Miscellaneous Work

$60/hr

Site Estimates

I give a final price once I feel like I fully understand what you need and what it will take to get done.

$720 for a custom WordPress theme.

$2400 for an e-commerce (or e-commerce like) site. This includes a powerful content management system (so an average web user can update the content themselves), powerful shopping cart system, custom design and features.

Current Clients

If you are a current client of mine you can assume you will keep the same price I have been billing you. If I feel it needs to change I will contact you personally and discuss our needs.

First. Most of my projects will be completed at some time. I don’t want to be caught with no work because I told everyone I already have something I’m working on, which then came to an end. One nice think about working with a freelancer is you don’t have to worry about hiring a designer/programer for a one time, or low hours,  job.

Second. There is often breaks in my projects where I’m waiting for files or responses to emails. I like to use that time keeping other projects going.

Third. A lot of web work doesn’t take much time. I often have clients that need little tweaks, or need assistance with their sites. I like to be available for those. I don’t want anyone to feel like once I have launched their site, I’m gone. One thing I have learned is good websites change regularly. No matter how flexible I make things there is always something different that need to be done. Other things that don’t generally take long and that I want to make sure I’m available for is major website problems, like the site not loading at all.

The shortcoming of having multiple projects going on, and always trying to be available for everyones needs, is once in a while I get a few things that need to get done immediately. I can’t always guarantee immediate turn around on major undertakings, because I have other clients I can’t completely set aside for a week. (And, like I said major site problems usually don’t fall under the major undertakings to fix.)

One thing you as a client can do is plan ahead and talk to me about big projects coming up so I can schedule them in. That way I know what to plan on when scheduling with my other clients. If your not sure how long something will take, shoot me an email and I’ll let you know, free of charge.

Thank you for understanding while I work on keeping everyones needs on the production line.

You can break down the costs of a site into four things:

1. Domain name
2. Hosting
3. Design
4. Functionality

Domain Name

A lot of times when people ask about getting a website up they already have a domain name registered. But not always. The actual registration cost is only about $11/yr. But if you don’t have a domain name and are really intent on getting a specific one you may have to fork out some money if someone else has already registered it.

My family had a video store a while ago and when we decided to build a website for it we wanted the domain name movietown.com. No one was using it, but it had been registered and was for sale. The price for movietown.com was $50,000. We opted for a different domain name.

Hopefully you are not in that situation. Like I said the cost to register a domain name is about $11/yr. if you go through a place like domain.com or name.com. Some other places charge $25-$50/yr. for a .com.

Hosting

Most likely you will not need any serious hosting account for your new site. Most places that offer domain registration also offer hosting. Most shared hosting services work great. But I have run into a couple that ran into problems just running a basic site.

Some great hosting companies that I like to use are BlueHost.com and MediaTemple.com. They are not as cheap as some, but if you have a problem you can call them and get help right away. I have used some companies where that is not an option, and it can cause problems when you need some immediate attention. BlueHost.com has an introductory price of $6.95 per month for the first year, and then it goes up to $8.95 per month (these prices are based on paying for hosting for one year at a time). MediaTemple.com has a basic plan for $20 per month, and then more powerful options for those that need more.

Generally I don’t offer hosting, but for clients who don’t feel comfortable or would rather not bother, I will purchase their hosting for them and be their agent when dealing with hosting companies.

Design & Functionality

Design and functionality can be chunked together or be separate cost. I have worked on projects where there was a separate designer and developer. The designer builds a mockup for the client and then the developer takes the design and builds the site/theme for the design.

Most of the time I do both. I’ll build mockups for clients always keeping in mind how it will function once it’s done. Then build the site or theme from the mockup we liked best.

Generally for a well developed custom theme for WordPress I charge $400. This includes installing and building all needed admin tools for you to manage your site’s content and elements.

There are other options as well. Many times there is a free or paid theme you like, but it just needs some alterations to work for your site. For such cases I charge $40/hr, and give you an estimate beforehand so we both know what to expect.

More complex sites I approach on a case by case basis. Generally for Drupal sites I start out at around $1,000 because they are usually more complex than wordpress sites. I have only mentioned WordPress and Drupal in this post, but I have worked with many other systems. If you need design or development on a specific system you can contact me to get an idea of what it will cost.

After the site is up

I didn’t mention copy. I haven’t worked with a group where they outsourced the text content of the site to a writer so I’m not sure what the cost with that would be. Generally speaking I have found I am able to build and set up a site in less time than it takes for the owner to come up with what content they want on the site. So make sure you put serious effort into that, and pay attention to other sites’ layouts and flow. I try to guide my clients the best I can to make sites as user friendly as possible, but you know your customers better than I do.

Entering products in a site can be quite the chore as well. Generally I add a few products to work with while I refine the design. Then I’ll give my clients instructions on how to add more products, or if they prefer, I charge $40/hr for adding and maintaining the content of the site.

Another thing to consider when having a new site built is the maintenance of the site. Such as keeping it backed-up and updated with the latest security updates. Complex sites with user generated content will probably require more work to maintain than a simple blog.

Hopefully I have answered any questions you had. If you have more questions please leave a comment or contact me.

WordPress is great for its ease of set up, use, maintenance, and updates. It has set the standard for blogging systems, and it continues to grow into a full featured CMS for managing fairly complex websites.

Drupal is great for building complex sites quickly and easily. For example, it works with sites that have multiple content types, field types, methods of displaying content, and users with very customizable permissions. You can think of Drupal as more of a web application framework with great CMS abilities.

These systems are both free, open source, systems. You can easily get them installed on just about any hosting service. Install one of the thousands of themes available, and you’re off!

When I set a user up on one of these systems I generally build a custom theme, and install or develop the plugins needed to make the site work the way my client desires. I then show my client how it works and the way to update content. Some of my clients would rather I handled all site updates which is fine. These still make great systems for keeping your content organized and searchable.

Generally when someone comes to me needing a website I find out what kind of site they need and then pick the best system for them. But some are more comfortable in one or the other, and since a lot of the functionality overlaps I’m happy to work with whichever system they prefer. I have also used CMSs besides WordPress and Drupal. There are many available and I try to stay up-to-date with all the popular systems so I can provide the best service no matter what system my client needs to use.

I’ll be posting more information on WordPress and Drupal so stay tuned.

I am by no means a talented writer. I learned enough to get me through school, and I like to think I have some ability to make things interesting.

So please feel free to browse around and take and use what ever information you can to help with your websites. Then if you need some help please contact me.