Another how much would a site like this cost

*Originally posted by Coppertop *
**Pimp, just wondering, but how many clients do you get? **

I am with unflux… I have a very extensive portfolio and I charge at least 50$/hour and to make it worth my time I have to charge that much. I already have a full-time job and hardly have time to do any design but I get offers to do projects ALL THE TIME!! Literally, I’m always turning people down.

Thanks for the support DigitalPimp.

well, let me explain this much. I didn’t mean the comment to be
smart-alleck or anything. I just wanted you guys to think about
|your time a little more in terms of value. Why work for $25/hr
when you could get $$50?? That’s all i meant by that.

I started out just like you described. I took any and every job I
could, just to make the ca$h. However, by the 3rd or 4th job I
took, I realized it wasn’t worth my time, regardless of the
potential for more work.

At that point I pushed my prices, doubled them actually, and still
got the same types and number of jobs. What you are telling the
potential client is that your work is worth their $. Even if they say
and think they can’t afford it. If that business wants a good
quality web site, then they will pay for it because you were able
to justify to them your skills, your company, your design, and
spending of their $$ on you.

I don’t have an extensive portfolio, but I know I can do the work.
So, I sell it that way.

I’m not trying to tell anyone what to do, I’m just saying what it is
that I do. I tell the people that sell for me the same thing, and it
works. You don’t have to take my advice or my suggestions.

But, I know this is good business and good selling, and it’s
clearly made UNFLUX and myself better. That alone is proof
enough IMO.

Digitalosophy - good for you and congratulations on that success!
I’m not knocking anyone on this subject, but sometimes letting
yourself gain confidence is key. If I never tried to charge more,
than I would never have made that $$.

You have a point in that you should always ask for what you and your time are worth. Especially if you are a very experienced designer and developer, and have got a portfolio to back you up.

But it’s also true that when you start out, you can’t get away with charging what you think you’re worth. Bigger companies who are able and willing to pay more won’t take on people who haven’t got a long list of sites behind them. So sometimes you just have to knuckle down and get those first sites, even if it’s smaller clients who can’t pay you what you really ought to be getting.

Once you’ve got those sites made to the best of your ability, then you can use them as leverage to display your talent and get the proper money.

I’ve also done that…

The first web site I made, I charged 25$, I now charge way more than that per hour.

Also, I compare what I charge to the local design firm. They on average bill 100$/hour for design work.

I once had a customer (in Real Estate) who wanted a pretty simple site but had an ASP backend and stuff. I gave her a rough quote of 3,000$. She about crapped herself because she hadn’t ever been quoted anything like that before. I then explained to her that if she were to sell 1 house off there that say sold for 200,000$ then she would had just paid for the web site and then some… She then realized it wasn’t that big of an expense.

It is always a good idea to rationalize and explain how a client will receive revune from a site.

sometimes, you have to be a salesman to sell. good stuff man :wink:

COST? you gotta be kidding me?! if you know flash and you make the site by hand using flash and dreamweaver then that’s it. FREE. the only thing i see that whould cost you money is Vbulletin.

he is asking so he can quote a price to build for someone else…

he doesn’t want the site, he wants to make the site for someone and charge them…

:sigh:

yeep :slight_smile: I understand both your arguments but since i am just starting out i will start small just like you have suggested. thaanks!

You’d get $1000 or 50000 Rs for this kind of site, pimp?

You’d be able to buy 3 P4 PCs for that much in India. Sheesh, you guys must be millionaires!

I agree wid uniflux and digitalpimp, i also have a nice portfolio, clients like Government of india and National Crime Records bureau and corporates like samsung and wat not, we are not price takers anymore, yea there was a phase and everyone has to see that phase through, tough times as u guys call it in americaneze:p j/k

So it really depends on the stage where u r, if u have a reputation and name u ll get work and price u want,but if u wana make a name for urself, may be u have to even do a website or 2 for free, hey i did that… so i d’ say know urself, know ur grip on the market, adjust ur prices according to the clients and jugnu" shakal dekh te thappad martey hai and u can b a millionaire too:P"

btw "shakal dekh te thappad martey hai " means u judge the clients ability to pay first, judge how much u can choke out of him/her(sply, in my case they are always her:P) and then quote your price or just go by the time method mentioned above by uniflux, i like tht.=)

and yea jugnu(wich means firefly, incase u guys dont kno wat it means) is right hardware is really very cheap in india.Sply Delhi =)

*Originally posted by jugnu *
**You’d get $1000 or 50000 Rs for this kind of site, pimp?

You’d be able to buy 3 P4 PCs for that much in India. Sheesh, you guys must be millionaires! **

A $1,000 will buy me a cheap P4 in America. I’m selling my P4 1.8 Alienware for like $700.

Let me ask you guys - i just started getting into website design - what program(s) would one use to make this site? Dreamweaver? Flash? Both? Neither?

I have been messing around with both and was wondering if i could make a similar site with these 2 programs.

Thanks for any responses! :slight_smile:

I personally use HomeSite5 which used to be owned by Allaire but was recently bought out by Macromedia. I prefer HomeSite over Dreamweaver but they have similar features, HomeSite is just a bit more powerful to me.

I also use Flash MX to do client-side interactive content and Photoshop 6 & Paint Shop Pro 7 for my static graphics.

If you want a good program for CSS then go get Top Style 3 made by Bradbury, it is an incredible program. You can download the demo for free.