Designing a website

[mjrbaseball]

Hello.

Over the years, I have designed a number of websites for myself and others, primarily as a hobby. Recently I have been approached about designing one professionally. It isn't a done-deal yet, but it could happen.

Anyway, I have no idea what I should charge for my service. Is there a standard rate? Obviously it depends on how complex the site is, but what are the determining factors?

Also, does one take into consideration who the site is being designed for? This one will be for a local small-town government. But what if I were doing it for a commercial business? (Does it depend on the size of the business?) How about for a non-profit organization?

(I think for a non-profit, though, I would donate my services.)

I know many of you have experience in this area. I would appreciate any advice you have.

Thank you.

[HilcoAthletic]

well the company that i currently work for was having a website built for them before i came into the company and it was costing my boss like $1,600 for a worthless site. But i got hired and designed it for them for free since he signs my paychecks. anyways for commercial businesses and business of any type people usually can get paid big money for their services. Of course when you start getting into flash it becomes more time consuming and the price also is able to be raised. Normally i would give a quote based on how many pages and what the purpose of the site is (if it needs a database and php or ASP and all that jazz).

i would charge say between $50 - $125 per page based on complexity.

[CJR]

Whether you base your price on the number of pages or the number of hours, never tell the client that. Give them a total. If they don't know, offer to help them scope it (for a price, if you want) so that you can put a better estimate together.

My rates vary because I raise prices for clients that I know are a hassel or jobs I don't really want to do and lower them for jobs I want. The rate at the last place I worked where we actually had clients as $85/hour but that was in a University setting. A private-sector place where a friend of mine works charges $150/hour but I think that's strictly for programming, not design.

[paynomind]

"A Website" is such a general term.

Thats like asking, "How much does a car cost."

Like a car, depending on what they want a site to do, it can be anywhere from $5 to $50k

If what they want is a standard brochure-ware, 7 page job with a contact us email form, I'd run them just under 1k.

[pcgd]

If you ever do design work, buy this book:

http://www.gag.org/pegs/index.php

[Puck]

Either Start from $500 and go upwardly as the project gets complex.

Or hourly rates starting at $25 and working up also based upon complexity. If you're going to be maintaining it beyond the point of creation, drop it to $20 an hour.

[Mac the Knife]

Go take a look at IFFLFootball.com, CapitalAreaTeamSports.com and CarolinaColts.com. I just had these three domains (with others forthcoming) redesigned as part of a new web presence for my non-profit amateur sports organization.

The designer, a member of our organization, charged us $800. With the exception of some custom stuff (webforms, the IFFL's online games, etc.), and the graphics (which I did using my limited capabilities) he wrote most of it in ASP and everything worked out to be a template, from which we could add our own content. Total number of original pages created? Probably around 35 when all's said and done, leaving that $25 per page amount as fairly accurate.

Note: Originally I bid on this project for eLance, and got bids ranging from $2K on up. I rejected every one, as none understood the narrow scope of the project in terms of its technical needs. Moral of the story? Learn everything you can about the project before quoting a price - see how much time, effort and energy you're going to have to expend... add 50% to that... then set your rate. And hourly rates? Forget it - I, nor many businesses, are going to allow someone to bill us like an attorney for web site design.

[mjrbaseball]

Thank you, everyone. I think I have some good ideas on what to start with. Once I officially meet with the people, I will know what amount of work is required.

I'm probably not going to do anything very complex, like Flash. This will be for a small-town local government in a very rural area, with an older-than-average population. Not that older people aren't using the Internet, but a government site should be easy to use accessible to as many people as possible. It's probably going to be straight HTML with photos, maps, phone numbers, some tourism info, garbage collection schedules, etc.

[quantum]

I'm curious as to what the rates would be. With my familiarity with working with graphic artists, I have a difficult time believing that $25/hour even buys a consultation let alone actual design time. I guess it really depends on the talent of the web designer and what he can offer.

A couple of pages for a small business would definitely run a few hundred. Larger companies would surely run well into the thousands.