How much do I charge for work?

[TristaSD]

Hi,

I've done a bunch of small-scale web projects for folks in the area,
and they all seem to be very impressed with the interactivity and
ease-of-use of their new websites/web apps. PHP is truly amazing when
it comes to quickly and reliably whipping up a site/app.

However, thanks to the word-of-mouth, a bigger job has plopped onto my
lap and I don't know how much to charge the client. I've never charged
more than $400-500 for a custom site or app (insert, delete, update
capabilities, CSS, 2-3 database-driven lists, some pdf polygraphic
materials, etc, a couple of months of hosting on my server).

I don't feel like charging per hour because sometimes I can blow
through the entire backend in a couple hours, but sometimes a CSS kink
gives sends me working into the night. I'm looking for a quote PER
PROJECT.

Here's the requirements for this new project:

- A website for a one-person small company (local musical artist,
decently successful, able to make a living from gigs, American Midwest)
- All pages COMPLETELY data-driven (updateable with forms, not with
phpMyAdmin :)
- A couple of 150+ item interactive data lists on two separate pages
(songs and covers)
- Contact form that emails queries to a given email address
- Some sort of a mailing list (manage fan accounts, create mass emails
about future gigs)
- Small blog - owner WILL NOT put in any raw html tags, so there needs
to be a WordPress-like WYSIWYG text editor
- Interactive calendar (insert, delete, update events, bulk
edit/delete, dates with events uniquely highlighted, clickable dates)
- Front page is an aggregate of newest blog entries, newest song
additions, newly added gigs, etc.
- Ease-of-use is an absolute MUST
- Transfer of hosting/domain from her Frontpage-building "friend" who
did her site for free
- 3-5 email accounts

Though I have a good idea of how everything should be done, I don't
know what I should charge this person!

Thanks!

[maaxiim]

TristaSD wrote:

I don't feel like charging per hour because sometimes I can blow
through the entire backend in a couple hours, but sometimes a CSS kink
gives sends me working into the night. I'm looking for a quote PER
PROJECT.

Here's the requirements for this new project:

Hi TristaSD,

Sounds like a nice project to have drop in your lap!

My wife operates a similar business, she started locally and through
word of mouth has been able to get some pretty decent accounts going.

I noticed, also, that you mentioned hosting on your own server. My wife
takes a Managed or ASP model approach to her corporate/small business
clients. She will charge them a fairly nominal up front 'design' fee
which goes towards the creation of a corporate identity plus the
graphical assets for the site. This is tends to run around $500 per
project.
She then hosts the entire dynamic site (generally with shopping cart,
event management, document management, admin backend, WYSIWYG editor,
file & image manager, etc for a reasonable monthly fee. Clients that
pay a year or 6 months in advance get a proportionally larger discount.

I don't know if that really answered your question, but hopefully gave
you some food for thought.

regards
maaxiim

[TristaSD]

So it's $500 upfront, and how much per month? What the content
managment system she's using?

[maaxiim]

TristaSD wrote:

So it's $500 upfront, and how much per month? What the content
managment system she's using?

Your mileage may vary on the upfront cost, since it depends whether
they want a corporate logo designed, etc.

The CMS is one I wrote for her. Nothing too fancy, has everything she
needs and is
fairly flexible.

The monthly charge varies according to the type of services they have
enabled on the managed account. Shopping cart, SSL cert, payment
gateway and credit card merchant services, etc is extra. I think her
current going rate is $10 base price per month and then a modest charge
for each extra service. I can take a look at her schedule and give you
more specifics if you need them. She also offers an hourly rate service
for general site maintenance and administration.

regards
maaxiim

[TristaSD]

Cool. Thanks. Waiting impatiently ...