Web Designers – Charge What You’re Worth

After being a web designer for almost 10 years now I feel I need to give back a useful piece of advice which may help other web designers out there with a problem that comes with the territory of the industry. That problem is knowing what to charge and more importantly knowing how to charge what your worth.

Web design is like any other industry or product and there is one golden rule that applies … you pay for what you get. However there is the problem of inexperienced web designers charging too much for there skills and the unfortunate talented web designers that unknowingly are charging too little. This puts things out of balance… On one side the client is getting ripped off due to paying too much for an inferior service and on the other side the talented web designer is getting ripped off by undercharging.

Like any skilled trade there are different levels of talent when it comes to web designers. The problem is knowing what to charge and determining what others will pay for your skills.

Below is a list of some aspects that will help you determine what your skills are worth.

The experience you have?

Experience is probably the main factor in determining what to charge. There is no substitute for experience and nobody can know how experienced your are better that yourself. Have a think about the training you have had, the projects you have worked on and the skills you have gathered over the years… make sure you don’t exaggerate. After you have a good picture of what type of experience you have. Compare it to other web designers who you may know or follow. How does your experience compare to theirs? Doing this should give you a gauge as a comparison. Look at your work objectively – is it as good as the web designers you researched or better?

Any unique skill sets you have

A unique skill set can be a great benefit to the client. It gives you a point of difference and can justify you charging more. You may be able to technically build a site but do you have experience in any other online areas like:

• Information architecture
• Usability
• Frontend development
• Programming
• SEO or SEM
• Graphic Design
• Copywriting

There are many related skills that can benefit a web designers work. These skills go hand-in-hand with the overall design and can set the difference between an average result and an outstanding result. What skills can you bring to your next web design project and are you charging appropriately for them?

The caliber of clients you have

The caliber of the clients you have worked with is a good way to gauge your skills. A web designer who has worked with gl0bal brands and large high traffic websites can probably justify charging more per hour than a web designer who has only worked on small projects. This is not to say both designers don’t have equal skills. The designer who has only worked on the small projects may even have more knowledge and skill that the more experienced designer but dealing with high caliber clients does give you more credibility that clients will understand they have to pay for.