Web design/development pricing guide?

[Chris]

Can anyone recommend a book(or any source) that gives good guidelines
for web design/development pricing guidelines? I was reading the
amazong reviews of the 'Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing &
Ethical Guidelines' and it seems to be well respected but what I see
from the reviews is that it's geared more toward print design and not
the web, and that the web guidelines are a bit outdated.

 

[nice.guy.nige]

While the city slept, Chris ([email protected]) feverishly typed...

Can anyone recommend a book(or any source) that gives good guidelines
for web design/development pricing guidelines? I was reading the
amazong reviews of the 'Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing &
Ethical Guidelines' and it seems to be well respected but what I see
from the reviews is that it's geared more toward print design and not
the web, and that the web guidelines are a bit outdated.

See what people are charging in your local area. If you think you are better
than them, charge more. If you think they are better than you, charge less
until you are better than them.

Also, work out what you think you should be earning (be realistic - we'd all
like B.Gates' paycheque, but we ain't gonna get it!), work out how many
hours you will be working, and divide one by the other. Remember though that
you are getting the money from your clients - not only to pay for your time
while you work on their site - but also to pay for your time doing non-dev
things such as paperwork, tax-returns, promoting your business and finding
new work, keeping your skills up-to-date (that includes paying for courses,
buying periodicals, spending time on places like, erm... here!), so factor
that time and expense into your equation.

You can also take a look here:
http://allmyfaqs.net/faq.pl?Web_design_business

Hope that helps,
Nige

 

[Patrick Sullivan]

Most of my website filesystem problems have been with non-matching character
case as mentioned above. UNIX/Linux machines are case sensitive, Windows
machines are not. So if your webserver is Linux/Apache and your development
box is Windows, you could have problems like that.

 

[Bob]

Can anyone recommend a book(or any source) that gives good guidelines
for web design/development pricing guidelines? I was reading the
amazong reviews of the 'Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing &
Ethical Guidelines' and it seems to be well respected but what I see
from the reviews is that it's geared more toward print design and not
the web, and that the web guidelines are a bit outdated.

Here in my part of the rural West, the going at the big shop in town is
$60/hr for HTML, CSS, graphics (HCG) and $85 an hour for scripting. They
do tons of work.

Another place charges $50/hr for HTML and scripting and they get lots of
work.

Another place charges $40/hr for HCG and $60/hr for scripting, but they
hardly get any work.

Another place charges around $45/hr for HG but they do bad work.

There are cut rate places here in town that charge around $25/hr for HG
but their work is bad.

A friend in Florida who is excellent charges $75-85 an hour for HCGS and
gets tons of work, but he is top notch

A friend in Seattle said going rate for top notch work was $150/hr for
HCSG 1 yr ago but since then there is a lot of competition from offshore.

That should give you some ideas.

You can't really go wrong at $40/hr HCG and $60/hr scripting if you do
really good work. If you don't start lower.

 

[Bob]

Can anyone recommend a book(or any source) that gives good guidelines
for web design/development pricing guidelines? I was reading the
amazong reviews of the 'Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing &
Ethical Guidelines' and it seems to be well respected but what I see
from the reviews is that it's geared more toward print design and not
the web, and that the web guidelines are a bit outdated.

If you are working for someone else, expect a lot less. Expect $20-30/hr
for HTML, CSS and graphics and $25-40/hr for scripting. Also depends how
old you are. Teenagers make less. That is less money, but a lot of
designers work as contract employees for other ppl so that way they do
not have the HASSLE of finding clients and the business end, which can
get extremely crappy, with ppl not paying and bitching and whatnot.

If you go to work for a place, average starting salary is around
$40,000/yr around these parts for HCG. Scripting, I have no idea, but
average C++/Java programmers make $50/hr in USA in all parts of the country.

 

[saz]

Can anyone recommend a book(or any source) that gives good guidelines
for web design/development pricing guidelines? I was reading the
amazong reviews of the 'Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing &
Ethical Guidelines' and it seems to be well respected but what I see
from the reviews is that it's geared more toward print design and not
the web, and that the web guidelines are a bit outdated.

I see you've receive several replies, here's my two cents:

The examples you find on the web and in articles are just that -
examples, not "set in stone" answers.

In the Chicago area, I charge $60 for HTML/CSS, and $75 for scripting.
My prices are considered average, and I stay busy. My target market is
the very small one-man operation to mid-sized business. Too many are
chasing after the "big guys" and ignoring this huge market.

When you set pricing, remember it's also about Marketing and perception.
Too low, and you will leave the impression that you are not worth any
more than that low price. The opposite is if you go too high, you will
drive away business.

The best advice I can give you is to see what the others charge in your
area, then take the average and set that as your fee structure.