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Hello everyone, both my best friend and my wifes cousin have asked me to build them a website. The problem is that we never discussed price, and now I dont know what I should bill them? One of the websites is a very basic frames page that is basically a photo album of work divided into 14 sub pages. It is for my wifes cousin who owns his on very successful masonry company, and they do very high end work. I know he can afford to pay me I just don't know what is fair. The second website was for my best friend who has a small record label and I made the site to promote his wife new christmas album. This website was alot more complicated and took over a week to build working all day each day. it is about 44 pages in total because it was done in two languages, as well it has mp3 clips and paypal shopping carts linked to all her previous albums. Again we did not discuss price so I am wondering what would be fair way to figure out price? I looked on the internet at other complaints and I seem to find that the average price is about $100cdn per page with up to 3-5 pictures? Is this correct? I feel bad charging relatives and friends but at the same time I have to pay the bills!
[ November 16, 2004, 07:59 PM: Message edited by: Julio Tome ]
-------------------- Julio Tome Affordable Graphic DeSIGNS Co. Surrey, B.C. email@affordablesigns.ca Posts: 34 | From: Surrey, B.C. | Registered: May 2004
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Email Dan Antonelli - I'm sure he can be found in the member database - he's our resident Letterville web guru.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3722 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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So as to not cause embarrassment, why not ask each of them what kind of a budget they might have anticipated for the job.
You can take it from there it'll be above, below or right on whatever you decide you were worth.
You then have to figure out how to tread carefully to coax out more if they severly undervalue your work and you wish to still be friends.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Remember the line from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" - "We're in a tight spot."
I think that's where you are. It's too late now, but hind sight says that you should have established some guidelines before beginning the work. Since you are past that point, my advice would be to charge them your regular price. If you are in the business of doing web sites, then people should expect to pay for your services.
It's nice to give friends and relatives a discount (and we all probably do it) but you still have a business to run also. If you put a week's time into a project you should expect to receive a week's pay.
Having said all that I still don't have a figure for you, but my suggestion would be to figure what you would normaly charge and then knock off 10% or so...and let them know that you are giving them a discount.
Good luck. Probably, someone is going to be unhappy at the end of the deal - either them or you.
Dan Antonelli would be a good source of information.
[ November 17, 2004, 09:13 AM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Yeah, pricing and budget should have been established up front before any work was done, this way everyone is clear on what's expected.
As it stands now, they have no clue what the website is going to cost so *any* bill you hand them might catch them off guard. Most people have bigger mouths than wallets and they most likely don't have any idea what websites cost to produce in the first place.
If I did a website that required a solid 40 hour work week to complete, $8,000US would be my reference point for pricing. It might go up or down based on what exactly was required - custom artwork? photography? image editing? sound editing? flash? animated GIF's? Java? PERL? Frequent meetings with customers, design changes, etc etc.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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As Mike points out, there's too much information missing to determine pricing. Most of our sites sell by photo counts, not page counts. FOr us, thats where the work is. So, a ballpark of a site with 100 photos might be in the 4-6k range (example http://www.richdesignsinc.com/ ) . But it all depends on how you treat the photos, thumbs, or disjoints ( http://www.designworkssigns.com/ ) that will factor in the price.
Also are all photos being supplied digital.
A lot of people get caught up in page counts. For us, that factors minimally into the pricing -- its more about the design work involved that plays the biggest role. Its easy to add pages. Our minimum for the most basic site is $2k.
And you can't price things hourly, really. That's not fair to yourself, as you become more proficient. The only non-design hourly rates we apply are maintenance of existing sites we've built.
[ November 18, 2004, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: Dan Antonelli ]
"Some are born to move the world, to live their fantasies. But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be." - Rush Posts: 1192 | From: Washington, NJ | Registered: Feb 1999
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