[ale] Basic web design fee

[Jay Loden]

I'll tell you what I've been charging, and what I do, and maybe it'll give you 
a little bit of reference.

I am currently charging 10 dollars an hour to design a website, content 
management system, database, and manage a server for Phi Lambda Upsilon, a 
national chemistry fraternity ( http://philambdaupsilon.org ).  I am charging 
far less than what the work is really worth, because I'm using it as my 
chance to learn and work with all of the above.  I've been creating my own 
homebrewed content management system for their use, designing the site, and 
adding features like the ability to download any of the site content as a 
pdf, or get it in print-friendly format. In other words, I'm giving them a 
good deal by charging them very little, and getting a good deal by 
essentially getting paid to learn what I want/need to learn anyway. I'd 
suggest a similar route for you, especially as it sounds like you are looking 
to learn more.  

In regards to using FrontPage, all I'll say is that it's a terrible idea if 
you're looking to do any web design.  As others have noted, hand-coding is 
the surest way to clean code. If you absolutely must have a GUI, go with 
something that creates good, valid markup.  I couldn't tell you offhand if 
any of the editors others mention will do this, but NVU is probably pretty 
decent from what I saw of it. (I write all of my html, PHP and CSS in vim, 
because it's the easiest way for me to work on server-side files and code). 

Final thoughts: Use valid code and markup (I use XHTML 1.0 and CSS2) that's 
cross browser compatible, and don't use tables for design and positioning, 
that's what CSS is there for. Following those principles may seem like a 
pointless pain in the rear but in the long run it saves you a LOT of time and 
effort cleaning up spaghetti code and tracking down bizarre bugs.

-Jay

On Monday 25 April 2005 08:01 pm, Patrick Bartkus wrote:
> What is the going rate for putting up a basic web site?
>
> I've thought of offering my services to an aquaintence or two to do them a
> few simple web pages.
>
> The scope of work would be 1) register a domain, 2) arrange one of those
> $9.95/month web hosting plans, 3) use the Front Page wizards to put up a
> basic web site. This is nothing real creative, no fancy graphics, no fancy
> CGI work.
>
> What do you charge for a simple, no-nonsense site?
>
> Also, what about ongoing maintenance? I assume that most people charge an
> hourly rate. What is a fair rate?
>
> I'm not trying to take anybody's business, just earn a little extra from
> my less-techie friends.
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
>
>
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