Wanting to do some freelance web design work, 2 main questions

Hi Guys,
I was hoping I could ask for some advice from some fellow freelance web designers.
Plainly put my work don't pay me enough so I'm being forced to work in the evenings to bring in some more cash.

I have been offered a project, simple HTML (nice and easy) but I have two questions...

1. What sort of price should I charge? I think the site is about 30 pages although I have yet to see the full spec, maybe it is something I could do dynamically in PHP and reduce the page count, we'll see.
What sort of prices do you guys charge and for what types of services...e.g. I have seen people suggest £200 for a 5 page site, it would be nice for me to see how you charge and see what sort of sites you have developed, I guess I could judge from that benchmark what I should charge.

2. The second question that bothers me is web hosting...I can develop the site no problem but in terms of providing the hosting side of things do you guys simply recommend some host, like godaddy.com, webfusion.co.uk and then set your client up there? How do you go about payment too, do you ask for the client's CC number etc

I also found some good resources some time ago, one included a contract agreement that someone had written up and shared...I think the link was on some article about 'top 10 things I wished I had known about before starting freelance web design', does this sound familar to anyone?

Thanks for your time

 

I would set them up with an account at a host when you got to their location. Then have it set up to automatically bill them at their place of business.

Make sure they know you are just doing this as a favor, you don't manage or do anything with the host.

Charge what you are worth.

Brandon

 

AfterHim pretty much summed it up, "What charge what you are worth".
What I do recommend is get it ALL in writting with a contract.
- Say how many pages you are going to do.
- What amount of content will be on each page (otherwise the client will try and put all content on a single page or sometihng)
- What sort of work will be needed with creating the page (photography, image manipuation etc.. They may expect you to goto their place and take photos for all you know)
- A limit on how many redesigns they are allowed for the design which prevents you making hundreds of layouts. For my contracts I write "up to 2 major design changes and 3 minor ones (however the 3 minors can be used as 1 major). A major design change is considered 30% or more being changed"
- Write in a deadline, but also a deadline for them to give you content (i know many webbies who are STILL waiting for content after 8 months) and if they dont meet this deadline all payments are due. Also write in a clause that says they have to get back to you with information within 1-2 days so they dont slow the project down and push you over your deadline.


With the hosting. I recommend either setup an affilate account with a trustworthy host or get a reseller account.

 

There are some excellent pointers, especially the one about getting a response time agreed with them, I have worked on internal web development projects before and there is nothing worse than being slowed down.

If I manage to find the link to the articles I was reffering to I will post links to them here...you may even find a few handy tips guys.

Thanks for the support

 

Here are some links
http://www.garrettdimon.com/archives/steps-to-becoming-a-freelance-web-developer
and
http://www.garrettdimon.com/archives/about-going-solo

Still looking for that example of the contract template though

So far I would definitely recommend basecamp.com, jus set up a free account there and would say that it obviously makes what you are working on more organised and more visible to the client...and also very professional

 

Boom found it...
This is an example of a project agreement that I discovered a few months ago
http://www.stirman.net/images/DPA.html

The comments in the link below are also very good people starting freelance work...
http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2005/05/top_tips_for_freelancers/index.php

 

That should be http://www.basecamphq.com/ my bad