Quoting to redesign mechanics website - need advice

It depends whether your Portfolio will reflect the type of things he may want. If you have designs of lets say, "A blog about Arobics" it may not appeal to him whereas, if you have designs of a corporate website which looks professional they will appeal more to him.

I would go for a PDF yes, seen as it widely compatible and almost everyone has a PDF reader. In the quote I would break all down into a list such as:

Domain and Hosting: £50 per year
Sourcing of images (if any): £20
Design and coding of website: £300
Setup Google analytics: £20

You get the idea...

I haven't used XsitePro before so I wouldn't know. I create my own layouts/templates and design my own designs then code it all in XHTML and CSS. WordPress could be good as it gives him the option to add or edit his content. However, he may not be good with PCs and struggle with the interface of WordPress even though it is easy. I also think $1000 is way to much to quote for a website that will be built using a ready-made template and design.


And regarding your P.S. I will be interesting in helping you out in the future.

i typically charge according to these steps.

1) Initial template design - photoshop document portraying the overall look and feel. Two rounds of revisions.

2) Once the initial design is accepted it's time to build the template itself based on the photoshop document you created.

3) Once the site template is created an additional charge between 50-100 per page. This way if they want to learn how to use the CMS themselves they can save money by doing this themselves. Most people don't want to but I want them to feel like they have a choice which puts them at ease.

4) Additional plugins may come into play if it's more complicated than just a contact form or something.

5) Then and only then do I start talking about SEO stuff (although I will have been diligent in coding the html and meta stuff proper). I don't like to overwhelm the client AND I like to treat it as a separate thing. I put a wp-stats plugin on the site and a couple months later I let the client know how many visitors they are getting and ask them if they want to get more. They have had a chance to recoup their financial investment and are hungry for more business.

Wrong mentality. Completely, utterly wrong.

The better price doesn't mean the best service and solution for the client. I could charge a client the best price for a web site, but it'd be useless to them, as typically that best price will mean several important parts are missing. Client therefore has spent money on nothing. This is a waste.

Focus on what services you can offer your prospective client. Show them the value of what you're offering.

When a client challenges me as to why my price isn't the cheapest, I simply point out my results. In short, you get what you pay for.

As you're offering to design them a web site, you show them your portfolio of existing work you've done - some of which may relate to your prospective client.

You listen to what your prospective client wishes to achieve (e.g. have a web site), along with suggesting to them what you can also achieve for their business (e.g. building a web site, promoting it via SEO, content, social media, email campaigns, offline promotions). Then, in your quote, you detail the work that will need to be carried out to achieve those aims, and provide a cost, along with timescales, milestone payments, deliverables from both sides and Terms and Conditions of business.

I deliver this as a PDF, with the client to revert to me with any changes that need to be made. No-no to sending over editable Word documents, where T&C's suddenly disappear.

There's no mileage providing a menu of options for your prospective client - I'd be surprised if they even understood half of the options available.

Hire a web designer who can produce what's required. No offence, but it sounds like you're fairly new to web site design and development. If you want to build a great reputation, and have a client who stays on board with you, do what you do best i.e. selling services, and hire the right people to execute them i.e. building web sites.