Comments on: Why I can’t build a website for £500…..

By: karl bowers

karl bowers — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:06:02 +0000

If I had a pound for every time I heard “Budget upto £500.00″ lol! Its part of the process educating clients on the values of our profession, but you do get “the head in the sand” types! lol!

By: Samoo

Samoo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:42:32 +0000

It’s kind of relief reading your post. I’ve always thought things like these can happen only here in Italy…but (unfortunately) you proved me wrong.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:46:32 +0000

i actually got a nice site build for $130. thealchemistlab.com I really wish the designer charged more. he did an excellent job. like excellent. but he didnt want more than that.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:18:17 +0000

Great post, I think most professional web designers can relate to this post.
I completely agree with you about explaining the process and what’s involved.

Quite often the potential client is unaware of what’s involved in creating a website and if you can explain it to them then they have the opportunity to increase their budget or discuss a more affordable downsized version of the site.

By: nick

nick — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:18:03 +0000

The problem is there will be bedroom hacks or noobs who will take this on for £500. i probably would have 8 years ago. But you always get what you pay for so. if its a real complicated one the developer either wont be able to make it or bail out when they realise the scale of the project. Next comes the dreaded “we’ll cut you in on the business” conversation. Which normally means can you spend 4months knocking your pipe out for my weak business idea. I just work with software houses these days, its soooo much more straight forward.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:01:40 +0000

There is one simple reason for why this happens – saturation. The web industry is saturated by freelancers and agencies, but also tainted by, and this is not a racial slur, foreigners bidding ridiculously low costs on massive projects on sites like elance.

this coupled with the fact that web design is not considered a “real” job and the fundamental lack of understanding on the clients part, the general consensus is that clients can budget their work at VASTLY less than what is actually required to do the job.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:45:55 +0000

I enjoyed reading your article and it struck a lot of chords with me. I find that, in my area of the country, if you quote a ‘reasonable’ amount you get the sucking through the teeth and shaking of the head

I don’t think people do realise just what it takes to build a website and therefore do not appreciate the hours a good designer is going to put into it.

I must admit that I don’t charge phenomenal fees, but then I am aiming at start-ups and SMEs with low budgets so what I offer them is reasonable for my fee. Simple websites that create an effective web presence without breaking the budget. Of course, if they want more then their budget wil have to reflect that.

By: Gareth Poole

Gareth Poole — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:21:07 +0000

wonderful article, with some great tips. Thanks

By: ClarityWEB

ClarityWEB — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:31:22 +0000

An excellent article that I suspect rang bells with a lot of professional web development companies.

We were recently asked to design a site to compete with Monster.com – for £5,000. Suffice to say the budget was our first issue and this was politely explained to the client (in a manner not a million miles away from the author of this article).

Then we encountered problem number two – the budget might be flexible…because they didn’t actually have £5,000 at all. They had nothing. Nor had they applied for funding. They were hoping they could pay for the website monthly – based on it’s success. That is, if it bumped Monster.com off the top they’d pay a set amount every month. If it didn’t, they wouldn’t.

I do wonder who got them in the end….lol

Someone will have taken it on. That’s the problem – too many people do. They take on jobs because they get desperate and they discount the value of the profession and you get more and more people thinking they can get X for Y – and then they all wonder why their projects fail miserably and tell everyone what a dodgy world web design is.

Stick to your guns. Charge what your time, energy and skills are truly worth. Don’t destroy the market in which we operate – because thats what desperation does.

By: Swallow my design » Dev’s berretas Vs Clientes tacaños

Swallow my design » Dev’s berretas Vs Clientes tacaños — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:29:12 +0000

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