How Do You Value Work For A Website?

StormLiong

<div class="IPBDescription">putting a price to do a website</div> I was just wondering if anyone would know how I can put a proper value on a independent web work that I am doing.

All that I am trying to figure out is how do I properlly put a price on a work I am doing on a site without seemingly ripping off the person or ripping myself off.

I don't have the specifics yet. But it is basically doing a site from scratch including to get a web host and to develop some database applications in it (php/MySQL stuff). It is for a company that runs a shopping mall in my town. The shopping mall itself is not that huge but it is quite popular.

I know it sounds gray but I need some kinds of gauge for me to to know to value my work. any help be appreciated.

Thanks

esuna

Do what i do, look around at web design companies, the crapper the better, look at their prices, and undercut it. This is how you should look at it until a certain point. This point is when you're either popular enough to be in demand, then you can start charging more.

Also, undercutting the price also gives you some security since you are cheaper than other people, but don't cut off too much since you've got to earn a living somehow. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->


Now, when i say "the crapper the better", this is because there's a LOT of awful designers out there who charge extortionate rates, it makes you put things in perspective a bit, since if people will pay for their crap work, they'll pay for yours, that is if you're better. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

One thing, if this is for a friend, bear in mind it's a friend, you don't want to charge one of your drinking buddies several thousand, give them a good deal.



*EDIT: Or another way, find out how much it will cost you to register the domain, sort hosting and so on. Once you have these expenses, judge how many hours the work will take, and work out a tidy sum for your hourly rate, then add that ontop of the expenses and you'll have a final figure.

DiscoZombie

I really have no concrete help to offer, other than to say that if this shopping mall is successful, they're probably used to footing big bills on contracts...

how many hours/days/weeks would you anticipate working on it? if you can guess at that and then figure out about how much you should be paid per hour, that's one way to look at it...

of course after you do that, you should inflate the price heavily <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

I'll repeat, I have no experience in the field... but judging by what little you've said, I'd guess somewhere between like $600 and a few thousand dollars...

GreyPaws

depends on the complexity of the site, I would go no less than $200 for the Index page and $150 for each additional page. However if they want more complex stuff I would charge more. Someone mentioned looking at the competition, thats always a safe bet.

Fam

Personally, I charge about £15/hour for such work, but it all depends on how long you have been doing it, how experienced you are, and how good you are (Theyre not always one and the same thing). I charge for whole projects, estimating how much time I will need and then multiplying that by my rate, then adding extra for any hosting or other expenses.

If you have any more details, ask again, and Im sure people will be more than happy to give you further advice.

Sycophant

When I'm doing a site for someone, I base my rate on a) the complexity and b) the time it'll take to do it.

If someone just wants a half-dozen fairly basic html pages, I'll probably charge $200. A job like that might take me a day, and this is assuming they have some idea what they want. If they have no idea what they want, I'll usually sit with them for a few hours and put together some sketches, and I'll tack on $50 to the cost. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

If I'm asked to use a lot of server-side coding (ie: databases), custom images, and so on, I'll obviously quote more for that kind of job.

I don't have any "set criteria" for it, I just try and guess how long it'll take, how much I'll have to do, and how much work is required after the job is done.

StormLiong

<!--QuoteBegin-GreyPaws+Mar 26 2004, 03:40 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (GreyPaws @ Mar 26 2004, 03:40 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> depends on the complexity of the site, I would go no less than $200 for the Index page and $150 for each additional page. However if they want more complex stuff I would charge more. Someone mentioned looking at the competition, thats always a safe bet. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Competition? What Competition?

Btw thanks for all the input. I got a better picture now on what to expect.