K guys, I'm finished with the design aspect of my Interactive website. Now, I need to know how to price. Does anyone have any suggestions other than google, on how I should come up with reasonable prices for it? Also, I've never done this before so I'll also need to know if there's any other legal aspects that I should handle before I launch my site called pixel perfect interactive.

-- Topic moved from FAQ to Web Design by Zylstra555...You might try contacting professionals in your area that do this kind of work and ask them what they charge.

Alan <>< You do need to know the competition in your market and what they charge. Then the first rule of economics kicks in. "Charge what the market will bear."2k_dummy is correct. My price VARIES on a couple of factors.

*How soon do you want it done? The more "time sensitive" the project becomes the rates start to go up.
*What kind of work? Basic HTML? Database driven site? Flash site? Corporate or personal?
*How BUSY am I currently? I may take jobs at a lesser rate during my slow times than I do when I am slammed.
*What is their budget? Is it realistic for what they are expecting?

I personally have found that my clients prefer having a quote on the project rather than an hourly rate. They want to know the final cost, not an open ended check. I have also seen some places that do the whole charge by page, amount of text, graphics, yaddda yaddda.... Wow what a PAIN to track. All of my jobs are by the project, I know what I am going to make barring any extra things the client decides to try to sneak in, and they do too.

Wish I could give you some hard numbers but the salesman in me says get what you can, don't leave money on the table because you are afraid to ask for it.Make it open source. I agree with [emailprotected] 's tips ... Especially how your customer will try to add features when you are about 80% COMPLETED, which sometimes require drastic changes to the whole web site.

*** Also .. Be sure you have a written contract which specifies in detail what the requirements for fulfillment are for the project to be completed, and state that any other features not enclosed in this contract will not be supported unless another contract is created to take its place.

Then this brings up another point. Make your customers aware to a fee at the get go, associated with each change of contract. This will make them do there homework and think harder as to what they really want when it comes to planning.

As a rule I also generally request 50% up front payment. Its amazing how many BAD customers are out there who request a project for a web site to be designed for them and then at the last minute try to renegotiate the price after you have it completed better than planned exceeding their expectations and still falling within the agreed project price. Also you may end up with customers who request a project to be completed, you completed it and then some and they change their mind leaving you hanging with unpaid labor and worthless code at the end because they dont really know what they want or are idiots who should have known they couldnt afford it in the first place.

As for my web design and management services, I have thrown in the towel on it because it was too much trouble than it was worth, plus many local computer businesses take too much of the pie in this area.

So I moved on to PC Hardware Repair, Network Administration, and other various IT services which is where the money is out this way ... and lots of work. My closest competitor CHARGES $75 an hour, so I charge $70 an hour, and I have many repeat customers who like the 1 on 1 support vs the computer shop a few miles away who hires entry level techs to perform work and screw it up from what the customers tell me. With me they know that I do it right the first time. Being as flooded as I am with work, I have been tempted to raise my labor rate to $75 or more since I have 100% customer satisfaction and I need to get paid more for what I am worth.

You may also find that you will begin to get flooded with work if ou are too cheap and too good at what you do. I say bait them in with a low but not too low rate, then once you have a customer base, start charging what you are worth, but dont go too agressive or you may shed too many customers. Usually hiking it up $5 or $10 an hour doesnt do too much damage as long as you are really good at what you do and are not to far off the bell curve for labor rate in that field in your area.
Generally I find that the problematic customers are the ones that shed when doing an increase in my labor rate. But there are some really rich people out there who can be nit picky too and $75 an hour is chump change to them anyways.

As far as what to charge for your services you should put together a matrix of your skills, and compare them to the competition in your area and also online and what they charge. Try to be agressive in your pay, but not too agressive or you wont have work. If you are not agressive enough you will find yourself not making enough and giving away your work.

Good luck with your freelance web work ... But its definately a hard market with much competition and so many customers who dont know what they really want!!!

Dave