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On a side note: I though about this before as when I lived in a other country many small businesses only have some gmail or similar email address instead of their own domain. They probably don't want to pay a lot, but if you make it clear that change requests cost money and it's just keeping them up, it is very little actual work.
One issue might be that business websites might have certain legal requirements. In this case that can be somewhat mitigated by only doing bookings through another platform that will be linked. That way there's also no need to update price lists. -
Do you know the cost price of your real job? Take that, divide by half (cuz you don't need all the insurances and pension investments and stuff).
Now you're probably still earning €40 per hour *and* you're 50% cheaper than other developers out there. No brainer for both you and client.
(IANAL but this works really well in the Netherlands. Company asks €75 per hour for an hour of my time. So I ask €35-40 when side-gigging. 50% cheaper for the client and still really nice PC building money for me 😄) -
I'd charge 500 euro for being willing to pay all associated costs such as hosting, domain name reg, SSL certificates, keeping a safety copy of the site, doing very (very) minor updates at the level of text changes with the new text provided, answering tech questions, setting up email accounts. Most faff is configuring email clients on user devices over the phone - you have to decide whether that's something you include in the basic package or not. If you have basic web knowledge, the bulk of the work (90%) is in the content creation. Be very clear on who is creating and uploading the product catalogue, which can be huge. Be aware - it is absolutely standard for clients to agree a price with you and then ask for additional things to be included for no additional charge 'we have agreed the price, this is just us telling you how we would like it done!' (with a shopping cart, with live chat, etc, etc).
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@spongegeoff This is just a site for a vacation home rental, the bookings are solely made through booking.com - that way the scope is quite limited to some text and pictures basically, possibly a price list but I recommended to just list the prices on booking.com to avoid a discrepancy if it's not updated.
I'm not gonna touch any direct sales or online shop directly for legal reasons alone (re rules the site has to follow but also liability if there's payments going wrong).
As for web knowledge, writing a simple HTML page and some CSS is not very complicated, email kinda sucks but I'd just go with posteo or whatever the hosting platform offers (e.g. netcup). Design is not at all my thing but I don't think expectation are very high, just a simple easy to use site that doesn't look all that early 2000s. -
@Lucky-Loek Freelance rates seem to be around 100€ here based on a very brief search. Given that I'm not doing web professionally, I should obviously take less. So I guess 40-50€ is reasonable and not really worse than what I earn in my daytime job ;)
With a 500€ package if I work 10-15h I'm good and I guess I can learn some new skills!
Upkeep should be minimal so I can keep the maintenance fee reasonable. -
If it's just a brochure site, quality of photography has a huge influence. You'd be doing yourself a favour if you used a front end framework, even if only for the ready-made responsive layout and buttons. It's entirely possible to work without a framework, but you'll need to learn CSS reasonably deeply to do it. UIkit v2 works well and has an online tool for that is great for developing an overall look. If you do have any form inputs, html5 inputs are easy and best.
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@spongegeoff I have used purecss.io before (with responsive grids) for a small site. I reeeeally like to NOT use js and make damn fast sites 8)
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@saucyatom You are looking at this all wrong! You are responding to their limited knowledge and brief, delivering something of little or no value to them. Identify the things that will add to their bottom line. Why not take direct bookings (as well) and bypass the commission from booking.com, Suggest going on other channels like airbnb or Expedia. You need a channel manager and synced booking engine that can keep availability and synced pricing across channels. What about unified messaging? custom messaging with dynamic placeholders, such as guest name, check-in/out times, Now you will have something to sell them! Do your research because this is already available as a SAAS that you can easily build on the sales bit and images etc. Everything else just needs a bit of configuring. Do this in 1 day and charge €500 set it up and walk away. They pay the monthly fee to the SAAS. No need to bother you. Take a look at smoobu.com
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@saucyatom I thought of mentioning Pure, which is great for layout, but I want good-looking buttons for free!
@helloworld Great post, but "No need to bother you"? They surely will... -
@helloworld I'm not sure if there's a /s missing, but that seems ∞ more complicated than a simply static website and requires a lot more involvement and legal risk. I already have a day job, things should stay simple here ;)
Also I'd rather not make it more complicated for the 65yo client. Neither do they want it, I guess! (In the end they said they want a new website, I'm not even sure if I want that job!)
(If this was a larger client with many places and $$$ to spend that might be worth considering, but not for a $ client essentially letting their garden house.) -
@spongegeoff Who needs buttons anyway ;)
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@saucyatom you didn’t read my post fully. Smoobu.com, its all done a days work max for you
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@helloworld I took a look at the site and it does seem reasonable (especially because it's a German company so they should know local regulations), but I believe it would be a hard sell to make it more complicated for them (learning to use a new app, dependency on this SAAS), plus I'd have to get more involved regarding connecting their account etc.
When I bought something second hand, I had a small chat with them and got to know that they need a new website for their small business. They told me they paid 800€ to an agency that didn't deliver anything - I suppose there's some misunderstanding but I don't wanna get involved in that).
I told them I could do it, but it's not really my field and I'm not sure if I want the trouble. I made clear I'd expect to be paid, I'd need to think about the amount..
Requirements should simple enough, static website can do. Nothing fancy really. They might even be able to DIY with a shitty website builder.. Needs to be hosted and working email. One red flag is the current situation regarding domain ownership because the former maintainer died...
Anyway I suppose this could be a nice side gig for beer money, with the initial setup paid decently plus a yearly fee for maintenance/hosting.
I don't wanna rip them off but also I don't wanna work a second job for pennies.. idk something like 500€ once + 150€/year would probably be ok? (incl. costs for domain/hosting/email)
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