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reasonable charge for one-off web 1.0 site creation?

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slowmaker:
An acquaintance of an acquaintance of a friend is asking if I will set up their web site for them, and I realized I have no idea what to charge for an old fashioned setup-the-domain-and-stick-a-few-static-pages-on-there-for-them site. If I did web dev in general, I guess I would be willing to just charge some reasonable fraction of the more involved work rates, but the fact is I don't normally do web dev (for money) at all, so I don't really know where to begin guessing.

There will be no ongoing maintenance, no shopping cart (or any other) scripting to deal with. Design effort on my part will be minimal, if any (will probably consist mostly of convincing them not to use some eye-watering background image they think is beautiful).  I'm estimating that the total output of time on my part won't be over two or three hours, if that long.

I have no particular desire to give them a great deal - it's not a buddy-buddy thing - but I don't want to inadvertently rip them off, either.

Any suggestions for a fair price ballpark?

scancode:
An acquaintance of an acquaintance of a friend
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---

I smell trouble.

is asking if I will set up their web site for them
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---

UH OH!

and I realized I have no idea what to charge for an old fashioned setup-the-domain-and-stick-a-few-static-pages-on-there-for-them site.
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---
There's a reason for that!

There will be no ongoing maintenance,
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---
That's what you think!

no shopping cart (or any other) scripting to deal with.
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---
That's what you think! (2.0)

Design effort on my part will be minimal, if any (will probably consist mostly of convincing them not to use some eye-watering background image they think is beautiful). 
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---

Do I have to say that again? :)

Any suggestions for a fair price ballpark?
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---

Ask a pro designer, charge 75% of that.

lanux128:
this won't help, just for laughs..

• http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

wraith808:
I have no particular desire to give them a great deal - it's not a buddy-buddy thing - but I don't want to inadvertently rip them off, either.

Any suggestions for a fair price ballpark?
-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)
--- End quote ---

For stuff like this, I charge $35/hr.  It generally clocks in at about 3 hours... though doing the hourly thing helps to keep down changes and the haggling that comes with the extra payments.  If they know its hourly, and you communicate when they ask for changes that this will be X extra time, then you keep down issues, IMO.

mouser:
Do what wraith says -- quote them an hourly rate you can live with if scan turns out to be right and you have to do more work than you expect.

They may not love the idea that it's an hourly rate but that's the only way to avoid the nightmare scenario that scancode has laid out and it will save you from having to worry about them asking for additional stuff, etc.

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