Monthly maintenance fee

[lala56]

Hi there,

I have been asked to look after a clean and simple HTML website (bits of JavaScript here and there), which has about 200 individual pages. Most of the work involves content-updates and to make sure everything works fine, although SEO might be a part of it too.

Not sure what would be the right price for a monthly maintenance fee? Want to have a fair price for website owner, but for my own sake should I also put a maximum on the usable monthly hours?

Any ideas?

lala

 

[OldWelshGuy]

You need to make it clear as to what is covered. I tend to carry out some promotional work if there is nothing to do that month. I no longer design sites, but do have clients that have been with me for years.

 

[lala56]

So, what would you consider a fair price? Like I said there is no difficult programming or so involved...

lala

 

[OldWelshGuy]

you sould charge whatever amount of hours you are willing to work on it. If you set aside 2 hours a month, then charge that amount.

 

[temi]

Lala,
When I used to offer a similar service I had three packages customer can choose from (so that if they outgrow one package they can go to the next) here are example packages I would suggest:

Package one £30 per month - Maximum 1.5 hours (this is based on you charging £20 per hours which is VERY VERY fair)
- Site update
- Uploading new contents
- Updating consents on pages
etc etc

Package two £55 per month Maximum of 3 hours
- Site update
- Uploading new contents
- Updating consents on pages
etc etc


Additional services outside agreed maintenance fees charged at £25 per hour (this should be set to be higher than what you charge per package so that the packages works out cheaper for the customer, this will make your life much easier)


I strongly suggest you DO NOT include SEO in the site maintenance, in my experience is caused lots of problem. You should price SEO service separately. For site maintenance, its your time you are charging for, its the same with SEO but with SEO you also need to buy links and so forth. If you MUST include SEO then you should add at least £40 per hour to your hourly rates.

BTW
There are SEO and there are SEO, I always guarantee my client top 3 pages on all major search engine, if you are offering guarantees you need to charge at least £40 per hour but if no guarantees offered, I can even charge £10 as I will not be buying expensive links.


I hope you have not fallen asleep from my boring explanation

 

[lala56]

Cheers!

This is great help and I certainly did not fall asleep...Now I can sit down and work on my "packages", which gives me sth to do on a rainy day like this...

Thank you so much,
lala

 

[temi]

Its nice and sunny up here in Herefordshire But I will not be suprised if it starts rainning any minute

 

[lala56]

We have here the greatest weather ever Just a shame I am stuck inside

lala

BTW How do you feel about doing work when its sunny? I so much prefer the rain when it comes down to work...

 

[temi]

same here Lala, when its sunny its tempting to go out in the garden or something but when its rainy working makes you shut out the outdoors . How are you getting on with your site maintenance plans?

 

[thud]

lala, good advice above, its always difficult charging at the early stages. You have to decide what hourly rate you want and you think is fair. Then estimate the monthly time required, just explain to the client you will start with this monthly fee and review it if the work becomes more or less than you expected.

 

[scrizzle]

Charge a price per hour. But tell them to get a CMS.

 

[lala56]

Individual versus company website

Thank you four your advice

Kind of working on my hourly rate now. It is amazing how different prices are when you do a bit of market research. Some companies (or individuals) offer an hourly rate of £20 and some £100. Find this really crazy...

Am also stuck with my own website. Some people advertise their services as an individual, but some present themselves as company XYZ. I kind of have the feeling that it might be better to go for the company look. It probably looks more professional than having a website "www.lala.com" I am also thinking about my own logo as such (have a friend working as Graphic Designer).

Does anyone have advice on this subject? Or how did it work for yourselves? It would be nice to hear how you guys did it

lala

 

[lala56]

Has anyone an idea why "Trade CDs for $1, Listen to great music" comes up in my post when I just put down a fictional website address?

lala

 

[temi]

Has anyone an idea why "Trade CDs for $1, Listen to great music" comes up in my post when I just put down a fictional website address?

lala

Lala, there is a software we use for this site... it grabs meta tag of url you post, that is why, you can just edit your post and remove it.

 

[lala56]

Thank you Temi!

I changed the text, but what do you mean with metatags in my post? I simply entered "www.lala.com" (but without the "")...

lala

 

[temi]

Here is what I mean, if you type the url: Temi - Webmaster Internet Web Hosting & Domain Name Blogs , the vB software will retrive the title tag from Temi - Webmaster Internet Web Hosting & Domain Name Blogs and add it to you post.
I hope this makes sense.

 

[lala56]

Now I understand Actually I did not use a fictional website address. There is a site with that address...

lala

 

[temi]

Lala,
I have come across even a wider range of prices, starting from as low as £7 per hour to over £300 per hour. Its now crazy at all, when you consider that some of this people (on the lower end of the market) are just student domain it after coming back from school to professional with many years of experience with a prestigious office in the west end of London.

There are advantages and disadvantages which ever option you choose, here is a rough advantage outline from my view point.

Self Employed Advantages
- Some people prefer dealing with individual than companies
- You accounting is simpler and cheaper
- You can use your personality to sell your services for example: My name is Lala, I have a masters degree from Berlin University in Web Design etc etc, this will inspire confidence.

Disadvantages
- Some people prefer to deal with companies, they think individual can be ill, or have personal issues that will affect their project
- You are personally liable if things go wrong seriously, you cannot hid behind a company. (for example if you are sued for botching a job up and the client wins, you may have to sell your house etc to pay for legal cost (unless you have a legal insurance of course).

Company Advantages
- Inspires more trust (even if you are the only employee of the company
- You can hide behind the company (if its a limited liability company

Company Disadvantages
- Move expensive accountants fee
- More complex to run, lots of paper works with HM Customs and Revenue

--------------- go to go, I will add more to this later------------------------

Thank you four your advice

Kind of working on my hourly rate now. It is amazing how different prices are when you do a bit of market research. Some companies (or individuals) offer an hourly rate of £20 and some £100. Find this really crazy...

Am also stuck with my own website. Some people advertise their services as an individual, but some present themselves as company XYZ. I kind of have the feeling that it might be better to go for the company look. It probably looks more professional than having a website Lala.com: Trade CDs for $1, Listen to great music I am also thinking about my own logo as such (have a friend working as Graphic Designer).

Does anyone have advice on this subject? Or how did it work for yourselves? It would be nice to hear how you guys did it

lala

 

[lala56]

Cheers Check later for your reply...

lala