1. Skills and expertise
2. Difficulty of tasks or project
3. Time frame
4. Cost of living or country you live
In my opinion (based on what you have said) it’s a bit low but it is still good for a less experienced graphic designer compared to experts, which each task on legit sites are very high in competition. Someday you could also demand your cost to clients if you are skillful and lots of experience in graphic design. It is a good starting rate for you as a freelance graphic designer and you could make your client as a reference to get new clients. If you work well with your client now you could possibly be refer to other clients or look for you again if need rises. Check out https://www.staff.com/skill/Graphic+Desi... where find graphic designers and their rates that might give you an idea. Hope that you could arrange your rate with your client and good luck in your freelance business.
Yes, I believe that $500 is too low for what he is asking. I am a designer that offers websites as a service, and my minimum to create a website is $1000, and I usually quote people 30 days turnaround time. And that doesn't usually include any extra work like Flash Presentations.
Of course, like others suggest, all projects are different, and therefore all quotes are different. They make a good point in saying that when you just start out, it is typical to start with lower prices because you are still in the 'learning' phase. If I were you, I would explain to him that this is a large project that would normally be $1000 job, and because he is in a hurry to get it, a rush charge of $200 is applied. However, you are willing to negotiate down to $800. This shows him how precious your time and knowledge is.
I highly DO NOT recommend sites like Elance. These sites basically allow people all over the world to post a job and payment offer, and then designers from all over the world compete to get the jobs. I tried it a couple times, but I just couldn't compete with the prices over in India and Saudi Arabia. Those people work for so little, that it's just not worth it to me. Plus, people complain that they can't understand each other, and in result get a bad project. (You get what you pay for). These sites degrade the professional designer, and I don't approve of them.
FYI - I charge $60/ hour for my design time, and I have everyone sign an agreement before every job. I hope this information helps you in your design ventures. :)
Prices vary all over the place, it certainly sounds like it's ion te ballpark, suggest you might look into getting a functional template or outsource some of the coding if that's not your thing. Changing out the artwork in some pre-designed template might be the quickest way to a bug free site.
Templatemonster.com is the big source of pre-made sites, by the way they have exclusive buyout prices for designs that might provide some reference pricing.
You have the potential for earning a bit for things like providing hosting through a reseller's account, a maintenance contract, so they can't keep coming back with minor fixes expected for free.
Elance.com, odesk.com and vworker.com are potential sources for outsourced web coders. You do have a tight timeline for dealing with the back and forth and sometimes failure of outsourcers.
First congrats on ur first client.. 500 may not be too.much because if this is ur first u always wantto start out low compared to ur competitors this also helps build up good relationship between u and ur client. They can help refer other future customers to u as well as may ask for future help like maintaining website contents every once in awhile and u can have em pay u for it.
I'm starting out my freelancing business ( I have a 4 year degree in graphic design) and I just met with client who wants a website. He's launching an antiques store and he wants to have luxurious, smooth looking website catered to his clients. He wants me to custom design the website including template and all graphic elements, total of 6 pages, starting from scratch, make flash presentation, edit about 50 photos and he gives me only 10 days for that including testing, revisions etc etc. He suggested $500. I feel it's too low. How much should I charge in a big city area for this service if I have less than one year of experience?
