Website cost

brynmuzika · 03-06-2010, 04:28 AM

Can anyone please tell me the very basic cost of a website made by a newbie? With CMS application. Thanks!

egofirm · 03-06-2010, 02:13 PM

Depends on what sort of website you're talking about and the kind of CMS behind it. By "sort" I mean the website's specialisation so to speak (e.g. corporate site, personal etc). If you're a newbie, looking to build a portfolio, I personally wouldn't charge much -- just enough to reasonably cover your time spent in front of the screen. So say if you spend an overall 8-10 hours working on it, you may finally charge your client something along the lines of say $200 or so. But then it once again depends.

brynmuzika · 03-06-2010, 11:33 PM

@egofirm: Thanks, but I'll share this experience to you. When my client and I were negotiating about the project cost, she asked me how much was my basic rate then I answered for about $200 - $250 it depends on the size or the "sort" that you meant. But I based that cost rate on some websites and forums. Then my client was shocked about my said rate, coz' some of their friends told them that the basic website costs for only 100$. I assumed this costs only for websites like; blog, or template ready websites w/ CMS behind it. In fact, I made their website without any CMS application as in "Hardcore Coding" with XHTML, CSS, and PHP only. Can you imagine that? I finished their websites(including her husband's website) for about 3 months. Our negotiation for the website cost ends up with an agreement of a 100$ website cost w/ contract, including her husband's so 200$ all in all(2 websites). But I had no choice, they are my clients right? Did I make a big mistake? Should I have regret it?

aracaris · 03-07-2010, 03:50 AM

I'll admit that I'm still a bit of a newbie, and that
I personally do find pricing to be one of the most frustrating things about freelancing.

For one I've found that it's somewhat common for people to try and barter with freelancers over prices, this is something that is not considered acceptable in many other situations (traditional retail for example) in the US. So it can be really tricky, especially when you are new, because it's not really a big part of our culture, assuming that you are from the US (maybe it's different for some of the people on here from other countries). Of course you could have a no bartering policy, but that could lead to you losing out on some valuable clients as easily as it could protect you from working for chump change.

By charging them $100 for each site when you quoted $200-$250 you are basically giving them a very very large discount. Now maybe that's all the particular site you were doing for them was worth, but that really really depends on what exactly was going into the site.

Maybe these people just really don't understand how much work goes into getting a site up and running, I think that's a common issue. But some people really just are cheapskates and want to get as much work out of you for as little as possible.

Most websites cost more than $100 unless we're talking about something very simple, and very small.

It also sounds like you didn't determine costs until the site was made. I think most people will likely agree that it's a good idea to reach some sort of decision about how much things will cost ahead of time. This could be a hard figure such as $200, or an hourly rate with some estimate of how long it will take to complete. In my experience most clients prefer to just have a fixed rate based on estimated time, but some clients don't mind just paying hourly.

You also do have to weigh whether you think you are really being "short-changed", vs. whether charging much less than you'd like could be a good "foot in the door" sort of experience, and even win you a repeat customer, which might even be willing to pay more for future projects.

brynmuzika · 03-07-2010, 04:57 AM

Thanks for your reply aracaris. Actually my client is a local client residing here in our town in the philippines. Just to update this to you, the current 1 US dollar is equivallent to 46 Phil. peso. I did'nt complaint it to my clients verbally because I also understand them that maybe they really don't know that it's not simple to deploy a website. But I've got nothing to do we've already signed the contract and my clients are that smart to make me deal with them for they are that business minded.

All I have to do next is to study more, practice, and negotiate with the exact baisc cost and be more proficient on my works. Actually I'm on the finalization stage right now in my project. By the way, my client just asked me to add some features in his website which is not that easy to work on. But, still they are my clients. Do I have to ask them for an additional charge?

aracaris · 03-07-2010, 11:01 AM

I'm kind of trying to tackle how to deal with that issue right now. Sometimes I'll have a client whom will sort of downplay just how many features they want on a page, probably without even meaning to do so, or whom leaves features that they wanted on the page out until after I give them a quote.
Then I have to be careful to explain that those features will result in a greater work load, and that I do need to get paid for that extra work.
Usually people are understanding about this, but there's a new client I'm working with that has tended to add more and more features, and now I have to wait and see how they respond, and you'll not generally know how a new client will respond.
Just try to be as courteous as you can with them, but let them know that new features are more work for you, and you are after all not a charity (probably don't want to use that word, but basically that's the idea). Somehow you have to make a living too.
If the result is them trying to get something else out of you for nothing, and to keep putting pressure on you to do so, when you've made it clear that you're a business and that's not how you work, then they are just trying to take advantage of you.

I don't think that this is an easy thing to deal with personally, again I personally find the money/costs issues surrounding freelancing to be one of the most stressful parts of the business.

egofirm · 03-07-2010, 04:08 PM

brynmuzika -- there's a saying that the "first pancake is always a mess", so that's ok in a way on a one-off project or whatever. Just know your worth and charge accordingly, adopting a serious tone right from the start when it comes to talking money. I don't know what $200 in the Philippines can buy, but either way, base your costs on time, creativity and effort put into your project/s.

If your client asks for new features late in the project, which were not discussed initially or were not included in the initial functionality (e.g. adding a user-registration and handling routine to for example a real estate IDX/RETS-based website) -- you should make it clear that these may take a major change (having to add user registration modules etc) and the costs must rise accordingly.

On the other hand, if you're working with open-source engines like Wordpress or Joomla, these shouldn't pose much of a problem unless you're writing out the template yourself, but then it's a different story.

Web1 · 03-07-2010, 06:45 PM

Yes can be tricky when giving clients an up front total cost, and yep they so often ask for more complex elements later and it can be hard to allow extra fees for them, its best to make it clear in writing, email for example, what you are providing and what will be the limit of features/pages, so you can ask for further fees when they add extra later.

Or sometimes a client can be undecisive over colours and style, so try to get a good idea of the look and feel they want, or they can get you going in circles ! I made plenty of costing errors, it takes time to get a feel for what is accurate. Dont work for peanuts, thats the most discouraging

) be fair to yourself. Sites with backend cms should be way more than $200 unles you are using something off the shelf like Icy Pheonix, Joomla, and are not doing much customising.

BradT81 · 03-08-2010, 12:55 AM

I like freelance sites but some people want to pay next to nothing for great service

darrenfox · 03-08-2010, 01:19 AM

I'm shocked to see sites going for $200.00. It is prices like that which make it difficult for this industry to make what it is really worth.

03-06-2010, 04:28 AM	#1
brynmuzika Bronze Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Cebu City Posts: 36	Website cost Can anyone please tell me the very basic cost of a website made by a newbie? With CMS application. Thanks!

03-06-2010, 02:13 PM	#2
egofirm New Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 8	Depends on what sort of website you're talking about and the kind of CMS behind it. By "sort" I mean the website's specialisation so to speak (e.g. corporate site, personal etc). If you're a newbie, looking to build a portfolio, I personally wouldn't charge much -- just enough to reasonably cover your time spent in front of the screen. So say if you spend an overall 8-10 hours working on it, you may finally charge your client something along the lines of say $200 or so. But then it once again depends. __________________ Affordable web design and development: http://www.egofirm.com

03-06-2010, 11:33 PM	#3
brynmuzika Bronze Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Cebu City Posts: 36	@egofirm: Thanks, but I'll share this experience to you. When my client and I were negotiating about the project cost, she asked me how much was my basic rate then I answered for about $200 - $250 it depends on the size or the "sort" that you meant. But I based that cost rate on some websites and forums. Then my client was shocked about my said rate, coz' some of their friends told them that the basic website costs for only 100$. I assumed this costs only for websites like; blog, or template ready websites w/ CMS behind it. In fact, I made their website without any CMS application as in "Hardcore Coding" with XHTML, CSS, and PHP only. Can you imagine that? I finished their websites(including her husband's website) for about 3 months. Our negotiation for the website cost ends up with an agreement of a 100$ website cost w/ contract, including her husband's so 200$ all in all(2 websites). But I had no choice, they are my clients right? Did I make a big mistake? Should I have regret it? Last edited by brynmuzika; 03-06-2010 at 11:39 PM.

03-07-2010, 03:50 AM	#4
aracaris Bronze Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 71	I'll admit that I'm still a bit of a newbie, and that I personally do find pricing to be one of the most frustrating things about freelancing. For one I've found that it's somewhat common for people to try and barter with freelancers over prices, this is something that is not considered acceptable in many other situations (traditional retail for example) in the US. So it can be really tricky, especially when you are new, because it's not really a big part of our culture, assuming that you are from the US (maybe it's different for some of the people on here from other countries). Of course you could have a no bartering policy, but that could lead to you losing out on some valuable clients as easily as it could protect you from working for chump change. By charging them $100 for each site when you quoted $200-$250 you are basically giving them a very very large discount. Now maybe that's all the particular site you were doing for them was worth, but that really really depends on what exactly was going into the site. Maybe these people just really don't understand how much work goes into getting a site up and running, I think that's a common issue. But some people really just are cheapskates and want to get as much work out of you for as little as possible. Most websites cost more than $100 unless we're talking about something very simple, and very small. It also sounds like you didn't determine costs until the site was made. I think most people will likely agree that it's a good idea to reach some sort of decision about how much things will cost ahead of time. This could be a hard figure such as $200, or an hourly rate with some estimate of how long it will take to complete. In my experience most clients prefer to just have a fixed rate based on estimated time, but some clients don't mind just paying hourly. You also do have to weigh whether you think you are really being "short-changed", vs. whether charging much less than you'd like could be a good "foot in the door" sort of experience, and even win you a repeat customer, which might even be willing to pay more for future projects. __________________ My Portfolio Samantha Dale Hairstylist Portfolio Last edited by aracaris; 03-07-2010 at 04:26 AM.

03-07-2010, 11:01 AM	#6
aracaris Bronze Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 71	I'm kind of trying to tackle how to deal with that issue right now. Sometimes I'll have a client whom will sort of downplay just how many features they want on a page, probably without even meaning to do so, or whom leaves features that they wanted on the page out until after I give them a quote. Then I have to be careful to explain that those features will result in a greater work load, and that I do need to get paid for that extra work. Usually people are understanding about this, but there's a new client I'm working with that has tended to add more and more features, and now I have to wait and see how they respond, and you'll not generally know how a new client will respond. Just try to be as courteous as you can with them, but let them know that new features are more work for you, and you are after all not a charity (probably don't want to use that word, but basically that's the idea). Somehow you have to make a living too. If the result is them trying to get something else out of you for nothing, and to keep putting pressure on you to do so, when you've made it clear that you're a business and that's not how you work, then they are just trying to take advantage of you. I don't think that this is an easy thing to deal with personally, again I personally find the money/costs issues surrounding freelancing to be one of the most stressful parts of the business. __________________ My Portfolio Samantha Dale Hairstylist Portfolio Last edited by aracaris; 03-07-2010 at 11:06 AM.

03-07-2010, 04:57 AM	#5
brynmuzika Bronze Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Cebu City Posts: 36	Thanks for your reply aracaris. Actually my client is a local client residing here in our town in the philippines. Just to update this to you, the current 1 US dollar is equivallent to 46 Phil. peso. I did'nt complaint it to my clients verbally because I also understand them that maybe they really don't know that it's not simple to deploy a website. But I've got nothing to do we've already signed the contract and my clients are that smart to make me deal with them for they are that business minded. All I have to do next is to study more, practice, and negotiate with the exact baisc cost and be more proficient on my works. Actually I'm on the finalization stage right now in my project. By the way, my client just asked me to add some features in his website which is not that easy to work on. But, still they are my clients. Do I have to ask them for an additional charge?

03-07-2010, 04:08 PM	#7
egofirm New Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 8	brynmuzika -- there's a saying that the "first pancake is always a mess", so that's ok in a way on a one-off project or whatever. Just know your worth and charge accordingly, adopting a serious tone right from the start when it comes to talking money. I don't know what $200 in the Philippines can buy, but either way, base your costs on time, creativity and effort put into your project/s. If your client asks for new features late in the project, which were not discussed initially or were not included in the initial functionality (e.g. adding a user-registration and handling routine to for example a real estate IDX/RETS-based website) -- you should make it clear that these may take a major change (having to add user registration modules etc) and the costs must rise accordingly. On the other hand, if you're working with open-source engines like Wordpress or Joomla, these shouldn't pose much of a problem unless you're writing out the template yourself, but then it's a different story. __________________ Affordable web design and development: http://www.egofirm.com

03-07-2010, 06:45 PM	#8
Web1 Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: UK Posts: 42	fees Yes can be tricky when giving clients an up front total cost, and yep they so often ask for more complex elements later and it can be hard to allow extra fees for them, its best to make it clear in writing, email for example, what you are providing and what will be the limit of features/pages, so you can ask for further fees when they add extra later. Or sometimes a client can be undecisive over colours and style, so try to get a good idea of the look and feel they want, or they can get you going in circles ! I made plenty of costing errors, it takes time to get a feel for what is accurate. Dont work for peanuts, thats the most discouraging ) be fair to yourself. Sites with backend cms should be way more than $200 unles you are using something off the shelf like Icy Pheonix, Joomla, and are not doing much customising. __________________ Web1 Christian Web Design

03-08-2010, 12:55 AM	#9
BradT81 Silver Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 167	I like freelance sites but some people want to pay next to nothing for great service __________________ Affordable Web Design \| DJ Website \| Cheap Cpanel Hosting \| Cheap SEO

03-08-2010, 01:19 AM	#10
darrenfox Bronze Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Illinois Posts: 85	I'm shocked to see sites going for $200.00. It is prices like that which make it difficult for this industry to make what it is really worth. __________________ Darren Fox Small Business Web Design

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