Making Websites For Companies

I've been making sites for groups recently but I offer them free service just because I don't know how much to charge them, either by hours or by the size of their site. I've been a site designer and flash maker for years now and I make professional look websites and not one of those kiddy sites that use only html and have poor layouts. However, I'm new to the site making business whatever ucall it and I'm interested in making sites to make money on. So can someone help me out wit this, I don't know how much to charge them for my service.

I have a sample homepage site that maybe helpful to you:
My DeMolay Site

Hi demolaynyc. First I'd like to say that it's a very nice layout you've got there, really has a professional look.The best (though weird) way to know how much should you charge, is asking other webdesigners out there (in a level of knowledge next to yours, of course) as if you were a potential client, and see how much do they charge for certain stuff.I don't like much the per-hour charging, because I find it a bit unfair. Sometimes you have problems with a certain issue, and loses some hours of work, which is not fair for the client. Or in case you have most of the stuff pre-done in your computer, you'd tak much less time than doing it all from scratch. The way I preffer best is a mix of both. Something like the 'usual', using a fix pricing for each feature, plus the 'custom' (special scripts, extra graphics, etc), that would be charged per 'effort', let's say (hours of work/hurry/difficulty etc).I hope this was of any help to you. I'd evaluate your current site layout for probably USD $75-100, plus scripting, data input, etc would be $150-200 in total, but I live in Brazil and pricing may float quite a bit from country to country.

Another way of calculating this is seeing how much money you need per month, and how many sites you can build every month, and this will give you the average money you should ask for a site.$150-$200 is a good amount. However, if you can build five such sites every month it's a decent salary. if you need two monthes for doing a site, maybe the price is too low.

Yes, this really is a nice layout. As KDEWolf said, you could get around 100 dollars for it, if not even more, which is a good amount. And that's just the template. For the scripting part, you could also charge a decent amount - I'd say about 150 dollars. When you perfect your skills and make some web sites for free, so that people can see your work, the job will come itself

Yeah, I'd have to say around $200 is a pretty good price for that kind of quality. I really like your style.I'm sure after a few clients, you'll get some word-of-mouth going (if not, at least you'll have a good portfolio) and you can start charging a little more and getting more high-profile customers.It's good money, if you can work it out right.

thx for the suggestions. i was surprised at the price you all suggested, it made me realize i can make a lot of money doing these things. 150+ dollars for a site, that's pretty good for me.

thx for the suggestions. i was surprised at the price you all suggested, it made me realize i can make a lot of money doing these things. 150+ dollars for a site, that's pretty good for me.

I would say, it depends from the time you spend on creating this site. If it's a one-day work, it's a lot of money. If it's a two-month work, depending from where you are living, it could not be enought for food and lodging.

Well, I'm only a junior high school so I don't really have to worry about food and lodging, but i could help a bit on that. And by saying that if it's a one-day work, do you mean that If it takes only a day to finish a site then I can make more the next day to earn more money in a month. So with that if it takes me 2 months to create 1 website that costs about 200 dollars then it would not be a lot. Did i get it right?

Did i get it right?

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. 200 dollars for a one-day work is quite a lot of money. It's not a lot for a two-month work.Of course, this is also the money that an experienced guy can expect. A young guy still at school will not easily obtain that if it's his first paid site.
A way of discussing the thing is "this work is worth $2000, how much can you pay ?"