Pricing Dilemma for Novice
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Hi! I was hoping to draw on the expertise of those here who know more about this. I kind of need it as soon as possible.
I typically do websites for free. I did one for a middle school music program. I've done some for noncommercial pet bird communities. And I offered to do a site each for two dear friends who are running for local offices. I usually pay for the domain names and even host these as added on domains on my own website. And I joined this template club and purchased the use of others to make these sites for others for free.
The problem - because Maine has a clean election law - they are required to pay me. I cannot donate my time and efforts as I wanted. The deal with their treasurer was to come up what he thought it was worth - but he kind of bailed on me in many ways. In addition - I have had to generate content without knowing what the heck was up because their committees were really not very helpful. They sent me a whole slew of unidentified photos (I felt like I was creating a glorified photo album). And to make it worse - the treasurer never put the website links on any literature. (He was "peeved" with me for not using the totally outdated and insecure hosting company he signed up for).
I never kept track of hours. As a novice - I have been learning as I go anyway. That takes time. But it wasn't supposed to be a by-the-hour deal. I wondered if some of you could take a look and give me a hint on what these sites are worth and what I should charge. Their son is an engineer who is by the book kind of person. He sent me the email below. They are all dear freinds - like family. And the wife said when she runs again - she wants me to be her campaign manager since things were not done well this time for their campaigns. So I even have doubts they will win at this point.
http://voteforsheila.com (a site done using Rocket Theme's Snowfire with little modification other that coloring one side)
I did all graphics and logos except for those that came with original themes. I use paint shop pro 9 - I don't have Fireworks. I found all links and generated most of the content on my own by research, "stealing" from their mailings or the local newspaper. So it was very frustrating. I am going to say to anyone else I do sites for that I won't generate content for it again - especially without direction.
This was a learning experience - and not just in the designing of websites - LOL. But I have no clue how to put a price on something I've only done for free - and I like doing for free. I told my husband a really low price - and he said I would likely get them into trouble if I charged that. So any help here would be greatly appreciated!
Email from their son (and the links he sent expired - so I have no clue what they are as yet):
Ellen,
My Dad called me and stated that he needs to get a bill from you to
compensate you for the use of your website and your time to get everything
running. I have reviewed both my Mom's and my Dad's websites and personally
I am very impressed with both of them. I know my parents share the same
feeling. They, however, need to show what their campaigns cost them and
report it to the City by the end of the month. My Dad told me that you had
no idea what to charge him and I expressed the same thoughts to him about
my ability to put what you have done to a monetary figure. It seems to take
the meaning out of all the effort. And what you have done for them is
priceless in my book.
In any event, we need to attempt to get a number for them so here are
some thoughts I have. If you agree fine if not that is also fine but please
let me know. Below I have several (three) extremely long links to Web Site
Designer jobs that I believe are equivalent to what you completed for them.
I may be wrong though because I am not familiar with all of the tools that
you used to design the sites. I know also that the boyscout troop pays around $10.00
per month for website hosting from Aplus.net. I believe you moved all the
files from Dad's old site to your site around the end of July so if we
start the $10.00 per month in August through the end of November that would
be $40.00 just for hosting the site. From there it gets questionable for me
as I have no idea how many hours you put into the sites, but from the links
below it would appear that anywhere from $25.00 to $35.00 per hour is not
unreasonable. If you could put together a quick bill for them so they can
report their expenses I would appreciate it.
PS - sorry so long - Last Edit: 8 years 11 months ago by Kat05.
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- Philip Smith
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 102
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- Well, this is a bit random, but in my practice I usually charge anywhere from $200-$300 for customizing templates and getting the content to look "right" sitting inside of it, so if you took that plus your time, you could easily go with $500 per site.
- -- ChurchWiz - Easy & Affordable Church Websites
-- www.churchwiz.com
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- Joe K
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 902
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Lets see where do I begin?
#1 The sites look great!
#2 One 30 second add costs $500 at minimum and you site surely provides more information about them a commercial
#3 A logo alone can run you $100 .......(except for the talented rocket themers that can do it themselves)
#4 Your time, skill, and creativity is worth something
#5 Anyone running for office can afford it
I myself make a bunch of free sites for people and would also not be sure what to charge, but for your sites I would start at $500 each.
I would be interested in hearing what others think.
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
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as Philip says, you could easily go with $500 and Joseph is saying $500
based on the amount of content that is up and the work you've put in i'd say charging $500 to be a good deal for sheila (if that's the right site). as long as she can afford the $500 and you are happy with it then everyone should be happy with it - www.c3p0.se - sweden
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Wow and Whoa!
Thank you all so much for your quick responses. I guess doing them for free - I just never thought about what they were worth. That was a huge surprise.
Unfortunately - that was the number that my husband said - who knows nothing about all this - but is a Linux freak - LOL. I had to tell him he was right and he got to say "I told you so" - Not a common occurrence around here
I had estimated a much much lower price.
And Joseph - thanks for putting it in perspective. Really makes me think a bit differently about it.
And since the sites are worth more than I thought - I will make it clear on free sites I do that I expect more input. I know that lots of people seem to want websites - but they don't seem to understand what they want them for and how they can work for them. Content is essential. Search engines never picked up Sheila's site - I even submitted that one. Usually I don't have to even submit sites I do and they are easily found and make it to page 1 of search engines in short order for all sorts of things (SEO was a bizarre hobby of mine). Lack of content was the biggest difference for her site - until I recently started conjuring it. That will be too late for search engines by election day.
Thanks again Phillip, Joseph and Damo! I was approached by a local habitat for humanity group to do a site (for free) - and I think I will go into it with a whole new view, renew my Rocket Theme membership (due this month) and pick out another great template
BTW - I am open to any other input on this. Like Joseph said - it would be interesting to hear what others think on this subject. And even from others who also do sites for free. Most curious to me is - are people who pay for the sites different in their approach than those who don't pay. Do they understand why they want websites any better than those who don't pay and are they more actively involved. Just curious. I like doing them for free so I can contribute to things I believe in - but want to avoid some of the frustrations I have run into.
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
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a thread was started here:
BROKEN LINK REMOVED
a while ago. it has a few questions/answers ... - Last Edit: 8 years 11 months ago by Kat05.
- www.c3p0.se - sweden
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Thank you Damo. That was too enlightening. Maybe I am luckier with the frustrations that come with doing a site for free as opposed to the frustrations of dealing with people who pay (or don't pay). Guess like everything else - there are pros and cons to each side.
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
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the thing is, once you've mastered the frustrations of doing the sites for free (and become quite good at those) you can start to deal with the frustrations of having to charge.
as someone mentioned above though, get a deposit first! then it makes those frustrations slightly easier ...
Ellen Port-Peitersen wrote:Thank you Damo. That was too enlightening. Maybe I am luckier with the frustrations that come with doing a site for free as opposed to the frustrations of dealing with people who pay (or don't pay). Guess like everything else - there are pros and cons to each side.
- www.c3p0.se - sweden
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- Dave Goodwin
- Elite Rocketeer
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- Howdy!!
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As I was reading your post (not seeing what others were saying), the figure that I came up with was $500. I see that others are thinking that too.
dave
- You don't ever get what you're worth, you get what you negotiate. - "I'm an individual, just like everyone else."
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You don't ever get what you're worth, you get what you negotiate.Great quote - Dave. This thread gave me totally different perspective here. I just took the plunge and called their son and he will present it to them. Their son didn't seem to have any issues with it. And here I was so worried. I just need to hear back from his parents.
I think that quote really connected because I looked at the company the male candidate used for political consultation and how much he paid to them for at least the primary. They do a lousy job and their website stinks. But I guess they negotiated better than they were worth. (Tempted to email them and suggest they hire one of the professionals from Rocket Theme to at least give them a decent site! ;D ). After looking at what they were paid - I feel much better about what I am asking.
It is not my fault that the campaigns did not put their websites on their literature. I did the sites in good faith and directed them to do this. The search engines just found Sheila's site after I posted here. And some house.gov people have been looking over the sites from Washington which they found via the search engines. Not sure what that is about either since this is a state election. So with added (conjured) content - they are now getting more hits from search engines. I did my job there too.
Anyway - guess I am still justifying the price to myself :-\ - I guess I didn't think my work was worth much. But maybe now I can afford to buy Fireworks and some of the other cool tools you all use.
Thanks again. This site is the best. And Damo - I will definitely learn about the deposit and other aspects of charging for work. Will read that thread over before I ever truly take that leap. Would be nice to learn from others' experiences instead of making them all myself
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