Hi,

I was recently hired to construct an extremely small website from scratch (3 pages-including-1form+1 server-side-script) Since I am fairly new to this business, I thought that it would be a good idea to ask around, to see if maybe someone knows how much I ought to be getting payed for my work.

Site Layout:
Home page> Form page> Contact Page
1 Form on Form Page
(form action) activates a php script to use sendmail to forward the input to an email address
(form action-"https.something.com/script.php") which automatically activates SSL.
form includes a js form-validation script

webdesign includes CSS formatting

I only have a sample draft of everything. Im waiting for my client to provide required variables (such as description and names of form fields)

I will try to post a link to the site sample within a few days. So Please, If you have any advice or suggestions regarding how much I should charge for my services, I would greatly appreciate if you would post them in this thread .

With Much Gratitude,
Joseph

Sorry, I left out one part in the main post, and that is:

I was also asked to find an affordable ISP and to set up the website (upload the pages and scripts into the appropriate folders). And it is very likely that I will be asked to maintain and update the site as time goes on.

-Joseph

I have a friend that does some webdesign on the side. He charges $200 for basic designs 1-2 pages. Then like $30 per extra page, of course if it's going to be a lot of pages there are a lot of other things to consider.

He also throws in the first two month of service and such free.
Don't undercharge. But don't over charge.
I'm thinking you might have ment Hosting Service instead of ISP.
ISP really depends on your area. I have Charter Communications as my ISP. They offer a free webhosting for personal site. But I don't believe it allows too much freedom.

You'll have to look around for webhosting. I here yahoo premier accounts are excellent. And you recieve a free .com domain with it.
Also

That really does seem to be alot to charge for just two pages. Could you give me a link to those 2 pages so I can see for myself what he charged for?

and lol, yes you're right I did mean webhost rather thatn ISP and although I will look into yahoo, I did have a particular plan in mind and that is : a 60$/y with www.siteground.com

Basic Features 100 GB monthly traffic, 5000 MB space, 10 MySQL/Postgre DBs, CPanel & Fantastico, 100 FREE subdomains

Email Features Auto responders, Forwarding, Web-based email, SPAM protection ,1000 FREE email accounts

For E-commerce Shopping Cart, SSL Certificates, 5 parked domains,Custom error page, Site traffic stats,

More extras "PHP, Perl, Python", CGI scripts, FrontPage ext ,Traffic stats, Unlimited FTP access, more...

I do think only 10 MySQL DB's is kinda lame though.

A webhost I am fimiliar with is http://100webspace.com

give me a few minutes and I'll get those websites.

lol I saw your webhost

As for me...

HALLELUJA! I found it! the ULTIMATE (pay) webhost. ---
http://www.goodydomains.com/developer-info.html

They even offer a free dedicated IP address :surprised
not to mention, a free domain name for a year, and unlimited mySQL databases.

Heres the free version of hosting bliss---

http://www.highwirehost.com/free.html

and...to top it all off, heres the key to getting a completely free SSL certificate

https://cert.startcom.org

Sweet!

ya , very. .....so ... about those websites? lol nevermind take your time I could really use'em before the end of this week though; thats when I meet with my client.

Oh shoot sorry I forgot to tell you. His personal site is www.mapmasterz.com there is nothing there except his school portfolio. But the sites he built were for a business that changed over to something else last year and he doesn't have any screen shots. I'm looking for some that would have been similiar.

On a basic scale he uses flash buttons, graphics that he uses are mostly custom designed by him (so he charges a little bit higher because of this), xhtml, i believe some css as well. Not 100% sure. His Email is on there somewhere. If you would like to ask him about anything.

----
if I had a demo of the old 411 site I would show you some similiarities but it's all php now. Let me go searching for a few to kind of give you an idea of what he designed.

I'm also starting out with freelance work and one of the best pieces of advice I've had is that I have to realise just what is involved and bear in mind the administrative costs as well as charging for the coding.

Most of what I do is automatic but when I break it down I get something along these lines:

write up a spec and quote;
come up with a design;
convert it to HTML, script and CSS and add the content;
test it;
research, select and set up an account with a good host;
upload the files;
write up an invoice;
get paid.

While this happens:

answer the phone when the client rings;
read and reply to their emails;
edit the CSS because they don't like the colour;
change it back again because their wife/best friend/pet preferred it the first way after all.

I also have to pay:

an accountant;
the taxman (:spit: - note: could do with a special smiley for him);
my electric bill;
my isp;
my web host;
my phone bill;
my bar bill;
etc. etc.

You get the point, I'm sure!

So for 3 hours coding I must charge for, say, 5 hours to just cover my costs. Add a little on so I can cover the inevitable changes (but can say to the client that "since you're such a good customer I won't charge you this time...") and all of a sudden it's doubled my original estimate. I'm scared the client will think I'm over charging but in reality I'm pricing myself in exactly the same way as my (sensible, still in business) competitors.

BTW I don't tell the client a job will take X hours - I just use this for my own calculations. They get a flat quote.

A lot of people's expectations and perceptions about your professionalism and value will be based on what you charge. If your quote is half that of your nearest competitor the client will think your work is half as good no matter how fantastic a job you've done. This will be reflected in what they say to other potential clients of yours.

Bottom line (at last, you cry!): Work out a reasonable hourly rate for your level of knowledge and charge accordingly. $200 sounds very reasonable to me for a two pager including a couple of months hosting - maybe even a little low but then I'm based in the UK so I don't know the market forces in the US!