, hand holding contract signing and argueing over revisions, etc.

You get as much as you can get, if your just starting be glad you are getting paid, most of my first designs where for trades, or even free.

You should just create some sites for your own and learn some basic SEO, thats what I wish I had done from jump.

fryman , I could have sworn I have seen some of your sites and they didn't look half as professional as that layout. I rememger that icon site that you had that would try to install active x crap when you viewed it. That thing looked like shit.

 

Prices seem pretty good, particularly since it doesn't look like those guys (customers) are busting at the seams with cash. I've seem smaller sites cost way more than that.

Are you doing this for a living? If you are, charge what you think is fair, but don't leave money on the table. If you can get a higher price, do it, and just give them a better site. Customers don't complain when you exceed their expectations.

LC