guys the issue of Charging a client for website design is really driving me nuts, most people knows how to bill a client why me i don't know how to really bill a client. for example if your jobs worth up to N200,000 Naira i will be scared to say it out ! pls can you tell us how you bill your clients this might help other people as well, not me only hey just break it down including Hosting,domain,web page designs e. t. c

Before you bill a client, you should know what your fixed unit costs are for any kind of job. This will be sort of your minimum rates. Then create prices for specific tasks i.e. $30/page or something like that. Then you will have to come up with prices for the custom work that will be done. Those are variable costs that you cannot price right away. You have to consult with the client, figure out what they need, go back to the office, and work out how much its going to cost you to get it done. After that you add your markup (profit) then send a final figure to the client.

Thats just a basic way of billing. It requires more details than that but at least you can get started this way.

Sorry smartsoft, but I am just gonna have to throw in a little confusion into your probably already confused self

I personally tried the hourly stuff, but it didn't work for me, especially for nigerian-based sites. So, I came up with package rates, already printed out on paper. Before I agree to anything with the client, I hand them the paper, ask them to go over it and tell them I will get back to them in a day or two. I figure, that way, I don't come out looking that desperate (even though I am )

Presently, I am trying to find the motivation to come up with a personal website. On there, I will state the same prices. Typically, I charge $1000 for a 5-page static site (template) and $1500 for a similar, custom setup. I switched to static/flash-less as I discovered from experience that when pple know you can do dynamic stuff, they usually want to get the most out of you for the least amount of money. After all, to the non-coder, what is special about pulling stuff out of a database? "Should be a simple thing, abi no b u b guru?" For Nigerian-based sites though, I charge a flat N200K, again, for static sites.

Of course, depending on client attitude, as prodgal said, negotiation is possible. Also, I do get objection upfront. Typically along the lines of "okoro is doing the same thing for N30K, y should I pay so much for yours?" To which I retort "well, if okoro tells you to take panadol for a headache and u do and it works, does that make him a doctor?". At this point, most clients typically begin laughing and say something like "ol boy, make you stop dat ting o". Having loosened them up, my original asking price, for the most part, stays that way.

As has been said up top, go to various sites and c what is being charged for what you know. Once you do that, I would suggest you have it in writing. From personal experience (I have a very weak conscience and usually eye contact is all it takes for me to knock off N100K from the original cost ), it is best to have something in writing that you just hand off to the client, telling them you will be back in a couple of days. That gives them the impression that you aren't desperate and that you probably are so busy which would imply that you are worth the price.

Okay, I am off my soapbox now. I hope this helps sha.

@prodgalson. no offence but
SERIOUSLY. you're tryin to say a PICTURE cost u $70?! when there r so many free stock sites out there? or do u just randomly attach prices to ur pictures to give the site more value? and i'm goin to believe u r really just makin an example wit those figures, & u've never charged for 5 hrs to MODIFY a pic.

onydchic:

@. no offence but
SERIOUSLY. you're tryin to say a PICTURE cost u $70?! when there r so many free stock sites out there? or do u just randomly attach prices to your pictures to give the site more value? and i'm goin to believe you're really just makin an example wit those figures, & u've never charged for 5 hrs to MODIFY a pic.

hahahah you cracking my ribs, sweetie

@smartsoft, see why i dont like crappy advices, they suck, see the share truth is this, you dont or cant value your skills yet, just charge at you wish, you know what you can do and what it would take you, the fact about freelancers is that they can do a 200k job for 30k and still feel okay somehow, just keep charging what you can mention, someday yould break even and charge better, evry body has got the problem, so its not just you, even the likes of woo-interactive bid site for 4.5million and still lost to a higher bidder for 6.5 million and i got paid 250k for a subsidiary of the same comapy

The site was supposed to be a 4 site portal (6.5M / 4 ) ie each site was over 1M and they were all crapp and full of copy and paste (www.ubagroup.com) man i hate that site with a badbelly pation

i thot it waz just me, man, i hate that site with a bloody passion, i actually thot woo did it,

anywayz, who did it?

awwwwwwwwww sucking websites,  can you see the lifes of PUNCH http://punchontheweb.com, before it was DNET SYSTEM handling thier website whic really sucks then, but now it is http://www.atlastechng.com who redesign the website, which really reall really sucks now.

I wonder how much they charge for that redesign website.

u guys, thanks a lot for the exposition on this topic. i am a fresh web designer and i am yet to actually execute my first job, and a question that has continually worried me was how to bill without scaring away the customer or cheating myself, and i must say that i have really learnt a lot from these posts. special thanks to prodgalsn, very nice insight.

well thats is it big boy

write it on paper for your client
or better still submit it as a proposal