Charging for site maintenace

[monaghan]

A small monthly cost for a site should not be an issue for anyone seriously running a business, all costs would get written off against tax liability by the accounting process. Many businesses do not have a clue or have still not even considered the Internet, many are simply too busy to be devoting time & effort to learning web design and all the work involved around it. How much time has the average person on here wasted on "designing" sites when they should be working? Take a busy employee and sit them in front of a PC to make a website and you'll easily loose a day or 2 of their time.

As for comment about teenagers and pocket money, then yes, I'm sure you could get a local teen to do this for pocket money prices, but would a business trust them? I'm sure there are some very talented teens out there, but there are a lot of horror stories of domains being registered in the designer's name and then simply disappearing leaving a domain & site unmanageable.

The only issue I can see in the plan is not the costs, but the availability to meet with the business owner if you are in a full time job. I did manage to fit in some meetings and even an installation of servers and associated equipment in a datacenter whilst doing a full time job, but spare holiday soon gets used!

 

[Aegean]

Nova, You have to remember that the vast majority of people running small businesses don't have a clue about how websites work and don't have the time or inclination to look into these matters themselves. They are busy running their real businesses. If you are serious about business then stop playing around with 'bedroom web designer' prices. There are plenty people who will pay someone to take care of their site.

I would say it depends on the actual circumstances too. For example, I have a couple of maintenance contracts, one customer pays me £500 per month to maintain his ecommerce website. Its a busy site on a custom platform (which I built)that generates around £800K per month in revenue. Sometimes there isn't much to do, apart from checking security issues and general tinkering. The following month I might put 20 YouTube videos on for him, make a few promotional banners and essentially do a full weeks work.

On the other hand, I do have a couple of small contracts too, for around £50 per month. I wouldn't normally bother for that kind of money, but these are people in the highlands who I know personally and who own very small businesses. Its good for them to be able to text me and and get something changed on their site. There are also a lot of off-site things you can do for customers. However, don't let people take the mick, and don't give too much for free or they will just expect that as standard.

You should be aware that on forums (with respect) you are usually dealing with people who want to charge other people a lot of money but don't want to pay much themselves. They want to pay peanuts and they expect the earth for it. That isn't how it is in the real business world, there are plenty of people who are more than willing to pay, as long as you know what you're doing.

Unofficially, I would say the less people pay you, the more of a pain in the backside they are. You don't need contracts like that.

 

[Jamie101]

Short reply since I'm on my mobile but this thread is very interested.

I'm almost tempted to start my own service making sites for small businesses etc.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Nova]

Thanks for all the great input and advise guys, it has given me a lot to think about. I am still a relative newby to all this though I really am enjoying all aspects of it. In the long run think I need to learn more about coding etc instead of relying on ready made templates and plugins.

 

[Retired_Member38]

I think if you are aiming at the bottom of the market you will need to do the exact opposite - you will have no choice but to rely on plugins and templates. You'll need to get them out cheaply and stack them high... you won't be able to charge a lot of money for custom solutions to someone who is getting their first website surely?

 

[DarkSky]

I have a good friend who a couple of years ago visitied over 1000 businesses in the yellow pages, industrial/business estates etc that didnt have a website.

He sold them a simple 3/4/5 page wordpress website, nicely themed, got them a google business place page/account etc, for £150.

He then charges them £15 a month/£150 a year for hosting, domain, backups etc, corrections/amendmants, pic uploads and general phone support.

Ultimately the website is my friends responsibility, if the site is slow, down or hacked, they can call him to fix it, instead of either not knowing how to, or calling the hosting company and hoping they can help and pay a lot more.

Those clients which have wanted to develop their site further he passes on to someone else for the commission.

That £15 a month from each client still only brings in around £2000 a month, not a great deal really, and those 100 odd clients do generate enough work for him to be busy all week.