how much money should I ask for to design and manage a website?

Question

I'm getting asked to design and manage a website, and i dont wanna get ripped off. how much money should i ask for, for doing basic HTML for a skateshop?

Answer 1

However much money you think they're willing to spend. It's a mistake to price to an unspecified amount of time and effort. It makes more sense, when you aren't sure about the commitment involved, to figure out how much money the person thinks it will cost, then charge that.

In other words, if you think he thinks it should cost $500 a year, you say you want $500 a year. If he thinks it should cost $10,000 a year, you say $10,000 a year.

Answer 2

First off, you don't mention how many pages this website is. A one or two page website is considerably less expensive than, say, a 5 to a 15 page website. Also, is it all strictly HTML, or (X)HTML in addition to CSS? Will you be designing, and creating all the graphics yourself? Will you be writing the content, in addition to making sure it's search engine optimized? Do you assure them that it will be W3C standardized and pass validation tests? Will they be requiring a shopping cart, or any other major scripts that you might be required to incorporate?

Your request is too vague to place any monetary value on this website. My suggestion would be first to find out exactly what this client wants, what his expectations are, what does he hope that his website will accomplish for him - how does he envision what it will look like, or, if he will leave it entirely up to you. Would you need to provide him with several concepts first before he makes his final decision?

When you say "manage" his website, what exactly does this mean, aside from a few changes and edits here and there.

These are all important aspects to take into consideration before you can provide him with a quote/estimate. Also, you will most definitely need to provide him with your proposal, and upon agreement, have him sign your "proposal contract" with everything spelled out so that there are no misunderstandings.

DianeD
http://www.dironwebdesign.com/

Answer 3

Design should be one fee. it can be hourly or flat depending on how thorough the documentation is.
Maintain should be another fee, that is hourly.

Make sure you get requirements up front. That's how you get screwed in the production phase. The customer says "no i don't like that, change it." over and over again and you'll end up selling your time for below minimum wage. Get specifications so that if they deviate, you can charge them for it. Most of the time losing money on a web project doesn't come at the price negotiation phase, but the production phase when the customers expectations of what they're getting don't meet what you expected to make. If you have to keep changing color schems in the middle of production, its going to cost you money.

Answer 4

$20/h is a good start