Re: FN-FORUM: costing for a website ?

date posted 27th February 2008 22:24

Adding to Andy's point about maintenance charge, assign a certain amount
of hours and charge accordingly.
Example : The client agrees to 10 hours a month and pays 'the rate'
whether he uses that up or not. Anything over the rate is extra.
What you want to avoid is the client emailing you with a "oh, can you
just do this, it'll only take a few minutes".
How then do you charge for the 3 hours (nothing ever takes 'just a few
minutes' and if it does, why doesn't the client do it themselves ... but
that's another story!).
Also EVERY time the client sanctions the hours, email them straight away
and keep track of what you are doing.

I have found that the more confident and certain with your pricing you
are the more the client respects you.

Lee Rickler
Director Point and Stare - pointandstare.com
Web Design and Development for over 11 years

Andy Halsall wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> As an aside, with 425 pages, I hope you are looking at generating them
> (either one off, sporadically or on demand) and keeping the design away
> from the data and logic..
>
> If it were me, Id look at building the framework for the site and
> charging with something close to Lee's measure of 'n x r + f = ballpark
> figure', leaving wiggle room in any quote offered, then considerably
> less for any bulk data entry, preferably passing that off to someone who
> is geared toward it, or even back to the client if they feel they are
> able to do it and want to...
>
> I'd also charge the maintainance on either a monthly or annual basis,
> with a cap on the amount of work (other than fixes...) and a pre-agreed
> pricing structure for anything extra. I wouldn't go for a per incident
> cost (for this kind of thing), it can get a little messy and most people
> I have worked with tended to find that clients would save up issues
> (which is probably good for your workflow) and want everything done very
> quickly (which is bad for blood pressure and planning).
>
>
>
>
>
> Lee Thomas gmail wrote:
>>
>> Hello everyone
>> have been a long time reader but first time poster, And I would like
>> some advice on pricing.
>> A client of mine has asked me to redesign his site from scratch
>> estimated 425 pages with integration of 3 payment systems paypal ,
>> google checkout and protex and i have no idea where to start with
>> costing. most of the pages will be a copy of the main product page so
>> i will not have to design 425 unique pages, but each will have a
>> different images and text. also it will need maintaining on an average
>> 10 page updates per month again i have no idea on an average price
>> that most people charge to maintain and update websites as my main
>> experience lies in creating very small sites which i would generally
>> not charge very much for as they are mostly off the back of
>> photography work as i specialize in making 3d walkthroughs of
>> buildings and 3d product QTVRs for websites as well as most aspects of
>> design and media .
>>
>> any help off my vague description will be very helpful
>>
>>
>>
>> yours Lee Thomas
>>
>> LMT photogaphy / media / design / support
>> 07955371427
>>
>> [EMAIL REMOVED]
>> [EMAIL REMOVED]
>> www.lmtphotography.co.uk ( site currently under redesign ) but have a
>> look
>
>