Forum Moderators: not2easy
I am really seeking some specific advice here about how much to charge "first-world" clientele for website design.
I'm an american, and have been a graphic designer for the past 23 years. Moved into web design 4 years ago. I also do css and html coding for most of the sites I design. I use to have my own design studio in San Francisco but moved to the Philippines 10 years ago and have been struggling financially ever since: Local clients here want the quality I am known to produce, but won't pay anything but peanuts. Like probably many of you, I have a family to support and am trying to get out from under a state of perpetual poverty. I need to cast my net into the first world to (a) get myself known, and (b) to start to make some decent money.
I've researched some of the "jobs" sites - dice, et. al. - but I'm not really looking to be anyone's steady employee as I want to continue living here.
So, with that background out of the way, the core questions are:
1) When working for a 1st world client, what should one charge; what's the "going rate"
2) is it best to charge by the "page", or for a complete site design (individual psd comps of the home page as well as how each interior section would/could look)?
3) What are the typical deliverables to a client? Unflattend PSD file(s)? Completely sliced elements of a chosen study?
Any other advise in addition to my 3 questions above are very, very welcome.
My self, and my family, greatly appreciate any guidance anyone here can offer.
Neophyte
Never design by the page - in my experience this leads to all sorts of problems.
Typically in a situation like yours I host a couple of succinct meetings with the client (phone or in person) - to agree what they want and what I can offer. then I pen an e-mail explaining my terms, rates and a detailed summary of what they get for their money and when.
This e-mail can scare them off, but the way I see it if someone is not willing to pay for decent service they shouldn't get one.
Sounds to me as if you have bag loads of experience so you have to ask what you'd like to be earning? Then work out an hourly pay structure that suits that fee and balance it against local expenditure and living costs. That should give you a fairly accurate hourly/daily rate.
Aside - the consultancy I work for charges my design time at £50 p/hr - I work at about an average of £20/25 p/hr for freelance jobs. Overheads dictate the rate and the size of the client in these cases...
I'm guessing that an experienced designer with good English and (comparatively) low living costs would be a much sort after commodity - then all you have to do is market your work/rates to the 'western' world.
My typical deliverable is a complete website - I have never produced rasterised design only. but if you are hired by a design agency to produce website designs that are to be coded up into HTML/CSS I'd do it in the format they are happiest with - ask them. PSD is good for me - but PNG/JPEG would be essential for clients without Photoshop.
Also jobsites are good but make sure you target the freelance sites/agencies - they'll have more small projects that you can do remotely.
Whenever possible, aim for a project rate and not for hour rates.
Agreed - once you have worked out your preferred hourly rates - total up the project fee and charge as a whole
