This might not sound new or shocking to most people. For people who have set a target and know their worth it deffinately would.

A prospect called me to come over to his office at ikeja so i immediately headed there as i was somewhere around that environ.
When i got there, it was a fairly furnished office knowing that at least they were some kind of professionals in their own field even though i hadn't known what they were into.
After showing some of my works and them giving me an idea of what they needed it was time for the MAIN stuff.

I charged them 200,000 at least to even make up for some expenses in the yuletide season even though the money na moi-moi but to my GREATEST SURPRISE this dude said he would pay 15,000 you READ IT RIGHT (FIFTEEN THOUSAND) but with my level of marketing experience and not to talk of one who consults to marketers and business people, i comforted myself well not showing how mush DISGUST was in me. After about an hour minutes of talks negotiations and the rest this guy and his partner said they would pay 20,000 then they said 25,000. Men! i was really pissed 'cus i couldn't pick series of business calls as it is againt the rules of a good marketer / businessman when with his clients and they both receiving and making calls all the way.

I handled the situation maturely and told them i wa sorry that i couldn't handle their job 'cus i wasnt that cheap even though i came down by about 25% of my initial charge.

i told them i was leaving 'cus i have lost some money all along staying there and talking nonsence. they kept BEGGING indirectly and al that but omo i get standar now. Afterall a man should keep rising and not keep falling. na him i walked out even though i saw they were extremely dissapointed.

They said they didn't even design their 1st site for upto that 25,000 they were offering. But they confessed they HATED the website 'cus it was ugly and not presentable. Why wouldn't the site be ugly when it is so cheap?

My question is WHO ARE THOSE HUNGRY DESIGNERS AND DEVELOPERS DOING SUCH PROJECTS SO CHEAP.

I am sure of something, NAIRALANDERS have class and wont be part of the Association Of Hungry Webdesigners.

, WATCH OUT ! The story continues.

good for you fizo!

Time is money. The minute you transported yourself from your office to theirs, in my opinion, the money clock started ticking and they should be charged for it, directly or indirectly. You also did well diplomatically turning them down as you never know who they know. They may have been disappointed but I guarantee you, you earned their respect.

You are not in the business of developing websites but in the business of helping your client(s) make money. If they stand to make money off of the site, then you should stand to make money off the developing of the site.

Sometime last year, someone from Nairaland contacted me regarding redesigning his site. When I told him how much I would charge, he said it was too high but respected my price. He had at the time just paid a "webmaster" N20K (wow, what a coincidence! ) for his site and after he paid the guy, the guy disappeared, leaving him with what even the client admitted was crappy. Based on his professionalism, I offered to make a few changes to his site for free and he gave me FTP access. I find it funny how some people will admit that a site is crap but yet aren't ready to pay for a better site.

I know there are those who would argue that pricing is relative and that if the webmaster wants, they can even code the site for free. I beg to differ. I have accumulated a lot of knowledge over time and acquiring that knowledge didn't come cheap, both in time and money. I know what I am worth however, depending on how you approach me, as in your case, I am willing to go down to a certain extent.

So keep up the fight bro! I (and maybe like you) would rather develop 2 high-paying sites a year than 100 low-paying ones. The addage, "penny smart and pound foolish" doesn't apply here in my opinion. Unfortunately, because of high unemployment, some people think they can take advantage to the point of insulting you.

When do we expect part 2?

well i must tell you this if you guys believe or not,  i have a big bro,i call him big bro because i respect him so much when it comes to all this web development, you see one of this big bank in nigeria which i woun't mention. but MY2CENT might know the bank i'm talking about,  you see this my big bro charge this bank N2,000,000,00 If you don't get (N2M) you see he wants to re-designand put some programming to the website !now he doesn't know much about interface design but pretty good on programming. you see they are still begging him oo despite the fact he wants to do that web thing, now why am i saying this, How do you package yourself when you got to the office ?? where you dress properly? infact looking smart huh ? that really matters even though if you don't own a car,  is your own company registered ? if not  aleast some folks coy are not registered yet and they still get plenty of jobs,  how was your carrisma? see the nitty- gritty about this stuff is , you must package yourself real good before you get to the office,


when i got a contract with Sheraton at ikeja, the source who linked me to the Hotel said i must come along with a laptop and look smart,  he said this is a must for me if not, they will look at me like some of those guys out there.

You know what, when i got in to the main Server room controlling the whole premises, i was shocked and told my self that men! i'm not here for some kind of plays,  my proposal was N500k and one of the engineers said i'm i from 21st Century and i said nope, you know i notice i over dress and i was so serious and my laptop was with me !  i was just dressed to smart because you will think i was a staff of Sheraton as a manager or something, !

Now if you can get my flows you will understand me, see they were just pulling pranks on you that someone wanted to build the website at cheap rate less that 20k,

I don't know if you get my points here!

If all the client has is 25,000 naira then you build a 25,000 naira website. It's not such a big deal.

That where we part ways. I have a standard I will never go below. If your pocket can't rise up to my standard of work, then we don't get to do business.
Any web designer worth his salt will not compromise on quality for the sake of money.
Finito!

The problem with making statements that are unpopular on this forum is that those who cannot stand views that are not original to them will start throwing insults around.

Cost of web development

It is neither here nor there. It is about the value you bring to a web project.

My question is this - as web developers how much can we pay for our own websites assuming we needed to pay for them instead of developing them ourselves?

A lot of people I know that kept talking big in the web industry have since abandoned web development because they find it difficult to make money because they do not face reality.

With the level of internet appreciation in Nigeria I find it hard to understand why web developers expect the average person or company to pay hundreds of thousands of naira for a website.

Now, considering the fact that we do not have demanding applications out there (strictly speaking of majority of websites owned by Nigerians) I wonder why a company will give Mr A N200,000.00 to setup up a static website or one with one or two animations.

It is good to stand your ground on what you believe in but learn not to insult others simply because they differ.

I design N20,000.00 websites, I design N200,000.00 websites, I even setup some for free, it all boils down to the value you bring.

Show me a N200,000.00 website and let us see if it is worth it or if one can do it for more or for less.

People still build websites for millions of naira no doubt but we must remember that we have many web developers seeking very few clients so please look at issues critically and do what is best for you and your business, don't try to impress others or do things because others believe it is the way to go.

Companies like yahoo and google started small, I wonder where these companies would have been today if they were owned by Nigerians web developers. Maybe the free email or even free search tools would have been pegged at $5.00 per email or per search.

Sorry for the long post but we must begin to face reality in this web industry otherwise some of us will end up switching to other businesses very soon, trust me I have seen a lot of people that held similar "big man big talk" view disappear from the web business because people could and would not pay what they are asking for.

Good luck.

AFAM hit the nail on the head man ! what you are saying now is if clients are offering to give us N20k for website we should take it right ? and what about if the guys want something you think  should be above that said amount ? and you know that it really what you charging him/her high would you say bros just bring N20k make i do everything huh ? lets be realistic here man !  see my fellow designers, afam charge company the way they are big. ! so you want to tell me if MTN calls you for a redesign, you will tell them bring N20k even your wife go yarb you i swear.

What i don't understand about afam is, are you settling for less or what ? Programming or design jobs are not just childs play my guy

Ain't saying N20k aren't good to get from clients but men we have website and we have websites,  they are some you just design in 1hour and collect your money and they are some you do for 3weeks, and you know what is behind it and you can't tell me you want to collect 20gess for that !

It is not what I say that matters it is what makes sense that matters.

There are websites (static websites) that can be developed for N20,000.00.

There are websites (database driven websites) that can be developed for millions of naira.

If you choose to do a N200,000.00 website for N20,000.00 website then it is your business.

The point is that we must realize that websites cost different amounts based on the list of deliverables, simple.

Afam is absolutely correct! You can build basic static websites for next to nothing. You can also develop web applications for millions of naira. Not everyone that develops a website is an application developer. That is a very important distinction. If a company just wants a web presence then give them that and charge for it. Now, if they want to develop and interactive web application that is database driven then they will have to pay for it. This will involve a whole lot more analysis and design.

Bottom line: We are talking apples and oranges. A simple webpage can probably be done for next to nothing. This can also be done without any kind of programming knowledge. A web application will involve programming and that will come at a cost.

Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity folks. If you can find anyone willing to pay N10million for a 5-page static site, so be it. On the other hand, if you can find anyone willing to pay nothing for the same site, again, so be it.

Static or "unstatic" site, to me, they are all the same - they both involve my time and my time is very precious to me, be it 5 mins or 5 hours, but thatz just me.

thank you for your 2cent !

abi oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

my2cents:

Static or "unstatic" site, to me, they are all the same - they both involve my time and my time is very precious to me, be it 5 mins or 5 hours, but thatz just me.

Static website and dynamic website are the same? Well, what more can I say? If we cannot understand what it takes to setup a static website and a dynamic one then it is clear that we are not on the same page.

tundewoods:

The story told at the begining of this thread is a simple and quite explainatory one.The Dude stated that he charged a cleint 200K while the client offered to pay at first 15K but later offered 25K. He was willing to budge by giving 25% of his initial charge of 200K.

So, the client wanted to pay N25,000.00 from the initial N15,000.00

The developer stepped down from N200,000.00 to N50,000.00

Or is it N200,000.00 to N150,000.00? If positive then disregard the comments. below.

[s]Now, is cool now to charge N50,000.00 as against the original N200,000.00?

What some of us don't understand is that it is easy to prize yourself out of any project or at best a prospective client may see you as unprofessional if you are ready to come down from N200,000.00 to just N50,000.00.

As a client I will not give the project to the developer for allowing for such wide margin.

There is something called appropriate pricing and if done well clients will even pay you whatever you charge them without removing a kobo.[/s]

Well i do agree that one mans meat is another mans poison.If he decides to charge a given fee and comes down by 25 % i wonder how that affects you.
Anyway what does it matter,you are not the client.

Of course Afam, to us in the web dev gig, we know the difference, but to Olabisi selling kpomo along Ikorodu road, they are one and the same. To such a person, all he/she cares about is when he enters say, www.mofejekpomo.com, that his site shows up. Whether it is one large jpeg or it is actually well structured, he could care less. It's like when you drive a car. You don't care what happens b/w the time you crank the car and the time the car revs up. All you care about is, once you turn that key, the car starts

The koko: Charge what you can/want. If you want to do it for free, no ya wa, nothing spoil. After all, when last I was in naija and visited a tailor, I had to negotiate on price. If I didn't like the price, I could have crossed the street and sewed my kaftan elsewhere. On the other hand, if I had settled for the first price quoted, I would had paid through my nose. It's all about demand and supply. At some point, the 2 curves will hopefully meet. I say, "hopefully" as it is up to the parties concerned to determine whether those 2 curves meet or not.

Sorry for the confusion

Most of my clients in the US were prefer strongly seeing the proposal with fully details of schedule milestone, the breaking down the flat pricing of website designing and custom programming and 3 initial downpayment on 3 separated phases: 25%, 38%, 37% upon client satisfactory including free web consultation, free existing site critique feedback, giving 3-6 mock design selections which one is the best for client, daily status report of what i am doing working on project via email/IM and temporary secured web access for view unfinished working-site purpose.

It was 3 or 4-pages written proposal with self-explanation illustrated mock designing visually. That was very new to clients---never seen that before.

In the past, my proposal was winning to beat high-priced web developers in competition before 9/11 terrorism attack---my price was lowest and project duration met their needs to clear the picture what they want. Long before the new invention of WEBSITE DESIGNING WINNING PROPOSAL software package with 500 free sample proposal and legal contracts came in!!!

My own trademarked ideal written proposal does work for me that I refused to share anyone else.