Web Podcast - Episode 33: $1800 an hour! What?

Read the transcription of this podcast:

Hey guys, it's Episode 33, today I'm talking to you just about what you should be paying for websites.

So I've already done a podcast on this this is just another one to reiterate, make you aware of getting your website done because I've had another client this week come to me on Tuesday and today's Friday when I'm recording this and the client came to me and they had a website done by a company couple hours down the line from us and she's been charged an hourly rate I worked out to about $1800 an hour. Now I say $1800 an hour because I looked at the website and I thought (Man I could do this four hours max). It was basically a website with a header and a footer so the logo at the top, the navigation and then the footer with a contact form and a phone number and a copyright. And that was really it and I'm dead serious, that was pretty much it.

Now the client told me they had a logo done and stuff through the company as well and the logo, really I wouldn't put it pass the ten minute job as well. They did abit of Photoshoping on some of their product photos and yeah, it wasn't a bad job but at the end of the day what I'm trying to get at is, there's these people, since web designer's such a low-barred entry industry, anyone can wake up in the morning and watch a video for an hour on web design and then call themselves a web designer and be charging $100 an hour. You've got to be careful when you're getting a website done guys, using someone else like an agency like us or like whoever is down the road you've got to be careful of who you go to and get a quote from and then trust straight of the bat because alot of people seem to be going to web designers, getting a quote and getting sucked in by the sales team and the promises of x y and z and then they get let down. "Aw, they're not returning my calls anymore." or "They're being rude to me and blah blah blah." and "They've sent me an invoice and they want me to pay a couple thousand dollars." whatever it might be.

It's just very disappointing to see these people setting up these web design companies and just other companies that have low-barriers of entry; you don't need a qualification or alot of skill to get started. So what i'm trying to say guys is if you're using an agency or developer to build your website and you get the quote and it's quite high or maybe it's not that detailed and you don't know what's included, go and get other quotes and then you can compare them and go "Okay, what actually am I getting here?" "Am I getting a full website where I can pretty much sit back and answer a few questions" and away you go or "Am I gonna have to go and load all the content in? (or) Supply all of the photos? (or) Buy all the photos? (or) Write all the content? What do I actually have to do there?" Because this client that came to me, what the worst part is really is not only was it basically a four hour job (If I was doing it) the web design company didn't enter any content for the client the client said they had to pretty much put all the content in themselves apart from a couple of pages and yeah, supply and write the content added into those pages. So it's really, it was quite shocking really quite shocking. This is probably the worst case I've seen hence why I'm recording this.

If you're considering building a website or you're even considering your own web design company, make sure you provide value; offer value for money obviously. At the end of the day you should do more than what you're paying more than what you're paying for because that goes a long way and what you need to do is when you quote or if you're getting a quote you need to make sure it includes all the specifics. Now people don't want to read a ten page essay on what's included in the fine print but just bullet point it and just say "Look this is what the quote includes:" It includes five hours of content, it includes four hours of design, it includes a domain name, it includes emails, it includes hosting and the ongoing fees are x y and z and the initials setup fee is this and this is what you're getting and this is the cost. Then your client or you as the client can clearly see what's included and then in trust going forward that you're actually getting what you're paying for.

Alot of websites WE build are never as expensive as this client that paid this horrendous figure for a website that me or one of my team could do in literally four hours. As I said if you work it out at the hourly rate (four hours) it was pretty much like $1800 slightly closer to $2000 an hour I worked out so you just got to be careful and at the moment we're trying to see if we can recover the domain names for this client so we can rebuild them their website for them (basically from scratch) just to get something done that's right because the websites not even well done, that's already been created and hey, they still have to pay obviously, we can't do it for nothing, we're gonna look after them and sort them out. So that's the moral of the podcast guys just make sure you're careful with what you're getting a quote for and what you're paying for and make sure that you really know what you're getting into and again, get quotes, that's all I can say; get two or three quotes, if you're not happy with them keep getting more quotes, there's plenty of web designers out there so you won't struggle to find someone.

Anyway guys that's Matt from the RAZOR Web Design Wire Podcast and join us again next time. Cheers.