Pricing Dilemma for Novice
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- Julz
- Newbie
- Posts: 16
- Thanks: 0
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If you give away your time, then it may be considered a limitless free resource. If it is then you are fortunate. Another approach is to bill at a commercial rate with a discount *and* give a donation of a number of hours free. ie your first 'x' hours are free, then you have to pay.
Obviously you don't have to actually submit that invoice should the client leave the free allocation of time! But hopefully it will focus them on maximising the value of your time because you can bill them for it.
I know this sounds mean, but it does bring the discussion up to a new level and it does provide a project completion criterion, which is very important!
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Side question: has anyone ever benefitted much from pro bono work? ie 'This site will be seen by millions, and you'll get a ton of referrals?'
IMHO, this is so rare as to not be a motivator in pro bono : either do it freely or not because there's not likely to be much spin-off. Your experiences may be different of course, and I'd be glad to hear it!
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This may or may not meet with your local electoral law but why not:
1 - count up the hours you've spent (or guess)
2 - find a commercial rate (say $50 per hour)
3 - come up with a bill
4 - donate the total to the campaign
I know this doesn't help with 1-3 but if 4 is legal in your juristiction then it takes the pain out of doing the maths
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I have found these replies most beneficial to me. They have really changed the way I am thinking about this.
I should preface my replies to these posts by saying I am a middle-aged disabled mom of a teenage son. I am fortunate I have a husband who works and has great health insurance. Between epilepsy that has not been completely controlled and pretty bad fibromyalgia (pain and fatigue disorder) - I often end up stuck at home and bored. I started doing graphics for memory books for foster children we had. I did signs for the American Legion and newsletter for our local Optimist Club. It has just been a hobby. I just kept working at graphics and web design as a way of giving back to the community. I created large online bird communities after I became actively involved in bird rescue (aka - dumping ground for unwanted parrots). I did some breeding of smaller birds to support the rescues - so it seemed natural to create online community space for bird people and became an "expert" with people and vets referring various bird questions from people all over the world. And I burned out with all my "free" work. (And I see I am headed down that path again).
Anyway - none of this was about making money in the first place. I never took a computer class in college or grad school. But I was analyzing my research back when we entered data via punch cards
and in grad school on the school's mainframe before PC's became popular . It wasn't until now that I ever considered this as a marketable skill. My online bird friends always said I should - but I thought they were being nice. I say all this because the ideas here about my time and what I do is so out of left field for me. I have never joined in on any forum such as this before.
That said - I was a bit insulted after being told by the male candidate that they could only afford $150 each per site. Based on what I learned with their clean election money - he got more than $20,000 and she got more than $5,000. And they have not hesitated to ask me to put up endless photos that I had to either scan, optimize and/or do some serious touching up. I had to completely create content since neither bothered to give me any. I have scoured the newspaper and the web for any info. The only time they gave me anything to put up besides photos - was some events that were occurring right around the time I had surgery and told them I would be unavailable in late Sept.
Now if they had just offered me $150 per site - that would have been fine. But once I had to research and actually put my work out there among the professionals to ask this question (which trust me felt pretty risky as a non-professional) - it took me to other places. And that $150 each felt like an insult, especially since I know how much clean election money they have and it is public record what they spent it on some of which I thought was not good. The man spent $115 alone on a year of web hosting with a company that had very old versions of MySQL, PHP, etc. - and I would not use that host for security reasons - so I hosted it myself.
I did see my time as an essentially "limitless free resource." This discussion has changed that for me. What would be nice is if this could be a skill I could use to actually generate income - being disabled rots, btw. And I see how some people treat my time when it is free. If it cost $50 per hour - I am sure they would not have wasted it having me scan and alter bad photos or generate content. If I don't think my time is worth much - then I guess others will not either.
I will charge them the $150 - because I can now see I entered into a "business deal" the wrong way - I could write a manual of everything you should not do based on this one
But I plan to write up an itemized bill describing everything I did to include how I generated content, scanned and edited photos, installed a CMS and photo gallery on each, hosted each for however many months, obtained and paid for the domain name for one, transferred the domain to other hosting, paid for templates (include cost) and modified them, etc. And instead of emailing the bill as he asked - I will send a hard copy.
My husband and brother suggested just as you said Andrew - donation to the campaign for the extra - which I don't think is legal. But put it on that bill along with the URLs for each. I was told if the opponent complains - then the state will look at how much the site is really worth. I am not sure I will mention the donation part - I have no desire to get anyone into trouble. I just want them to realize how much I did.
While I am insulted to a degree - I feel I have learned from this. And I am hoping anyone else here who is starting out can learn from this also - and not make costly mistakes. So if this mistake can benefit anyone else - it is also worth it - including shariing my humiliation at being such a bad business person. :-[
As far as benefitting from pro bono work - I am planning to leave the sites up after the election. I technically own one of the domain names. And if I do put a business site up for myself - I will outline what I did for each site - with links in. If I take down their sites - I plan to at least use screen shots. I doubt it will generate much - but it was not my reason for doing the sites in the first place. I think if you are not experienced - free work does at least give you an opportunity to work on some sites and learn. But if you are experienced - then I think it just about giving to those in need and can't afford a site and not expecting anything in return.
I do a middle school music site and I spend a lot of time on it - but I just want the underfunded and underappreciated music program to have a chance. The young teacher is amazing and she is so great with the kids. My son had her during her first year at the school and it was his last year there. So except for marching band in HS - he has no contact with her. I only do this site because I believe in the cause and it is fun for me. And that is why I think you should do pro bono work. I doubt it will get you jobs. JMHO.
Sorry so long - again. And I really do appreciate everyone's thoughts on this. Talk about a reality adjustment!
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