Developing a photographer's webpage

[foozball3000]

A friend asked me to code her website. The design is being done by different friend, so I'll only have to do the coding. (Yipee!)
It's fairly straight forward and I can't imagine spending more than 3 hours on it.

Seeing as she's willing to pay, I'll be willing to be paid.
How much do I charge her?

I'm planning on just coding it in ASP.Net. Quick and easy.

 

[guest2013-1]

per hour

quote your hourly rate (with and without bootay discount) and then tell her you estimate it going to take 3 hours, however, this depends on what features she wants.

80% of the time the client tells me what they want and it sound simple enough, and it takes me at least 300% more time to fit in their "features" afterwards.

Also remember, depending on the design, you might sit for a good few hours making it work with your code. I know sometimes I **** it up so there's like a pixel difference somewhere or the thing doesn't work in IE6 and I'd have to figure out where/when because the designer is clueless

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Yep, per hour is the ONLY viable contracting method when doing web development. I've burned my fingers way too often to do a "fixed price" website again in the future.

Another thing: a website never takes 3 hours. Doing a proper job of "coding" the site (leaving room for expansion in the future i.t.o. xml-based menus, CSS-based design / styling, etc) could take up to 8 hours for a medium-sized site. Then there's the job of testing and fixing (read: breaking) the site to work in IE6. Experience taught me a standard website project is around 12 hours of head-smashing labour.

Don't, don't, DON'T undersell yourself - you'll hate freelance website jobs with a passion if you do.

 

[foozball3000]

I was thinking down the lines of building the easy 3 hour shell. And if at that point it becomes evident that it will take more time and effort, I'll re-negotiate. Or at least, I'll be able to give her a realistic idea of what to expect.

My problem is that I can't fully commit to a complicated website due to this week being my last week at my current job, and I'm starting at the new on on 5Nov. I don't want any other commitments when I start there.

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Clients (even if they are friends) don't take to the idea of an adjusted quote due to it being "more complex" than you initially thought. That just shows your initial analysis and scoping wasn't done properly, or at all. Trust me on this - the easy-3-hour-shell is just asking for trouble. Do it properly first time.

 

[foozball3000]

Clients (even if they are friends) don't take to the idea of an adjusted quote due to it being "more complex" than you initially thought. That just shows your initial analysis and scoping wasn't done properly, or at all. Trust me on this - the easy-3-hour-shell is just asking for trouble. Do it properly first time.

O k a y

I'll sit down with the designer and scope the whole thing through. If it's anything like the current site, it will be a quick one to develop.
I just have no idea how to go about the IE6, IE7, IE8 random problems.

 

[FarligOpptreden]

Not only IE6, 7 and 8, but also Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. If you test for all those browsers, you should be safe.