Building a website with a client
The following describes the process I follow when building a website for a client and how my fee for the work changes depending on the specific requirements of the client.
Generally, I meet with the client and discuss the purpose of the website, the message or audience the website is trying to reach and some idea about how inexpensive the website has to be to stay within the client's budget. The more specific the client can be as to the content and "look" he/she wants the web pages to have the more efficiently I can work.
The following is a list of questions that must be answered by the client at some point in the website design:
- What kind of layout will the website have; e.g. three column, stairstep areas, two rows, etc. ?
- What color or color combinations does the client want?
- What graphic (picture) elements does the client want? Do they have a logo or tag line, or banner they want to include?
- Who will furnish the graphics? The client, the website designer or some third party?
Fee Structure
Generally, for basic "brochure" level sites, I charge $75.00 per page. A brochure website consists basically of a home page, a service/activity page, a biographical information page and a contact page.
If the client requires more than a basic brochure level website, the following is a list of possible elements that would raise the per/page rate, depending on how large or complex the following additional elements are:
- If the client wants a picture gallery or galleries.
- If the client wants to sell items through his/her website
- If the client wants to periodically remove and put up new material on the web pages
- If the client wants to allow viewers to upload material or download material
- If the client wants Flash animation
- If the client wants to include video clips
- If the client wants custom art work or image alterations
To begin a project, the client makes a deposit, usually, between $100 - $200; this deposit covers my time to develop some working test pages. These are further adjusted with input from the client and a general design is approved. I then procede to develop the rest of the pages to the website.
The client views the progress on a subpage of my website, captsigerson.com by going to an address like: http://www.captsigerson.com/clientname/testpage.html. When all the clients pages are completed and approved by the client, the clients pages are ready to be moved to their own hosting service and domain name. This is when the balance on the account must be paid.