What should I charge for a website design?

[B_Fish]

So my friend's grandfather owns a local auto repair shop that's been there for many years. I've taken my cars there several times for all sorts of stuff (shocks and struts, mufflers, etc.) and as far as I can tell I've been given a the lowest price in the area since I was comparing prices between his shop and others. Shoot, he's even taken a look at some stuff and fixed it for free, nothing major though.

In turn I occasionally fix my friend's phone since I know my way around an iphone. They're usually just small stuff such as the screen or replacing the the USB port. Simple $15-$20 fixes that don't take even an hour.

Recently my buddy said his grandpa is looking to get a website and asked me to talk to him, since I have to take one of my cars in anyway. I know he's going to ask me what I would quote him at, and honestly I don't have a clue. Maybe a few hundred?

I plan on using this wordpress theme below, since it's easy and I can show him how to set it up. I'm going to have him buy the hosting (probably with my hostgator coupon ) and then just get access through there to upload it.

http://themeforest.net/item/carpres...epair&WT.oss_rank=1&WT.z_author=ProteusThemes

After I take a few pictures with my phone, and touch them up a bit, it won't be that hard to upload them to that wordpress template and then just fill in the necessary content.

So what should I quote the guy at? In your opinion, what would be fair? I'm not exactly a master at web design, but I can certainly make something that looks professional.

 

[DawsonHayes]

Unless you are referring more than something like 5 people a month, you wont receive any money with your referral, just an fyi.

As far as websites go, if you have no idea what you're doing, you probably shouldn't charge much/anything.

Imagine you produce an awful site, your friends grandpa is going to be remorseful for having to pay, but not want to say anything to possibly harm any relationship you have. I feel it wouldn't be fair for either of you.

I simply see it as a bad situation if you're going to charge him.

And from my point of view, friends dont charge friends.

 

[Peter Ngo]

You don't need to charge that much for web design, more like 200bucks or slightly more if you are just installing wordpress theme.

Charge more in monthly hosting + maintainence, you can close the deal easier i believe.

Tell him that you will maintain everything for 20-30 bucks per month or so. And yea, 2-5 bucks to hosting, you keep the rest for doing nothing

 

[LakeForest]

Step 1: Go to school or research on your own and learn how to conduct business.

All these "How much do I charge?" threads forgo the single operative task that would answer their question: market research.

How much do other people charge for comparable services? How much is your time worth? What value can you bring? And keep on researching

Please treat what you do professionally.

 

[Beauxy]

I purchased a very nice looking, very small website that just needed grammar fixes and more information added to it for $35. I don't think you sound like you can pump stuff like that out crazy fast, but your quality will likely be higher. I would charge at least $200-300 because quality is always much more valuable. It all depends on how many pages you plan on putting into the site. Most sites on here are cheap because they are simply designed for attracting traffic with keywords and then using the traffic for stuff like adsense. If you are designing a site that is genuinely going to attract business, you need to be compensated for the extra time it takes to do so. Take a look in the marketplace for ideas on what people are charging to make sites. Keep in mind these sites are designed by very experienced people. If all else fails, remember that time is money. Charge him what you think your time is worth. Hope this helps a little.

 

[Techxan]

First off you are not doing web design, you are building a website from a template. The design was done by the person who developed the theme. Technically you are doing "website development" although real web developers will scoff at that idea.

There is no reason why this theme will not work perfectly for what you want it to.

Now how much should you charge? What are you going to build? How many pages?

At the low end of the scale, say a "5 page" website between friends for $300 or so is a very good price, and gets you some compensation for all the content creation.

By "5 page", I mean a home page and 3 content pages and an about us page. You should include standard SEO required pages as part of the deal. This includes a generic privacy policy, a contact us page, a site map and a robots file.

If you need to create 7+ pages then charge $500. Again this is a very good price among friends.

I am assuming that you will create a professional looking and grammatically correct site with intelligent content on it that will reflect well on his business, with proper SEO and security plugins. If you cannot deliver that you should not even take the job.

 

[andyf91]

I wouldn't charge to much just enough that will cover your time of work pretty much think of something that you think your work is worth and that they might be ok with

 

[mqs1000]

Step 1: Go to school or research on your own and learn how to conduct business.

All these "How much do I charge?" threads forgo the single operative task that would answer their question: market research.

How much do other people charge for comparable services? How much is your time worth? What value can you bring? And keep on researching

Please treat what you do professionally.

Asking a question like this is a form of research.

 

[TJnoodles]

Since you've never done it before you shouldn't charge much, unless you are a wiz at local seo and can bring in paying customers.
If I knew the guy I would swap him for some service and let him pay for hosting.

 

[SEO_Alchemy]

For what you are describing, as long as you make it worthwhile, and put some effort into it, $500.00 is more than reasonable for the time and effort involved.

 

[prospect7]

Minimum a grand. Obviously depending on your skill level though. I think a lot of people saying $100-200 just do it as a hobby. If that's the case and you can't put up a sick design then charge accordingly.

 

[LakeForest]

Asking a question like this is a form of research.

Tell that to one of your teachers|professors and have them laugh you out of the class and use what you said as a joke for his|her colleagues as they discuss the lowering of academic curiosity and standards.

The only thing people here could tell you is what they've done or seen, but that has no bearing on what you can do or accomplish. No one can tell you a market price, that's for the market and your client to decide. The research you need is not asking subjective questions with answers that differ from person to person, but looking at data, looking at past sales, comparisons of skill, etc. Learning how to research will help you as well.

If you decided it was wise to make your reply instead of going to look at hard numbers and not what people tell you from their experience or opinion, your problem isn't that you don't know what to charge, it's that you're clueless, in way above your head, and are just another person asking to be spoonfed. Prove me wrong, I'd like to be surprised.

 

[707guy]

I would charge $200-300 for the site and tell them your giving them a great deal. Just ask for him to take care of you on the next couple of visits

 

[Dresden]

If your getting your car serviced at low prices don't charge too much, return the favor

 

[ouchthathurts]

A friends grandfather who sorts out your cars cheap? I would do it for a 12 pack of beer

 

[BHW-News]

If you aren't fussed about profit, simply outsource it and charge what you charged.

 

[mqs1000]

Tell that to one of your teachers|professors and have them laugh you out of the class and use what you said as a joke for his|her colleagues as they discuss the lowering of academic curiosity and standards.

The only thing people here could tell you is what they've done or seen, but that has no bearing on what you can do or accomplish. No one can tell you a market price, that's for the market and your client to decide. The research you need is not asking subjective questions with answers that differ from person to person, but looking at data, looking at past sales, comparisons of skill, etc. Learning how to research will help you as well.

If you decided it was wise to make your reply instead of going to look at hard numbers and not what people tell you from their experience or opinion, your problem isn't that you don't know what to charge, it's that you're clueless, in way above your head, and are just another person asking to be spoonfed. Prove me wrong, I'd like to be surprised.

I'm not the OP. And like I said, asking questions, whether they be subjective or not, is a form of research. I remember asking tons of subjective questions a couple of years ago ALONG with doing market research, and they helped me figure out what prices to set and certain ways to do things. I remember there being douchebags like you in those threads giving me those same smug responses as you gave this guy. But there were others who were extremely helpful. The helpful answers helped shaped my successful home business that I run now. And I'm not sure what shitty school you went to, but asking subjective questions didn't get me laughed out of any class when I was in school.

Do you know how many times people ask me "How much do you charge for a website?" over the years? I don't laugh at them. I explain to them all the factors that go together to allow me to put together the quote for the website including the size and number of pages of the site, the projected hours I think I will spend, if they needed any additional functionality, any stock photos, writing, SEO, animation, etc. I didn't tell those people to fuck off and do their own market research or to "Go to school or research on your own and learn how to conduct business."

EDIT - HAH, I KNEW IT. You were the same asshole that gave me the same kind of response when I asked a similar question last year. And then I proceeded to own you. Learn to help other people on these forums and not always be a condescending asshole.

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackh...rge-client-5-medium-competition-keywords.html

 

[mqs1000]

Here is my HELPFUL answer to the OP.

Op, ask him a few questions first so you can figure out how much time and effort you need to put in. The quote should be based around those questions. If he wants a simple business website with the usual pages like the homepage, services, about, and contact, and if he is going to provide you with all of the pictures and writing, then just charge somewhere between $300-$500. If he needs a bit more functionality, then calculate how much time it will take you to add what he wants, and multiply what you think is a fair hourly rate by the number of hours and add it to the $300-$500. Usually a web designers hourly rate is at LEAST $50 - but since you are just starting out and because he is your friend, do something like $25-$30 an hour.

Then again, the most important thing is meeting with the client and trying to figure out what they are trying to spend. You can simply ask him what his budget is, or you can get a rough estimate just from the conversation alone. I like to have an initial meeting first to find out what the client needs, and then put together a proposal and email it to them. I don't like meeting with them, finding out what they need, and then coming up with a price on the spot. It's actually more professional and looks better if you take in all the info they give you, and come back to them with a quote at a later time. Don't feel forced to have to give him a price on the spot. See what he needs, then come up with the price the next day.

 

[B_Fish]

Unless you are referring more than something like 5 people a month, you wont receive any money with your referral, just an fyi.

As far as websites go, if you have no idea what you're doing, you probably shouldn't charge much/anything.

Imagine you produce an awful site, your friends grandpa is going to be remorseful for having to pay, but not want to say anything to possibly harm any relationship you have. I feel it wouldn't be fair for either of you.

I simply see it as a bad situation if you're going to charge him.

And from my point of view, friends dont charge friends.

That's a good point. I also wasn't aware that you don't really get that much for the hosting. Haven't looked into it yet.

You don't need to charge that much for web design, more like 200bucks or slightly more if you are just installing wordpress theme.

Charge more in monthly hosting + maintainence, you can close the deal easier i believe.

Tell him that you will maintain everything for 20-30 bucks per month or so. And yea, 2-5 bucks to hosting, you keep the rest for doing nothing

Another good point, I'm sure he'll want updates every now and then. And even if he doesn't, that's an easy $20 or so a month for doing very little work.

Here is my HELPFUL answer to the OP.

Op, ask him a few questions first so you can figure out how much time and effort you need to put in. The quote should be based around those questions. If he wants a simple business website with the usual pages like the homepage, services, about, and contact, and if he is going to provide you with all of the pictures and writing, then just charge somewhere between $300-$500. If he needs a bit more functionality, then calculate how much time it will take you to add what he wants, and multiply what you think is a fair hourly rate by the number of hours and add it to the $300-$500. Usually a web designers hourly rate is at LEAST $50 - but since you are just starting out and because he is your friend, do something like $25-$30 an hour.

Then again, the most important thing is meeting with the client and trying to figure out what they are trying to spend. You can simply ask him what his budget is, or you can get a rough estimate just from the conversation alone. I like to have an initial meeting first to find out what the client needs, and then put together a proposal and email it to them. I don't like meeting with them, finding out what they need, and then coming up with a price on the spot. It's actually more professional and looks better if you take in all the info they give you, and come back to them with a quote at a later time. Don't feel forced to have to give him a price on the spot. See what he needs, then come up with the price the next day.

Good advice. It will look better to take the info back and then quote him later. Thank you.

 

[KamBhai]

Charge may be $300 or so and an annual maintenance fee.
Then sign him up for Hostgator using your CJ affiliate link and earn another $100 and then sign him up to godaddy using you aff link and earn another $35
In my country, nobody pays more than $100-$150 for a website, so that's how I earn to get a satisfactory amount.

Just an idea to earn few extra bucks more