I am wanting to have a website designed and obviously i know that i need to get the homepage designed but when do i need to pay the designer to design every page? i dont mind paying for the design of the homepage\profile pages etc as they require a bit of work. But should i be paying the designer the same amount to design/create pages like 'about us' 'faqs' etc as these will be extremely similar in most cases? Please help as this is a dilema that has been around for a while.
I do design websites for people from time to time, and the way I do it is I sit down with them and have them paint me a picture (using their words, obviously) of exactly what the entire finished website will look like. Then we talk about how soon they want the website to be finished. Then we talk about a price for the whole project, which is based off of how much work needs to go into it and how fast they expect me to get it done. I'm not sure if this is how others go about this, but it's always worked for me. Again though, I only build websites for people on occasion and have pretty much went with the system that seems to work best for me.
I never use a web designer for design my websites. I always prefer web design company. they provide me their services from last 4-5 years and i never face any prob with that company. thanks
You need to decide the basic structure of the website based on your products. Then a company would sit down and try to plan pages that can be used over as template pages (sometimes all second level pages). So basically you would be looking at pricing: -artistic research and planning for whole website (huge chunk of design budget) -homepage design -second level template page design (to be used for all other pages) Most companies work with a 50% deposit to start and 50% payable upon completion of project. Charging per project usually gives you lower prices.
Hello and thanks for the replys... I understand what you are all saying from the point of view if i was hiring a web desigin company. But if i was just hiring a freelance designer they would charge me by the page wouldnt they? And i dont think its fair to be charged the same price for a profile design/page as lets say a simple about us text page. Is the best cost efective way to go about it is get a homepage and possbile profile page designed and a blank template design and do about us faq etc myself?
To answer your question as directly as possible: No...you shouldn't pay the same for every page you add to your site...there are style codes that control the overall look of your entire website, that only need to be changed in one place to update the look of your entire site. But really you shouldn't think of it on a page by page basis anyway...The overall design of the website, including your homepage, all the other pages, and all their elements, gadgets, bells and whistles...it is all one big job...it can be hard to build it piece by piece. Time involved is the only factor I would use to charge.
Man, there's a lot of spam comments in this thread. To answer your question, most designers will charge a one-time fee for the design and coding of the interface. Once that's done, there's an additional charge for every page you would like to have coded. The price will vary on the page's complexity but it's usually pretty cheap since it's just putting text into XHTML. A simple "About" page will be much cheaper to code than a complex "Contact us" script and form though. If you want additional/different designs for these pages, then you obviously need to think about the costs. A good designer will layout the content so that it's esthetically pleasing with little to no extra, but if you're looking at getting a good deal of work done on every page, consult with your designer to get a quote.
typically wit a design, you have a home page designed, and then a sub page that you can use for all other things. if you need more design work for pages that are not going to be similar on all sub pages, then pay for more. but, if you faq and about page can use the same layout, you dont need to pay for it when it will be the same layout with different text. it really all depends on if you are wanting the layout to change on these pages or not.
You should have your designer develop you a template; then have a developer design what you'll actually need (if you need a page with systems on it, pay for it, else, you should be able to muck through it enough to make something yourself).
You should pay a big slump of money for the webdesign "template" and if you are not capable of doing the rest of the web pages you should pay him hourly for the time he uses creating the sub-pages
How it normally works is you pay a designer to create a two page design for you. This includes the logo (if needed), a favicon, a front page design and a design for all of your other subpages. From that point you hire a programmer to create the entire site. Both will ask a flat rate. If you are looking for someone to help I do both and charge a flat rate on the entire site. Best of luck.