Web Design Rate

[BlancoMorir]

Hi everyone, I just got asked to revise(totally new look) a site. They asked me what I charge and having never done this for money I told them I had to figure out what would be needed and that I would get back to them. Does anyone in this guild do web design as a career and know what the going rate is? It looks from polls conducted that it is near the $100 per hour, I know I will not charge that but is $25-$50 an hour to much to ask? I am just trying to get a feel for the current rates. What is your take on it?

Thank you ,

Blanco  

[jam-wired]

BlancoMorir

Hi everyone, I just got asked to revise(totally new look) a site. They asked me what I charge and having never done this for money I told them I had to figure out what would be needed and that I would get back to them. Does anyone in this guild do web design as a career and know what the going rate is? It looks from polls conducted that it is near the $100 per hour, I know I will not charge that but is $25-$50 an hour to much to ask? I am just trying to get a feel for the current rates. What is your take on it?

Thank you ,

Blanco

It depends on your skill level and experience. If you are in highschool and only have hobby-ish experience, I would say between $10-20 (usually near the lower end). If you have some professional experience, you could charge $25-50. If you have a degree and a lot of experience, then $50-100 is about normal, I guess. It also depends on your area.

I don't do freelance any more, but I think for web work I charged about $10 an hour when I had little professional experience and no degree. I have an acquaintance with a technical degree and quite a bit of print and web experience, and he'll charge as low as $15 an hour sometimes if he knows the client doesn't have a lot of money.  

[Novocain]

i think people usually charge $60-70/hour for web design. some people charge per page, and that's when you start seeing figures like $100-150/page. do a good amount of research before getting back to them. from what it sounds like you're not a proffessional graphic designer, but if you were you would need to set a goal yearly income and calculate an hourly rate based on how many projects you can easily take, what the going rate is amongst your competitors, and how much you'd need to charge in order to reach your goal income. to much will drive your customer away, not enough will put you in a cardboard box on the side of the road.

my advice is to thoroughly research the web design market (basing your price on your peers as far as design quality goes) and base your rate on that, estimate what you think you could plausibly get them to pay and go with that (which can be risky, but i presently have an opening biker supply store/motorcycle dealership wrapped around my finger using this method which makes me happy since this is my first freelance job), or buy a copy of The Graphic Artist Guild's Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines which is a very useful pricing resource that all graphic designers should own.

make sure to set an estimated amount of time you will need to spend on the project and type a form up explaining how all of that time will be alotted throughout the project (structure and navigation, image galleries, links page, about us page, other pages you recommend them having to help the site... and earn you extra money) with your name and signature on the bottom. many people ask for 50% in advance, then the rest upon completion of the project (the client not paying for hours that weren't used or adversely charged for extra hours spent). if you see a situation where they may not pay on time or you've never worked with them before, having them sign the document and keeping a copy is a good idea.

hope that helped, good luck.  

[GhoSt-X]

i thought that in industry .. it was more commong to charge by the amount of pages on the webpage, and what is on them ..
but i guess its different~_~  

[BlancoMorir]

Thank you very much for the suggestions.  

[Acis]

what is the site for??  

[Novocain]

GhoSt-X

i thought that in industry .. it was more commong to charge by the amount of pages on the webpage, and what is on them ..
but i guess its different~_~

no, it's not necessarily more common. people use both methods and from what's been explained to my by my professors and from what i've learned on my own, it's the less wise route to choose especially if you're an independant contractor or if you're doing freelance work.

if you charge someone per page you may scare off your customer because of the larger numbers involved (and the psychological impact that it has on people, much like $9.99 being more appealing than $10.00) and because certain pages may be relatively simple but are being paired with high figures despite that fact that their content is elementary in comparisson to other pages you've made for them. also... what if the client decides they want their entire site to be one lengthy page. there will be no way for you to get them to change their mind and you have now assigned yourself to a lengthy project you'll get paid crap to do (ruining any additional clients you could recieve through them) or you'll lose a customer because you won't agree to make what they've asked for.

if you charge someone per hour you appear less abrassive to a customer because an hourly rate is a concept they'll most likely be able to relate to and they'll all of a sudden envision you working a 9-5 type of day on their project (which is a comforting concept for people who find the world of art and design somewhat alien and unreliable). also, it works in favor for the designer because you're not just being paid for the finished product you're being paid for research, sketches, presentations, finalizing designs, coding and any other time you spent working to provide the finished result. if you make two sites for two clients with the same per page rate, finishing one on schedule and spending twice as long on the other, both clients are paying you the same thing. if you make two sites for two clients at an hourly rate, the one that you finished on time will create the expected income while the one that needed special attention, revisions, or work will financially account for the extra effort involved.  

[Chisa]

Thats interesting... I was wondering the same thing, because I have a friend who is starting to make websites for small businesses, and I was thinking of doing the same.

I don't know how a business would feel about a 19 year old student with little previous experience and no formal training like me charging by the hour though... maybe if I drew up a plan thing like you suggested...

Thanks for the info anyway!  

[Novocain]

Chisa

Thats interesting... I was wondering the same thing, because I have a friend who is starting to make websites for small businesses, and I was thinking of doing the same.

I don't know how a business would feel about a 19 year old student with little previous experience and no formal training like me charging by the hour though... maybe if I drew up a plan thing like you suggested...

Thanks for the info anyway!

no problem.

if you're wondering if a design business would hire a 19 year old, most employers look for at least 3 years employed experience and a bachelor's degree. so most likely not. if you're talking about a business hiring free lance designers to do web design for them, you never know. if you're work impresses them enough, if you're professional, and you are able to excite them about the project it's very possible. make sure to choose an hourly rate that reflects your experience though. assuming they're interviewing multiple designers, someone with more experience and the same hourly wage will appear considerably more appealing. however, someone who doesn't necessarily have as much experience but has equal/better quality at a lower rate would.

good luck!  

[Calluna]

GhoSt-X

i thought that in industry .. it was more commong to charge by the amount of pages on the webpage, and what is on them ..
but i guess its different~_~

I dont' know if that's really fair, if you use templates or dynamically-generated pages. whee  

[GhoSt-X]

nah .. dont use templates...
'then all your pages will look the same ~_~  

[myst_dragon]

Novocain your always so informative and helpful. biggrin  

[Novocain]

myst_dragon

Novocain your always so informative and helpful. biggrin

well, thankyou very much smile after posting i usually find out that i ended up coming across bitchy when i thought i was being helpful in my head. it makes me feel much better knowing my long winded tangents are helpful.