Okay, I was just wondering how some of you freelancers handle an ordeal like the one i'm about to explain.

I've been doing freelance for awhile and only been charging per-pages for my freelance work.

Though one of my clients is always making me go back and redo things once I'm already done with the design/layout.

Not because I did them poorly or didn't do them the way she wanted them, but because she gets new ideas for the pages and then wants me to go back and change them.

This takes time and I'm not charging her for it because I charge per-page.

When I asked her to pay me extra for the changes once she replied back saying how it shouldn't take long to redo text or change colors in the layout.

Which is true. But after doing over and over again whenever i do work for her that time adds on over time!

And sometimes it's things that do take me hours to do!

So donno what to do to make her stop making me do these redos whenever she wants them without having to pay anything and without me telling her I don't want to do them anymore and me losing her as client.

I just want to know how some of you would go about fixing this issue for the clients I have now and for my future clients.

How should I go about charging them for making me redo things they’ve asked me to do in the first place.

This takes time and I'm not charging her for it because I charge per-page.

When I asked her to pay me extra for the changes once she replied back saying how it shouldn't take long to redo text or change colors in the layout.

Dont' ask, TELL ! If you present her with a finished page based on her ORIGINAL request, and then she wants to make changes, just tell her that it will be $xx/hr to make those changes - period. You can give her some leeway for things that may only actually take minutes to change, say only charger her for 1/2 an hour, but for those that do take you an hour or more.. full charge.

Put your terms for this in writing and get your clients to sign the agreement and agree to your terms. Your time is valuable and your client is taking advantage of you not charging her for changes.

If she really values your work, you won't lose her as a client. You're running a BUSINESS, even if you are freelance and if she's in business then she should understand getting paid for your time.

I totally agree with Ladynred, you should set out your charges for updating work. I normally charge per 1/4 hour based on my hourly rate and bill the client accordingly. Quite often you can guesstimate how long a list of updates will take you and can give your client a price before hand.

How much more should I charge her for the changes? That's what I'm getting stuck with as well.

I'll show you the work I'm doing for her at the moment:

http://arelis-design.com/Dynamic/

What are you charging per page ?? Since it appears to be an all-flash site, I can see why this would take you a LOT of time for changing some things. It's not like just changing a style or some html.

It comes down to how much your time is worth ? Figure out what you're hourly rate comes out to be for the time spent on your per-page numbers. I'd charge at least half that for changes, and the quarterly increments is a great idea.

FYI - that <embed> tag is going to cause IE users grief. They are NOT going to see the flash until they click twice to 'activate' the active content. That is because IE lost it's EOLAS patent fight and they put in this 'activation' nonsense to cover their butts. You need to replace that <embed> method with something else. There are several methods listed here:
http://www.webstandards.org/2006/08/...object-markup/
They all have merit. I choose SWFObject because it's easy to implement.

I also hope she is not concerned with search engine placement, all-flash sites can't be crawled by the spiders, nothing there for them to 'see' to index.

One thing i used to do is sell a service contract.

I would offer the client 10 hours of "updating" for a set price, say $300.

This would give them a bank of time that they have to use for changes like these.

It also gives you some extra cash upfront, which can be good. Another option is to bill it out monthly. Giving you a monthly income, almost like a retainer.

Give her an invoice for the work detailing all the work done, dates, time, etc... that helps too.

my $0.02

I have been in those situations myself and I found myself being screwed over and over again. What I did to stop that was I did what was already said above:

Make a contract, a legal binding contract. If you do not know how there are plenty of sites that can assist you. There are also cheap cheap attornies you can hire to make a simple contract form for you that is legal binding and usually covers your butt in every aspect of the project.

In this contract you must state the initial quote/final quote. I also state that there is a 40% retainer paid up front that is non-refundable after xx amount of days (so you don't lose time and money on work you have already done...I used to have clients back out of projects before they paid...and then refused to pay....you just don't want to be put in that position). Also some where in there state that any major changes, and then go into detail what those changes consist of for example: Any changes that take over 30 minutes you will be charged $xx.xx. Usually for changes I do not charge my full price depending on my perception of the client when we are in the contract phase. If they are polite, etc and not demanding then I usually discount them on the changes part.

Also one of the biggest ways to get a client to go along with any type of business/quote is how you treat them. Sell yourself, and I'm not saying just through your portfolio. If a new client contacts you, email them back immediately
with a thank you for your time considering our (or me) designing firm. Clients love politeness!!! Kill em with kindness for better lack of a quote. Then they might even overlook or not care about the changes clause in your contract.

As for this client now, I wouldn't bill her now. If she continues to make changes after this point tell her you are going to charge her and if she gets mad tell her she can always find her business elsewhere and to wish her goodluck finding someone to redesign an entire new site for her. Remember your work is your property until they pay for it in full so she cannot reproduce it or use it at all until she has paid the full amount of what was agreed on.

Sorry didn't mean to type up anovel here just wanted to give my experience/advice for the situation.