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"How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

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Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#51

Post by shabble »

fleitz wrote: post #32
toblender wrote: post #27

Wow nice article, I was wondering if I was charging too much for my recent bid. Good to see other people are charging in that range.

Don't worry what other people are charging, worry what your clients are paying and that they are happy.

If you quote a number and people are happy to pay it straight up, there's a reasonable chance you're pricing too low.

You might not want to scrape out the absolute maximum each client will pay for each job (at the least, it's a very difficult thing to actually determine, and makes for a bad client experience if you're negotiating too hard), but it's always good to have a sanity check that they're not happy merely because you're charging way below market rates for your talent.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#54

Post by jurre »

asto wrote: post #46
jurre wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that you're right and I know that it is the wrong question to ask, but answering it like that is what makes a lot of non-dev/designers dislike us. Maybe try helping them ask the right question by saying something like: "Well it depends on what you want, what kind of website are we talking about?". It might take a couple of minutes more to answer their question but it has a much higher chance of actually gettin…

But why do web developers and designers always get these kind of questions? One would hardly go into a shop selling watches and ask how much _a_ watch costs. Why then ask a vague question that just cannot be answered? I think giving an equally vague reply is fair.

I think that's because people just don't know a whole lot about these kind of things, instead of being vague I try to teach them a little about it. Generally people mean well.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#55

Post by rhizome »

csomar wrote: post #41
bradleyland wrote: post #21

I know it's trite, but when people ask me, "How much would you charge me to build a website?" I always reply with something pithy like, "Between $100 and $100,000." What's more interesting are the responses. It's almost like a litmus test for who I'd actually want to work with. A person that I might actually want to work with will laugh and acknowledge that the question was ridiculously vague. A person that I don't w…

I don't agree. For the client, this might seem not serious. How do you know the clients that you want to work for? Get to know him. As simple as that. What's his business? can he afford your rates? Is he ready to pay that rate or does he see the value of your work? And then ask for details. Give a reasonable estimate. Alert them that your hourly rate is $xxx and beyond the details specified in the estimate you'll cha…

For the client, this might seem not serious.

Sure, but it's also important to point out that "How much is a website?" is not a serious question. The GP's answer might seem silly, but it brings into relief that you're dealing with a "how much is a car?" or "how long is a piece of string?" situation, and is merely a door-opener on par with the more-businesslike "well, it depends..." and comes down to personal style.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#56

Post by nobleach »

wetbrain wrote: post #42
reason wrote: post #34

What do you guys get out of your smart-ass answers to potential clients? You do know that they come to you because they know that you are the professionals. Many of them are completely clueless as to how pricing works for dev/design-work. Asking "how much do you charge?" is a perfectly reasonable question for someone understandably uninformed to ask. You may be skilled at your trade, but from the sounds of it, many o…

I think part of it is the cynicism that develops from bad clients. Some people don't understand that the designer is a professional. Designers just draw all day, and love what they do, so why would I pay big bucks for a website? After all, my nephew does computers and I can have him make a website for cheap. There's also the "Of course we want you to have creative control. We just want to be able to tell you how it l…

I came here to say basically the EXACT same thing... even including the "my nephew can make websites" remark.

My method is to try to figure that out VERY early in my discussions with a potential client, and then quote them a "scare off price" whereby they'll likely say no, but IF they say yes, the extra money will make it worthwhile as I KNOW they'll be asking for tons of changes. (Can't you just open Dreamweaver and change the colors and pictures???)

I'm not advocating being difficult. I simply think if we'd size up our client BEFORE deciding "we need the money", there'd be a LOT less horror stories.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#58

Post by oscarleung »

jemka wrote: post #40
reason wrote: post #34

What do you guys get out of your smart-ass answers to potential clients? You do know that they come to you because they know that you are the professionals. Many of them are completely clueless as to how pricing works for dev/design-work. Asking "how much do you charge?" is a perfectly reasonable question for someone understandably uninformed to ask. You may be skilled at your trade, but from the sounds of it, many o…

>You may be skilled at your trade, but from the sounds of it, many of you are absolutely horrible at dealing with customers I don't think a lot of freelancers realize the importance of sales/marketing/customer service. They are more than just easy classes in college and they benefit more than the greasy used car salesman down the street. Quite often it's the difference between you and the competitor to whom you lost…

Oh of course, in the end it's all about 'who you want to work with' and who's 'easy to talk to.' That's why so many extremely skilled engineers go unheard of.

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#59

Post by ajaycancherla »

oscarleung wrote: post #58
jemka wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You may be skilled at your trade, but from the sounds of it, many of you are absolutely horrible at dealing with customers I don't think a lot of freelancers realize the importance of sales/marketing/customer service. They are more than just easy classes in college and they benefit more than the greasy used car salesman down the street. Quite often it's the difference between you and the competitor to whom you lost…

Oh of course, in the end it's all about 'who you want to work with' and who's 'easy to talk to.' That's why so many extremely skilled engineers go unheard of.

Yup:)

Re: "How much does a website cost?" – a survey of web designers

#60

Post by ChrisLTD »

mtogo wrote: post #33
sambeau wrote: post #26

When freelancing I tend to work a simple system. £250: An update to content - an evening or two's work. £500: A tiny static site with some original design. I then slide upwards for jobs I don't want and down for people I like. I've never gone above £5000 for a 'homer'. I also have a mate-rates scale that appears below this: Free: Family. Charities I like. Updates + tiny static. Bottle of Wine: As above but close fami…

Whoa dude, $392.10 for you to just change content on a site ? Set up a CMS and let the client change it themselves.

Content changes could require new CSS styles (which would require a new round of cross browser testing), image editing, and cleaning up mal-formed text from an email or Word doc. You also need to factor in how much you should charge to make it worth your time to come up with an estimate, fire off an invoice, etc.
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