reasonable charge for one-off web 1.0 site creation?

[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)

I smell trouble.

is asking if I will set up their web site for them

-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)

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)

There's a reason for that!

There will be no ongoing maintenance,

-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)

That's what you think!

no shopping cart (or any other) scripting to deal with.

-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)

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)

Do I have to say that again?

Any suggestions for a fair price ballpark?

-slowmaker (June 23, 2010, 03:38 PM)

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)

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.

[slowmaker]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I didn't see wraith and mouser's posts before I talked to the guy, but it worked out anyway.  

I made it clear exactly what I was willing to do (i.e. absolutely nothing beyond the simple set-up originally described), and gave the guy the number of a local full-time web guy when he starting talking about "getting lots of hits."

SEO wasn't in the original description, so it gave me the excuse to pass it on this way (didn't want the job in the first place, was obligated to meet with the guy for family-politics reasons). Er, you may wonder why I didn't just ask the full time guy for a price in the first place; fact is, it just felt kind of rude. You know, "Excuse me, sir, what price should I charge to undercut you in obtaining some local business?" Wouldn't matter how I phrased it, the guy would know the intent. Or at least that's what I always imagine in situations like that.

Thanks again; the info in this thread now gives me a great starting point to work from if I should get cornered again!