Here we go with the "demanding" client.....please advise
i have offered a very cheap service package for the cheap clients who feel quality websites are not worth but a few hundred dollars. i have offered this client a basic website design...and i mean "basic".....for an agreed $60 per month for a year (sort of like financing the website)...she has no photos or images, no text either, all she has is a logo. i took the logo and came up with a basic layout which includes her butterfly logo. she liked the layout.
she now wants the butterfly logo to be "animated" upon entrance of the website...how much work is involved in that? i have the illustrator version of the logo.
Never take life too seriously. Nobody makes it out alive anyways. Film Portfolio
You could do a very short anim which wouldn't take long – could you post the logo?
maybe start with it in the cente of a blank screen.. animate the wings flapping once and the whole thing scales up. That would be the quickest thing to do.
You can paste the AI file straight into Flash anyway.
lol, okay. i just needed an extra opinion. hurricaneone i got your animation, lol i didnt know you were trying to tell me something with the foot squashing the butterfly though....
so i should just get rid of her rather than charging her extra? do u think this is a sign she will be a problem because of this request? if so, how much would u charge for an animation like that?
Never take life too seriously. Nobody makes it out alive anyways. Film Portfolio
If you have nothing else going on, then keep her on the books, but as I said, do as little as possible to keep your margins up (margin at US$60/month = not very much)
If you have other customers who are willing to pay decent cash for your services, I'd be telling her to make sure the door didn't hit her butt on the way out.
if you can get her to pay extra for extra work that is good.
it just stricks me as a client that will be always trying it on, what until she asks takes a look at nike.com or whatever and asks for something like that (of course still only paying 60 dollars !)
well it is only slow right now because i have been busy working on my own site. how much would u guys charge her for this animation? i have not had to manipulate a logo like that before...
Never take life too seriously. Nobody makes it out alive anyways. Film Portfolio
Re: Here we go with the "demanding" client.....please advise
I think i discovered your first mistake.
Originally posted by J-Luv i have offered a very cheap service package for the cheap clients who feel quality websites are not worth but a few hundred dollars.
I find it interesting that the least paying clients always are the most demanding. For example, I have a client who basically said "charge whatever is neccessary to get it done" and i did, he doesnt care about price because he recognizes ROI. on the other hand, i just met with other client today who wants me to optimize his site for search engines, and maybe redesign it (wants me to do SEO first to see if i can make him money, then redesign. i'd prefer doing both at once but whatever). I mention how the copy will need to be rewritten, and i mention a price of something like $100/page and he says "well I guess we wont do that. all we really need is those meta tag things" if you knew what you needed you wouldnt be coming to me, and i wont commit to doing "just meta tags" because i know that has almost no effect whatsoever...therefore he won't see any better results and think all the other work I would do would be worthless anyway. i'm getting off topic...
I say tell the client that they signed up for the "standard plan" - nice way of saying you're cheap. To get "premium service" ie flash intro, it will cost extra. Charge what you would for any client. dont think that since he is cheap you should lower your rates to accomodate him and get the sale.
I wish the rest of the business world worked like web design. I drive up to a mercedes dealership in a 93 oldsmobile, saying i cant spend over $3000 on a car. I'm sold the new mercedes for $5000 ($3000 for car, $2000 for extras that would usually cost $10000). I wonder why most people dont operate this way. oh ya, its bad business. You are in business so don't charge less for cheaper clients. If you do charge less, make sure you give them less than what you would for normal clients. Never take a loss on ANY project. This means dont quote low and have good contracts to prevent scope creep...including adding a flash intro.
very good advice....i will have to come up with a price for this *intro* and a contract since we have not signed anything (not like i was going to do anything other than a mock without a contract anyway)
make it so bad, this client owns an estate and her guest house is the size of my last apartment.....
Never take life too seriously. Nobody makes it out alive anyways. Film Portfolio
I find it interesting that the least paying clients always are the most demanding.
Ain't that the truth. One $500 client acted like she was making a major investment in her website and thought we should jump through every imaginable hoop to please her. After taking months to get us her content, she demanded we get her site up quickly or refund her money. (We couldn't write the check quick enough.)
We gave up the "cheap package for cheap clients" strategy because we found that the small cheap jobs consume nearly as much time as the bigger ones.
If you decide to pursue this market, be very specific as to what the client does and doesn't get. Because your margins are so thin, charge extra for any additional work and don't give anything away for free.
this is exactly why i think every freelancer should learn prequalification. Actually I was going to write an article for sitepoint on the subject, just haven't got around to it yet.
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