Demaestro - 7:10 pm on Jul 16, 2010 (gmt 0)

My rule is if they are asking questions trying to decide if they should proceed with work, bascially if the questions are centered around "What would it take to...." or "What is involved in ...." then I don't charge as I anticipate my answers can lead to billable hours.

Otherwise if I am giving advice like what is a better title A or B, or which image would be best for the front page then I charge my consulting rate. As soon as the line of questioning starts I ask them to come in for a meeting and I bill for the meeting.

I charge for updates, not by the hour but by the month and they get up to x amount of basic content changes. It is based on a service contract.

A good base point would be... $600/year gets you 1 content update on 1 page per month. If you can land 10 contracts like that you can hire someone to do it for you for $10 an hour.

[edited by: httpwebwitch at 8:09 pm (utc) on Jul 17, 2010]