Setting a price for your webdesign work
The other day I was approached by a person who had some question regarding his website and a new design. I took a look at his site and it was a mix of flash, images with text and regular text in frames.
From what I understood in his email, he wasn’t all that happy with the design.
I did some searching and found out which ‘design firm’ created his website. I never heared from them, but that’s besides the question.
My main (freelance) job usually involves webusability, but every now and then I take on little (smaller) webdesign projects. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not shy when it comes to setting a price. After all, you’re in this business to make money no?
People usually underestimate the work involved in creating an entire website. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to get underpaid or not.
Some general rules you might like to consider:
- Make your contract as clear as possible. Every service should be listed in there. Let the customer know what he’s paying for, and more important, what he’s not paying for.
- Be realistic in setting expectations. If you think you lack the resources to finish a project in short deadline, then make that clear to the customer.
- Set a price YOU think is fair and square. After all, you’re doing the work here
Take for example the person I mentioned in the beginning, he obviously paid a fair amount of money for his website (how much I have no idea). But, and this is from reading between the line, I got the impression he’s not happy with it.
How could he? Flash animations mixed with regular grafics and text in frames? Not to mention the source code I took a look at, filled with hidden links and text to improve search rankings. What a great way to get spanked by Google.
Anyway, I returned some emails and gave him a quote. Still waiting for a response.
I guess he found out the hard way.
I have actually burned myself a couple of times quoting work for much less than I should have. I am still working to find the happy medium and a better per feature / time estimated pay scale to use.
I hear you.
You charge to little and you burn yourself. You ask to much and risk loosing a customer.