Am I too cheap? Website designing
 

I'm just doing a bill for a new client, and I hate asking for money (not a great sign in a salesman).

Anyway, to make myself feel better I had a quick look online to see what other people charge for websites, and I can't believe how much they charge!!!!

£1100 for 6 pages - no better than my stuff.

£70 an HOUR!!! for updates

£200 for a feedback page.

Is this normal?

Coz I've done 7 pages inc a feedback page for less than a thrid of the above prices and unlimited updates for less than £20 a month.

Maybe I'm just good value?

Crazy eh? :puzzled:

Actually, just looking about some more - I'm getting depressed.

Are people actually charging this kind of money for utter crap websites?

Either I'm missing a trick or I'm in the wrong job!!

You sound excellent value to me Domski!!!

Take a butchers at mine, i have just u2u you the web link, the guy who has been supposed to be doing it is taking the pi55. He was meant to complete it months ago but he ain't been paid so no dramas.

He has been sent all the text to finish it off and numerous detailed emails of what i wanted but has not bothered his **** to get ti done.

I am in no rush as it is just an online CV if you like to try and get some consultancy stuff in my field, i am working full time so haven't really pushed it but it would be good to get it finished.

The work to finish it is yours if you want?

Can you search and find out if the domain was registered in his name or mine?

Drop me a u2u mate.

Regards

ScottyB

ScottyB just go to http://www.internic.net/whois.html there you will see who the domain name is registerd to

Dom,

Looking at what you've produced I'd say you're seriously underselling yourself.

Think with a business head on
You should be charging between £50 - 100/hr (you can always discount, but never add on..) for design, creation etc.

It's not something just anyone can do. Don't forget to consider an increase for flash, dhtml, jscript etc.

Really????

But that's loads of money, who's gunna pay that? :lol:

Sorry, but I'm a muppet and live in the 1980's I think :roll:

I only do it for 'pocket money' you see, just to cover a bit of the racing.

Although I'd rather do this full time than driving my bloody lorry for 14 hours a day :(

Thanks for nice comments :D

Is cheap, we are charged £183.24 per hour


About right, our site cost in the region of £7650 pounds for 170 hours of research, development and design ( all text,images etc was supplied by us) although it is a little more than just a plain website as it incorperates online sales and other behind the scene stuff.

www.alcohol-soft.com

Note:- While the figuers i have quoated are not exact they are a fair representation of our costs the actual costs for privacy reasons have not been shown

Oh my god!!!!

I am definately in the wrong job.

I'm gunna be a web designer from now on :lol:

Just need some confidence in my ability - coz I think I'm very average.

£183 an hour???????????????

Hang on while I get off the floor...









...right, where's my scotch :lol:

Lads,

FFS wait till i get my site done on the cheap by him before you give him visions of grandure!!!:D:D

Domski,

Just checked out your site and wet myself, i had the volume up full bung on my PC!

Regards

ScottyB:smug:

ScottyB,

I think Dom will still do mate's rates for you :)

He just needs to stop businesses taking him for a ride, since he charges less for a years website & maintenance than they'd spend in a week advertising in the local papers, let alone magazines and radio

It's ok, I won't charge more than £49 an hour :lol:



:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Aren't Ducati's great :D

Design is so difficult to quantify.

I am in a similar position working for a sign company for the last 20 years. I sell the signs and also design them. Sadly we can't charge up front for design but try to include for it in our pricing.

Where you can go wrong is to spend say 3 hours designing something and quote for that and then have the customer change his mind about layout etc. You then in effect have to start again, but if you have given a fixed price you will then make a loss as the customer will say that you have already charged for it.

You could say to a customer that you will produce a basic website ( and show him an example or template ) for a fixed price - say £500 ( if it will take say 10 hours to design ) but that for every hours design over that you will charge £50 per hour.

Once you have a few under your belt and can show them to potential customers then you could up your prices.

It's a balance between pricing to make sure that you get the work and not selling yourself short. It's pointless trying to get £100 per hour and only doing one a year because your potential customers can't / won't pay that price.



Only my opinion though

:burn:

Okay Okay... Just had this conversation with my brother too.

I've never looked at it like that - what a numpty ;)

I just can't see how I can charge £500 for 10 hours work... although I'm coming around to the idea :D

I just need someone to get me 1 website a week, and I can retire... any sales people out there?

:saint:

That's precisely how I feel about it too.

...and why I still drive lorries for a living :lol:

Don't forget, if you appear too cheap, people will walk away as well.

The premise of a basic site for £xx. then £yy for each hours update that philthy suggests is a good one especially as a starting point, and it sets expectations early on.

You could also produce a set of templates from what you've already done, that a client could have customised at xx/hour as well if that suits you better.


Just don't undersell yourself!

Yes Dom, you are pricing yourself out of the market because you are too cheap. Most companies will have an idea of how much they want to pay for a website, and if you're not close then they will walk away - under or over.

As a guide, our consultancy is £500+VAT per day, but we usually charge fixed price on websites once a spec has been agreed. Basically it starts at £2K and goes from there depending on complexity. Remember that most of our stuff isn't just pages though, ours is mostly scripting work.

It doesn't matter that we pay £9+VAT per month for hosting, we'll charge out what the client expects us too.

My trick is to research them first while discussing what they want. If they're already paying for a website, find out who it is with (then find out how much they typically charge) or ask them how much they pay. Alternatively, ask them how much they're expecting to spend "so you know roughly how much customisation they can afford" and then go in slightly over.

Always works for me :D

Cool, thanks Ant, looks like I need to sort myself out if I'm to become a millionaire before the end of the year ;)

Thanks to Chi too for your U2U - I'll get back to you asap.

Cheers everyone.

Not only have I lost the ability to ride motorcycles, but you all think I'm cheap :(

:lol: :cool:

was slow and cheap

now slow and expensive

:D

£100 an hour to you son :P

Looked at your webski, get out there and fill your boots mate.

Plenty out there for you.

Always get their budget then take what they’ve got and a little bit for
New gloves
:lol:

Domski

Quality sites and too cheap definitely.

When I looked to get a site done a while back the prices I was given were stunning. Ended up doing it myself using oneandone.co.uk and some help from Antonye but had I known about you....

Put them prices up and get out of that lorry!

Dom's only problem (and this is not meant in an offensive way!) is that he is not a "programmer" per se, so while he is quite able to create brochureware websites with nice designs and good content, most companies will want something extra such as feedback forms or a shopping cart.

Until Dom can add all of this to his portfolio, and comfortably knock out simple scripts, then he will be in a league of thousands of back-bedroom web developers who are no better than the next guy.

Be careful that you don't bite off more than you can chew and end up having to sub-contract out extras that the companies want. You may end up paying them all the income to sort one small part of the site and screwing yourself over on the rest.

Just make sure you know your market and your own limitations!

Yup, agree with that - now give me your bike!!!! :lol:

I've just created my first feedback form thing (although I'm using a remote form processor thingy $1.70 a month) and I've done basic shopping cart stuff, and also currently working on a mega heeeuge shopping 'experience' so that's bound to bore me silly with shopping carts.

:D

All the advice and kind words, emails and u2u's are greatly appreciated, it's nice to know you guys are out there!

:)