I’m launching my career as a freelance web developer and I don’t know what to charge. I’ve used some web design pricing calculators, but I’m still worried about charging the wrong amount because I have a history of being extremely optimistic about these things. I have about 2 solid years making websites as a contractor and 2.5 years making small Flash games. Opinions and ballpark figures appreciated!!
- About how much would you charge for doing this site?
- About how long would it take you?
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This is an existing website that needs renovating and upgrading. They want new graphics, new features, and a lot of changes to the layout. I’m planning to rebuild it from scratch; it’s pretty small. There are 21 pages total: 16 pages of mostly formatted text, 5 pages with scripting or programming involved (e.g. forms or database querying)
Here’s an itemized list I created of features they want that will take some time:
- graphical overhaul
- metatag keyword optimization
- search engine submission
- some seo link building
- search website function
- member accounts (accounts don’t do anything currently except determine who has paid)
- search for members
- members database with subscription info and simple data for each member
- members database edit page (for client to use when adding/removing/modifying members)
- payment processing for subscribing new members
- allow only certain member types into some areas
- facebook “like” button
- email auto-responders
- email notifications when membership expiring
- embedded google calendar
- embedded google doc
If it helps to gauge their experience, below this line the document they sent me, which outlines their request:
[I]New features:
- General search function—this is something the website does not have. It should be fairly intuitive; I guess that’s another way of saying user-friendly.
- Specific search-for interpreters—similar to what we have now, but add parameters, so that a person can search more things at once, for example, by language and region. As it is now, for example, if I want to find a Spanish interpreter in Wisconsin, I can see all of the interpreters in Wisconsin, but have no way of knowing how close to each other they may be. A parameter of distance from a major city might address this best. Maybe a distance parameter is all we really need for this one.
Entry into website:
- Get rid of the need to click on the blue space. Let people have immediate access to the links on the left side. In other words, the home page should have all the links.
- Logo is pretty awful. I’ve always assumed it’s supposed to be an outline of the three states that make up SITENAME, i.e., Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, but it really doesn’t look like them!
- The night-time pictures are awful. Substitute them for day photos, perhaps, of Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Chicago, or we’re open to suggestions. Can we have the capability of posting photos ourselves?
Navigating the website:
- Suggestions are welcomed. I’m not sure I like having links on both the left side of the page and at the top of the page. I think we should probably have them in only one place. I say that because until tonight, I didn’t even realize that there were links at the top, and I’ve been a member for several years!
- Link for Facebook.
- And a link from Facebook to SITENAME. Social networking is really important, and we’re open to suggestions as to how to integrate, market and monitor the two sites. I think that Facebook will be a means of outreach to recruit new members, maybe by having our events and a blog on it, whereas SITENAME is more inforSITENAMEonal. Facebook is also good for communicating with current members…maybe as important as the SITENAME website.
Keeping up the website:
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Membership: AutoSITENAMEc capability to notify when annual membership fee has not been paid?
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Sponsorships and Donations: Under consideration–For Platinum-3 free registrations vs. 2. For Platinum and Gold: Add that logo will also be posted to SITENAME Facebook page. For Supporter: Change $50 to Individual $50/$25. Maybe we need to think of additional perks for sponsors. I am in charge of this committee, so I’ll try to come up with some ideas.
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Calendar (Change name to Events): We are hopelessly outdated! For example, we should be able to update our annual conference, which is scheduled for September 15, 2012, but right now the only event that appears is last year’s conference. We need the ability to easily add events.
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InforSITENAMEon: this is a link to our past newsletters. We may or may not keep it.
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Member Directory: Make it easy for us to maintain. We have people who join all year long, and currently don’t have the capability to easily update it. The update capability has to be limited, however, so that only authorized people can do it. Perhaps all of the executive board members might have access to do it. Alternatively, maybe only the president and treasurer should have access, so that a person cannot be added until the dues have been paid.
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Resources:
Links:
a. TI Education & Training—The IUPUI link does not work.
b. Glossaries /Dictionaries—The Intern’l Financial Encyclopedia doesn’t work right, and the Harvard Law Library page has moved,
c. Miscellaneous: most of them are totally outdated, with the exception of the Translation Journal and the The Translator’s Tool Box: A Computer Primer for Translators. However, the latter is actually a book for sale, and I’m thinking that either the author should pay for it, or we should offer this as a free site for others to post their books on as well, simply as a perk to belonging to SITENAME.
d. Create a place that we can make lists. For example, a list to carpool to a SITENAME or an ATA event, or a list of persons interested in finding roommates for a hotel room, or a list of people who are looking for study companions for a state or federal certification exam, are all ideas. -
Contact Us: Needs to have updated SITENAME inforSITENAMEon. ATA contact info is ok.
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Board of Directors: Needs to be current. We just installed new officers this past Saturday. Same with committees and chairpersons.[/I]
It’s just too ambiguous. Some of the items aren’t hard to estimate, like fixing links and adding search, etc. But others are impossible like, “Create a place that we can make lists” or even worse, “Calendar”. If you do a fixed-bid on this, you’ll almost certainly get into trouble.