Yes, I think there is. http://www.islandshots.com/web/pricing/ Truth that if you do what you love, eventually what you do can be worth millions. I'm sure everyone in this company is a millionaire, and damn happy about it too.
While their price are maybe a tiny bit above the average, they are still quite near the standard of a well known studio price. The studio that I work at charges just a little under those prices, and no, none of us is a millionaire.
And based on the quality of their site's HTML code, I'd say their clients are paying too much for what they're getting too. In fact, I will say it. Their clients ARE PROBABLY paying too much.
I think there is a future for XHTML/CSS/Web Designers once they use it to monetize their blog/website
With the increasingly large amountf of people from the East coming online who can work for far less than those in the West, we'll have no choice but drop the price or give it up. Eventually their economy will probably balance with ours and they will need to be paid the same as us, but who knows really. That websites prices are insane.
I don't agree with that statement at all. Most of the time I see people asking for help to FIX code written by people in developing nations (such as those in Asia, though it is not limited to only that part of the world) AND developed countries (such as here in the US). There are some who know what they're doing, and you know what? They're not charging pennies on the dollar. They're charging what they're WORTH. Furthermore, you shouldn't be competing with every John, Sally and Harry either. Focus on a niche and become the expert in that area. You don't want to be a small fish in the big pond, you want to be the big fish in the little pond. If you really think that lowering your prices is the answer, then all you're going to do at the end of the day is price yourself out of business. In addition to losing your clients because your business model (prices lower than in <country of choice>) was flawed to begin with, you'll also have yourself to blame. Don't cast such a wide net and try to catch every small fish in the sea. Focus on an area, and try going after the larger ones (can you eat a bluegill for dinner, or a catfish) instead.
Yeah of course there is. The internet is going through a second/third boom in the UK its more popular than ever. Over here I charge around $160 per day for web design because the economy supports it etc. I usually do work here for $50-60 2 days, thats probably my fault for taking work rather than doing my own portfolio though :S
I agree that we don't and won't have to compete with any other country. I read somewhere that India will eventually equally out to that of America in terms of cost of living. So, people can't outsource for low prices as they will need just as much as an American to live. Not like right now, where there cost of living is smaller. These designers at this studio may not be millionaires, but at those prices here in Canada I can live comfortably like a millionaire. I believe these designers are definitely worth what they charge. I believe in this industry one should charge based on skill and most importantly experience. When I started doing doing Websites for people it was very low about $20 - $60 a pop, but then I slowly became confident in my ability to ask for $100, then $200 and now that I have 3 years under my belt I get on average $250 - $500 per client for website. Next year I will be worth more, and charge accordingly. Soon after I will be working in my own studio eventually aspiring to the worth of these designers. And live comfortably as if I were a millionaire.
Yeah, just keep going and keep learning There are so many people calling theselves webdesigner that cant even code css, or even html properly. I've seen hundreds of terrible portfolios. IF you want to check out some other very good designer look at http://www.thefwa.com
Think they are millionaires? Don't be daft! That isn't that much for a website and you're not thinking about offices, staff costs and downtime. In London you can quite easily earn £200 ($390usd) a day for XHTML/CSS freelancing. Truth is, good people are hard to find and if you know good browser support, you're basically in.
True, I've done some very very simple designs, taking about 4 hours with all CS2 stuff as well and local (south england) companies have been ecstatic to pay around 100GBP, madness. Throw a bit of AJAX in and they think you're the messiah. :S
It's not really that mad, considering they can quite easily charge clients around £700 a day for html/css template building.