Is this marketable?

[James K]

So I have done several sites pro bono and wonder if I should get into doing this for a small income :-)

Here are two of my sites all done in SwishMax:

www.salonmodello.ca

http://www.alixchapel.co.uk/

www.jameskmusic.com


Are these types of sites profitable? What would one charge for such a site?

Thank you,
James

[Mctittles]

Definitely. Charging is still all over the place in this field. Depends on where you live and how much you need. I'm sure there are people that charge 100+/hr for work like that. I know a few programmers that work freelance and am one myself. I'm probably a better programmer, but my others I know make more money at it because they are better businessmen. I know people that charge 150/hr for simple php/mysql sites. Making money in this field is not just skills but it's talking to the right people. You need to troll hard on potential businesses for work. Start local and work your way up.

[James K]

Thank you the reply Mctittles. If I may also ask if it is common practice for the web designer to host the site at their own expense or require the paying customer to have their own host?

Thank you,
James

[Mctittles]

Honestly I see both equally. Most of the work I get is handed down once already, mainly because I hate the business side of things. Most of my work from clients that get work from real customers and hand off the programming to someone else, so I see how different people handle things. Half of them just build the site for the customer and the other half sets up domain and everything. I also know someone that started out hosting sites for customers in their own basement computer and eventually expanded to have their own hosting service.
I'd offer it for customers. Sometimes you can get discount deals if you do a lot of hosting with a company.
Oh wait, just re-read your question and think I missed the point. No, no one pays for the customers hosting out of pocket. Usual they host cheaper and make a percent profit on billing the customer. Either they set it up themselves and charge the customer a monthly or the customer goes through their own host.

[James K]

Thank you so much for your replies Mctittles....Much appreciated!
Onwards we go! :-)
James

[LunarRover]

I hope you don't mind me saying but I think your works is still a little naive. You seem to be trying too hard on what can be done and not stopping to wonder if it should be done? Is it necessary? Does it ultimately look good? Like all the noises and the this and the that going on. You have skills obviously, but all the trying to impress is not really impressive, in fact those sites I find a little annoying, as in there is way too much going on. If you do want to start charging for your work you are defiantly going to have to understand less is sometimes more. I say this not to be rude but from experience of making the same mistakes in the past.

[James K]

Thanks for your perspective Lunar. Could you please post some of your work so I can see where you are coming from?
James

[Celtic_K]

I'd recommend at first to charge per project and not per hour , and dont over price your work at first until you get around 10 clients. you will notice your skills improving with each project you do , i believe after that you can start pricing per hour and raise your prices over time as you continue to get better.

[Beakers]

I'd recommend at first to charge per project and not per hour , and dont over price your work at first until you get around 10 clients. you will notice your skills improving with each project you do , i believe after that you can start pricing per hour and raise your prices over time as you continue to get better.

Yeh I fully agree with Celtic_K, Google for free lance websites and register on a few. I started off with Elance, and tried my hardest to sell myself as I didn’t have much prior experience work wise. Sell yourself cheap at first. You're competing with a lot of people out there who have probably raked up lots of work and for this will be considered more by the buyer, at the same time though these people quite likely won’t provide the service and commitment you will as its your first portfolio piece with the site and you’re looking for good feedback (mention that).
My first job on Elance was major slavery, it was a $50 job and with all the edits and changes required it took me 3 days. However, the feedback was great and definitely contributed to me getting my next job which was a company that out sourced all their flash jobs, and now do so to me.

Start off small and work your way up, if you enjoy working with Flash or in this case SwishMax then it won’t be to dire to do so

[NANAND78]

I think you need to charge for the work you do. Designers need money too. I charge by project or hourly depending on the client. I advise you to look at TheFWA.com and Smashing Magazine for tips.

The better your designs get and more involved the development the more you should charge. Folks with more experience and stronger portfolios with big names and links will obviously command more money than novices. I would say make it worth your while. I started out by doing some stuff for free, then charged a little, and eventually started making a decent wage.

-NITIN ANAND-
http://www.nanand78.com