I am processing a job with a big school with a notoriously difficult proprietor. I need the help of the house on some things:

What should I charge for the project (> 50 pages in 5 sections)?

Do I offer a fixed charge per month for maintenance or do I bill them per hour whenever they need to get a job done?

And what is a reasonable amount to charge for either of the above (maintenance)?

You can't charge per page, IMHO because the effort involved in coding the "about us" page isn't the same in coding the "contact" page that has a form. You need to give one price. I at least need to have an idea of the requirements to make a call. As far as maintenance is concerned, I usually charge per month. The hour thing can get a little interesting, if you know what I mean.

Good luck!

^^^^ Thanks for your opinion.

My main reason for asking this is that I usually charge per hour whenever a client needs some work done. But due to what I've heard about this proprietor, I might have some issues with that. And with the monthly thing, will I need to specify a limit to changes that can be requested?

Can anybody who has been in this kind of situation share his/her experiences?

mitey: ^^^^ Thanks for your opinion.

My main reason for asking this is that I usually charge per hour whenever a client needs some work done. But due to what I've heard about this proprietor, I might have some issues with that. And with the monthly thing, will I need to specify a limit to changes that can be requested?

Can anybody who has been in this kind of situation share his/her experiences?

Like Yawatide said, we need to know what the requirements/features on the site are going to be.

Secondly, are you planning to code all that in static pages? I am concerned as you mentioned 50 pages. Such a project should be run with a CMS backend. That way, you will just bother with the site structure and design as well as any other custom features you may need. This will also clarify issues for you on what you can charge for maintenance. For instance, with a CMS, they wouldnt be calling on you much for simple site updates unless when it would involve some change to the site structure.

Lets know what the requirements and features for the site are and how you want to approach the site development so people can suggest further.

In addition to the calls for seeing reqs, avoid charges based on number of pages or amount of changes or per hour costs. These can get tricky. Just offer one bulk rate (which of course for you would be your hourly rate * the number of hours you expect to spend on the project, less any applicable discounts...again, the client doesn't have to know what you are telling them is technically based on per hour charges). Same applies to monthly maintenance costs.

Personally, I try to average about $50/hour by the time everything is said and done and the website has been handed over to the client. In other words, as long as I average this amount, it doesn't matter whether I spend 5 minutes on the project or 5 hours or 500 hours.

Good luck!

After some deliberation, the website was scaled down to 3 sections with not more than 40 pages.

The school has Nursery/Primary in one location and then secondary schools in two other different locations.

What they want is one website with all necessary features, but each location will have its own section with unique pages like gallery, admissions, staff, announcements,etc.

The admissions pages will be updated with the admissions list once a year while the announcements pages will be updated frequently.

So now you have the features, what's your take on the matter?

A content management system (drupal, joomla, etc) would be your best bet here. Believe me, you don't want to code 40 pages, literally. The maintenance alone, especially if you will not be the one doing it, will be harrowing.

I would say just for the pains involved in customization, 300K minimum, which is a price that allows for no more than 50K negotiated reduction.

Good luck!

@Yawatide thanks for your contribution. I've been waiting for others to contribute, but since it seems as if none is forthcoming, I'll use some of with what you've said.

Our final presentation to the school is this week, but anyone who still wants to contribute is welcome to do so.