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How much to charge for website support

by msdobe
6 replies
I'm selling some websites and am curious as to what to charge for support down the road. Selling is one thing, but support is a completely different matter. I want to be fair and reasonable, but don't want to give away my services either.

Jenny
#charge #support #website
  • Profile picture of the author Matt Lee
    Normally I include this as a "benefit" to a marketing package to increase perceived value. Or if I sell them a website, I'll include it for the first 30 days for free. But just ala carte, somewhere around $99-$299 depending on their needs. Sometimes they like just knowing they have a safety net should something come up.
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  • Profile picture of the author BarbaraP
    Matt's right, they like the safety net and expect a "maintenance" offer. Think about your website design price so monthly maintenance is relative to what they just paid you for the site. Detail what's included so they're not chewing up your time with call after call for questions, tweaking, adding and correcting. Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffreysloe
    Originally Posted by msdobe View Post

    I'm selling some websites and am curious as to what to charge for support down the road. Selling is one thing, but support is a completely different matter. I want to be fair and reasonable, but don't want to give away my services either.

    Jenny
    Jenny,

    When you say your selling websites, do you mean a custom design or a template? Are the websites static or dynamic? Do the websites include a database? Are you providing the hosting service, or using the customer's? What's your time worth?

    I believe there are different levels of support, and one should charge according to the that level. As you already know, creating a static HTML website, on your customer's hosting service, takes a lot less time/support than a dynamic site hosted on your server.

    So, I guess it all depends on the the type of website your selling, and what your time is worth. I always try to be fair with my customers, but I'm always there to help when needed. Like Matt and Barbara said, people like that safety net.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    I think this depends on what you think is OK to charge for one hour of work. Some people consider $5 /hour is ok,others won't even move a finger for less than $20 /hour. So, what you need to think about is: what's your hourly rate?
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  • Profile picture of the author internetmarketer1
    What would make it worth your time?

    If you are planning on spending your entire day on their site every single hour and you really know you'll be doing a lot, don't be afraid to expect more. However, only receive what you know you deserve. If you know that the job won't require HOURS of focused work on the site, maybe you shouldn't have them pay you too much.

    If you mean offering them monthly support that you aren't working hourly for, something along the lines of $99-$199 should be enough if the site doesn't breakdown too much. I would suggest pricing it at $99 for the main support, but if something abrupt happens that may involve TOO MUCH WORK, let them know that it can be extra.
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    • Profile picture of the author msdobe
      Thanks everyone for your input!

      The site is WP. I had an old outdated site and made a totally new site with the amazing prostyler theme.

      I spent 2 seeks tweaking it and wasn't going to charge anything for minor changes, for me that's no big deal, and I mentioned this to a prospective buyer. But then I got to thinking that he may wonder 'what's a small change?' Don't really know how to be more specific.

      I told him I would make any changes to customize the site for his business. Add any extra pages, do whatever he wanted until he was 100% satisfied (guaranteed).

      But now another problem has come up. When he was asking me about maintenance I told him I would do it or he could get someone else, however it would take someone who knows the theme. Since then I haven't heard from him.

      So for someone who also deals with white label themes, what kind of response would you give? I'd really like to sell the site and have a ton more to convert and sell. Still at a loss...

      Jenny
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