A couple of tips on how to price your freelance web design and development contracts.
Okay, you’ve got your first paying/serious/ for real-sises (technical term) job and after giving you the lowdown on the job, your client asks what the price tag is going to be?
Well, maybe you think to yourself, “I charge ‘X’ amount of money per hour and this looks like a ten hour job, so -” whoa, whoa, whoa, champ! there’s soooo much more to take into account.
First off, Shameless Promo: Check out the link to our freelancer courses that we offer. They’re real and they’re spectacular!
Second, if you’re freelancing you have to factor in all the stuff that goes around the project. ie: phone calls, re-writes/edits/corrections, etc. and those take up your time too and therefore need to be accounted for.
The good news is, you’re worth it, all of it. But, you do need to get into the practice of being able to correctly judge the price of a project.
Some businesses want know the sum total at the end of a job (“Is this going to cost my business 1000.00$? 5000.00$?) and you’re going to have to give them that. Check out the Vid below where we give you a few pointers and for maximum coverage, checkout our link below to our freelancer course.
Sure, you’re gonna learn a lot of stuff the hard way out there in ‘freelancer world’, but if we can save you a few hard knocks with our own experience, isn’t it worth it?
WordPress, is the most popular CMS in the world … and for good reason.
Spoiler Alert: Yes, WordPress did approach us to do this.
Also, SPOILER ALERT: we don’t know how to use spoiler alerts…
It’s not selling out or corporate schilling because we actually believe in and love this product, and are happy to tell you guys about it. It works for us and we hope it works for you, if you need something like this; plain and simple. Yes there are other platforms comparable to WordPress and if you are happy with them, more power to you. But if, you’re curious about it, we think you’ll find what you’re looking for, whether it be style or function.
We could list all the amazing functions and plug-ins right here but it’s easier to just watch the vlog.
That way you can see my awesome sweater-jacket too 🙂
Do Web Developers need to Promise Web Sales for Clients?
So you’ve got a client; maybe they’re your first, so you really want to do a good job and WOW them. Maybe they’re not but you’re a professional and always putting your best foot forward. But these clients are asking/demanding something that you’ve never really had to deal with before. They want you to prove the efficacy of your work. They want a tangible return on investment. Maybe you want this job so bad that you decide offer a guarantee that few others in your field can offer…
Can you/should you offer web sales?
Short answer: No. Why would you? That’s not really your job. General rule of thumb: “If you have to convince a business that a website is good for their business, then you probably should move on to another business.” “It’s like convincing a business that having a telephone is going to be good for business, so that the client can call them”. In short it a little crazy, bordering on unreasonable and not you responsibility.
On The Other Hand…
If you’re positive you can deliver on this promise (maybe you’ve even negotiated a tidy 25% of the sales generated from the website on top of your fee), then provided things go smoothly, Cha-Ching! But, would you be about to watch this video if you were 100% sure things were going to go smoothly? All sorts of problems can arise from you not being an expert in the client’s; not knowing what drives sales or their model, to your client booting you and you having no recourse, just to name a few…
We’re gonna look at some of the challenges facing web sales for clients and throw a few tips and strategies your way. And just in case you’re feeling a little anxious by all of this, stick around to the end of the vid where we’ve got a nice little view and a moment of serenity to keep things in perspective. For some of you already in the middle of a bad client web sales drama, take a breather.
Love the YouTube channel, I just wondered what your thoughts on Webflow are? Will it spell the end of web development as we know it (coding) or will developers have to adopt a more visual approach to building a website with such as platforms like Webflow? I realise that the system is built for designers, however without the need for a developer on a platform such as this, the code is seminally marked up, they keep increasing the features capability and complexity, I ask the question where do we fit in if platforms like this become very popular?
My answer:
I don’t see it as a threat – it is a tool.
A big part of modern web design and development goes WAY beyond code:
Site aesthetic design – pre code design if you will
UX – making the site EASY to use
Information design / architecture, if you will. WHAT to place on the site
Setting up the domain, hosting … the basic mechanics of it
Tweaking – I’ve always found that no matter how good the tool, you will need to know code to tweak it
Then there is consulting on social media strategy, content marketing strategy
Finally, the websites function: do they need an e-commerce setup, wordpress, etc …
So Webflow, if it works as perfectly, can help automate the process and perhaps shift your time allocation (meaning you’ll write less code,) but you will still have plenty of work to do as a web designer/developer.
This is nothing new. In the early 2000’s, we did lots of stuff as web designer / developers that we no longer have to do because of better tools … and it’s a good thing!
Regardless of the tools that come out, it’s still good to know the code behind the pages and to learn how to put things together, because it will make you life easier as a web professional and even as a small business owner.
Web development is a moving target as technology changes. So what are the skills you need to start a web development business in 2017? It comes down to a few things:
Developing the skills of a modern web developer.
Figuring out what your local market is demanding.
Understand what KIND of development work you want to do.
I’ve been building websites and building apps since the early 1990’s. In that time, I’ve learned many different languages, and explored many different strategies when it comes to writing good code.
This is going to be my first blog post on the business of coding. In this series, I will not be getting into the finer details of writing code (I cover that easily in my courses,) instead, I will talking about things that only 20+ years of development experience can teach you. But if you follow this series, you will learn these useful tips much more quickly!
Tip #1: Giving time for your mind to rest will pay dividends in your coding and business career.
I’ve been building websites since 1994 and commercially providing web design services since 1995-96. As you probably imagine, I’ve picked up a few things along the way!
🙂
My number 1 tip for web designers?
At the end of the day, what you are providing is a service. When I was web programming and designing, the consistent compliment I got was:
“I really like the fact Stef, that you deliver on time.”
Strangely, being flexible for your clients, showing up when you say you will, and delivering when you say you will is HUGE! This goes beyond meeting deadlines …
Show up 5 minutes early!
Never show up late and never show up too earlier – you need to show up just on time. If I have a meeting to get to at 2pm and I know traffic could delay me 20 minutes, I would give myself an extra 25 minutes to get there … just in case. If I actually got there early, I would just sit in the car and wait until it was time.
… I’m sure you can find something to do for 25 minutes!
Clients typically don’t like people showing up late and they don’t like it if you show up early too. Just be on time.
A lot of people still believe that a domain name has some sort of a great value in of itself – this is wrong, and so I keep writing about it.
Check out these domains:
– business.com
– wine.com
These two domains seems very valuable (like some piece of real estate by the sea) … and a couple of suckers have paid huge money for them. Why do I call the people who paid millions for these domains suckers? Because these domains will bring you no extra traffic, no more than any other domain … the following names are arguably just as valuable:
– TotallyMegaBusiness.com
– SuperTastyWine.com
When are domains ACTUALLY more valuable?
The only time to pay up for a domain, is when the underlying website (that sits on the domain) has a lot of traffic and/or makes good money. It’s kind of simple if you think about it!
Is there a difference in value between:
.com
.org
.net
… etc. No difference really. Maybe .com domains are a touch/hair more valuable.
How to choose a good domain for your website?
That all said, it’s a good idea to choose a good domain – it can help. So what are the key factors of a good domain?
Keep it short.
Make sure it is easy to spell.
If it can have some reference to what the site is about – that’s better, but not crucial.
Consider some of the biggest sites in the world:
Google.com
Yahoo.com
Instagram.com
… Do any of these names tell you anything about the underlying website? No. But, they are easy to remember and spell.
