Price range for website(s)?

[MagSafe]

Hi

I'm about to do a website for a friend and it'll be the first website that i'll be charging the client for my services.

Although they haven't given me a list of requirements yet I know it will be about 5 different pages, with a php driven contact form. I don't think there wanting any content management interface built in so it will just be well designed in xhtml, css and using a small amount of php. I have a good portfolio to my name so it won't be as if it's my first ever website. No flash will be used in the design.

What I'm asking is what people would recommend as an approximate amount to charge them for it?

Thanks,

Steven.

 

[Beansprout]

If it's your first website then you should start cheap because you want to build experience....but at the same time you don't want to be too cheap because invariably it's harder to raise prices and things get a bit messy.

The first website I ever did I charged £260 for and it was a small 5-page site, co-incidentally (The company then went bust...but I don't think it was related to the website)

I'd say £200 - £400 because it sounds pretty simple - not bad for a day's (or perhaps a few hours) work (assuming all pages use the same template of course) + the consultation and tweaking time

In terms of an hourly rate for a beginner freelancer I'd say £15 - £25/hr depending on complexity. I don't tend to charge by the hour though since it's virtually impossible - I prefer fixed-price work and use various factors including our basic hourly rate.

Desinging doesn't take too long but browser testing and tweaking (trust me, they never know what colours they want - I remember one time totally ignoring my client's request because, frankly, it sucked ) does, so all you can do is add that into the price and if it doesn't end up fiddly, you're quids in...it'll average out over time, though.

 

[MagSafe]

Thanks for that, great bit of advice there

Also, I have a bulk reseller account with my hosting service so will be able to give him unlimited bandwidth and space hosting as well as a .co.uk domain name and email address(s). I am presuming your estimated price doesn't include this, so if I was to going to add this in as an option for him instead of him going out and getting hosting and the domain himself how much more could I charge? , baring in mind it wouldn't cost me a lot to add the domain to my reseller account, £10-£20 i think it will cost me, if that.

Thanks again,

Steven.

 

[blade007]

if you get a 5pager built by company then it tends to start from £400 and goes upward from there.,

and bear in mind that the £400er will be crap. a 5hr job, a few photos, couple of graphics, text, and links.

I reckon £250 is a sweetspot to start on.

 

[Beansprout]

Unlimited doesn't exist. Don't start telling him that because it's misleading and there's no need to head towards that part of the industry

Take the cost of your reseller account, the number of clients you expect to have, and how much profit you want to make then work out a price.

I suppose the theory is to try and charge him as much as you need to make a profit but ensure you give him a good service, too - perhaps say you'll do monthly updates or something in order to get the recurring billing which will cover your hosting costs.

Try and do recurring billing for the hosting because it smooths out your income and stops you spending the money all at once....but I go against my own advice here since I prefer getting small websites all done and paid for because they're just out of the way.

Also, a .co.uk domain shouldn't cost you more than £6.46 from Registron

 

[MagSafe]

Unlimited doesn't exist. Don't start telling him that because it's misleading and there's no need to head towards that part of the industry

Take the cost of your reseller account, the number of clients you expect to have, and how much profit you want to make then work out a price.

I suppose the theory is to try and charge him as much as you need to make a profit but ensure you give him a good service, too - perhaps say you'll do monthly updates or something in order to get the recurring billing which will cover your hosting costs.

Try and do recurring billing for the hosting because it smooths out your income and stops you spending the money all at once....but I go against my own advice here since I prefer getting small websites all done and paid for because they're just out of the way.

Also, a .co.uk domain shouldn't cost you more than £6.46 from Registron

Hi again, thanks for that.

I can understand why you'd rather just get clients to pay a one off fee though, it would make things a lot simpiler, although in saying that charging them per update could be a great money spinner in the long run.

They know the basics of HTML anyway (they did a module in their networking degree with me at uni), so I'd imagine they would want to do the basic updates themselves to cut back costs, which is fair enough I think if things take off with his business he's wanting to add a lot more functionality to the website (such as a content management system with adding and displaying stock) so I'll charge them again for that if/when the time comes.

I think as it would be my first website i'm going to be charging for, getting them to pay per update would make things a bit complicated anyway.

As for the hosting & domain I'll give them two prices, one with just providing them with files to upload and another with the hosting etc.

Thanks for the much appreciated advice and help,

Steven

 

[JustinW]

I'd be very sure that you are going to be able to support the hosting in the long-term.

The problem is if you decided to get rid of your hosting, or you couldn't afford it any longer then you may be in breach of agreement with your client and this could be messy.

Furthermore what if the hosting goes down as a result of actions from your hosting company? Any loss of business incured by your client may end up back with you.

It might be worth getting them to sort their own hosting out.

If they are a start-up business I am sure they will quickly find that in the very near future they will need some kind of IT infastructure. Do a good job with their website and you could end up consulting for them on their e-business strategy.

Justin

 

[MagSafe]

I'd be very sure that you are going to be able to support the hosting in the long-term.

The problem is if you decided to get rid of your hosting, or you couldn't afford it any longer then you may be in breach of agreement with your client and this could be messy.

Furthermore what if the hosting goes down as a result of actions from your hosting company? Any loss of business incured by your client may end up back with you.

It might be worth getting them to sort their own hosting out.

If they are a start-up business I am sure they will quickly find that in the very near future they will need some kind of IT infastructure. Do a good job with their website and you could end up consulting for them on their e-business strategy.

Justin

yeah, good point actually.

i'll have a talk with them and see what they want to do.

 

[Teknodeamon]

Totally agree with justin, build them the website, give them the code then get them to host it themselves =p