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I cannot tell you how many times a potential client calls or shoots me an email, wanting to know: How much to create a website

Most times the answer causes a “Wow” response. In all fairness I honestly cut most people a break; when I compare my prices to what others are charging I question my pricing strategy. So let me break it down for you and why I charge what I do.

What I charge

For the sake of argument, I’m going to constrain today’s post to a brochure site only.

When people email me and ask for a quote, I always follow the same process. I visit their current site and determine the following:

• The current CMS platform (WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, Joomla, etc.)
• The scope of the site – how many unique styling elements will be required for specialty pages?
• The perceived complexity of the re-design. Does this person want a graphical masterpiece with all kinds of bells and whistles?

Generally speaking, there’s not a whole lot of variance in these areas from site to site, so after checking out the site in question, I usually have a good idea of how much to charge. Now, to answer the question you all want to hear…How much is all this going to cost me, man?

At this time, brochure sites start at $1300, hell at one point I charged $600 and $700. This price is for a site that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but useful) graphic design - usually from a readily available template.

In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a tricked out site could run as much as $3500.

Their prices

Based on experience, I know a handful of you cringed when you saw my prices and thought to yourself this cat is nuts.

You’re right, but then again, you’re wrong too.

You’re right because $1300 is a nice chunk of change – for an individual. You’re wrong because companies throw this kind of cash around all the time. They do so because they understand that developing a brand holds a value that is oftentimes hard to measure in dollars and cents alone. On top of that, companies typically have a monetary objective behind the launch of a new site, so to them, there’s a foreseeable payoff. Individuals, on the other hand, are oftentimes unable to see things in such a positive light. Let’s face it – most people don’t make a sustainable (or even decent) income off of their site.

Everyone wants a hot site, especially when you scourer the web and come across something you would like your site to look like. Problem is, nobody wants to pay for it, say it again Sam, nobody wants to pay for it.

I attend a few meetups for entrepreneurs and developers, and the topic of pricing always comes up. As an example, there’s a company that charges $3000-$5000 for a blog design. To some this is ridiculous, but the owner provided a neat breakdown for me:

• Mockups produced in Photoshop
• Graphical splicing for optimal CSS/XHTML structure
• CSS/XHTML production in standards-compliant fashion
• Unique CSS/XHTML adaptation to CMS platform of choice
• Bell-and-whistle functionality to meet client requirements

All of the steps highlighted above require a certain degree of expertise to be completed in a professional fashion. Unfortunately, people who want designs are oftentimes unfamiliar with the amount of knowledge required to pull all this off in a seamless fashion. Sometimes I think people see a design and think it’s all just a matter of applying a “look” to stuff that’s already there. In reality, that’s basically what’s going on. In practice, however, things are intensely more complicated.

But this is why you hire a pro.

I know of people who charge $2500 and up for blog designs, and this “just really begins to cover the actual time investment” required to deliver a complete, robust design.

How’s my Lil $1300 price tag sounding now? I know when my wife reads this she’s going to chew my ear off – G what’s wrong with you, you’re leaving all that money on the table – guessing I need to start raising my prices, right!

The ideal clients

The ideal client is one who has a concrete, business-based reason for hiring me to create a site. Clients who approach me with a plan or have done their research are often the best to work with. I never have an issue with imparting some knowledge about the process of developing a site, however if I have to do too much hand holding it becomes a problem.

Long story short

For the individual you can get a site thrown up for a couple hundred dollars, however, if you’re an entrepreneur working a legit project and you are looking to put your best presence out there expect to pay my $1300 and more to get the project done. If you seriously have a financial deficiency I would suggest you hire a design school student. They are often looking to build up their portfolio and are willing to take jobs way below market price.

Good luck…