Comment by IpV8 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by IpV8 | Hacker News Reader

I charge whatever I can get! Rates also have to do with where you are, who you know, reputation, and what other offers you have on the table. That being said, here is what I would estimate each at:

-Website templates I buy all of mine from themeforest for like $30. I don't see why anyone would do otherwise unless they needed something really custom. I don't like designing website templates, so I would charge $200/hr (a.k.a. I'll never do this)

-E-commerce websites $75/hr

-Wordpress/Joomla themes Again buy themes from themeforest cheap. Wordpress site maintenance and installation seems to go for $20-$50/hr around here.

-Some SEO from time to time Experts will charge as much as $100/hr, basic stuff like putting meta tags in or running a google ads campaign could go as low as $20/hr

-Adding responsiveness to websites Nowadays this often means starting from scratch. I try to quote for the whole project on something like this, but to give you an idea I would say around $40 an hour (give or take 20)

-Website designs Same as above. ~$40

-Dynamic websites I'm assuming this means webapp? I charge around $85/hr for webapps. Usually using angular. I also have started putting the webapps through cordova/phonegap, which is an easy upsell.

And to icpmacdo's point: -remote backend development Same as webapps, around $85/hr seems to be the magic number. This is VERY dependant on who you know and where they are located.

Note: All of my rates may seem high for people who find projects online, not in person. They may seem low for experts in their given field. Also, I find the larger the company, the higher the rate. For backend work you could probably get double that if you are an expert in large corporation java work.

>> Rates also have to do with where you are, who you know, reputation, and what other offers you have on the table.

Rates have nothing to do with where you are. I don't live anywhere near any of my clients. They get charged the same rate, regardless.

I also don't change my rate for different types of work. I'm not a different person doing the work. I don't care if $100/hr is ludicrous to make a WordPress theme. If <theoretical client> wants me to make that WordPress theme, it'll be $100/hr. If <theoretical client> doesn't like that, they shouldn't ask me to make WordPress themes for them. That simple.

Moral of the story: you charge the rate that gets you out of bed in the morning. If the only rate that got me work was $5/hr, then I'd not be in this business. I like programming, so I will probably always do it for myself in some capacity, but I work as a programmer only in so much as it pays.

Who you know is correct, which is why going through eLance- or Odesk-like sites don't work. You make the big money in consulting by getting in some where and delighting the hell out of your client, to the point that they want to hire you as an employee but you stick to your guns and say "no, but I am jacking up my rates on you."

The three pillars of sales are: 1) get customers in the door, 2) get them to buy, 3) get them to come back again. You make the most money, in consulting, on the 3rd pillar. You can successfully ignore #1 and #2 for most of your career if you get lucky with a good client and continue to hit #3.

Can you provide information as to where you are located? These rates seem pretty low IMO, and you speak to location being an important variable, it would be helpful to know what region you're referencing.

I am in New England (USA). These rates are a reflection of what I've seen companies are willing to pay, not necessarily what I'll accept. For example, I have not found an effective way to get more than about $40/hr for Wordpress maintenance, so I have shifted to more backend and webapp work. Also, these rates are more of an average. Depending on the length, stability, and enjoyability of the project, I may be willing to work for more or less money.

Where do you find work?

Local tech meetups, friends, and family, and local tech meetups.

" so I would charge $200/hr (a.k.a. I'll never do this) "

Just to emphasize how much rates can vary for many reasons, $200/hr was my base rate when I freelanced circa 2012.

Doing "what" located "where"? An hourly rate is totally subjective to what you do and where you do it.

Standard freelance development, as that's what was requested in the OP. All located in the US.

Out of interest how long does it take to implement a template website? I guess this is a 'how long is a piece of sting' but assume standard small business brochure and/or eCommerce website and a client that knows what they want and organizes content upfront so not huge amounts of revisions.

I ask as I have paid for a few websites at complete project rate and I'm curious the workload involved.

Implementing a template should take less than an hour. Creating it however is a different thing

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