foreverhex Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I've just been offered a paid job for doing some php scripting. I've been working with php for a couple of years now and I've done lots of jobs. The problem lies in the fact that I've never charged anyone. The sites have been for friends or close associates. So now I'm in a mini dilemma. What they are needing me to do is. Create a site (basically from scratch, the old coder bail early on) that has: -MySQL work for membership signup and login -Profile page users -Friends system with email notifications -User blogs (add, edit, delete) -Messaging system with email notifications -User uploadable galleries (with some GD library I assume) -Coordinate with CCbill processes So basically it's a membership site where users can upload and maintain pics, blogs, comments, messages and friends. Kinda like a melo MySpace. What do you all think? How much would you charge. Thanks for helping! Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
zq29 Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 £8k / $16k Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-370440 Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverhex Posted October 16, 2007 Author Share Posted October 16, 2007 Are you serious? Who do you work for? I was thinking more in the $200 - $500 range. Anyone have any other price guesses? Thanks SemiApocalyptic, but I would feel really uncomfortable asking for that much. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-370982 Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 Umm, that is kind of an advanced system. SA is right on that front. $16k and that is probably slightly under due to the fact that you have to integrate CCbill. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-370983 Share on other sites More sharing options...
neylitalo Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 I was thinking more in the $200 - $500 range. I got an offer for a file upload system for $200. While I wouldn't charge as much as SA (maybe $8k or $10k), it's not unreasonable at all to imagine that someone would pay $16,000 for something like that. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-370988 Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverhex Posted October 16, 2007 Author Share Posted October 16, 2007 Wow, I had no idea that programing was such and expensive thing... I guess I can tell the person what I already know, and what you all have mentioned. This is a big project. I just hope that they'll expect to spend a big number. $200 for a file uploading system? Wow! Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-370990 Share on other sites More sharing options...
tippy_102 Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 That is a HUGE project!! Even if you could find all the pieces pre-coded, it would take a lot of work to make everything work harmoneously together - even this would be worth more than $200 - $500. To help wrap your head around the numbers, think of it in terms of hours - how many hours would it take for you to locate the pieces of pre-made code and select the ones you wanted to use? How much is your time worth to you? Where I live, minimum wage is $10.00 per hour - this is for unskilled labour - so you should expect to make NO LESS than $20.00 per hour. If they want to spend $500.00 and you want to make $20.00 per hour, that gives you 25 hours to get the job done. Do you honestly think you could get all that accomplished in one weekend? Just out of curiousity, how much time have you already spent on this project googling similar sites, looking for code, etc? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371123 Share on other sites More sharing options...
teng84 Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 pricing a project is hard like when the owner has alot of option or programmer to deal with that project to be sure that you are not going to loose that client ask the client first how much they can pay some will tell you their price some will not. if they dont give you their price can take some consideration regardless how big it is > how big is the company (if company) > how much they can pay you > how rich they are > how much they need that > how long > who will provide some data needed etc ... Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371138 Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgmyr Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 $500 is REALLY unfair to you. You will be doing a LOT more work...even if you did get all pre-made software (for free) like tippy_102 said. I would probably charge about $5,000 for this project, just because I have everything built except for the blogs and CCbill, so everything else can be up and running within about 2-5 hours. BTW...that's $5,000 for the PHP/MySQL programming only, this does not include design and front end stuff like HTML/CSS layout Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371200 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trium918 Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Wow! That is a lot of money. I was thinking maybe 1,000-2,000 price range. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371301 Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgmyr Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 well you can also say something like "you will make a lot of $ off of ads" and that is true if you have a quality site with lots of traffic. Either through something like google adsense and/or selling ad space. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371319 Share on other sites More sharing options...
448191 Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 The interface alone would be at least 2 or 3 full days of work. Let's say 2. That's 16 hours. Charging only ~$30 that ALREADY sets you in the $500 range, and it doesn't even do anything yet! Considering that you're building this from scratch, I would seriously consider making a DETAILED planning and base your offer on that. Don't forget testing and adaptations after the first submission. With something this big, the chance that the client is immediately completely satisfied is negligible. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371326 Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverhex Posted October 17, 2007 Author Share Posted October 17, 2007 The guy gave me a detailed map of what he wanted. Like I said he had a programmer start the project and then bailed. So the layout is there and the mySql tables are there, some basic scripts. But like you said it'll take me a hour just to figure out where everything is. I put a lot of what you all said into mind. I end up asking him $3500 and now I'm waiting for an answer. Also he is coming to me for upgrades which I can charge him again. For teng84: > how big is the company (if company) -They just started, but are expecting the company to get big. > how much they can pay you -He won't say, he would rather me give him my rates > how rich they are -Meh, not sure. > how much they need that -They need the site lots and lots > how long -I'm expecting only 2 months for me to get it done. > who will provide some data needed -The owner, some of the data is already up... some. Thanks a lot, you have all helped me think more about the value of my skill. I'll keep you all updated. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371512 Share on other sites More sharing options...
teng84 Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 The reason why i ask you that is because you might not want to loose your client i have some project small time person but big project i ask them to pay me average price but like i said small time people or company but then they refuse to pay me that amount although i offer it to them in very low price. NOW they find for another developer and luckily but bad for me they found one and they got it (ok ill use my currency here) 40k while i offer 50k. at the end of month the project is done and the other developer is paid for 40k. NOW my big regret is that i should ask them or level their capability of paying developers Y? and Y? IF on i accept that project or price the project accordingly i should be the one holding that 40k but since its not me who do the job i dont get any cents on that month and next 3 months. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-371977 Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverhex Posted October 18, 2007 Author Share Posted October 18, 2007 Yeah, the guy said he invested over $2k already. On what, I'm not sure. But I think the rate I gave him freaked him out. Like you were saying. So he went out and bought a community based php program called dolphin, $100. I think it’s like PHPNuke. LAME! But he still needs me to make the layout fit and do a few custom things. So I still get paid, but more or less in the hundreds instead of the thousands. No one else got the job except a company that charges WAY less. boooo. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-372334 Share on other sites More sharing options...
zq29 Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 But I think the rate I gave him freaked him out. What, the $500 price freaked him out, or did you increase that to something more realistic? Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-372363 Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverhex Posted October 18, 2007 Author Share Posted October 18, 2007 No, what happen is I told him 3500 and I don't think he liked that. lol Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-372601 Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgmyr Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 well..."You get what you pay for". There are TONS of people out there that will do it for a few hundred bucks...but it's only worth a few hundred bucks Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-372627 Share on other sites More sharing options...
akitchin Posted October 20, 2007 Share Posted October 20, 2007 No, what happen is I told him 3500 and I don't think he liked that. lol while compromise is a part of most deals, compromise implies two-way concessions. you should be working as much on your own terms as his. just a thought to keep in mind in your future deals, because life can start to be really hellish when you sacrifice your own preferences just to land work. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-373846 Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverhex Posted October 24, 2007 Author Share Posted October 24, 2007 I agree akitchin. The guy still hasn't gotten a hold of me. I think its day 6 or 7. So I think he is going to try and do it himself, with that ready made system that he got. Oh well. Quote Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/73420-how-should-i-price-this-project/#findComment-377015 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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