[Tuxaloosa] Web design opinions requested

[Erik Hanson]

take a look at what other joomla freelancers are charging and take it from
there:
http://www.getafreelancer.com/projects/by-job/Joomla.html

I have done some Joomla work (I absolutely love joomla - but you already
seem sold on it, so i wont gush) for a few places/people in town. I always
feel bad charging some of the fees that I have seen on-line (one place
wanted to charge $200 to apply a template (!?!)), and wind up going for a
cheap hourly rate (these are friends/acquaintances we are talking about here
- not just businesses that contacted my for my (cough) expertise). I enjoy
the work; and, lets admit, Joomla's not a difficult bit of labor.

that being said, this is what pricing has looked like to me in the past:

setup (ftp to host, setup mysql, initial config): $100 - $200

apply a template: $50 - $150 - this should include searching for the right
template on site-ground/joomla.de/joomla-templates.com/etc, making sure it's
what the customer wants, and tweaking accordingly. If i find myself having
to spend more than two hours scrolling through a poorly structured (or in a
foreign language) style sheet the price moves towards the high end.

per page cost:
    copy/paste - $3 - $10/page (should depend on how much work you have to
do to make that copy/paste work. one time i had a person email me 10 docx
files and tell me they wanted their site to look *exactly* like those
documents... colors fonts and all. I felt that i had to include the many
email communications in which i told them that this was, in fact, not what
they wanted, in the per-page-price).
     custom content - can you put a price on the creation of content that
you cannot call it your own? some people think you can. I no longer make
custom content because I've found that many people don't find my sense of
humor appropriate. instead, if they have no content of their own, and still
want a full-featured CMS, i use www.lipsum.com for filler (ok,ok - i use the
filler initially even if they have their own content; so many people will
look at an empty template and fall in love... until they see it filled with
words).
    graphics - have i spent more time in Photoshop than i have in Firefox?
(++ graphics $$) Did i have to touch up every washed out image they gave me?
(++ graphics $$) did i have to resize every 1220x900 @ 300dpi images they
gave me? (++ graphics $$) did i have to round off the corners of the
template they liked? (++ graphics $$). the only graphics i don't consider
are when i replace that damned Joomla favicon.

extensions/modules: back to the hourly guessing. how much work did you put
in? I've installed Joomla extension that worked as advertised, right out of
the box (so to speak). I have also installed extensions/mods that eventually
had me editing more PHP than i care to look at in a month... Price goes up.
Of course (and sometimes i feel like this makes me look a little
unprofessional - but i do it anyway) I always give the customer the option
of dropping said extension before i start pulling my hair out (and charging
them accordingly) for something that they're not even sure they want.

... and then there's trade
prices go all willy-nilly if cash is not involved. My wife has a $2000
tattoo on her leg that was paid for with a ~$300 Joomla site (
www.cynicaltattoos.net ).

hope this helps some...

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 9:48 AM, Stewart Dean <studean at comicnet.net> wrote:

> Probably a token hourly charge for support rather than a retainer...
>  Though SEO might warrant a small retainer, if available.
>
>
> On 2/12/2010 9:24 AM, Cameron Purvis wrote:
>
>> I'd like to know this also.  Are you going to have ongoing support in
>> there, aka retainer or hourly revision charges?
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 9:10 AM, Stewart Dean<studean at comicnet.net>
>>  wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Are there any web designers for hire on this list?  I've never had to
>>> charge
>>> to build a website, so I'm wondering what's reasonable.  I'm looking at a
>>> 37-page Joomla! site, content to be provided and maintained by the
>>> client,
>>> but the designer may have to copy/paste it in place the first time.
>>>  "Store-bought" templates are fine, but the template may have to be
>>> altered
>>> slightly if it doesn't meet client specification.
>>>
>>> What kind of price and time frame are we looking at here?
>>>
>>> Stu
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> TUXaloosa mailing list
>>> TUXaloosa at tuxaloosa.org
>>> http://tuxaloosa.org/mailman/listinfo/tuxaloosa
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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