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Q: Price?
A: $50 an hour plus materials (if any).
That is less than half the going rate per employee that most
any agency would give you. Actually - this is less than your
mechanic, your plumber, your electrician, your lawyer, your
accountant, or any other working type charges you for their
time. This hourly rate does include consultations and post-agreement
changes in direction, otherwise I could find myself spending
hundreds of hours discussing by phone or by email various
new ideas and changes post-contract. If I am answering your
calls, I am not working on your project, yet I am still working
and I expect to be paid. I expect half up front, in return
you receive a signed agreement that in layman's terms explains
that I am in a lot of trouble if I do not give you the full
project as tediously outlined in the agreement to make sure
that no one gets screwed. The latter half is billed upon completion,
with a thirty day grace period in most cases though I will
do payment plans. I will not create open or good-faith 'accounts'
anymore because such adds up to my not getting paid the remainder
of a small balance while said individuals travel the country
first class, and sleep in expensive hotels.
Q: Erm... Price?
A: It really depends on the size of your
project. I work very very quickly, so you get a decent amount
of work for each and every hour you pay for. I can do nice,
clean corporate looking sites for as low as $600 if they are
five or less pages with less than 20 images to add, and you
either already have your logo designed or really don;t care
to have a logo presented (because identity is a whole different
ball game). Most of the stuff that cost more, I wouldn't recommend.
Unless it is an art or music oriented site, people neither
expect nor desire to wait a long time for something to load
- nor do they like having to download plugins just to get
to what they came to your site for: reading what you have
to offer. I get seriously cheesed when I find a big flash
intro to wait through when I am only looking for store hours
or wanting to order a pizza.
Q: Hosting?
A: $12 a month or $105 yearly (save $40
a year that way), and that includes free domain name registration
or re-registration (though the domain name must be available
through normal means). You can probably find better prices
if you look really hard, obviously I get it for a few dollars
less or I wouldn't offer it. But, this way you end up with
your web designer being your web host, and not charging you
to communicate with your web host on your behalf. An added
bonus is that you know for sure that the host will be compatible
with all of the bells and whistles you want on your site,
and that I will be able to show you how to administer all
aspects of your web space.
Q: Book Illustrations?
A: I love this sort of
work + I have favorite authors. Chances are, that if you are
one of those authors, you will get an extra special deal out
of an advance copy of your book for me to work from. Otherwise,
I need to make a living. Still, if you are up to sending me
a manuscript, and showing me that you are without a doubt
well on the way to being published, or if you are an ESTABLISHED
publisher - drop me a line.
Q: I have a great band, destined for fame/once
famous and very little capital, though I have enough money
to to go to club every frigging night, attend every after
party, and replace whatever expensive clothing items I puked
on the night before. I also have a SWEET Kurzweil synth to
compliment my 2 custom-painted Les Pauls...
A: I have done a LOT of these deals. I will
do no more. Reason being: I quote a remarkably generous price
for 20 hours worth of work, and spend twenty something months
making revisions, waiting on material, decisions, changes
in direction, pay, and ultimately the big payoff. If I had
the sort of time and resources to dedicate towards launching
you towards stardom, I would have the time for making more
paintings, more prints, redesigning my web site, attending
conventions, flossing my toes, finishing my own
music project, and doing a thousand things to enable me to
never ever need to do this sort of deal. Inversely, if I continue
to do these sort of deals, I will run myself into the ground,
and never have the time to (at the very least) seek good paying
clients of the 'good paying client' variety. Too many times
I have had to pass up a great deal, because I was too tied
up in these sorts of projects.
Q: Portfolio Site?
A: The importance of 'Portfolio Sites' is
quality over quantity, and too many 'Portfolio Sites' tend
to disappear off of the net, or become hideously updated/mutilated
by some band member's friend's brother with his 486 and his
copy of 'FrontPage 97'. Portfolio sites tend to be out there
artistically, which renders them confusing to the types of
people who would need to ask for free or cheap work.
Q: I have this fantastic idea, it involves
me selling something online, then buying it, then shipping
it. I would be able to pay you more once everything is up
and running. I also need for you to design the things I would
be selling.
A: Sure, I will build your thriving online
business for you for free. Or better yet - why don't I build
my own friggin' store and you build yours?
Q: Does my kewl design made by the airbrush
guy at the mall constitute a pre-existing logo?
A: If it is a good design, I will need to
re-trace/vector it so that I can work with it, and I will
need to charge you for this time. If it is a terrible design,
unbalanced or illegible, I might just opt out of the project
before it begins. There is nothing like trying to figure out
where to place an 'L' shaped formation of words or a cone-shaped
drawing. I like sites to look good. Typically, the logo is
the prime focus on each page (people like to know they have
come to the right place, and that they have not accidentally
left), second being the nav buttons (because some people still
for some reason have a hard time finding buttons or links
if you do not thumb tack them directly to said people's eyeballs),
third being the content (because who really needs content
anyway?). If the logo looks like crap, the site looks like
crap, or is too unworkable to ever make it the point where
it can look like crap. A good logo design, should be legible
if printed on the spine of a cassette (primitive media device)
or a really thin book; A good logo should not rely on any
particular color scheme for visibility.
Q: I want to build a site that relies on
a large grouping of a particular type of businesses to become
members for fear that they will not be on yet another comprehensive
listing of businesses of their type. Since I love to narrow
my client base, I plan to make this either regional or local.
I think I can get my brother to subscribe right away.
A: These 'target businesses' will most likely
ask how long you have been up and running, and how many other
people have already joined. They will ask for web stats, market
research, and a multitude of things that you may not have.
I however, will only ask you for the full amount of pay.
Q: I can't get to my site because there
are popups all over my computer and I have a virus. I also
have my resolution set at 600 x 480, or maybe have no idea
what screen resolution is. I can't even find my desktop...
at least not the one you are talking about... nope - no icons,
just a cup of coffee and a keyboard... is it maybe underneath
my keyboard?
A: This... especially this, falls under
'consulting'. Yes, I probably can troubleshoot your proprietary,
misconfigured, and maybe outdated computer system over the
phone. Yes, it will cost you an hourly rate. I prefer that
my web clients be somewhat computer literate, since it is
now around 2004 I do not think that this is a lot to ask.
Q: Can you build my site from a stack of
paperwork? I will cross out what is not needed, circle what
is, and draw little arrows where I am not sure what the hell
I mean, and use paperclips for something.
A: Yes. Understand that I will be reading
this, then typing this, then reading this, then typing this
- and not feeding it into a little box with a telepathic type-monkey.
Hourly rates apply for this and every time I need to call
and ask what the squiggly means, or what content goes on which
page or why a photo is rubber banded to a finger puppet. I
prefer having this stuff sent to me in word or plain text
format (notepad, BBedit, TextEdit or other)- it is better
for you and for me and allows for less mistakes. I will scan
images, but I recommend that you write on the back with details
such as which page, which paragraph, tag lines, etc...
Q: I have a site, and would like it very
much if you would include my huge banner somewhere on your
site.
A: Die... now.
Q: I am an artist or musician, would you
like to exchange links?
A: Probably. It depends on what sort of
stuff you do.
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