hi every1, new to this place and need some advice. A mate of mine has asked me to do a website for his business (he's self-employed) but i've got no idea how much to charge (1st time ever done this for a mate!)? I'll be hosting it myself and sorting domain registration etc too. The site itself will be a very basic static site, probs no more than 5 pages - is £250 too much/too little??? Don't wanna over charge and scare him off so he ends up goin elsewhere and gettin sum sh*te setup for cheap money!!!! any ideas / advice much appreciated.... Chris
He's your mate. Personally I wouldnt even charge for a 5 static pages in html. 250$ is over charging a friend but that depends on you.
I would assume that swirl needs to eat and pay bills to live like anyone else. I find a decent website can easily take 40-100 man/hrs to complete. I would suggest you charge a reasonable hourly rate... That is of course, if you aren't doing this just for fun. Theres no need to devalue the profession.
i get wot u's r sayin abt him being a mate n that but he's offered to pay cos its either pay me or pay sum1 he don't know! so u's reckon i shud just cover my costs (ie domain registration etc)?
Just ask to cover your costs and make sure that you can use your mate as a reference in the future, should someone require examples of your work.. building a portfolio is always a good idea.. If you already have a portfolio and experience, I'd definitely charge him even if he is a friend.. there's no such thing as free lunch.. either that or make sure he understands that you'll do it in your free time and that he can't set you a deadline (unless it's one you both agree to).
good point ctrlnet, i will be looking to build a portfolio cos ideally i'd like to get into doin this more as a 2nd job at some stage. may be worth just covering me costs and do as u say, use this as a starter for my portfolio. Just out of interest, how much do u's lot charge for (non-mates rates) any sites u's build? Just as an idea for / if i ever go more into this line of work.....
I dont personally offer such services for living. However, even on the community forums there are people willing to do this for 50$ or under. 5 Html pages static is a very simple task with minor graphics work. Shouldnt take more then 1.5 hours to fully publish it online.
I don't charge for sites for friends, it seems wrong. Friends are worth more than what you can make out of them, and for 5 pages...damn..I didn't think anyone still did static websites that called themselves web designers!
I would have pointed my friend in the right direction to get a domain. Then I would have placed a website on that domain for him for no cost. If I had extra web space, hosting's free as well. If he likes a domain I have, domain's free as well. I would do that... You could charge if you want to. If you charge, you can choose to provide a heavy discount than regular cost. Tip for you...Maintaining the website would be more time consuming than putting it up at the first place. I know because I did something like this earlier this year. regards jeet
i think everyone's focusing on the "friend" part a bit too much. going back to the question, wt would be a reasonable price for such a project?
Whooaa thats about 470 USD ... a big amount for an html site 100$ for the layout // another 100 for setting up the site ... and maybe 50$ for domain and hosting ... so it should be 250$ Abhishek
your website pricing depends on few things time you deliver quality you provide and options you provide the customer with, its pretty easy to say a design is worth $100, what if the customer doesnt like the design or he wants more changes, after all you can't ask the customer to pay extra, you need to include those cost together. it can be anywhere from $ 350 + depending on work hours and choice given to customer.
Ummmm....my friend makes my sites for me for free. I would only charge for SEO and link building coz that really takes time to do, whereas building the site itself does not take long at all once you have a template.
well there won't b any templates as such, i'll be creating it completely to his spec and design - with my 2pence worth thrown in to aid any silly ideas he may have! also remember, i'll be hosting this site for free so he will be saving a fair bit of money over x yrs for that! Plus, i think friend/mate was perhaps not the correct wording, he's a guy i play cricket with and met him this season so only spoke to him a few times thing is, wot abt search engine optimisation etc, do i throw them in as extras or include it in the price? cheers for the comments and help so far guys!!!
In my honest opinion, a "friend" becomes a "client" the moment he or she asks you to perform a professional task for them. I am a hairdresser by trade, though I no longer work as one, and if I didn't charge my family / friends for haircuts, colors, perms, etc., then I would always be short on TIME AND MONEY. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking on a friend as a client. I mean, your friend is depending on you to do a professional job for him - I hope he anticipates paying for the result he is expecting. Don't do it free of charge. You'll only set yourself up for future pro bono work for him, and other friends. Give your friends a discount as a trade-off for a good reference on your own web site, or on their web site.
Here is an article on how to charge for writing jobs. Even though yours isn't a writing job, the same concepts discussed in the article can apply. Writing For Others - What to Charge? Hope this helps.