Quote as high as you can (reasonable price that is...), coz, you'll never know when clients want to change that change this... some clients are very very picky. Even tho the site is simple, you need to take everything into consideration. Your time, your sleepless night, your stressful day thinking about when ideas gonna pop up. Even simple stuffs like image resizing, touching, cropping, etc. Those kind of things are easy to do if it's in a small amount. But if u need to resize like 20 pictures and then crop it, etc.
Take ALL into consideration.

the design part is the toughest i find. crack your head like silly just to find what the customer likes, especially those that have no idea of what they like in the first place.

Hehehe... yeah, true true.
But usually, I'll just ask them "what kind of design do you like?. Show me something (brochure, pamphlet, poster, etc.) that you like."

yes i would do that too, just that some of them really don't have anything to show.

so normally i would prefer to ask "do you have any company brochure, pamphlet, profile, or whatever printed materials?"

cos really, what they like is one thing but the design must also match with the already established company design / feel.

that's how i go about la, but some times their printed material also barely enough to get inspiration. so end up browsing coolhomepages.com

hehe, same same... but sometimes even coolhomepages.com isn't enuff. so, end up at deviantart...

p/s: We are a lil bit out of topic

ok hehe, just to illustrate that pricing for web-design is more than just RM xx per page. it involves a lot of blood and sweat, and of course the occasional late night snacks.

much time is taken to consider the company, the choice of color and design to respresent the company, the layout for ease of reading / access, and of course the creative aspects, then there's also the dirty work.

some of these things is up to us to educate the customer.

Make sure there's some part of your price to be put aside as backup payment. Sometimes clients like Cyphereza mentioned - the fickled minded ones that will haunt you with their constant changes until a certain level where they wiil (obviously will) expect you to absorb the extra costs of their demands. This is where the extra funds comes from.

Well, the client doesn't know how much is it charged for just the design since normally what we do is introduce the whole 'package' to them of design + development. Only when the client says they want just a design, then I'll charge them accordingly if the template changes per page or it maintains through the content pages.

But even when I do that, clients are held down by my T&C of not being allowed to change more than 30% which is also considerable by me. Also, I've already informed them first hand that they will not get the work file (PSD) because they'd have to pay almost double to get it. After all, that's the only intellectual property I have as a designer.

As for backup payment, so far 50% before project and the remainder after has been fine with me.

@etsuko dude non-transactional that i meant was just no transaction of fund involved all transferring of fund will just be directed to third party paying method

ooo ? no fixed price ya ....can we use the concept of reserve bidding here? to hire someone to work for something ..since there are so many pro. here

LoL! You could try.. and it is an interesting concept since Malaysia doesn't really have that.. just hope it won't deminish the market as it is.

Hi etsuko,

When you mentioned that your clients opt for CMS, do you mean customizing already available CMS (joomla, mambo and etc) to suit the client's needs? Please shed some light as my clients prefer a site that could be easily maintained by themselves.

As for pricing I do agree with others there is no "standard pricing". Seems hard to do business nowadays when a lot of chinamen business owners will exclaim "WAH, so expensive ARR!!??" for even the lowest quote. :x

Well, the CMS isn't alterations of an existing CMS. We've got a custom built one to provide to our clients actually. And because most corporate clients wouldn't maintain that much items except for updates to small content, images or sometimes jobs, our CMS is built for those reasons.

There have been reasons we've customized our existing CMS to the customers needs but those really pay a lot more than what we'd charge.

aiyoh...the more i read the more difficult to think of a suitable price. most of the companies who ask for these kind of services are almost "buta IT" anything would sound expensive to them.

by the way is it possible for me to post my work here...and ask/poll for a rough price???

of course.. just start a new thread with a poll of either asking us how much we think it's worth or how good it is.

the price isn't determined totally by the client but through your own honesty. however, if you're a damn good marketing person who could tell the client they'll get a million return after using your stuff, then you are good. :roll:

That right. Selling is an art. Convincing is better. Conning and still believe your are getting the best is out of the world.

BTW, just my 2 cents- our malaysian market is over-crowded with designers. Just look at their pay and you'll know. No point doing design if you are a money minded guy. Get the deals, be the boss and hire some diploma holders to do it. Pay the designers 20% convince the clients that its worth alot. Viola there goes 60-80% of the total money to your pocket.

Thats the reason i left design too.

Well, the whole explaination above wasn't to scare or request for everyone to not be a designer. Just that if you want to be one, it's more challenging and you need more than just copying styles or following what some are doing in their methods of business.

Besides, it depends which segment of a business you belong. Are you an employee, self-employed, business runner or merely an investor?

All this you'll realize through experience and you'll know when you're ready.

Cheers.

well, this has been a very interesting thread to read,
personally, I'm in the web business as well, although I'm more developer inclined

But literally, what I see happening here in the market is, there's so much 'web companies' that doesn't deserve to be one. they charge 300-2k, come out with template based stuffs that they took from elsewhere... and calls it a wrap.

What happens is, this creates a false sense of value in an actual 'good' website. I've been asked to do something for such a ridiculous price that I almost ended up laughing out loud in front of him.

For pricing, I usually goes for 1.5k per project basis. Or more depending on what they want.. especially in regards to flash sites. The more you pay me, the more hours i'll put in refining the effects, getting it right, etc etc.

It's really hard to put a price on our line of work...

Speaking of which, any graphic designers here who would take on some freelancing jobs/per project basis? drop me a pm and i'll keep you in the loop the next time i need design services

At the same time, if you need a reasonably good php developer who knows about templating/standard compliance codes to help you out in tight times, drop me a mail too

This post has been edited by eltaria: Mar 21 2006, 01:16 AM

Malaysia.. we're doomed.

About that graphic designer thing, if you're looking for people to design websites.. please make sure they know about websites before even asking them to design a website.

Or in the end, you'll just end up with one of those templates that will create a website without value later on.

Cheers.

good discussion guys. i really appreciate of things that i read.