Freelancers, what and how do you charge?

[foyer]

It seems like lately work is just falling into my lap.

Anyway, as my work load increases, along with my skill level, ego, and stress I find myself struggling on what is fair to charge people, for what we do.

So for others who design and build all aspects of a website. How do you charge? Hourly? Flat-rate for all work including php, images, html ect? Do you charge a 'package' price? Other ways perhaps?

[deleted: no discussion of actual pricing rates/amounts, please -- MOD]

[planetsim]

I think the questions you should be asking yourself are.

Do I only have all these clients due to my current rate ? (Which I consider rather low)
Is my work good (having great looking code is irrelevant to a client so saying this is not the right answer)
Do I retain clients ?
If I start to charge more per hour will I lose my current client base ?

[foyer]

Every client I have ever had has chosen me to build their site before I even give them a price quote. I don't see how changing my pricing structure now would even effect current clients. This really isn't about the clients though (only their money), I want to get a feel of how everyone else is doing it. Especially with times the way they are.

[NogDog]

Discussion of actual billing rates is not allowed in this forum, so please restrict your responses only to how calculate level of effort, etc., but not actual amounts.

[foyer]

Oh sorry

[Weedpacket]

planetsim wrote:

Do I only have all these clients due to my current rate ? (Which I consider rather low)
Is my work good (having great looking code is irrelevant to a client so saying this is not the right answer)
Do I retain clients ?
If I start to charge more per hour will I lose my current client base ?

You forgot to ask:

Is what I'm charging enough to cover my costs?

Needless to say, to answer that you need to know what your costs actually are - or should be.

[rulian]

I have a per hour charge that I use to estimate my project costs.
I bill by the project however. Working per hour seems to be the least profitable in my opinion since the work then becomes scattered unless you have such demand that you are constantly working

[Piranha]

At work they calculate how many hours the project is estimated to take considering certain more or less well-defined specifications, and calculate the project price based on that. But there are always changed during the probject, those changes are normally billed per hour or, for larger changes, estimated the same way the project is.

When you estimate don't forget to estimate project lead hours, testing, documentation and other time for the project. The customer should pay for all the time, not only the development.

When the project is finished support and updates are usually needed. I think the support should be either a monthly fee or on a per hour fee. Updates should be treated like changes during a project, in other words it depends on how big update it is.