How much would you charge for this?

[snillor]

I’m nearly finished with a photography site for a new client – kjoyphotos.com. It’s not 100% complete, as there are several things to fix & clean up. Stuff like an issue with an overlay in IE8 and earlier, a weird display problem in Opera, and definitely cleaning up and reorganizing the CSS code. But for the most part, the pages look and function as intended.

I struggle with pricing and tend to underprice in order to get the job. Plus this was for a member of my Art League, and I give those folks a deep discount. Disclaimers aside, how much would you charge for this design/implementation? I’m guessing that I undercharged by a lot, and will reveal my price after getting your thoughts on pricing.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[snillor]

I appreciate the quick response.

Like most of us, I’ve come to hate all things IE, but was a little surprised at Opera’s deficiencies – I thought it was better than that. (But maybe the deficiencies are mine.)

The photographs belong to the client; the purpose of the site is to display/sell her photo prints and she’ll get 100% of print sales. I’m charging her only for the website creation and implementation. (I may recommend a website maintenance/update contract later, but that’ll be separate.)

[rudynorman]

I don’t think others can tell you how much to charge – you shouldn’t set your prices based on what others in the industry charge. Some people who do this for a living charge more than hobbiests and others feel their quality of work is worth what they charge, whether that be a lot or not as much. Many take on the attitude that you get what you pay for, so if you’re confident in your work, then charge a lot – if you feel the client could have gotten more for less somewhere else, then go a bit lower.

You should consider how much time it took you to do it, how much effort was put into it, and charge based on what you feel it’s worth. If you want to present that to the client, then go for it – if they don’t agree with you then you have to choice to let them go, or lower your price because you need the work. That’s all part of business. I think if you ask anyone, they’ll tell you they wish they got paid more for what they did, but in the end it’s your decision and your decision alone to learn to be content with what you get.

The site looks good – I think you should be proud of what you did, and let that be some of your payment.

A word of advice: rather than having the contact link be simply a “mailto:email address” link, do a page with a contact form on it so people can fill it out and submit it to the owner of the photos. When I clicked on the contact link, it opened my default mail program, which is outlook, which I wouldn’t use, no matter WHAT you paid me.

If you don’t know how to do a form on your own, since you aren’t using a CMS and just .htm files, perhaps create a free form on Wufoo and embed it into the page.

[snillor]

Thanks, rudynorman, for the comments.

I had already given the client a firm price. It turns out I greatly underestimated how many hours it’d take me (I’m slower than most and an accumulation of minor changes from the customer caused me to take even longer), so my effective hourly rate turned out to be embarrassingly low. But I know now that this client would have gladly paid more, and hopefully I’ll make some of it up with an annual maintenance/update contract – which I’ll price higher than the 2 contracts I currently have.

I think of my capabilities as a little above hobbyist, but nowhere near the level of most of the folks here, so yes – I’m proud of how it looks. Better yet, the customer loves it.

Good suggestion about replacing the “mailto:” link with a form. I’ve avoided forms long enough – time to jump in and middle through my first one. I’m not sure I want to go with a free Wufoo form because, if I’m not mistaken, that’ll mean the form will actually be on Wufoo’s site and have Wufoo’s look. I want to avoid jumping to a third-party site so I can keep the same look she likes so much. If that means tackling forms myself, that’s what I’ll do.

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