What price do you charge?

[dropbop]

One of my sites can get up to 700 / 800 unique hits a day during holiday seasons and a big percentage of the people visiting the site use IE6.

We all agree that going forward is the way to go, but there will always be people who just dont want to upgrade, who are very comfortable useing what they are used to.

Im not going to get stuck in and give you loads of stick, but I do think you need to download xammp, install it on your pc, load up some bloggs and get designing. Download some older versions of IE and Firefox and install and check the sites useing all versions.

This way you will be able to play around with your designs and see exactly how they will look in all browsers. Its a bit time consuming, but if you want to start making any money from designing you need to be able to design so everyone can see a website, not just people who choose to upgrade.

Anyway, as the old saying goes... practice makes perfect!

 

[Expand.ie]

I think your pricing scheme should reflect the audience you are targeting. That is why ripe charge low rates for templates and redfly charge 10k + for a proper website.

Getting slightly off point. (these ripe lads are getting some serious link love off a lot of people). Fair play to them though..

For the original spec I would charge about €1,500 for a 20 page custom website with an open source CMS.

Once again, its the customers you are targeting.

 

[TheMenace]

Once again, its the customers you are targeting.

...and the quality you're delivering as well of course.

 

[shaneod]

True. There's a lot of CMS systems out there. Some of them are a lot more powerful then others. for example, i would charge a lot more for a drupal site then setting someone up with contribute.

 

[beanstalk]

Sorry to be resurrecting this thread, but some folk might find this pricing survey interesting (not sure if I can post a link to it but I'll try: Share Your Web Design Prices Anonymously! | The Web Design Blog)

 

[jsweb]

I think the posting is very valid. It's amazing how much some web providers try and (over) charge customers.

 

[TheMenace]

I think the posting is very valid. It's amazing how much some web providers try and (over) charge customers.

What I find even more amazing are the number of incompetent Web designers out there who accuse others of over-charging. Why on earth would someone who's at the top of their game, has a wealth of knowledge, has spent years studying his craft and offers a far superior service (and return) charge the same as some guy who knows a bit of Photoshop and Dreamweaver and calls himself a professional?

There seems to be a misunderstanding in the Web industry that the whole thing is open to subjective interpretation as to what constitutes quality design and development. Unfortunately that's just not the case. That's not to say that there isn't a market out there for budget Web design - of course there is. But it's important that those offering it know their place so that the industry can move on in this country. At the moment we're a country mile behind, say, the UK.

 

[Pixelcraft]

Well said

 

[mneylon]

And since I wanted to say "thanks" to TheMenace the board now has the "thank you" mod installed

 

[jsweb]

Nice post ‘TheManace’, I like it and the comments below are there to add discussion (certainly not meant to offend).

There seems to be a misunderstanding in the Web industry that the whole thing is open to subjective interpretation as to what constitutes quality design and development.

Very true; "you get what you pay for" and that generally applies to all lines of business. If you are looking for a job to be done, then you should always ensure the provider is able to offer a solution that meets your required standards.

OF COURSE, if two providers are able to offer the SAME JOB / SAME QUALITY but at a different PRICE than that is when you need to start having a good think about which one to choose


BUT BECAUSE OF MY LOCATION I CAN CHARGE MORE RIGHT?

If that is what people think, then now is the TIME TO WAKE UP; not only are more and more potential customers getting online which gives them so much more choice BUT this audience market are now becoming A LOT MORE price conscious.

Certainly within the UK, this was happening WAY before any talk of a recession.

(Note: I know it depends on what your business is offering, but for most web companies you need to start being aware of what is happening around you!)

>> Blacknight – you will be well aware of this with your hosting services and costs (In fact I suspect that is why your company was formed - to add some competition into a market you saw was being over priced?). What's more, your compeition is now not only in Ireland but also from around the world so keeping prices low is a key decision maker.

For that reason my own business made a change. We originally were offering a little bit of anything/everything to help attract customers BUT we found it resulted in us have to not only LEARN MORE and MORE (resulting in projects taking LONGER and based on our costs resulted in us becoming UNCOMPETITIVE!) but also had an affect as we were unable to offer great levels of support as each client was so different.

We now specialise in an area I enjoy (eCommerce) and our company now employs 8 people. Most of the team each had their own web businesses but who also wanted to specialise.

This has allowed us to group our skills together and offer a much better/stronger services in an area we all enjoy.

We are able to provide this to a much bigger number clients’ and more importantly at a very COMPETITIVE rate!

So while our price is LOWER than most it doesn’t mean we misunderstand or opt out of providing quality. Quite the opposite we are able to offer better solutions in an area we specialise in faster.


With so much competition out there, IMHO it would be SO much better if more web teams decided to group and move forward together rather than work in such isolation and pick against one another.


Did anyone have a go at filling in the form to see the PH prices? It was very interesting.....

 

[Pixelcraft]

The problem jsweb, is that these people that criticize a professional price often think they are offering the same quality, which in 100% of cases i've seen, they are not even close

 

[jsweb]

Yes, we've all experienced that

"Well I asked this team out in xxxxxx, it was really cheap but now my website isn't working or the design I got was not good enough" lol

So if you know your work is GOOD and you also know you are "as competitive" as another provide who is GOOD then you won't have any problems.

Why? because those customers who have experienced the "not so good" (and they will try as money talks) will come back to you as they know your level of service is GOOD.

I bet each web provider who reads this thread will know of a customer who left them, tried some where else, but later has returned back.

...............It is sad to see a customer leave, but when you know your service level is good (and your price is competitive) then you just need to move on (you may just see them again v.soon)

 

[mneylon]

Nice post by James on this very topic:
What should I be charging for webdesign? | James Larkin

 

[neweb]

I looked at that "Share your web price." site and was happy to see I was charging the average (€41.75). My fee is €45.00 per hour. I only charge while working on a clients site. If he changes his mind 20 times that thats his business. But its always made clear that he is on an hourly rate.

 

[UTD Web]

It's fascinating to see the bell curve on prices above...

The difficulty with clients in this industry is making them aware of the value they are getting for the money... The problems I've seen are that some professional agencies are ripping off their clients in areas like SEO...

I recently independently evaluated a site from this perspective and the company hadn't even got unique titles on the various pages of their site yet they were charging a fortune for strategic keyword placement on the site... It's this kind of thing that will give us all a bad name.

My advice for what it's worth is charge whatever it takes to make you happy to do a good job... if you are going to begrudge the work because you're not paid enough you won't do a good job. Obviously large agencies have to charge through the nose because they've got a lot of mouths to feed and they can also draw on a lot of experienced people, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a better website for your buck IMHO.