How much would you charge for this?

[HotelUnderSeige]

So pretty much someone has asked me to build a site for them, and what they want is a cms where they can upload there product, show case it, Events for their group, Tutorials for different type of products, and a place to sell their products. They are a non-proffit organazation and would also be paying for the hosting, and domain name. I have no idea what to charge D: so help me out please? and thank you! ;D

 

[s-p-n]

Well try to think of how many hours it would take and figure out an hourly wage for yourself.

Most people underbid themselves in hours, so it's typical to x2 or x3 your estimated hours- you never know what could go wrong.

Then make sure the client understands that what they give you as far as feature requests is what the quote is for- no additional features may be requested on that quote, however, should you choose to do more work and add the feature, you can quote that separately.

 

[TimeBomb]

Well try to think of how many hours it would take and figure out an hourly wage for yourself.

Most people underbid themselves in hours, so it's typical to x2 or x3 your estimated hours- you never know what could go wrong.

Then make sure the client understands that what they give you as far as feature requests is what the quote is for- no additional features may be requested on that quote, however, should you choose to do more work and add the feature, you can quote that separately.

To add on to what s-p-n said, I would recommend you get into the habit of padding your hours.
You need an hourly rate. That should depend on how much you think your time is worth, which should be relational to your level of skill as well as how fast you work. You will probably want to look at the hourly wage of your competitors as well, i.e. other similar freelancers in your area.

Take how much time you think, at most, it will take to do the project. Add a small amount. So if I think I can do it in three hours, I may tell the customers four or five hours.

You also should make sure you pad your hours. As s-p-n said, you may want to double or perhaps even triple your estimated time. So if I think a project may take me three hours, I may tell the customer it should take me five to nine hours.
Optionally, you can choose to 'secure' your padded rate for your client. In other words, tell them that if you go over nine hours, you won't charge them for it. I've done this at times, especially if the client does a lot of business with me.

 

[HotelUnderSeige]

Alright these are the prices and the email that i am going to see to them.

What do you this? Is this bueno or no bueno. What should I change or not change?

So for the set up of the Server, the registartion and 2 year contract with the domain, and setting up the hosting, it will be a 60$ fee.

After the first two months, there will be a 35$ or 50$ server hosting, and maintance for edditing the site fee. Depending on the speed of site you wish to have.


For the design, Content Management System, Video tutorials, and set up of the actual site it will be a one time 350$ fee.


If you would like any search engine optimization, which would allow your site to be found faster on search enginges such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, it is a 150$ monthly fee. If you pay for the SEO fee, then you do not have to pay the 35$ or 50$ monthly maintance fee.

The site will be a rather fast set up, and at the minium will take 1 and at the max 5 days to design and publish.

 

[TimeBomb]

Alright these are the prices and the email that i am going to see to them.

What do you this? Is this bueno or no bueno. What should I change or not change?

Hmm...
The "email" is unprofessional. Lots of spelling mistakes, and the grammar is less than satisfactory. The second paragraph(sentence) is worded somewhat poorly. And their is no mention of a monthly fee when you talk about "server hosting", which I assume there should be.

Personally, I don't bother with managing their hosting account. If they don't have a host, I'll recommend a good host or two, and then help them get it set up if necessary.

I'll then set up their site, and charge them on a per-hour basis for that. If they have any issues, they know that they can contact the host or, for an additional fee, myself.

The web design firm I do contract work for used to manage their client's web servers - going as far to host their client's websites on their own servers - and, well, let's just say they are glad they aren't doing it anymore. Hosting isn't your business. But, in the end, the decision is really up to you.

In terms of the SEO fee - how well do you actually know SEO? I've seen lots of people that take advantage of web owners lack of knowledge related to "what is SEO", and thus the developer tacks on outrageous SEO fees and isn't able to produce much of any results, other than maybe submitting the website to search engines (which is completely outdated and unnecessary with most major search engines).

 

[HotelUnderSeige]

Hmm...
The "email" is unprofessional. Lots of spelling mistakes, and the grammar is less than satisfactory. The second paragraph(sentence) is worded somewhat poorly. And their is no mention of a monthly fee when you talk about "server hosting", which I assume there should be.

Personally, I don't bother with managing their hosting account. If they don't have a host, I'll recommend a good host or two, and then help them get it set up if necessary.

I'll then set up their site, and charge them on a per-hour basis for that. If they have any issues, they know that they can contact the host or, for an additional fee, myself.

The web design firm I do contract work for used to manage their client's web servers - going as far to host their client's websites on their own servers - and, well, let's just say they are glad they aren't doing it anymore. Hosting isn't your business. But, in the end, the decision is really up to you.

In terms of the SEO fee - how well do you actually know SEO? I've seen lots of people that take advantage of web owners lack of knowledge related to "what is SEO", and thus the developer tacks on outrageous SEO fees and isn't able to produce much of any results, other than maybe submitting the website to search engines (which is completely outdated and unnecessary with most major search engines).

What would be the spelling and grammar error's that you see, so that I can fix them.

Well I own a dedicated server, that I use for my Seo work. Thought that I might as well use it for the hosting of other people's site. Which i do now, for other people anyways.

I know I should do an hourly wage, but the amount of time that it would take me either would either be insurmountable amount of shortness, or longness.

I know quite a bit about seo, for it is what i actually do. I do not submit the website to search engines, I do Backlinking, Article Submission, Prior page rank boosting, and Video submissions, and a couple other things that are kind of on the down low (Not blacked-techniques either).

Sorry if I just turned down all of your advice, i hate to be arrogant. But please correct me if I am wrong anywhere.

 

[TimeBomb]

What would be the spelling and grammar error's that you see, so that I can fix them.

Well I own a dedicated server, that I use for my Seo work. Thought that I might as well use it for the hosting of other people's site. Which i do now, for other people anyways.

I know I should do an hourly wage, but the amount of time that it would take me either would either be insurmountable amount of shortness, or longness.

I know quite a bit about seo, for it is what i actually do. I do not submit the website to search engines, I do Backlinking, Article Submission, Prior page rank boosting, and Video submissions, and a couple other things that are kind of on the down low (Not blacked-techniques either).

Sorry if I just turned down all of your advice, i hate to be arrogant. But please correct me if I am wrong anywhere.

An hourly charge isn't by any means necessary or even preferred, so no worries there.
I'm glad you know some SEO techniques.

There are lots of spelling mistakes in the email.

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Spelling mistakes aside, the email is "meh". I still don't think it's all that professional, but I am a perfectionist when it comes to writing, especially when it's business-related.

 

[s-p-n]

I know I should do an hourly wage, but the amount of time that it would take me either would either be insurmountable amount of shortness, or longness.

As you get more jobs you'll get much quicker at bidding them and giving realistic quotes.. If you underbid, you cannot get mad at anyone except yourself. If you agree to letting clients add features onto a never-ending list of stuff that needs to be done for $250, know that's your own fault and it's your responsibility to practice what you preach and do as you said you'd do. Just an example.

I would ask myself questions like:
Can I build a system like that?
How long would it take me?
Could I hire people who can do some parts more efficiently than myself?
About how many hours would it take to get this done?
What's the minimum amount of time it could take?
What's the maximum amount of time it may take?
About how much would I have to spend on expenses to make this work well for the customer?
About how much time should I plan on putting into this product?


In order to help answer these questions, you can create a visual representation of the product in a mind-map or drawing. Break the project into pieces and make bids on each piece. Add the hours/bids all together when you are done, and show some of your work to the client- of course, the professional parts- nobody wants to see their head technical person playing with mind-maps, colored pencils, and crayons- but that's something we might do when nobody's watching


Lol.. So yeah, you have pretty normal prices for SEO and that- $150/mo sounds like a price I used to charge. Most people don't go for something like that, so I wouldn't center your product around it. I've convinced many people that SEO is important and can make/break a web-site's outlooks for making a profit in the future. Be open to the client's views, which usually doesn't include SEO. Though make sure you thoroughly explain how it can help them.

Oh, and by the way, give all of your secrets away. If they are good enough to help your clients and colleagues, then your clients and colleagues will come back to you! I'm not saying give away all of your "billion-dollar-ideas" but if you know of a white-hat SEO trick that works, tell people about it. Share the wealth of knowledge.

Chances are you'll get more jobs by doing so. I give people advice all the time.. Though it does take a while to make money that way >.> I don't think it helps to hide information all to yourself- especially something like SEO information which may eventually expire as search engines change- as they periodically do.

 

[iJackson]

20bux per hour
+GST
+Interest
Maybe 30bux p.h

 

[Gangnam]

There was a site I once came across that gave you an insight into how much you should charge depending on how you rate yourself as a developer/ designer (whichever is applicable) and the type of project you're getting into. I no longer know the link, but

You must be registered to see links

may give you an insight.

As s-p-n mentioned that some people under-rate themselves, some people also over-rate (maybe not yourself), and so a quote calculator may not be the most beneficial advice. Take into consideration your experience, if you've any certificates, etc. in the area that you specialise in and previous projects you may have done.

Good luck buddy.

 

[jMerliN]

Make it transform photos with crappy filters so they look like garbage 1920s cameras and low-def cameras and sell it to Facebook for 1 billion dollars.