How much should I charge?

[Primaryinternet]

Hi Glen
I have a small web design company and it normally works out at around £100 - £150 per page, the home page being the most expensive. All our site are optimised for search engines so this price reflects that. If you would like some guide lines on SEO get in touch.

Regards

Mark
[email="mark@primaryinternet.co.uk"]

[fisicx]

PrimaryInternet,

Be careful how your promote yourself, your site doesn't validate, your metatags are keyword stuffed, your navigation is not indexable by the robots, you do not use CSS for styling, you use tables for structure and the site breaks in Firefox and Opera.

And the same applies to your customer's sites as well.

[sharpendtraining]

If you are looking for repeat business and referrals - trade some ££££'s for using them as a reference/testimonial

[Bleep-IT]

One thing to consider is how much the site is worth to the client, ok if its just an about us thing to give them a web presence then a few hundred pounds, but if the site is gonna earn them millions then you could charge thousands.

[A.N.Onym]

Enough to feel good for working for the client but not as much as to feel guilty for overcharging him

[WebGrafix]

For something as simple as a 5-6 page website with little updating we would have charged less than £200 for but that's just us, there are so many different price ranges for web design out there.

[m1ntie]

There are several issues to consider here.

1. are you a competent web designer and will they get as good a website as a web designer would produce.

2. Why did they ask you to help when there are thousands of web designers around - was it to save money? If so they will expect to pay less than a web designer would charge.

3. Are they close friends and what can they afford?

Regards m1ntie

[Bill Deakin]

Thought I'd throw in my 2c on this one...

When I first started in web design I was doing small sites for friend's and relatives and the deal was they all got cut priced sites since they were friends.

It wasn't until a lot later that I read that they paid full price, even to friends, as they were paying for the 'right to complain'. I thought this was an interesting point. If you charge one price for regular customers, and another for friends, then your friends are getting a 'favor' and may find it difficult to treat the deal as a regular business deal. If there is something they aren't happy with they may not want to say, as they feel they are getting a favor. Since reaidng that I charge the same for a friend as I do a customer who finds me in the Yellow Pages... Business is business.

How do the rest of you feel on this point - do you quote 'mates rates'?

[Bill Deakin]

BTW - if I remember correctly it was Duncan Bannatyne from Dragon's Den who I was reading an interview of!

[A.N.Onym]

Basically, I avoid doing business with friends directly, because if something goes wrong or slightly wrong, it will either be friendship or business affected.

Say, I someone needed my consultancy, I'd either provide it for free (friends, right?) - full service, exceptional quality, or charge the owner of the site (if the friend referred me) a usual business fee (take on as a client). Technically, I'd treat the friend's case like a client and provide some great quality either way.

Of course, I may end up setting up a fee, but it won't be reduced. My work time is limited and cutting the price for the friend is the worst I can think of, because it is neither of the situations, because you are doing it for a friend, and neither business, because you'd be charging the full fee then. This way you simply end up both taking on a client with a lot of wishes (he'll offer a lot of stuff, since you are friends and he's paid), losing a lot of time and money.

That being said, if the friend decides to pay for himself, I won't refuse to take the money, but I'd make sure I was doing a great job from the start.