How much should I charge?

To be honest, the fact you are having to ask all of these questions about prices and options etc I would just advise them to go to a professional web design company and get it done that way. Although you won't make a quick buck out of it you also wont have the hassle of designing the websites etc.

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Sorry your not getting the response you need, but I use to make websites myself for construction companies, and this is how I charge.
- If it is a complex job that does not have a set plan, which may have large changes as you go, I charge by the hours. I charged about $30 an hour, but I am not sure how much you are worth. Some web designers charge even $50 an hour.
- Second, you said that they already have a site. Can you still work with that site or is it a totally new website. I would charge about $800-$1200 to run the three sites off of the old site.
- If everything is from scratch, I would charge $2,000 per site. I know it is way cheaper than the others, but I am one man business.

Estz there's no need to use such vulgarity. I attacked your post not you personally. Keep in mind what you post on the internet stays on the internet.... forever. (or until a moderator deletes your comment)

Thanks, bettertveter. That seems a bit expensive, but I guess it all depends on the amount of work involved.
It's hard for me to gauge because typically I'm doing 101 different things at once when working on my own sites.
So $10k probably wasn't that far off what most would charge.


The site that is there is the ugliest thing you have ever seen. Think MySpace + 1985 website design.
I'd prefer to just take the same URLS and create a brand new site methinks.

OK for any else who feels like chiming in with the next elitist comment "Leave it to the professionals", here's the scenario....
I'm doing work at home. Get a Facebook msg from my wife's friend... "Hey can you host websites on your server?" I say... of course "yes". She says "Do you also want to design my works new websites? we currently have 3, 2 are the same business but different URL's made by 2 different companies 1 is a different business. Our hosting company quoted us $10k to do the work via support live chat, but haven't responded to my emails in weeks"

I say "Yeah, no problem I can help with that".

Where's the part where I'm claiming to be a professional? I don't see it.

If the other company quoted 10k, then quote 2-5k+ instead

if your quite quick at web design Why not charge by the page say $90 dollars or if you take quite a bit of time charge hourly, either way you quids in then, that way your not frightening them off with a big price and also once you get started and they see your doing a good job you can start making suggestions for extras, as for seo say you will do a monthly run for each website at a fixed price per month, as if they are serious then they will need this anyway, not some 100 backlink blastout in one or two days

wags

I'm in a similar situation and have had similar replies, "let the pros do it". I'm sorry, but you're telling me every "Pro" didn't have this issue at the start as well?

If you want to hit me up on Skype probably can talk you through your pricing structure for this type of work and ongoiing for this one company that you are talking about. ----> topnichewebsites

If 2 of the sites are the same company then why do they need 2 different websites. For SEO it would be better to redirect one of them to the other. Then they wouldn't be splitting their SEO efforts between 2 sites.

Hey mate,

I had a similar situation 5 years ago I was mainly doing website design/development (simple sites) as well as SEO for my own aff sites. I leaned all the skills to make money off the Internet (all self-taught). One day one of my mates who runs his own small local business came to me for some IM help. I built a simple WP site and did some SEO for him. He ended getting good traffic and started to get leads/sales consistently. I recall I charged about $500 for the site development and SEO for about 3 months with $300/month. He was very happy and told me I should start an online marketing consulting business by helping other offline businesses. I never thought about it until that point but I decided to give it a go

Now I typically charge $2000 - $2900 per site that is mainly a WP or HTML site with up to 10 pages (though most of local businesses need just up to 5-7 pages).

Some prospects ask for a complex e-commerce site development etc. But I usually stay away from those types because I don't want a hassle of dealing with too much techy stuff as it would take too much of my time (hence you work for less). Even if you outsource it all, you still spend quite a bit of time managing those outsourcers, which can be real pain in the butt unless you find a very good (switched on) outsourcer LOL.

Yeah so if you are kinda starting out doing web design etc. for offline businesses then start out low like a few hundred dollars and see if your client will be very happy with what you can offer. From there, you can increase your fee whether it's an hourly or project basis.

Remember though, do NOT undersell yourself. I mean I can charge way more per site and I'm still cheaper than most of the typical website design companies out there (especially in Australia) but since I'm a one-man operation and it does not cost me too much to build one so I can afford to keep it low. And that's one of the advantages as most of my clients do not question about my pricing, especially those who came through referrals

Hope this helps a bit.

Hi there, there will be a lot of work involved in these websites, and i'm telling you that u will be surprised of how complicated it can get, so for your own good just charge no less than $700 for the 3 websites, and just in case be prepared to outsource any problem to someone else just as a back up plan, best of luck.