[skalie]

I've been asked to do a website for a family friend.

She's an artist, and she wants to showcase her work.

The site itself is pretty basic, she put forward this as an example of what she wants.

My question is what is the minimum I should charge? (She has offerred to pay)

The reason I say minimum is that I am very appreciative of the chance to put some nice artwork in my portfolio, but she is not such a good friend that I would do it for free.

Here's what I want to offer......

English and Dutch versions of a similar site to the link I posted, i.e. about 6 pages of content, and about 40 or so thumbnail >>>> large size pictures of her work. No frills, pure html.

Organise her a domain name and hosting for a year.

Maintenance, i.e. adding pictures and agenda dates.

[philzilla]

it depends on how much time you're planning on spending on it. don't go less than about £250 though (so maybe round that up to 400 Euro).

if you think it might take hours and hours, suggest an hourly rate and keep a log.

aim for a maintenance fee too. that should buy you a few pints every now and then

[bens1901]

I would suggest that you have a meeting with the Client to gather the Requirements for the site. Make sketches and discuss various interface ideas with the Client. Once you feel that both you and the Client understand what the site will offer and how it will be organized, you can then go home and mull over what development for each section would entail. As you keep a list of what needs to be done, try to make an hour estimate for each task. (a spreadsheet program is great for this) Once you have gone through all of the items, total up the hours, come up with your hourly rate, and let the Client know what it will cost and how long it will take. You can then meet with the Client and identify to them what task will take lots of time and what will take a little. They may drop some items from the Req'ts list, and add some extra ones.

Developing such an hourly analysis and organized Requirements document will be helpful in several ways. It will help provide a work time estimate. It will also help you and the Client organize and get on the "same page" with the expectations for the site.

I usually make an hourly estimate for completing the project, and then mulitply it by 1.5 to take into account any debugging, etc.

If it's a friend, you may want to simply reduce your rate to 1/4 your normal rate. That might be the easiest approach.

Good luck.

[rplotkin]

I've fielded this same question from a number of my acquaintances interested in getting into web design. I've been doing it for ten years, to put things in perspective. And the advice I've given that seems to work best is try to figure out how long it will take you, as a novice, to do everything. Then, try to estimate how long it would take a pro (which is usually about a quarter of the time). Multiply the pro hours by $50/hr, and yours by $15/hr. Average the two results, and you should have an estimated cost. Never go less than $200. And if it's a friend, you may consider taking 20% off the top.