Comments on: The Cost of Developing a Commercial Website http://www.durranidesign.com/blog/tech-talk/website-design/the-cost-of-developing-a-commercial-website/ Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:48:59 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: rascalpants http://www.durranidesign.com/blog/tech-talk/website-design/the-cost-of-developing-a-commercial-website/comment-page-1/#comment-2998 rascalpants Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:49:32 +0000 http://www.durranidesign.com/blog/tech-talk/website-design/the-cost-of-developing-a-commercial-website/#comment-2998 great answer to this question, and i have been reading over similar articles and posted the below to the same question... ---------------------------------------------- I have been working in the New Media Industry for 12 years now, and actually think your rates are spot on with a smaller web agency. $120/hour for a project is pretty fair, compared to what a national or worldwide ad agency will charge for their services. I have seen bid sheets with hourly rates more than twice that amount, and larger companies will most definitely pay these rates to insure the success of their brand. Here is something to think about... A local restaurant could have a web site designed and build for around $7K. It serves the needs of the local market enough and gives the local customer a view of the place, the menu, where they are located, and any special events that might take place. It only gets a few hundred hits a week, and that is fine. There were probably only a few design comps done, and the copy was written by the Daytime Restaurant Manager in the off hours. There is really no need for a backend, other than to send a basic email to that manager. It probably only took less than a week to be built by a few freelance designers. Now think of national chains like Applebee's, TGI Fridays, or something like that. They have hundreds of locations, and have the need to drive thousands of customers to their web site each day to see promotions and marketing efforts. Their branding guidelines are a 157 page book of rules and regulations that need to be followed to a "T". There were 4 months of revisions on 35 design comps done by a team of 10 designers. And SEM team works with the team of copywriters who then must work with a team of attorneys to make sure the content is sending the write message to the right people and not getting the company sued. The site has streaming video, Flash applications and animations, integrated content management, guerilla marketing efforts like Youtube seeding and Facebook applications, Flash banner campaigns on every major new syndicate available, and a network of servers pushing all of this data with 99.99% uptime. How much would you pay for that? $100K, $500K, $1M, $5M, or $10M? A service should be priced based on how much money the client will make off of your abilities. great answer to this question, and i have been reading over similar articles and posted the below to the same question…

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I have been working in the New Media Industry for 12 years now, and actually think your rates are spot on with a smaller web agency. $120/hour for a project is pretty fair, compared to what a national or worldwide ad agency will charge for their services. I have seen bid sheets with hourly rates more than twice that amount, and larger companies will most definitely pay these rates to insure the success of their brand.

Here is something to think about…

A local restaurant could have a web site designed and build for around $7K. It serves the needs of the local market enough and gives the local customer a view of the place, the menu, where they are located, and any special events that might take place. It only gets a few hundred hits a week, and that is fine. There were probably only a few design comps done, and the copy was written by the Daytime Restaurant Manager in the off hours. There is really no need for a backend, other than to send a basic email to that manager. It probably only took less than a week to be built by a few freelance designers.

Now think of national chains like Applebee’s, TGI Fridays, or something like that. They have hundreds of locations, and have the need to drive thousands of customers to their web site each day to see promotions and marketing efforts. Their branding guidelines are a 157 page book of rules and regulations that need to be followed to a “T”. There were 4 months of revisions on 35 design comps done by a team of 10 designers. And SEM team works with the team of copywriters who then must work with a team of attorneys to make sure the content is sending the write message to the right people and not getting the company sued. The site has streaming video, Flash applications and animations, integrated content management, guerilla marketing efforts like Youtube seeding and Facebook applications, Flash banner campaigns on every major new syndicate available, and a network of servers pushing all of this data with 99.99% uptime.

How much would you pay for that? $100K, $500K, $1M, $5M, or $10M?

A service should be priced based on how much money the client will make off of your abilities.

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