Someone has asked me to desiign a web site for them, they are going to pay me.

He's my cousin, he says he'll pay me, but he didn't say how much and I don't know if he'll ask what I'm gonna charge.

I was also gonna do it for free, but he wanted to pay!

Anyways, what I'm doing is designing his site from scratch and also creating a customized CMS (Content Management System) for his site, using PHP + MySQL. This administration section allows him to have multiple admins, edit the site template and of course add/edit and delete products and content.

I have never charged before, so I have no idea. Tell me what something like this would usually cost and, seeing as he's family, I'll take off about 20% because I'm nice!

EDIT: What about hosting? I don't have a server to host it on, I shall have to find a hosting company and let him pay for it?

Sorry, but about ($60 - $300) depending on how good it is. Todays prices are more surprising than you tihnk.

How the hell do I judge how good it is?! I'd like to think it's good lol ¬_¬

Well, I'll see when it's finished. He's already paid over $1000 (to someone else) to design a site for him, but he didn't like it, and it didn't have a CMS, so he could update things himself.

Now he's asked me to do that for him.

Hi there,

Sorry, but about ($60 - $300) depending on how good it is

WOW!! $60 for a fully integrated CMS based website with product database and template editing fucntionality!!! - where the hell can ANYONE get that - even if it isn't that good??

If you're pretty new to developing but feel you can achieve the desired results, then I would say at least $1,000. If you are good and deliver excellent results on a regular basis, you could realistically charge quite a bit higher.

Ian

The hosting question still stands though. How would I go about charging for that?

Should I pay for hosting and have it included in the cost? What about covering the cost once the hosting account expires? (I'm assuming it will be a monthly fee and the domain is a yearly fee).

The hosting company I use here in the UK charge yearly or two yearly, so I just add this to the cost and add a bit for the time and trouble taken to set up the hosting. How much you add is pretty much up to you and how much the hosting actually costs.

I have no experience of pay monthly hosts, but you might consider, multiplying the monthly cost by 12 and then adding a bit and charging it up front. Alternatively, you can set up some kind of monthly bank transfer, we use a system called direct debits in the UK which basically debits the clients bank account directly into yours on a specified date each month.

With the domain name, I usually include it for free in the first year, alternatively charge for it up front and keep a record of when it is set to become due.

For both hosting and domain names that effectively have annual contracts, keep track of when these become due and if charging annually, send a reminder to the client at least 45 days in advance of expiry.

Hope this helps.
Ian

That's helped quite a bit and has given me some ideas on what I might do, thanks a lot!

P.S. I know about Direct Debit already, because I used to live in England, I've moved to America, about 3 months ago :P

Its always tough working on projects for family! But I agree with celticbrue, $60 is extremely cheap for a database driven site with a custom CMS. It is cheap even if you are doing it for family! If I were you, I would probably do the site for about $250-$300 and include the domain and hosting for a year. That is still very cheap, but considereing its your cousin who is already out $1000, I would have mercy on his checkbook! lol!
Anyway, regardless of the price you decide on, I would include the hosting and domain name in that price. It kind of helps the customer feel like everything is taken care of.

With regards the hosting why not set yourself up with some reseller hosting.

Then if you do any websites in the future of the back of this one you can offer hosting and a domain name with the site.

With regards charging your cousin, I did a site for a family member and offered for them to just pay monthly a certain amount for the lifetime of the site. They were happy to do this as it kept the costs down for them but in the long run may make more money for me.
So charge them an initial cost of say $50 for doing the site, then a monthly fee.

Thank you all for your comments they are all very helpful. The reseller idea sounds good, see the link in my sig? That's a reseller hosting thingy I signed up with.

I will use that.