how to charge a client

use to build sites for fun, and now im serious abt making money out of it!

[cywong]

hi guys,
like maylin (ref: [webmasterworld.com...] I also have no idea of how about charging clients just in case i wanna take this interest further. well, i am an amateur designer building sites just for fun. i learn on my own without any formal lessons from college or uni, all just based on manuals from the net. currently, im hooked up with PHP (phpBB & phpnuke as well) & MySQL and i really wanna take this skill further into developing it as a real business..for your info, i have got, well i can say sufficient knowledge on installing, and setting phpnuke & phpbb forums as well as building normal HTML websites. in the past, i had built websites for free for an import/export company (HTML), a restaurant (HTML), a jewellry shop (HTML), a martial art club (HTML, a scout group forum (phpnuke), a uni alumni forum (phpbb), and an entertainment fansite forum (phpnuke) - most recent.

I got a few questions here and i wish all of you experts out there could guide me through giving me a guide of charging my clients. My question is:

1. i would like to know, should my potential clients be charged based on per hour basis or content of the page?

2. does skills in installing and setting up (that includes adding & config blocks & modules) a phpnuke & phpbb site a good skill for a webmaster? let's say if i would charge:
a. phpnuke site
b. phpbb site
how much will a) and b) roughly be?

3. i would like to get a rough idea from all of you out there of how much (roughly) my website that i have created for a restaurant would cost for, and this is what i did:
a. registering a domain and finding the host for the client
b. the website is an informative website, therefore it contains factual info of the restuarant i.e. history, food description, profile, how to get there instructions etc in text, a javascript powered photo gallery, images in JPG format around 30 copies, a guestbook (free guestbook from Bravenet.com), i made 3 types of restaurant menus downloadable in PDF & DOC format (which means 6 files altogether), installed a hit counter, designed a logo, setting up client's POP email addresses and responding to customers email (act as customer service).
c. the site contained around 20 pages of a mix of HTML & simple Java scripts pages.

4. would like to know how much is the basic charge to update a page whenever i was instructed by my client?
(Update - as simple as adding some text/images and as crucial as changing the layout and structure)

5. is there any good site where i can learn about freelancing and getting into it? and your opinions about it (freelancing work) esp, the do & don'ts of getting into freelancing.

Im looking forward to learn Flash soon and I'm okay with basic Mysql, basic php and basic graphic design.

Looking forward for all your replies very soon!
Thank u all so much!

[Donboy]

I think the short answer is... charge people whatever your time is worth to you.

I personally would not charge people an hourly rate. This can become very excessive and it leaves the price very open-ended. If you want to charge an hourly rate, I would recommend also giving your customers an estimate of how many hours you think it will take. The main thing you want to do is be sure you can put a pretty specific price tag for the whole package.

In fact, I recommend starting out by getting yourself a portfolio of websites you have done. Maybe create a website that showcases your work with links to all of the sites you have done. When people want a website created, they will come to your site and look at your samples. Then, they can contact you and say "how much will it cost for a site that looks like #3". This way, you can give them a dollar amount so they can get an idea of what theirs would cost.

I think you're going to find that every customer is different and probably many of them will not be interested in some of the features you offer, so I wouldn't bother trying to price your jobs based on whether PHPNuke or Javascript is included. Don't worry about putting a pricetag on the individual details. Concentrate on putting a pricetag on the whole package. I've seen crappy websites being sold for $4000 bucks. When you finally get to the point where you are charging people that much money for a website, you will no longer care about the price of individual features.

Since you're just getting started, I recommend charging your first few customers just a few hundred dollars per site. This will give you some experience working with customers. It will give you an idea of what sort of things your customers will ask for. It will give you an idea of how your time is spent developing a site. It will give you a better idea of what to charge people next time you land another customer.

Registering a domain is cheap. We're talking about $10 USD. If your client asks for this, you can add it to the total pricetag. If they want hosting, you can find them a host and tell them what it will cost. Plan to open the account yourself and then charge the client a dollar amount as if you were providing the hosting yourself.

Charging people for updates is a whole other ball of wax. You should plan to setup terms for this too with your client. I recommend charging them a monthly fee with the understanding that they can ask for unlimited updates to their site. Most people will simply ask for a few minor changes per month, which is well worth the monthly fee you're charging them. If you're paying for their hosting fees too, you can roll it all into one "monthly maintenance" fee. It's a good idea to define the term "updates" beforehand. This way, when the customer comes back and says, "hey, I want to redesign the whole homepage" you can explain that this is not in your "updates" agreement and would require additional billing if they want such drastic changes.