How much should i charge to design a website?

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Fern9do

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I have been approached by a group who wants me to design a website for them.
I was just wondering what the standard freelance web design cost is.
Id be happy to do it for R2000-R3000. Is this a reasonable fee?
 
Fern9do - it all depends on how much you feel you should be charged.
If you dont have much experience or a big portfolio 2k-3k is acceptable, also depends on how long you spend creating it, the depth and scope etc.

Best bet is to always charge as low as possible in the beginning, dont shoot yourself in the foot but a good price will attract more people especially if this client gives you as a reference. If you do a good job, charge low, chances are they will recommend you to others, and so your portfolio grows as well as your skills and your prices :)
 
Thanks for the reply survo. I never thaught of it that way. Think starting cheap is a good way to go.
 
When I started designing websites for freelance work, I charged R1500 for a 3-4 page website. Since then, my prices moved on to about R500 per page with a fixed R1000 fee for the base design. More complex pages (galleries, contact forms, etc.) I charge R750 per page. Clients should provide all photos and text they want on the website...

Here are some examples of what I charged for some recent websites (all done in 2008):

Some useful tips - if you design the website in ASP.NET, you can design the index.aspx page once off and only swap out web user controls for the main content of the page. That way the site's look and feel stays consistent throughout. Also, use XML for storing navigation/gallery/product listing information if you don't have a database handy. It makes updates to the website a breeze.
 
It also depends on how much work you end up doing.

Web design is usually done at anything between R150-R350 per hour. So if you want to go low, then charge the R3000, but make sure that you tell them it's for 20 hours work.

It just give you a good point of reference.

I've heard of guys who quoted to write software at a fixed price, and six months after they've delivered, the client is still asking for lots of little changes and expecting it to come out of the initial quote.
 
Deenem said:
It also depends on how much work you end up doing.

Web design is usually done at anything between R150-R350 per hour. So if you want to go low, then charge the R3000, but make sure that you tell them it's for 20 hours work.

It just give you a good point of reference.

I've heard of guys who quoted to write software at a fixed price, and six months after they've delivered, the client is still asking for lots of little changes and expecting it to come out of the initial quote.
Click to expand...

Bingo. It makes sense to charge per project, but base the cost on how long you expect it to take you, and make it clear that extra additions after the initial agreement will be charged for.
 
Raithlin said:
Bingo. It makes sense to charge per project, but base the cost on how long you expect it to take you, and make it clear that extra additions after the initial agreement will be charged for.
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Yup. That's what I also do (had a horrible experience with that though :p).
 
Thanks for all the advice.
I'm actually thinking of giving this a real go. I have no formal web design education but i'm a quick learner.

I told the guy i would charge R3000 for the website and he is quite happy with it.
I'm just curious can you actually earn a good income from designing websites freelance?
I'm thinking that i should invest some money into this venture and gie it a real go:)
 
Thanks for all the advice.
I'm actually thinking of giving this a real go. I have no formal web design education but i'm a quick learner.

I told the guy i would charge R3000 for the website and he is quite happy with it.
I'm just curious can you actually earn a good income from designing websites freelance?
I'm thinking that i should invest some money into this venture and gie it a real go:)
 
Fern9do, you can eeke a living out of this stuff, but the real money IMO lies in the ability to create a web solution. That involves far more than just design, and I don't think there is a formal course for it yet. :) Apart from the School of Hard Knocks, of course.
 
Fern9do said:
What does a web solution offer tthe customer Raithlin?:)
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Usually a web solution allows the customer an easy method of managing the content of their own website. Like Keeper said, the solution would in some way or another allow the customer to generate an income with the online presence, whether it be advertising or selling products. The day of using a website solely as an advertisement of your services or products is fast becoming numbered. You need your clients to interact with your site. That way, you also entice them to come back for more. If you see a static site, you've got no motivation to visit it again for at least a few months...

Also, like Raithlin said, the money really lies in web solutions. The scale (and development time) of a web solution is usually many times bigger than a static page, which means better income from just one project. If you were to make a living off just normal (static) websites, you'll have to do at least 4-5 a month to earn any form of income to sustain you.

A good tip - if you are able to build your own solution "framework" which can be applied for multiple projects, you can earn big bucks in a short amount of time. The groundwork for the solutions will already have been done, so you just need to customize it per client. Unfortunately Raithlin is also right - there is no formal training/courses you can do to learn how to build a proper web solution. It comes with experience - lots of it.
 
Fern9do said:
What does a web solution offer tthe customer Raithlin?:)
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As FO mentioned, it is a complete end-to-end website built to the client's specifications, which includes (generally) a CMS (no static web site remains effective for long - content is king, and must stay fresh), and possibly ad-serving, et al. Web 2.0 is far more than a page, and the modern site is far more than a marketing tool.

The real power of a web site lies in its ability to sell your product, or provide a service effectively. Therein lies the complexity - and with complexity comes cashflow. ;)
 
Get yourself a book on Drupal. By using Drupal, you cut out a lot of backend coding work, unless you want to develop custom modules. You'll spend more time on the theme design. It is also very easy to add more functionality to the Drupal site, as it comes with forum, blogs, etc. already included, but you decide what you want to enable.
 
Nod said:
Get yourself a book on Drupal. By using Drupal, you cut out a lot of backend coding work, unless you want to develop custom modules. You'll spend more time on the theme design. It is also very easy to add more functionality to the Drupal site, as it comes with forum, blogs, etc. already included, but you decide what you want to enable.
Click to expand...
What you say is true - but there are others as well. Joomla is another good community-supported example - and both platforms have an endless supply of addons.

Alternatively, one could use a base like CakePHP, or my personal choice - CodeIgniter. Of course, all of the above are PHP-driven - but there are libraries available for ASP.Net as well. One just needs to take a little time and find what suits your needs (and skills) best.
 
Raithlin said:
What you say is true - but there are others as well. Joomla is another good community-supported example - and both platforms have an endless supply of addons.

Alternatively, one could use a base like CakePHP, or my personal choice - CodeIgniter. Of course, all of the above are PHP-driven - but there are libraries available for ASP.Net as well. One just needs to take a little time and find what suits your needs (and skills) best.
Click to expand...

Jip. In the end you'll have to find the solution that fit your skills, or learn new ones to fit the better solution. Either way PHP is cool :p
 
I set up a temporary website on my football site's domain with a temporary name here:
http://safootballfans.co.za/webdesign/

I've got three clients lined up already so i'm feeling positive.

I plan on using wordpress for my cheap designs(R1000 - R2000) and Joomla for the more expensive designs(R3000-R5000) because joomla is much more complicated to work with, although i find it more powerful.

Alot of learning to do this weekend but i'm giving this a go:)
Thanks again for all the advice!
 
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yeah joomla is great once you get the hang of it

php+ajax is godsent
 
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