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Question about how i should charge my clients

by andyrandall Banned
7 replies
Hi

I am going to be creating mobile phone websites for my clients and i want to use a mobile phone website creating service to do this.

However the service requires me to pay the years hosting of $156 upfront to do this. And i will be using email marketing to generate clients.

So my question is should i mention this $156 in the sales email i send out? and in order for me to create there website i will require this payment before commencing work! Will this drastically hurt my sales? and should i ask for just the hosting payment first and then the design fee on completion? or should i ask for the design fee and hosting fee before commencing work?

What would more experienced marketers do in this situation?

Maybe i should not use this platform because it will hurt sales.

I would really appreciate any feedback,

Thanks

Andy
#charge #clients #question
  • Profile picture of the author jmbare
    Hey Andy,

    Have to looked at other hosting plans? Sites like hostgator, bluehost, and others? $156 for the year seem expensive to me.

    Just be truthful to your customers. If they ask, tell them about $156 fee; if not, keep business matters inside the business. This is just my thought, take with a grain of salt.
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  • Profile picture of the author George Curtis
    Andy, jmbare is right.

    $156 is a lot to pay for hosting for a year.

    There has GOT to be a better way of doing this. If the company you are using
    to create the mobile websites is charging you a separate instance of $156 for
    each customer then you need to find another company.

    Alternatively, if you did this yourself (without that company)...you could host all
    of these customers' sites on one server.

    We use Hostgator. We have an individual "baby" account for $9.95. Also use
    a Reseller account for $24.95 and have another site on a dedicated server for
    only $174 per month.

    Good luck.
    Signature

    George-C

    THE BEST WORD-PRESS POPUP PLUGIN EVER RELEASED! - "MOW POP"

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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Riddle
      Price is never a problem when you help the client see the value.

      Price and value are often thought of as being the same, yet in fact they are very much different.

      Generally Price is a one time thing, such as a chair, a boat, new carpeting.

      The value is determined by the problem solved.

      Will this solve my problem for a few minutes, hours, days, years, decades?

      Price shoppers are not loyal shoppers, and in reality do not value the merchant.

      Find the life time value of the customer, that is the best way to help the business owner to see the value in your services.

      Mark Riddle



      Mark Riddle
      Signature
      Today isn't Yesterday, - Products are everywhere if your eyes are Tuned!
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    • Profile picture of the author andyrandall
      Banned
      Thanks for the responses

      Yeah i think im going to find a different platform because im contacting the customer and there not contacting. So after ive sold them on the price of the website and then saying im going to need $156 for years hosting to comense work! isn't going to go down well i think.

      Im looking at wirenode.com which looks like a better option to me. What do you think? (by the way by website creating service i mean a platform for me to create professional websites on for customers where there is no programing knowledge needed! As i have none)

      And yeah the cheapest way to do it would be to use a cheap hosting service and create the websites myself but i would require programming knowledge for that wouldnt i? Or is there some good software i can use?

      Thanks again for the replies,

      Andy
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    • Profile picture of the author andyrandall
      Banned
      Also yes i think i need a good sales email that conveys the value of my service and with my pricing i could cover the costs with the 50:50 method that will mentioned so thats definatly an option. And i will make sure to price my services as reasonable as i can.

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    If it were me, I would not mention the fee or what your service consists of at all. Instead, I would define your own service including its value (hopefully considerably higher than your costs). Then I would simply ask for 50% upfront and 50% on completion. Most people would recognise this approach as fairly standard on the internet and if you price your service right, you should cover your outlay upfront.

    Will
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  • Profile picture of the author nctom
    Hello Andy,

    You may also want to try OpenSRS - Publishing Service | OpenSRS. It's a simple mobile website builder and you can host each site for $2.50 per month.
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