I started building websites a few years back for nearly nothing and since people liked them so much, I decided to start charging more. I use hosts from Yahoo, Wix, etc. to build these sites. Since I am only changing codes within their hosting areas and not fully writing code line by line myself like some of my pro friends do for big companies, am I still qualified to say that I create and design websites?
I also wanted to know if anyone could tell me how much I should charge specifically for the creation of the site WITH the maintenance of the site as well. In the past, I have taught people how to maintain their site because I did not have time.
2 Questions:
1. How much to charge to create a site using current hosting sites (per site or per hour)?
2. How much to charge to maintain the site for the person (per site or per hour)?
BONUS: How much to revamp a site that is in disarray? (per site or per hour)?
Thank you in advance!
Charge as much as people are willing to pay, basically.
Even when you bid per site, it should be with an estimate of hours in mind. Determine what you’re worth per hour and use that for bids and contracts. For example, if your rate is $100 per hour and you want to bid on a simple web site, it might look like this:
3-page web site:
3 pages with images
1 hour initial meeting
1 hour photo session/editing
1 half-hour intermediate meeting
1 half-hour signoff meeting
Though you might not explicate how many hours you’ll work on the site alone, you’d have to have an estimate in mind. Let’s say that you predict working on the pages themselves for three hours. So, your bid would be for $600. If you go over six hours with this customer, you’ll want to think about why so that you can improve your estimates.
For making a site(s):
$50 for a home page and two extra pages
$15 for every extra page
OR
$15-$20 an hour
For maintaining a site:
$3 per page per hour
(For example: 5pages x 2 hours = $30)
OR
$7 an hour
For revamping a site:
This should be fairly similar to the prices for making sites but depending on how bad the site has become price a little lower or higher.
These prices are only apply if you are still relatively a novice.
If you feel you have more skill and experience, feel free to raise the prices.
Hope this helps(:
This completely depends on where you are and who your customer are. You have not disclosed this so…
In USA or Europe, an hourly rate of US$100 per hour might well be acceptable to a large corporate, whereas in some developing countries a rate of US$5 per hour may be unacceptable to a small enterprise.
In the end it is about how you value your time, and what your customers will accept. However as a guide:
1) Decide what you can charge for one hour of work. This is your hourly price.
1) Work out how long it usually takes you to create a single page from scratch. You may need more than one answer, since some pages are simple and others more complex. Multiply this by your hourly price.
2) The price to create a site is then: number of pages * price per page.
You may want to offer a discount on the price in return for a maintenance agreement.
3) Pricing maintenance of sites you created is also fairly simple. You should have a good idea of the time it usually takes to make a change. Multiply this by your hourly price, and you know what it should cost to make a change.
4) Create maintenance price plans to meet the need of different customers. For example, suppose your hourly price is US$10 and a change usually takes 2 hours, you might come up with maintenance plans something like the following:
‘Bronze plan’: Up to 10 changes per year, made within a week of request, US$150.
‘Silver plan’: Up to 20 changes per year, made within 48 hours of request, US$350.
‘Gold plan’: Up to 50 changes per year, made within 24 hours of request, US$800.
‘Pay as you go plan’: Single change, made within 1 week of request, US$50.
If a site is in very bad condition, you probably need to look carefully at what is needed and give an hourly price.