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Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

designfor15bucks.com

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Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#171

Post by ajscherer »

anigbrowl wrote: post #130
tlrobinson wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather do something I enjoy for slightly less money than get an office job or flip burgers.

You must have very cheap rent. If you don't ask for money for what you do, then you are saying that what you do is worthless. You probably don't actually believe that, and the only reason to sell your work for less than the most basic labor is because you don't know how to get paid properly. But customers see your pricing and conclude that designers do not need to be paid even the normal minimum for other kinds of wo…

I think the scenario you imagine whereby him doing a few designs for $15 leads to him being old and alone with a ruined life is pretty far fetched.

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#172

Post by nhangen »

hoop wrote: post #41

Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a design store, you see designfor15bucks.com sittin' there, there's designfor14bucks.com right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man? Ted: I would go for the 14. Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. designfor14bucks.com. And we guarantee just as good a design as the designfor15bucks.com folk. Ted: You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that? Hitchhiker: If you're not happy…

Well in that case, Fiverr has this guy beat.

To be honest, if I see:

Design for $15

or

Design for $50

I'm choosing 50 because I'm hoping that he has fewer clients, values himself more, and isn't going to give me crappy design.

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#173

Post by nhangen »

alinajaf wrote: post #136

I don't understand why so many replies assume that this was intended to be long-term, sustainable business model. It's a brilliant marketing exercise, nothing more, nothing less.

So true. Look at the comments here...has HN in a frenzy. I hate it, but it's brilliant. Seems like something Tim Ferriss would do.

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#174

Post by brc »

tlrobinson wrote: post #97
swombat wrote: post #3

Assuming it takes you at least 1-2 hours per design (and even with mad photoshop skillz it's unlikely it'd be much shorter than that), you're probably better off getting an office job somewhere, or even maybe a burger-flipping job. Given all the additional expenses of running your own business, this is probably not a viable business model (i.e. you will lose money on the whole). The only way this would be justified i…

I'd rather do something I enjoy for slightly less money than get an office job or flip burgers.

But this will be a short-term solution. Getting paid a little for something you love will eventually burn you out. It might take a week, a month, a year : eventually you'll tire because of the need to keep feeding the meter.

It's not the design work that will cause this; it's dealing with the people that will cause the problem.

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#175

Post by kevinpet »

anigbrowl wrote: post #130
tlrobinson wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather do something I enjoy for slightly less money than get an office job or flip burgers.

You must have very cheap rent. If you don't ask for money for what you do, then you are saying that what you do is worthless. You probably don't actually believe that, and the only reason to sell your work for less than the most basic labor is because you don't know how to get paid properly. But customers see your pricing and conclude that designers do not need to be paid even the normal minimum for other kinds of wo…

I agree. If he wants to do some for free, do it for free. There's nothing damaging to your reputation about doing pro-bono work. I suggested my wife redesign some libertarian party websites for free as she was making the transition from print to web as a way to get experience and build a portfolio. This worked out well and actually led to some paying work through the contacts.

She adamantly refuses to work for less than pay for less than what she thinks is a long-term viable rate on the grounds that once you quote someone a price, you can never go back to them and say "oh, yeah, $60/hr was because I was desperate, now I'm charging $90". If you need to cut the price, charge the going hourly rate and throw in freebie hours.

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#177

Post by rmc »

ehutch79 wrote: post #159
dstorrs wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't ask for money for what you do, then you are saying that what you do is worthless. "Um, what?" --Every open source developer, ever.

most open source software are tools, not products.

So what about the Open Source Software that are products?

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#178

Post by rmc »

user24 wrote: post #57
hoop wrote: post #41

Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a design store, you see designfor15bucks.com sittin' there, there's designfor14bucks.com right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man? Ted: I would go for the 14. Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. designfor14bucks.com. And we guarantee just as good a design as the designfor15bucks.com folk. Ted: You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that? Hitchhiker: If you're not happy…

but on the web, there is no street on which to see sites next to each other. I knew a jewellery company once which had two sites. One was all red and gold and stars and flashing things, the other was all purple and white and curvy things. The items on the purple posh looking one were 15% more expensive. Same products on each - heck, it was the same database, product description and images on each site! Point is, this…

Having multiple sites is genius. It's great market segmentation.

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#179

Post by lsc »

Relevant to my interests. I'll probably be giving it a go shortly. My buddy (who has taste) suggests toning down the front page, though.

While others say 'raise your prices' my suggestion is to keep them low, at least until you have more work than you want to handle. at $15, I might as well give you a shot. at $150? eh, I'm much less likely to blow that on something I have no idea if I will like or not.

Oh, also, if I like the design, it'd be pretty cool to slip you another $100 or something and get the html/css, I mean, if it's possible to get that sort of thing at that price.

Re: Yesterday I had this crazy idea: People pay me $15, I make them a web design

#180

Post by DanielStraight »

You know... most of the comments in response have been negative. Some have said the $5 charge for keeping the design off the portfolio is phrased wrong. Some have said the price is too low. Some have criticized the site design, but you know what? In about an hour, this guy got more customers than he could even deal with.

He now has a collection of email addresses he can send an announcement to when he launches a "real" web design company. He has a bunch of examples he can show of real customers using his designs. He has the experience of actually having someone pay him for his work. Heck, he even got over 200 HN karma out of the deal.

How can this be a bad thing?

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