How Much?

[miggsy007]

Ok, I know full well that I am not good enough to start doing this for money yet. But just out of interest, could one of you professional coders take a look at my site and tell me how much you would have charged to make it?

Thanks,

Miggsy007

[JamieR]

Well I'm not really classed as a professional coder, although I do know quite a lot of XHTML and CSS:) - I think if I had done it, I would have charged around £75 for the development of the site and graphic design (as I am still a school kid, I don't necessarily charge much).

I reckon that your site could have been done within 4 or 5 hours initially with the graphic design and then debugging etc would have taken longer.

What does make serious money is Server side development - i.e. PHP/Mysql.

Jamie.

[evo]

Honestly, I wouldn't. If I had to, 15 bucks would be the furthest extent my wallet would donate even if it is database/serverside driven.

However, that is what I would say. I know someone who paid £300 recently for something quite horrific http://www.apartmentorentinspain.co.uk indeed and obviously were scammed.

So anything is possible if your buyer is gullible enough. But realistically, it more than likely would not sell. The competition would completely out do you - even at 15 bucks.

[miggsy007]

Cool, thanks for the info guys.

Miggsy007

[Graft-Creative]

However, that is what I would say. I know someone who paid £300 recently for something quite horrific http://www.apartmentorentinspain.co.uk indeed and obviously were scammed.


Indeed, espescially when it's just a reworking of this template http://www.pkd.uk.com/ And the header graphic says "Apartmento Rent in Spain" - should it not say "Apartment to rent in Spain"?

Anyway, back to the topic. Pricing is usually down to quality and demand - I'm not sure I'd agree with Evo's ballpark of $15 for your site, i think it's gotta be worth more than that.

Quality and demand: It depends where you want to compete in the market, like all markets there is a low, middle and high end. It depends where you want to pitch yourself. If you can produce the quality of work - and persuade clients on the benefits of that quality, then there is no harm in charging as much as you can get away with, as long as the client knows what they are paying for, and why.

One way to approach it, is to try and step into the clients shoes/mindset.
I recently worked on a site, and as a rough guide, considered how much business the client would have to take through the site in order to get his money back from paying for the site, this worked out at precisely one sale and he'd still make a profit from that first sale.

Hope that helps a bit,

Kind Regards,

Gary

[grump]

Simple formula...

(Expected Total Hours) x (Hourly Rate) x (Unforeseen Percentage) x (Taxes) = (Total Charge)

1) The total hours you need to build the project...
2) multiplied by the rate you wish to charge for your time (since you sound new you may wish this to be quite low as you are doing it more for portfolio purposes in all likelihood... but whatever you think is fair TO YOU should be your rate)
3) add at least 25% at most 40% to the budget for the unexpected (stupid bugs, client delays, server crashes, file corruption, you name it)
4) multiply by the taxes you'll need to pay on it...

eg. (arbitrary figures)

80 hours x $35/Hour x 1.25 x 1.14 = $3990

Please note the above has nothing to do with your site... what I'm trying to say is what others would charge is absolutely irrelevent... use a formula similar to that one and figure out what you think its worth to you... and sell yourself on that basis... in this business its all about your own confidence in yourself and using consistant models of costing projects that will make it worthwhile as a means of making a living in the long run... the same site can be thousands of dollars or below a hundred dollars entirely based on who is selling it...

Cheers and good luck...

[miggsy007]

Thanks again for the tips guys, I'll certainly bear them in mind in the *far* future if I ever turn this from hobby to profit.

Cheers,

Miggsy007