Question for my programing elders.
I am a high school student. If/when I am asked to make a client a website, what is the general price that I should charge? (Remember, I am a slightly inexperienced american highschooler, so I don't want to over or under charge them for my work)

It would depend on the complexity, I usually charge around 40$ an hour for simple side project with no maintenance afterwards

As an inexperienced high school developer I really don't feel as though you are ready to charge 40-100$ an hour yet (but that's my opinion), maybe go for something around 20

Spec out the project, make sure it's bare-bones (no crazy features, etc), then tell the client you'll have it exactly to spec, online, for a flat fee and a due date. To figure the due date, break the parts of the site into a checklist of tasks for yourself and estimate how long it will take you, then try to meet or exceed those estimates. This will help you to figure out your pacing so you can charge hourly in the future

@perix2 i'll charge around 55$/hr.

@RagnarRedbeard
This is some good advice.

Thanks!

@RagnarRedbeard time estimation is not easy for the well experienced. I don't see how a young inexperienced developer should estimate things he didn't do before without the input if more experienced developers.

@RagnarRedbeard I agree starting out should be a flat fee to show confidence, get their confidence in you.

I sometimes do fixed price for new customers just to win the work. I don't under sell myself though.

@nocgod I meant it as a personal exercise rather than charging the client per hour

I always quote a flat fee on protects with a deadline, it works better from a marketing aspect. Hourly rates end up sounding more expensive. How much you feel you are worth an hour vs how much a client is willing to spend often differs greatly.

Also as you gain experience that difference tends to get even wider, the problem comes in when you as a novice can do something in an hour, a Dev with 5 years of experience can do the same thing in maybe 15 minutes.

Also, which sounds better:

I can do it in about 20 hours at $20 an hour or

I can do it for $400 and have it to you by the end of the week.

You end up making the same money, doing the same work and meeting the same deadline, the second one just sounds better, and offers more confidence.

Personally I also shy away from hourly fees as then I have keep track of fafing around too, with a project I always end up playing around, often using newer tech to learn, iterate over the code and so on. Too much admin.

@RTRMS that's great advice.
To the OP charge a small hourly rate, remember it'll take you longer than it would an experienced dev.
Also that real world experience is valuable, more valuable than cash when you're starting out. Not just the coding, but the whole dealing with clients, deadlines, problems etc.
It's ok to undersell yourself, until you have enough experience to know what you're really worth
Good luck with it

@edisonn no they have a server. The last guy who did it did a shit job and they can't update it nor contact him.

@edisonn
so even if I am going to completely scrap the entire website.
It was written in like 2006 and looks like shit.

Also, make sure you set up version control before you do any work

@RagnarRedbeard
Side rant:
I wish that was common knowledge for everyone.

My ap CS class uses gdrive and flash drives for group projects.
I tried using a github private repo for my first project and apparently one of my group partners complained to the teacher. So now I'm banned from using any sort of version control.

Grrrrrrr.

@poster983 Agreed, 100%. Colleges should teach that, absolutely!