I like the redesign, but it looks like any other template out there. I don't see how this could not have been done by 1 person within a week (excl. content - content can take more time). I sometimes do this for fun and would have charged 500 bucks + some theme/icon/graphics expenses.
I regret my website redesign
461–470 of 789 posts
Re: I regret my website redesign
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was ready to fire the agency the moment the author mentioned they were going off script and building whatever they wanted. This was a huge, blinking red flag for me. Why would you keep paying someone when they're doing work you didn't ask for, doing work that doesn't align with your goals, and ignoring what you say?
That seems to be the point where sunk cost fallacy strikes hard in the post to me. They had paid $X for "80% of the first milestone of work" and that sunk cost locks them in to everything else that happens. They seemed too fearful from that point onward that if they fired the agency and brought in a new agency or freelancer that they would start from square 1 and do all of the previous work (and spend) over again. Th…
Pretty sure the agency is well aware of this fallacy, which is no doubt why they treated this guy so well in the very beginning.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#463It would be great if there was a matching service that: was not upwork or similar - just a simple listing. I don't want to advertise and market, I just want to get a part time job with like 10 hours a week where I fix react components or even per line of code. does not take a huge chunk of the interaction profit (most of these services want a percentage, I think that's ok as long as it's less than 1% and not exceedin…
Quote: "I found them through a Hacker News monthly freelancer thread."
It's almost inconceivable to go so far off track, but finally conclude a freelancer would have been better when that was their first step. WTH is "WebAgency" who doesn't have time for small clients doing in a freelancer thread??
They should be outed here for wearing sheep's clothing. But the client is happy cos it's all free advertising, so who are the sheep?
Re: I regret my website redesign
#464My heart goes out to this guy ... For those unaware, the blogger left a high-paying job at Google 4-years ago [1] to start his own business and over those last 4-years, unfortunately, hasn't really made any money/profit [2] His blog is a treasure trove of insights and lessons learned along the way. Highly recommend for others to read. [1] https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/ [2] https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-yea…
Wait what. He worked for Google and is not able to build a website like this himself?
Re: I regret my website redesign
#465This is the rule and not the exception. It seems software always takes much longer and costs much more than you think it will. The smaller the task, the better it can be estimated, and the less likely you are to veer off into crazyland.
The best solution I know would be to hire a team and use agile methodology to focus on the most important things first, breaking them down into small tasks. The team might be people you hire, or it could be people from an agency, but the project needs a strong, hands-on leader who is committed to the goal. I have never known a toss-a-big-solution-over-the-wall approach to work really well. Those projects can vary from annoying to completely dysfunctional.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#466Does anyone want me to build their website for them? I'll do it for 10k
Re: I regret my website redesign
#467I think you got scammed big time, I mean, nobody who is doing big projects and has a lot on their plate is going to post on "HN: Who wants to be hired?"
Re: I regret my website redesign
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
I talk about this at the bottom: https://mtlynch.io/tinypilot-redesign/#why-didnt-you-just-fi...
I see cheap $4/hr developers, but I don't see anything specific about Fiverrs. Are you lumping them in together?
Yes.
I don't mean literally $4/hr, but just any developer whose distinguishing feature is being cheaper than most other developers.
I thought that was Fiverr's brand.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#469$46k for those changes holy fucking shit. I’ve charged less than this to design a whole 200m² house. I built a detailed 3d model, secured all the permissions and technical approvals, produced 30 A1 drawings, written a 200 page spec, coordinated engineering, tendered to contractors negotiated the tender, visited the site every two weeks for two years to check they were building it correctly and signed off on thier inv…
Am I out of touch? I think about 30-40k does not sound unreasonable for something like this. You have a redesign, with UX people improving your shopping and cart page + implementation + updating your maze of weird bootstrap theme to the new redesign.
tbf the agency's original "how long is a piece of string" response to website is probably fair here
Some companies really do want to a/b test their shopping cart to death, and have 40 iterations of their logo with roundtable meetings in between, and that stuff can genuinely take many man months and in the case of the a/b testing might even be time and money well spent. I'm sure some of the agency's regular clients spend $400k on getting e-commerce sites which are only a bit more complex overhauled and think they'll see value from it
But 46k is definitely unreasonable for something you've estimated at 7k, and 38 billable hours to refactor a Bootstrap template for a minimalist website with about 10 pages doesn't sound like efficient work.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#470$46k for those changes holy fucking shit. I’ve charged less than this to design a whole 200m² house. I built a detailed 3d model, secured all the permissions and technical approvals, produced 30 A1 drawings, written a 200 page spec, coordinated engineering, tendered to contractors negotiated the tender, visited the site every two weeks for two years to check they were building it correctly and signed off on thier inv…
You certainly are not an idiot, if you managed to do all that work up to professional standards.
You didn't say how much you charged for that job, so it is impossible to give assessment there. But it is almost certain you charged way too low.
From what I can gather, you provided a lot of services there. It's not so much the designing and the 3D model that counts, but all the services you describe, that are really, really valuable. Because you provide a total package and one that is facing regulatore/legal.
Two years of site visits alone would amount to ~50 trips. This alone would be worth 20k at least, since you also are bound for that time and cannot leave town etc. Hard to say without further details…