Forum Moderators: mack
Anyway.. to my point. I have my first customer who offered to pay me $100 for a redesign of his old Web site. Take into consideration, 1. this is a friend of mine, 2. I am in the process of getting my education (only taken one HTML class) and 3. This web site is a Yahoo Site Builder site.
He is paying the monthly fees to Yahoo to keep the site, domain name, email addresses.. etc. (I guess this is called site hosting?) About $11.95 per month.
Ok, so my question.
1. Is this a fair price for a beginner? Or am I selling myself short?
2. Is there a cheaper / more options hosting site to host with besides Yahoo?
Thanks all.. I have enjoyed reading through the posts on here so far and I am taking notes by copy/pasting as I read.
Tiffany
I can't answer the question about hosting, but I can talk a little about design and what it's worth.
$100 is pretty cheap for a redesign of a site (unless it's a one-pager!). However, since this is both a friend and your first client, think about the other value you may get out of redesigning the site.
There's a tremendous learning experience, here. Redesign can be trickier than designing from scratch. You'll learn all about playing with someone else's code. Also, it takes time to learn your own style when working with clients. Does your friend want to have input into the design process, or is he leaving it all up to you? If he dictates what he wants you may need to learn how to say no to bad ideas!
The other value of doing this cheap is that you'll begin to build your portfolio. Most clients like to see your other work before they'll give you a job ... to have an existing site out there that you've done will help you get future jobs.
So it's not a matter of selling yourself short on your first job ... consider it being paid a little bit to learn a lot! Good luck on the site.
Hi, great advice. He is overseeing the project and making minor changes as I design. Most are minor, and don't effect overall design. He does want to add a picture and I worry about the quality, and I know that will effect the entire design, especially when a poor quality picture is used, I think it looks completely unprofessionial.
So, can we post a web site here to have others look at or is that against the rules?
Thanks for the response. I know it is a small amount of money.. but as you said, I am working to build a reputation and get experience.
Also, any recommendations on a contract? I would like to draw one up for practice, but do not have the money to do it with a lawyer. I plan to do it later once I am working full-scale on web design.
Thanks a lot,
Tiffany
Stand up for your position when you work with your clients. Things like adding a poor-quality picture - if it's truly poor quality, make sure he knows it will detract from sales. If he needs convincing, find other sites that have poor pictures and show him how they can detract from the quality.
As for posting a URL here - that's not allowed at WebmasterWorld. But you can certainly bring questions and ideas about your design to the forums and have people discuss them!
You can find at least one discussion of contracts at this older thread [webmasterworld.com]. See if this answers your question.
So, can we post a web site here to have others look at or is that against the rules?
Against the rules, sorry.
Some threads you might find helpful in terms of setting up a contract:
Read Marcia's post in particular [webmasterworld.com]
Barebones sample website contract/agreement [webmasterworld.com]
My first Contract [webmasterworld.com]
All the above found by searching Google for 'sample contract site:www.webmasterworld.com' - you'll find searching via Google is more productive than the WebmasterWorld internal search engine.
$100 is, as said above, very cheap... but given the circumstances the job has its benefits. Do make it clear to your friend that he is getting a special price though, and as much as you would appreciate his referring other people to you the price should be kept confidential.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Great links, thanks!
I know it is cheap, but it is a good project I think, for the practice.
After this, what price should I charge? My SCORE counselor suggest $500 for a five page design, simple, no flash or other extras. Just a nice clean design.
Tiffany :o)
Compare this to some rural areas I've lived where many people don't know what a web site is worth or how much to expect to pay for one. So you get people expecting to pay $1200 for a static site with a few pages and others expecting a custom designed 10 page site for $200. The first one I would gladly take, and give them more than they expected and send them away happy. The second I would explain that the value of a site but ultimately if he is a sniggler about money than I don't want him as a client.
So you need to do some market research, find out what your competition is charging, do an honest assesment of what your skills are in comparison with your competition (that is, determine who your real competition *is*), and then stand firm with your prices.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you might want to be flexible with your prices depending on who shows up at your door. I like to have a little breathing room so that if a non-profit or a little home-based business wants a website I can help them out and maybe give them a break.
Here are some resources for that:
[****...] - a forum like webmasterworld, except it is about web hosting and also they allow commercial links so watch out for that.
[whreviews.com...] - this is a great site that reviews hosting sites but it isn't an advertising directory or affiliate site. It doesn't have a huge lists of companies but does list the best and has some good advice on what to look for in a web host.
